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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.
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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
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.
Philosophy spreads • Across North Africa and Arabian Peninsula (particularly Baghdad) • Kalam School of Aristotelian thought • Platonic schools of thought But nowhere more than…
Continuing to spread Islam • In the first of several invasions from Africa, Tariq Ibn Ziyad, 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] [1] The most recent invasion was from General Francisco Franco from Morocco in 1936. [2] Menjot, Denis, Les Espagnes médiévales 409-1474. Paris : Hachette, 2001: page 41. [3] O’Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Al-Andalus.Ithaca: Cornell, 1975: page 95. [4] 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 al-Andalus.[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.
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)
