Jews lived in medieval Spain longer than they had in any other place, including Israel.
More Jews lived in medieval Spain than in all the rest of European countries combined.
Most of the medieval Spanish Jews were rural rather than urban which was unheard of in the rest of Europe and was only possible because of the friendliness of medieval Spanish Christians and Muslims towards them.
“longer than they had in any other place, including Israel.”
Didn’t the Jews as an entity begin with the sons of Jacob about 3500 years ago in the Middle East (well before Spain existed), and haven’t Jews in varying numbers lived continuously in the Middle East since?
So it would seem to me that the Jews, under various names (“Hebrews,” Israelites,” etc.) and within changing nation-states, have lived in the Middle East longer than anywhere else.
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Of course, “Spain” here stands for the Iberian Peninsula.
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But the Iberian Peninsula doesn’t include the Middle East, where at least some Jews have lived continuously since the days of Jacob.
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After the Battle of Badr, the Jewish tribe of Banu Qaynuqa allegedly breached treaties and agreements with Muhammad. Islam’s Prophet regarded this as casus belli and besieged the Banu Qaynuqa. Upon surrender the tribe was expelled. The following year saw the expulsion of the second tribe, the Banu Nadir, accused of planning to kill The Prophet Muhammad. The third major Jewish tribe in Medina, Banu Qurayza was eliminated when the Muslims besieged their fortifications not long after the fall of the Banu Nadir, an event reported in Surah 33:25-27 of the Qur’an.
In year 20 of the Muslim era, or the year 641 AD, Muhammad’s successor, the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, decreed that Jews and Christians should be removed from all but the southern and eastern fringes of Arabia. From this point onwards the Holy Land of the Hijaz was forbidden to non-Muslims. Only the Red Sea port of Jedda was permitted as a “religious quarantine area” and continued to have a small complement of Jewish merchants.
In the medieval Iberian Peninsula, Jews actually lived quite well until 1391. After that, things got progressively worse.
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Great link, thank you.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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