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Judaism and Muhammad

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Jews, in Arabia, as seen from many angles, had been the initiators of Arabs as they there were free and prized by the Arab tribes. They even were fighters. Jews had come in the Arabic Peninsula very early in the Jewish history. It is possible that Jewish counters existed, which traded with India. By the Roman era, four Jewish tribes were extant in Arabia and all of them rattached to the city of Yathrib -which was to become Medina- a city which they shared together, peacefully or not, with two Arab tribes. South of the peninsula, Jews were merchants as North they were living the life of Beduins. Everywhere they were taking part into the fights between Arab tribes. More ancient Jewish tribes were to be found further North of Medina. Jews who lived in Yemen were dissiminated among Arabs but they could not forbid, eventually, that kingdom to turn Christian by the late 5th century A.D. Jewish, and Arab populations were mixing as they were similar in terms of language or customs, like circumcision. Jews however were superior to Arabs of that time as far as culture was concerned. From the Arabic point of view, Jews were the 'Ahlou al-kitab,' or the 'people of the Book.' Jews from Arabia were practizing their faith much and they were very respectful of Talmud. Jews thus were vectors of the Bible to Arabs and they created for those a historic origin, apparentend to Jews -like with Ismael. Any kinship with Arabs further opened Jews with economic advantages and rights. Northern Arabs eventually came to name themselves Ismailites as the southern ones Kakhtanids, or the heirs to Yoktan. Yemen, temporarily, turned a Jewish kingdom -the Himyarite kingdom- as numerous areas remained Christian, by 525 A.D. but the conflict between Christians and Jews brought the Byzantine Empire and Ethiopia to intervene and destroy it. Byzantine merchants, generally, scoured those regions as they were reaching down to Ethiopia. North, in Yathrib, Jewish tribes eventually managed to assure their independance

Some Jewish historians are stressing how Muhammad, albeit not a Jew, had fed from Jewish doctrines and traditions, as those also influenced him from his caravan journeys or from Waraka ibn-Naufal, who belonged to the powerful tribe of Qurayshits in Mecca, a cousin to his wife Khadijah and who had adopted Jewish customs and who know to read Hebrew. Such historians are adding that the positions Muhammad took against Arabs in Mecca largely were from a Jewish inspiration as large parts of the Quran were boroughed from the Torah and the Talmud. The exile in Yathrib is also part of such a Jewish influence as Arab tribes in the city, which were accustomed to contact with Jewish ones, welcomed the Prophet better as Muhammad and his refugees were considered there like prolesyts of Judaism! The interest of Muhammad however into earthly passions, his pride and egoism, ended by turning away the Jewish tribes from him, as they had higher views of a Jewish prophet. As Muhammad was thus too much pervaded with daily practices and customs of Arabs, he eventually split from the Jews. He wrote against them the 'Cow Sura' as Muslims passed from praying turned towards Jerusalem like he had installed, towards praying turned to Mecca. The Ashura Lent, which was the one of Jewish Kippur, was replaced by the one of Ramadhan, which matched a sacred month to Arabs, and he accused Jews to have erased from the Torah the passages which were announcing his venue. Muslims however kept adhering to the idea that Abraham ('Ibrahim' in Arabic) would have grounded the Ka'aba in Mecca with Ismail, son to Agar, Abraham's maidservant of a Egyptian origin. Abraham thus turned a common ancestor to both Jews and Muslims. As Muhammad became more and more ascertained of his allies and their value into combat, he thus passed to a open fight with Jewish tribes and he took profit from their divisions, which included Jews dwelling North of the Arabic Peninsula. He affronted himself against Qurayshits in Mecca and a series of victories opened to the new prophet the doors of Mecca, as, despite the death of Muhammad during besieging the city, by 632 A.D., Islam had settled in 'Felix Arabia.' The Prophet meanwhile had deviced the concept of 'dhimmâ' according to which rallied Jewish tribes were accepted to live among Muslims with return of a tribute. That idea developed further and turned enforced towards any people -which were called 'dhimmis'- who were to make allegiance to the Community of Believers

Website Manager: G. Guichard, site Learning and Knowledge In the Carolingian Times / Erudition et savoir à l'époque carolingienne, http://schoolsempire.6te.net. Page Editor: G. Guichard. last edited: 12/21/2012. contact us at ggwebsites@outlook.com
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