As we have discussed before, the Muslim rule proved a good time for Jewish people. And it was not just a single time period, but every time the Muslim rule started in some region, the jewish and other people lived in peace and harmony with each other without any hatred but then there were certain reasons that spreaded hatred between people and turned them into enemy and these will be discussed here.
After ending of Rashidun Khilafat, there started Ummayad Rule and Jewish people were still free to visit their sacred places in Palestine. But the rules were same as they were in previous reign that they will be allowed only to visit their sacred places not to reside in Palestine.
In 712 AD, Tariq ibn Ziyad invaded Spain and on his attack, the jewish people also showed full support to him against the Christian rule because they were brutally oppressed by the Christians because of their religious identity. So when Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated army of King Roderick and conquered Spain, he saw Jewish people as his helpers and allowed them to reside in Spain. Jewish people resided in Spain till 15th century and this is said to be the golden period of diaspora by some Jewish scholars because in this period, Jewish people were free to practice their religion and perform their prayers. Their scholars were also born at that time.
In start of 16th century, the Christianity religion was divided into two sects, the sects were Catholic and Protestant. It was known as Protestant reformation. Protestant people thought that they should have the access to read and preach Holy Bible to understand religion correctly because at that time only Pope had the access to read Bible and implement laws from them and Kings also didn’t had that power. According to some prominent Muslim scholars, it is quoted that Jews scholars had a big role in Protestant Reformation, because at that time students from all over Europe used to travel from their country to Spain for education and Jewish scholars taught them that they should have the access to their Holy book so that they will have better understanding of their religion. And to understand that, we should know that Bible has two portions, the old testament and new testament. Old testament is totally portion of Torah. But the original copy of Torah was lost when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Israel and Ark of Covenant was lost. So the new copy of old testament had teaching added to it by the scholars of Judaism. These teachings were such that they cannot be called as Words of God and they were clearly promoting violence. The things like Killing, murdering and crimes done by King David were involved in them which were hard to believe.
The Christian scholars found it difficult to read and understand old testament because it was written in Hebrew language and Jews were master of that language because Torah was also written in Hebrew. So Christian scholars had to take help from Jewish scholars to read Bible. So Islamic scholars like Dr Israr Ahmad quoted that Jews might have manipulated them so that they got access to wrong teachings and that teachings might have resulted in Christians lust for world domination. A bigger threat for both Jews and Muslims was waiting for them and that came in face of Crusades also known as Holy wars. The motive of these wars was simple.
After defeat of Byzantine empire by Rashidun Khilafat, the Christians wanted to take back the control of Holy places of Christians and for this purpose, they started launching multiple attacks on Muslim territories. These attacks resulted in the defeat of Christians by the hands of Seljuk Turks in 1071 at battle of Manzikert. The commander of Muslims that time was Alp Arsalan whose strategy proved very effective against crusaders. Now they wanted take back Palestine by moving from Constantinople and then Seljuk empire and then entering Palestine to conquer it. In 1095, Pope Urban II organized a conference known as Council of Clermont in which he tried to explain that how Christianity holy places are under threat under Muslim rule and how Muslims are treating Christians so brutal that it can’t be explained in words. It was nothing but propaganda because under Muslim rule, all communities were living peacefully. King Alexios I who was Byzantine emperor that time sent his envoy to the council asking them for support against Seljuk Turks. Pope Urban II motivated youngsters to take part in crusades telling them that by doing this, they will do the work of God and their sins will be repented. They will be forgiven and they are going for the pilgrimage of Holy places not for war. On the other hand, a French priest Peter the Hermit claimed that he has seen all of brutalities happening in Palestine and he was ordered by Jesus himself in dream to protect his homeland. However it cannot be said that he really went to Palestine or not because not a single reference is not present in history about this but his claims helped him to gather thousands of poor Christians to start crusades. These crusades were called People’s crusades. These crusaders attacked Jews in 1096 and this is known as Rhineland massacre but these crusaders were badly defeated by Seljuk Turks in 1097 in battle of Civecot which ended people crusades. Although original Crusaders attacked Palestine in 1099 under Fatemid empire and defeated them to conquer Palestine. They slaughtered both Muslims and Jews for two days continously and also desecrated the mosques and turned them into church. Their brutalities were so much that historians have written that when cavalaries moved through streets, blood was seen upto the knees of horses.
The rule of crusaders was established there until new Muslim rulers started to create hindrances in their way. Like Sultan Nur uddin Zangi who was son of Imad uddin Zangi, Governer of Allepo at that time. He was founder of Zangid empire and his military strategy helped him to fight and dominate army of crusaders. His biggest victory was conquest of Damascus 1154. But before conquering Jerusalem, he died and his legacy helped in the birth of many great Muslim generals like Saladin that proved to be best conquerers and kings.
