Muslims and Jews pre-Zionist Migration

In a debate group , someone claimed that:

The idea that Islam as a religion inherently despises jews and that is the only reason they hate Israel is bullshit. Israelis have invented a whole ahistorical national mythology that Jews and Muslims have 'always been mortal enemies'.

Jews lived in massive numbers in muslim nations for over a thousand years, and they were much better off there than in christian europe. There is a good reason why jews fled europe for the ottoman empire and arab nations, and not the other way around. There were rarely ever any acts of mass violence or expulsions against Jews there. They were left alone.

None of the insane stereotypes Christian Europeans had for jews (blood libel, well poisoning, pedophilia, devil worship etc) existed in the muslim world. The root of those stereotypes came from the christian belief that jews killed jesus, and that original hatred spawned all kinds of insane conspiracies. In the muslim world they were simply seem as just another dhimmi, not some horrific evil group the way Christians viewed them."

He also claimed that Muslim pogroms of Jews might have been "Before israel was established as a state" but were "Not before mass jewish emigration during the late 1800s-early 1900s" because "Its not as if muslims just suddenly became aware of zionism in 1948. Outrage at it was incredibly widespread throughout the decades leading up to it."

Impressively, he managed to be wrong with just about all of his claims:

The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Translation (Verse (9:30))

Sahih International: The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allah "; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allah." That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?

The life of the Jews in Fez - Morashá

"And in 1033, when the Berber tribe of Maghrawa, originally from the region that is today Northern Morocco and Algeria, conquers the city, six thousand Jews are massacred, Jewish women are deported and the properties of the Jewish population are stolen. The same fate would befall those residing in other Moroccan cities."

“Ornament of the World” and the Jews of Spain | National Endowment for the Humanities

"With the invasion of the Almohads from North Africa and their imposition of Islam on Jews and Christians in 1147, the Jews fled to Christian Spain"

History of Muslim-Jewish Conflicts: From the 7th Century to Today | Sephardic U 

Defining the late 1800s as anything before the last quarter of the century:

