{"id":10345,"date":"2025-12-30T23:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/?p=10345"},"modified":"2025-12-30T23:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:38:00","slug":"jewish-muslim-relations-the-quranic-view-4-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/?p=10345","title":{"rendered":"Jewish-Muslim Relations: The Qur\u2019anic View (4\/5)"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Abdullah Craig Walker<\/strong><\/span><\/pre>\n
\"Jewish-Muslim<\/a>
Baghdad was the\u00a0raison\u00a0d\u2019\u00eatre\u00a0and crowning achievement of the Golden Age of Islam.<\/p><\/div>\n
This is the fourth part of the series. The author focuses here on Islam\u2019s golden age and its effect on the Jewish-Muslim relations<\/a>. He also highlights the relation between political Islam and anti-Semitism. Click to read\u00a0<\/em>Part 1<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Part<\/em> 2<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/em>Part 3<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
Islam\u2019s Golden Age<\/strong><\/p>\n
The\u00a0Islamic Golden Age, from 750 c.e. to 1257 c.e., was a period of unparalleled intellectual accomplishment in mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, architecture, literature, and philosophy.<\/p>\n
It was also a period marked by political and economic success, and ecumenical tolerance. Although there were exceptions, Muslims, Jews, and Christians prospered and coexisted throughout the Islamic world<\/a> in relative peace within the framework of the policy of the\u00a0Rules of the Protected Minorities<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The success of the policy was evident particularly in medieval Muslim Spain<\/a>, where Muslims\u00a0and\u00a0Jews\u00a0together built a civilization, known as\u00a0Al-Andalus<\/em>, which was more advanced than any in Europe at that time.<\/p>\n
However, when Muslim Spain fell to the Christian armies in 1492, most of Spain\u2019s Jews were expelled. Many immigrated to Palestine, where they were given asylum by Palestinian Muslims.<\/p>\n
The inquisition eliminated those Jews who remained. Even during the most oppressive periods in Islamic history, Jews under Muslim rule received far better treatment and had greater rights than they did under Christian rule in medieval Europe.<\/p>\n
Baghdad was the\u00a0raison\u00a0d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em>\u00a0and crowning achievement of the Golden Age of Islam. During the Abbasid caliphate from the 9th<\/sup>\u00a0through the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0centuries, Baghdad was the principal trading hub in the Islamic Empire. The city also was where Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars from throughout the world came into contact with one another, and shared their knowledge, literature, language, and faiths.(1)<\/sup>\u00a0The educational roots of Muslim scholars and jurists were in Baghdad during this period, as well.(2)<\/sup>\u00a0The cosmopolitan city became the cultural and intellectual center of the world,(3)<\/sup>\u00a0as well as the primary location for translation into Arabic of classical Greek texts and other important scholarly writings. With the development of cotton and hemp paper, books copied and produced in Baghdad filled libraries throughout the Islamic world, thereby facilitating the transition from oral to written communication in West Asia and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Long Twilight of the Late Islamic Middle Ages\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
In the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0century, regional economies began to stagnate, and the Muslim Middle East entered a prolonged period of decline which historians refer to as \u201cthe long twilight of the late Islamic Middle Ages.\u201d While there were multiple causes for the decline, there is general agreement among historians that the end of Islam\u2019s Golden Age was precipitated by the devastating invasions into West Asia and the Middle East by Genghis Khan and his Mongol Turkic tribes, and the\u00a0Crusaders\u2019 incursions into the Holy Land. The Mongols\u2019 invasion left in its wake a swathe of ruined cities, libraries, and mosques. They destroyed northern Iran and decimated the ancient irrigation systems of Mesopotamia. With regional and local economies imperiled, people of all religions and ethnicities suffered immeasurably.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Golden Age and Baghdad\u2019s reign came to a tragic and abrupt end in \u00a01258 c.e. with the\u00a0Siege of<\/em>\u00a0Baghdad<\/em>\u00a0by Mongol forces led by Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Conservative estimates indicate that more than 100,000 people were massacred, and that the city\u2019s libraries and schools were completely destroyed. It was said that Baghdad\u2019s streets \u201cran red with the blood of scholars\u201d, and the Tigris River \u201cran black with the ink of books.<\/p>\n
