Jews in the Empires of Islam
Living, Learning, Loving, and
Loathing in the Middle East
Introduction to Muslim Empires
• After the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, the young
•
•
Muslim community came under strain.
The community immediately chose the Prophet's close
companion and father-in-Law Abu Bakr, as his
successor. Abu Bakr was known as the first caliph and
took swift military action against the communities that
wanted to break away.
These campaigns, known as the “apostasy wars,”
effectively consolidated Arabia under Muslim control
within two years.
-- Paraphrased from as good a source as any: the BBC; http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/earlyrise_2.shtml
Umayyad Empire (661 – 750)
• Capital in Damascus
• Sets precedent for other Muslim Empires
– Consolidates lands under Islamic rule and
extends borders of the Islamic Empire from
the Atlantic Coast to China
– Sets the precedent for further expansions
– Creates culture of learning, translation, study
Abbasid Empire (750 ~ 1258)
• Took over Persia and other portions of
Central Asia
• Presided over unprecedented era of
intellectual interchange
– Arabic as common language of intellectual
discourse
– 80% of all Jews were living within the same
Empire!
YES! 80% of Jews in Single Empire!
• Baghdad becomes preeminent center of
Jewish learning
• Babylonian Talmud codified during this
period (increasing evidence suggests final
redactions in 8th Century or later!)
• Propaganda to spread Talmud
– Preeminence of the Babylonian Gaonate
Putting the pieces together
• 80% of Jews in a single empire
• Common language for them – Arabic
• Codification of Jewish law
• Translation of Greek philosophy into Arabic
being disproportionately done by Jews
• Major academic and political institutions in the
capital of the Abbasid Empire
– Nasi
– Gaon (also Gaon of Palestine)
Put them together and…
You get a sophisticated, outwardly turned
Jewish intellectual and social center, and:
ALMOST THE ENTIRE JEWISH WORLD
LIVING UNDER A SINGLE SET OF LAWS
Controversial Claim: Could it be
that Judaism might not have
survived the Middle Ages
without the existence of Islam?!
A shift in focus
• During 10th Century, Baghdad and other
Abbasid cities outgrow the agricultural
hinterlands that support them
– Huge problems; unrest
– Empire begins to decline; parts split off
– It was just too big to stay unified; too large to
oversee
Parallel trends for Jews
• Gaonate in Baghdad presides over too large an
area
• Rival communities – namely in al-Andalus,
(modern day) Egypt, and the Rhineland shift
the focus
• Jewish communities stop donating to the
Gaonate and stop paying homage to it
• Result: Diffusion of Jewish intellectual and
political clout
Al-Andalus: New Center for Jewish
Life in the Diaspora
• How did it get this way?
• What is al-Andalus?
• Who were its major intellectuals?
• What roles could Jews play in the society?
Cant answer all of the questions, but will try
to illustrate a couple of points
Al-Andalus through the eyes of
a Jewish Intellectual
Medieval Polemics:
What can we glean from them?
• [In mocking an opponent:] “He apparently finds
•
no distinction between one who turns to
idolatry…voluntarily, like Jeroboam and his
associates, and one who will under compulsion
say of someone that he [Muhammad] is a
prophet because he is afraid of the executioner’s
sword.”
Jesus is an “Illegitimate child”… “May his bones
be ground to dust”
Polemics can be telling
• Who wrote the earlier quotes?
• What prejudices do they reveal
• What can that teach us about religion in
the Middle East during the first six
centuries following the birth of Islam?
Moses Maimonides:
Imperfect inter-religious leader
Known in three worlds:
• Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon
• Mūsā ibn Maymūn
• Moses Maimonides
Contemporary Saudi Arabian
professor, Huseyin Atay, once
quipped that “If you didn't know
he was Jewish, you might easily
make the mistake of saying that a
Muslim was writing."
How could this be possible?!
General biographical information
• Born in Cordoba, al-Andalus (Modern
Spain) in 1135
• Died in the Ayyubid Empire (Modern Day
Egypt) in 1204
• Rabbi, judge, philosopher, doctor, scholar,
activist, “heretic”
• Major works: Mishneh Torah, Guide to the
Perplexed, dozens of medical treatises
Islam’s intellectual undertakings
• Greek philosophy and science became available
in Arabic towards the end of the Umayyad reign
(750 C.E.) and the beginning of the Abbasid
Dynasty (762 C.E.).