622–627	Ethnic cleansing of Jews from Mecca and Medina; Jewish boys publicly inspected and executed if found
622–634	Extermination of the 14 Arab Jewish tribes
624	Beginning of the elimination of the Jews after the victory of Badr
625	Expulsion of the Jewish clan of Al Nadir
626	Massacre of the Beni Khazradj Jews and division of families and loot
626	Murder of the Jew Kab, leader of the Beni Nadhir and satirist poet, and of his wife who had made fun of Mohammed
626	Expedition against the Jews of Kaihbar
626	Murder on the orders of Muhammad of the Jew Sallam abu Rafi
626	Mohammed had the palm trees of the Jewish oasis Beni Nadhir cut down
626?	Expedition against the Jews beni Qoraizha; insulted by Mohammed: “O you, monkeys and pigs…”
626?	Massacre of 700 Beni Qoraïzha Jews; bound for three days, then slaughtered above a ditch, with the young boys
627	Elimination of the Jewish Qurayza clan in Medina
627	Massacre of the Jews of Medina; sharing of families and property
628	Submission of the Jews of Wadil Qora
628	Mohammed to the Jews beni Qainoqa: “if you do not embrace Islam, I declare war on you”
628?	Attack on the Jews of Khaibar, and torture of prisoners
628?	Taking of the Jewish oasis of Fadak as Mohammed’s personal property
629	First massacres in Alexandria, Egypt
630	Submission of the Jews and Christians of Makna, Eilat, Jerba
638	Expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem
640	Expulsion of Jews from Hedjez
643	Expulsion of the Jews from Khaibar by Omar
822–861	Islamic empire adopts a law requiring Jews to wear yellow stars, caliph al-Mutawakkil
940	Beheading of the Jewish exilarch of Baghdad for having sullied the name of Mohammed
945	Assassination by a crowd of fanatics of the last Jewish exilarch of Baghdad
948	Closure of the Jewish theological school of Baghdad “Sora”
1004	Jews and Christians must wear a black turban and sash in Egypt
1009	Jews and Christians in Egypt must wear a cross or bells in the baths
1009	Destruction of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem by the Fatimids
1010	Persecution of Christians, Jews, and Sunnis by the Fatimid caliph Al Hakim
1010–1013	Start of massacre of hundreds of Jews around Cordoba
1016	Persecution of Jews are driven out of Kairouan
1032	5 to 6,000 Jews killed in a riot in Fez and expulsion of survivors
1040	Beheading of the Jewish theologian Gaon Chizkiya, head of a Talmudic school
1057	Capture and pillage of Kairouan by the Hilalian tribes; expulsion of Jews and certain Muslims
1066	Massacre of thousands of Jews in Granada in Muslim-occupied Spain
1073	Start of persecution against Jews and Christians by the Turks in Jerusalem
1106	Ali Ibn Yousef Ibn Tashifin of Marrakech decrees the death penalty for any local Jew, including his Jewish doctor, and his military general
1127	In Morocco, after the failure of the prophetic movement of the Jewish messiah Moshe Dhery, wave of persecutions and forced conversions
1142	Start of persecution against the Jews by the Almohads; massacre in Tlemcen, Bougie, Oran
1145	Jews of Tunis must choose between conversion and exile
1146	Capture of Meknes by the Almohads; persecution of the Jews
1147	Almohad invasion of Spain: expulsion of Jews or forced conversions
1147	Capture of Marrakech by the Almohads; persecution of the Jews
1147	Start of Almohad persecutions against the Jews of North Africa
1148	Almohads of Morocco give Jews the choice of converting to Islam or being expelled
1148	Start of the exodus of Maimonides fleeing the intolerance of the Almohads
1148	Almohadin of Morocco gives Jews the choice of converting to Islam or being expelled
1152	Advent of Abd el Moumin in Morocco; choice for Christians and Jews between conversion or death
1159	Controversy between Maimonides and the rabbi of Fez on the attitude towards forcible converts
1160	Capture of Ifriqiya by the Moroccans of Abd el Moumen; Jews and Christians must choose between death and conversion; Jews are converted by force and superficially
1165	Chief rabbi of the Maghreb burned alive; The Rambam fled to Egypt
1165	Flight of Maimonides to Egypt to escape the Almohads
1165–1178	Yemen: Jews throughout the country were given the choice (under the new constitution) to convert to Islam or die
1171	In Egypt, decree recalling obedience to ordinances concerning the submission of Jewish and Christian infidels under penalty of death
1184	Almohads impose distinctive signs on Christians and Jews in Spain
1198	Forced conversion of the Jews of Aden
1220	Tens of thousands of Jews killed by Muslims after being blamed for the Mongol invasion, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Egypt
1232	Massacre of the Jews of Marrakech
1266	Tomb of the Patriarchs of Hebron is converted into a mosque and closed to Jews and Christians
1267	Mamluk Sultan Baybars forbids Jews from entering the vault of the Patriarchs in Hebron; the ban ended exactly five centuries later in 1967
1270	Sultan Baibars of Egypt resolved to burn all the Jews, a ditch having been dug for this purpose; but at the last moment he repented and instead demanded a heavy tribute, in which many perished.
1270	Widespread segregation of Jews in Andalusia
1276	2nd pogrom of Fez, Morocco
1284	In Baghdad, the Jewish doctor Ibn Kammuna died locked in a trunk after writing “a book in which he showed irreverence towards the prophecies”; he escapes a lynching and is threatened with the stake