Saladin or Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi was born in 1137 and he started his journey as a governer but later he started military campaigns against crusaders in Palestine to free Muslim Holy places from crusaders. His first attempt was battle against King Baldwin IV in 1077 which came out to be a defeat for Saladin but his army fought very well and after war he continued his advancings against crusaders. His biggest victory was Battle of Hattin in 1187 in which he conquered Jerusalem. The best thing about this conquest was that people of Palestine were so scared that women and girls started to shorten their hairs and wear men cloths in fear of being raped or molested by the enemy forced. But Saladin was a generous king and he forgave all of them and he also freed all the prisoners of war. Europeans were so infuriated by this victory that they started collecting tax named as ”Saladin tax” from people to prepare for battle against Saladin. Richard ”the Lionheart” of England decided to lead the battle and conquer Palestine again. This battle occured but crusaders again failed to take control of Palestine. This was known as Third Crusade. Ayyubi allowed every religion to live freely and due to this jews and Christians also lived there freely without any fear. Due to his kind behavior, people still celebrate his legacy today not only Muslims but also Christians who celebrate Saladin day in Norway every year to remember his generousity.
In 1492, the Muslim rule in Spain ended and with this, the Jews were also kicked out of Spain. And also in other parts of Europe where jews were started to be hated again by people and people started to believe that jews were cruel people and they used to take Christian children for their rituals. This resulted into a new movement of Jews named as Zionist movement. This was started when a Russian Jew Leon Pinskar published a pamphlet known as Autoemancipation in 1882 that resulted in group known as Hovevei Tzion or Lovers of Zion. This idea was used further by Austro Hungarian Journalist Theodor Herzl who published his book named Jewish state in which he presented the idea that all Jews should return to Palestine area because it was their actual homeland. The first Zionist congress was held in 1897 and first group of Jewish emigrants to Palestine moved in 1881.
That time the area of Palestine was under Ottoman empire and that area was not heavily inhabited. Jews from all over the world started migration to that area and they also started to purchase land there. Sultan Abdul Hamid II understood that they were wanting to establish their own state so that he controlled their purchase. But during world war one, Ottoman empire supported Central powers against Allied forces. Central powers dominated the war first but then British played his most famous tactic known as Divide and rule. British signed an agreement with Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali known as McMahon Hussain correspondance in 1915 in which they promised them a free Arab country from Syria to Yemen under their control if they support them against Turks. On the other hand, they signed Balfor declaration 1917 with Jews promising them a Jewish state so that they will get support from Jewish communitues of United States in war. But secretly, British signed a pact with France known as Sykes Picot agreement in 1916, in which they divided Arab region into both nations. And after the war, the whole of Palestine went under British rule. It clearly shows that Britishers were playing double game just for their own benefit and Lawrence of Arabia played his role in Arabian uprising against Ottoman empire.
At the same time, Hitler got power in Germany and he had so much hate for Jews. The reason was not religious. He was grown in Vienna whose governer was an anti semetic person and a magazine was published that time named The Elders of Zion in which it is shown that how Jews want to take control of this world. This magazine made Hitler anti semetic. Another theory is that a doctor who didn’t take care of Hitler’s mother well was a Jew and that caused her death. The third theory is that Hitler didn’t get admission in Vienna arts academy and penal members who rejected him were Jews. However real reason is that after the lost of Germany in World war 1, Hitler started to see jews as enemy and traitors because Jews supported Communist and Socialist reforms in Russia and Germany respectively and they played a big role in defeat of Germany. Also Germany faced Economic depression after war and Hitler also blamed Jews for it because Jewish people that time were industrialists and buisnessmen in Germany and they were not affected by economic depression like common people so Hitler started to hate them. Hitler also believed in racial hierarchy. He himself belonged to Aryan race and he wanted the whole world to become pure Aryan without any impure mixture. Therefore he considered Jews as impure people who were not Aryans and wanted to wipe them out. This hate resulted in biggest nightmare of modern day’s Jews known as The Holocaust in which Hitler killed around 6 million Jews, they were tortured in machines, used in experiments and killed.
This holocaust resulted in migration of Jews from Germany to other parts of world like USA and Europe and most of them went to Jerusalem. Hitler once said that he would have killed all Jews but he left some of them so that the world would know that why he had killed them. And the reason for that will be found in the next part.
(Writer Sharjeel Mazhar based in Lahore, Pakistan is a student of history).
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The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication or organization (Pakistan News International).
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