[1]
– If Muhammad’s Prophecy contained in it all wisdom,
why be afraid of other sources of knowledge?
– Translation operations begin in Damascus; entire
movement of translation continues on work in
Baghdad
– Aristotle, Plato
– Great mobility of scholars from one area to the next
– Jews and Christians share in these intellectual
developments, too
[1] Saliba, George. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT, 2007: page 73.
What problems could a little
philosophy cause?
All Kinds
Philosophy spreads
• Across North Africa and Arabian Peninsula
(particularly Baghdad)
– Kalam School of Aristotelian thought
– Platonic schools of thought
But nowhere more than…
Al-Andalus
Brief history of al-Andalus
Continuing to spread Islam
• In the first of several invasions from Africa, Tariq Ibn Ziyad,
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
a strong-willed Berber military commander, crossed the
Straits in 711 and rapidly pushed northward.[1] Supported
by reinforcements from his governor, Musa Ibn Nusayr, in
712, Tariq quickly wrested the peninsula from the Visigoths
and placed it under Muslim rule by 715.[2] They hastily
dismantled vestiges of the previous regime and established
al-Andalus as a Muslim emirate by 716, with Cordoba as its
capital.[3] But it is easier to conquer than it is to rule. Musa
failed to create a stable government to take place of the
feeble one it had replaced.[4]
The most recent invasion was from General Francisco Franco from Morocco in 1936.
Menjot, Denis, Les Espagnes médiévales 409-1474. Paris : Hachette, 2001: page 41.
O’Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Al-Andalus. Ithaca: Cornell, 1975: page 95.
O’Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Al-Andalus. Ithaca: Cornell, 1975: page 95.
“Last Umayyad Emirate”
• For nearly forty years, a series of weak emirs, appointed
by the governor of North Africa, were unable to unify alAndalus.[1] Particularly challenging were relations
between the diverse groups of Muslims who had settled
in the region. Conflicts broke out between two
prominent Arab tribal groups, as well as between North
African Berbers and Arabs.[2] The infighting became
fierce and might have ended in outright civil war had it
not be for Abd al-Rahman, a prince from the rapidly
declining Umayyad Empire, who abandoned its capital of
Damascus in 750 and maneuvered his way to the throne
in al-Andalus.
[1] Ibid.
[2] Ibid.
Jews are a beloved ally
Okay… maybe not like that:
• Though Abd al-Rahman was at times a
brutal leader, he treated his Jewish and
Christian subjects with remarkable
respect. He recognized that they were not
involved in the intertribal strife that
continued to simmer throughout the
kingdom and did not pose a significant
threat to his reign.
•
Why else reach out to Jews?
• Moreover, they served as a major source of tax
revenue, since their status as dhimmis
(religious groups exempt from conversion to
Islam due to their Abrahamic origins) was
accompanied by a supplementary levy. The
Emir remained concerned for the stability of his
domain and was both prudent and genuinely
open-minded in his willingness to reach out to
non-Muslims. Ashtor, 47-49.
Result:
• Emirate that in time came to rival the Abbasid
Empire
• Singular Jewish community, rivaling that of the
Abbasid Empire
• In both spheres, Baghdad and Cordoba became
rivals
• By the 10th Century, Cordoba was clearly the
preeminent cultural capital
Ousted
• When forced to leave, Jews felt dejected!
– Almoravid invasion (1086)
• My time has purged me from among them [the
intellectuals of al-Andalus] and appointed me to
live in a desert of wild beasts; Beasts, though
they starve for a morsel of intellect, thirsting
for waters of faith.” – Moses Ibn Ezra
- Decter, Jonathan P. Iberian Jewish Literature. Bloomington: Indiana U,
2007: page 41.
Out Forever
• Almohad invasion (1147)
• Maimonides’ life goal: rebuilding the intellectual
home he was born in
• Could not find it in Christian Domains at the time
• Tried North Africa
• Tried the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
• Finally found refuge in the (Egyptian) Empire of
Saladin (Salah al-Din)
Never satisfied, always striving
At least he left an intellectual party
for us to enjoy!