In reaction to the irreplaceable loss of learning of the past resulting from the destruction of manuscripts and the slaughter of scholars, Muslim societies turned inwards and became more conservative. The struggle to preserve Islamic religious traditions and recover what had been lost impacted Islamic jurisprudence. Up to this point, the work of Shari`ah jurists had been characterized by independent legal reasoning, or\u00a0ijtihad<\/em>. The jurists now turned to the practice of\u00a0taqlid,<\/em>\u00a0or imitation, arguing that there was no need to formulate new rules as all the rules of law had been expounded. The net effect was a virtual ossification of Islamic law and learning.(4)<\/sup><\/p>\n
Political Islam and Anti-Semitism<\/strong><\/p>\n
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the Middle East and Asia gradually came to be dominated by British and European colonial powers pursuing natural resources to fuel the engines of their new economies. As agrarian economies in Asia and the Middle East contracted, the specter of religious intolerance and persecution of\u00a0dhimmis<\/em>\u00a0in Muslim societies grew. Lacking understanding of the nature and impact of industrialization that was occurring throughout the world, and ill-prepared to adapt, Muslim societies blamed others \u2013 foreigners, outsiders,\u00a0dhimmis<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 for their languishing economies and waning independence. Ethnic and religious rivalry and victimization increased, and the status of Jews in the Muslim world deteriorated accordingly.<\/p>\n
As has been shown, anti-Semitism is not supported in the Qur\u2019an, and contradicts the life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Nevertheless, the amalgam of the Mongol invasion, the Crusades, the industrial revolution, and the rise of British and western European colonialism generated the ideal conditions \u2014 a\u00a0perfect storm<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 for virulent anti-Semitism to gain a foothold in the Muslim world.<\/p>\n
It was left to Nazi Germany to propel anti-Semitic narratives in the Middle East.\u00a0 In the 1930s, pursuing hegemony in the region, Hitler\u2019s agents incited anti-Jewish hatred amongst Muslims in Egypt and Palestine with propaganda, weapons, and money. As WW II drew to a close, the core of anti-Semitism began to shift from Germany to the Arab world. With the Balfour Declaration and the creation of the state of Israel, anti-Semitism took root in various Muslim nationalist political movements, particularly in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The specter of anti-Semitism plagues Islam to this day, essentially for the reasons that it appeared during the decline of Islam\u2019s\u00a0Golden Age<\/em>\u00a0and later in the colonial period. Invariably, racial, ethnic and religious minorities are blamed, marginalized and attacked whenever and wherever there are conditions of political oppression, foreign supremacy, extreme poverty, and unequal distribution of scarce resources.(5)<\/sup><\/p>\n
Diverting attention from the actual, often intractable causes of social, political, and economic problems by projecting or transferring blame onto \u201cothers\u201d \u2014 those who are\u00a0different\u00a0<\/em>by virtue of race, ethnicity, nationality, religious and\/or political beliefs, is a demagogic propaganda strategy as old as civilization itself.<\/p>\n
References:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
(1)\u00a0Cooperson, Michael, \u201cBaghdad in Rhetoric and Narrative\u201d,\u00a0Muqarnas<\/em>\u00a0(1996) 13:100.<\/em><\/p>\n
(2)\u00a0Robinson, Chase,\u00a0Islamic Historiography<\/em>, (2003) New York: Cambridge UP, p.\u00a027.<\/em><\/p>\n
(3)\u00a0Gaston Wiet,\u00a0Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphate<\/em>, Univ of Oklahoma Press, Ch. 5.<\/em><\/p>\n
(4)\u00a0Kareem Elbayar,\u00a0Reclaiming Tradition: Islamic Law in a Modern World,\u00a0<\/em>International Affairs Review, Vol. XVII, No. 1: Spring\/Summer 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n
(5)\u00a0See:\u00a0Islam and Politics,\u00a0<\/em>by John Esposito,\u00a04th<\/sup>\u00a0ed., 1998.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 To be continued\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
____________________<\/p>\n
This series of articles is published with kind permission from the author.<\/em>Soucre Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Abdullah Craig Walker This is the fourth part of the series. The author focuses here on Islam\u2019s golden age and its effect on the Jewish-Muslim relations. He also highlights the relation between political Islam and anti-Semitism. Click to read\u00a0Part 1,\u00a0Part 2, and\u00a0Part 3. Islam\u2019s Golden Age The\u00a0Islamic Golden Age, from 750 c.e. to 1257 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6868,2404],"tags":[7108,7109,7110,7111,7112,7113,9,2871,7114,7115,7116,7117,7118,649,7119,7120,7121,7122,7123,7124,7125],"class_list":["post-10345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-relations-with-other","category-the-faith","tag-abdullah-craig-walker","tag-architecture","tag-astronomy","tag-baghdad","tag-baghdad-in-rhetoric-and-narrative","tag-chemistry","tag-featured","tag-islam-and-politics","tag-islams-golden-age","tag-islamic-historiography","tag-islamic-law-in-a-modern-world","tag-islamic-middle-ages","tag-jewish-muslim-relations","tag-literature","tag-mathematics","tag-medicine","tag-metropolis-of-the-abbasid-caliphate","tag-philosophy","tag-political-islam-and-anti-semitism","tag-reclaiming-tradition","tag-rules-of-the-protected-minorities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}