What Happened to the Jews of Arabia? - article by Sara Yoheved Rigler

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A Quote of most but not all of an article, from: http://www.aish.com/h/9av/ju/What_Happened_to_the_Jews_of_Arabia.html

What Happened to the Jews of Arabia?
A story that should make every Jew shudder.

by Sara Yoheved Rigler 
 Did you know that Saudi Arabia once hosted a thriving Jewish community? For almost a thousand years (three times longer than the Jews have been in America), Jews lived in the oases of Teyma, Khaybar, and Yathrib (later known as Medina), in the northern Arabian Peninsula. According to Dr. Hagai Mazuz, an Orientalist specializing in Arabic language, Islam, and Islamic culture, “The Jewish community of northern Arabia was one of the largest ancient Jewish communities in the history of the Jewish people.”1

They were powerful and wealthy. They were respected by the local Arabian tribes for their religion, culture, erudition, and literacy. They built castles on mountaintops and developed productive plantations. They had military prowess, horses, and advanced weaponry. And they were almost totally annihilated in the short span of a few years.

Their story should make every Jew shudder.

The Jews of Medina were divided into three groups: The Banu Qaynuqa were blacksmiths, weapon wrights, and goldsmiths. The Banu Nadir had date plantations. The Banu QurayUa were wine merchants. These groups often quarreled. Sometimes the hostility among them broke out into actual fighting.

When Mohammed fled from Mecca in 622, he went to Medina. At first, he entered into an alliance with the Jews. He studied in their study halls and adopted many of their customs into his incipient religion (e.g. not eating pork). But when, after two years, Mohammed could not convince the Jews to accept him as a prophet and convert to his religion, his attitude turned toward open hostility. He instructed his friends to murder and decapitate Ka’b Ibn al-Ashraf, a renowned Jewish poet and chief of the Banu Nadir (date farmers tribe), and ordered his followers, “Kill every Jew you can.” 2

Mohammed then besieged the Banu Qaynuqa (blacksmith tribe), knowing that the other two Jewish tribes would not come to their aid. Although the Banu Qaynuqa were proficient warriors, the lack of food and water due to the siege weakened them to the point of surrender.

Stop the story here! If I were reading a Hollywood screenplay that developed like this, I would reject it as unrealistic and absurd. Here the protagonist, Mohammed, has openly declared his intention to kill every Jew. And he has started his killing campaign with the grisly beheading of the head of the date famers tribe.

Is Jewish unity such a bitter pill that Jews would rather swallow cyanide?Mohammed’s forces at that point were weaker than the combined Jewish forces would have been. Why didn’t the date farmers and the wine merchants unite to break the siege and save the blacksmiths? How could they sit on their hands and let their brethren perish? Even if they hated their fellow Jews, surely they should have realized that uniting in order to eradicate the murderous Mohammed’s forces would be in their long-term self-interest. And these are supposed to be smart Jews? With a sneer, I would toss this screenplay into the wastebasket.

History, however, is less sensible than Hollywood. The other two Jewish tribes did nothing to save the Jewish blacksmiths. After the surrender, Mohammed wanted to slaughter the vanquished tribe, but his ally Abdullah Ibn Ubayyy prevented the massacre, and instead they were exiled to Edri (now in Jordan).

Mohammed confiscated their considerable assets. Strengthened by captured Jewish wealth, one year later Mohammed turned his attention to the next Jewish tribe, the date growers. To ensure that the tribe of the wine merchants would not come to the rescue of their fellow Jews, Mohammed made an alliance with the wine merchants.

This is crazy! The reviewer in me, who has rejected many a far-fetched plot, cannot abide this one. The Jewish wine merchants must have drunk their own stock and become totally plastered to ally themselves with a sworn enemy of the Jews against their own people. Is Jewish unity such a bitter pill that Jews would rather swallow cyanide?

Related Article: On the Same Team

Mohammed’s forces laid siege to the strongholds of the Jewish date farmers in 625. Like the previous Jewish tribe, they succumbed to the siege. Again Abdullah Ibn Ubayyy intervened, and instead of slaughtering the vanquished Jews, Mohammed exiled them to the city of Khaybar, which, according to Muslim tradition, was inhabited by descendants of the Jewish priestly tribe.

Three years later Mohammed conquered Khaybar, the wealthiest city in northern Arabia. Because the Muslims did not know agriculture, Mohammed permitted most of the Jews to live as dhimmis, officially second-class citizens who had to pay exorbitant taxes. Eventually the second Caliph banished the Jews of Khaybar, in obedience to Mohammed’s policy that permitted no religion other than Islam to be practiced in Arabia.

Back in Medina, the wine merchant tribe had only two years to relish their position as the sole surviving Jews. Then, in 627, Mohammed, with 3,000 soldiers, laid siege to their fortress. The Jewish tribe had only 450 trained warriors. Because Abdullah Ibn Ubayyy had died a few months before, the Jews knew that no one would intercede on their behalf. The leader of the besieged Jews proposed that they either convert to Islam or, similar to Masada, kill their own women and children to prevent their being ravished and enslaved, and then fight the Muslims to the death. The Jews rejected both options and offered to surrender and leave Medina.

Mohammed rejected their offer. The vanquished wine merchants tribe, who had twice refused to help the other besieged Jewish tribes, suffered the worst fate. The children were sold as slaves; the women were given to the victorious soldiers “for the Muslims to use,” and the men (except for three who agreed to convert to Islam) were decapitated in the marketplace. According to Muslim tradition, the blood of the decapitated Jews flooded the marketplace of Medina.1.“Massacre in Medina,” Segula Magazine, issue 3.
2. Ibid. Dr. Mazuz, who is a Senior Advisor to the Gatestone Institute, based his article, “Massacred in Medina” on exclusively Muslim sources.

If some history expert knows, why didn't the Jews unite or if someone has any important historical details to add or to modify this article, please do so.

[syyuge]

Utterly unfortunate. Is it that they were isolated and broken in to different mutually irresponsible tribes/castes.

[Sveta]

Yemen is also in Arabia. It's in the Southern portion of the peninsula. So at least some Jews in Arabia survived.

I think Jews had an independent kingdom in parts of Arabia at one time. Jews were also in Iraq and Syria long before Arabs were there. Arabs only conquered it after Mohammad. The Arabs were the interlopers and Arabized everyone they conquered besides Jews because Jews are a separate people from the Non-Jewish populations. Jews were in Iraq a thousands years prior to Arabs/Islam.

Probably Iraq is a made up term too just like Iran and Jordan. Iraq is really Babylonia and Iran is really Persia. Jordan is not only a made up term but the country is also made up like Fakestine.

Lebanon as a country is also made up. The Bible uses Lebanon as the name of a mountain range in Northern Israel. Syria seems to be more of a genuine country by name since it can be traced to Aram and Assyria. Syria was already used in the Hellenistic Period.

Egypt is not made up but the Arabization of it was.

[TruthSpreader]

Yemen is also in Arabia. It's in the Southern portion of the peninsula. So at least some Jews in Arabia survived.

I think Jews had an independent kingdom in parts of Arabia at one time. Jews were also in Iraq and Syria long before Arabs were there. Arabs only conquered it after Mohammad. The Arabs were the interlopers and Arabized everyone they conquered besides Jews because Jews are a separate people from the Non-Jewish populations. Jews were in Iraq a thousands years prior to Arabs/Islam.

Probably Iraq is a made up term too just like Iran and Jordan. Iraq is really Babylonia and Iran is really Persia. Jordan is not only a made up term but the country is also made up like Fakestine.

Lebanon as a country is also made up. The Bible uses Lebanon as the name of a mountain range in Northern Israel. Syria seems to be more of a genuine country by name since it can be traced to Aram and Assyria. Syria was already used in the Hellenistic Period.

Egypt is not made up but the Arabization of it was.

Iran and Jordan are not made up names. Iran's name means "Land of the Aryan" and Jordan was named after the Jordan river.

[syyuge]

Iran is a very new name. Earlier it was Pharas (Faras) or Persia.

[serbian army]

Yemen is also in Arabia. It's in the Southern portion of the peninsula. So at least some Jews in Arabia survived.

I think Jews had an independent kingdom in parts of Arabia at one time. Jews were also in Iraq and Syria long before Arabs were there. Arabs only conquered it after Mohammad. The Arabs were the interlopers and Arabized everyone they conquered besides Jews because Jews are a separate people from the Non-Jewish populations. Jews were in Iraq a thousands years prior to Arabs/Islam.

Probably Iraq is a made up term too just like Iran and Jordan. Iraq is really Babylonia and Iran is really Persia. Jordan is not only a made up term but the country is also made up like Fakestine.

Lebanon as a country is also made up. The Bible uses Lebanon as the name of a mountain range in Northern Israel. Syria seems to be more of a genuine country by name since it can be traced to Aram and Assyria. Syria was already used in the Hellenistic Period.

Egypt is not made up but the Arabization of it was.

I must agree with you. Syrian and Egyptian Christian do not consider themselves to be Arabs. They are native people of those lands.
This article is more than awesome. I knew that muslims killed one tribe but I did not know there were 3 Jewish tribes and sequence of historic events that led to massacres.

[muman613]

Iran and Jordan are not made up names. Iran's name means "Land of the Aryan" and Jordan was named after the Jordan river.

Jordan is a completely fictitious name for a country. Indeed the river was named Jordan from the times of the Torah... But there was never a land called Jordan. Jordan was made by the British at the time of the Mandate of Palestine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan

The precursor to modern Jordan was founded in 1921 as the Hashemite Emirate, and it was recognized by the League of Nations as a state under the British mandate in 1922 known as The Emirate of Transjordan. In 1946, Jordan became an independent sovereign state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. After capturing the West Bank area of Cisjordan during the 1948–49 war with Israel, Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan and Palestine, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949.

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Following the establishment of Roman Empire at Syria, the country was incorporated into the client Judaean Kingdom of Herod, and later the Iudaea Province. With the suppression of Jewish Revolts, the eastern bank of Transjordan was incorporated into the Syria Palaestina province, while the eastern deserts fell under Parthian and later Persian Sassanid control. During the Greco-Roman period, a number of semi-independent city-states also developed in the region of Transjordan under the umbrella of the Decapolis including: Gerasa (Jerash), Philadelphia (Amman), Raphana (Abila), Dion (Capitolias), Gadara (Umm Qays), and Pella (Irbid).
With the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire, Transjordan came to be controlled by the Christian Ghassanid Arab kingdom, which allied with Byzantium. The Byzantine site of Um er-Rasas is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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British mandate on Transjordan
In September 1922 the Council of the League of Nations recognized Transjordan as a state under the British Mandate and Transjordan memorandum excluded the territories east of the River Jordan from all of the provisions of the mandate dealing with Jewish settlement.[18] The Permanent Court of International Justice and an International Court of Arbitration established by the Council of the League of Nations handed down rulings in 1925 which determined that both a Jewish and an Arab state in the Mandatory regions of Palestine and Transjordan were to be newly created successor states of the Ottoman Empire as defined by international law.[19] The country remained under British supervision until 1946.

The Hashemite leadership met multiple difficulties upon assuming power in the region. The most serious threats to emir Abdullah's position in Transjordan were repeated Wahhabi incursions from Najd into southern parts of his territory.[20] The emir was powerless to repel those raids by himself, thus the British maintained a military base, with a small air force, at Marka, close to Amman.[20] The British military force was the primary obstacle against the Ikhwan, and was also used to help emir Abdullah with the suppression of local rebellions at Kura and later by Sultan Adwan, in 1921 and 1923 respectively.[20]