1291	Death of the converted Jew Sad al Dawla, grand vizier of Argun Khan in Iran, a rank which provoked the anger of the Muslim court
1291	Forced conversion of the Jews of Tabriz in Persia
1301	Start of the persecution of the Jews in Egypt
1318	Beheading of Rashid aldin Tabid, historian and Persian minister, Jewish convert who provoked the anger of Muslim elites
1318	Forced conversion of the Jews of Tabriz in Persia
1333	Forced conversion of the Jews of Baghdad
1333	The traveler Ibn Battuta complains that Djenkchi Khan djagataï allows Jews and Christians to repair their places of worship
1334	Forced conversion of the Jews of Baghdad
1344	Forced conversion of the Jews of Baghdad
1351	Trial of Jews (in Cairo?) accused of desecration, who must choose between conversion or death
1385	Massacres du Khorasan, Iran
1390	Foundation of the first Jewish ghetto in Fez
1391	In Morocco, persecution of Jews from Spain
1438	Creation of ghettos for Jews in the cities of Morocco, under the name “mellah”
1438	1st massacres in the Mellah ghetto, North Africa
1448	In Egypt, decree recalling obedience to ordinances concerning the submission of Jewish and Christian infidels under penalty of death
1450	Trial of Jews accused of having written the name of Mohammed in their synagogue in Fustat; they are converted by force
1465	In Fez, pogroms after the discovery in the Jewish quarter of the tomb of the city’s founder, a descendant of Mohammed…; Jews are forced to move to the ghetto (11 Jews left alive)
1492	Jewish community of Touat in Morocco is massacred; synagogues destroyed
1516	Algerian Jews receive the official status of dhimmi from the Ottomans; certain colors are forbidden to them (red and green); they are not allowed to ride horses or carry weapons; they must pay the discriminatory tax; their representative is ritually slapped during the delivery of tribute to the authorities
1517	1st pogrom in Safed, Ottoman Palestine
1517	1st pogrom of Hebron, Ottoman Palestine
1521	Expulsion of Jews from Belgrade by the Ottomans
1524	Expulsion of Jews from Buda in Hungary by the Ottomans
1535	Pogrom then expulsion of Jews from Tunisia
1554	Looting and persecution against the Jewish population of Marrakech by the Turks who took the city
1574	Civil war in Morocco between three claimants; Jews are victims of all camps
1577	Passover massacre, Ottoman Empire
1588–1629	Pogroms of Mahalay, Iran
1604	Start of a period of famine, violence and forced conversions of the Jewish population of Fez: 2000 conversions in 2 years
1608	Persecution for two years of the Jews of Taroudat by the Berbers
1622	Forced conversion of the Jews of Persia
1630–1700	Yemenite Jews were considered “impure” and therefore forbidden to touch a Muslim or a Muslim’s food. They were obliged to humble themselves before a Muslim, walk on the left side and greet him first. They could not build houses taller than those of a Muslim or ride a camel or horse, and when riding a mule or donkey, they had to sit on the side. When entering the Muslim quarter, a Jew had to take off his shoes and walk barefoot. If attacked with stones or fists by Muslim youths, a Jew was not allowed to defend himself.
1650	Jews from Tunisia are deported to special neighborhoods called “hara”
1650	Forced conversion of the Jews of Persia, under Shah Abbas II
1656	Jews expelled from Isfahan in Iran
1660	2 pogroms in Safed and Tiberias, Ottoman Palestine
1670	Expulsion of Mawza, Yemen
1676	Expulsion of Jews from Sanaa in Yemen
1678	Forced conversion of Jews in Yemen
1679–1680	Sanaa massacres, Yemen
1700	Massacre of Jews in Yemen
1747	Massacres de Mashhad, Iran
1758	Executions of a Jew and an Armenian in Constantinople for violation of the legislation on the clothing of infidels
1770	Expulsion of Jews from Jeddah in Arabia
1785	Tripoli Pogrom, Ottoman Libya
1790	Destruction of most of the Jewish communities in Morocco
1790–92	Pogrom of Tetouan, Morocco (Jews of Tetouan undressed and lined up)
1800	New decree adopted in Yemen, prohibiting Jews from wearing new or good clothes. Jews were forbidden to ride mules or donkeys, and were sometimes rounded up for long, naked marches through the Roob al Khali desert.
1805	1st pogrom in Ottoman Algeria against the Jews of Algiers after a famine. French consul Dubois-Thainville saves 200 Jews by sheltering them in his consulate.
1805	Exile of Jews from Algiers to Tunis and Livorno
1805	The leader of the Jewish Nation of Algiers, Naphthalie Busnach, is killed while riots ravage the neighborhoods.
1806	Expulsion by fatwa of the Jews of Sali in Morocco
1806	Ban on Moroccan Jews wearing Western clothing
1806	The janissaries of the dey of Algiers massacre and pillage in the Jewish quarter
1807	Expulsion of Jews from Tetouan
1808	1st massacres in the Mellah ghetto, North Africa
1815	The chief rabbi of Algiers, Isaac Aboulker, is beheaded during a riot.
1815	The Jews of Algiers are forced to fight against an invasion of locusts
1815	2nd pogrom of Algiers, Ottoman Algeria
1816	In Algeria, ban on carrying weapons for Jews and Christians
1820	Massacres of Sahalu Lobiant, Ottoman Syria
1828	Pogrom of Baghdad, Ottoman Iraq
1830	3rd pogrom of Algeria, Ottoman Algeria
1830	Start of the persecution of Jews in Persia, caused by the Russian advance in the Caucasus
1830	Ethnic cleansing of Jews in Tabriz, Iran
1834	2nd pogrom of Hebron, Ottoman Palestine
1834	Pogrom of Safed, Ottoman Palestine
1838	Druze attack in Safed, Ottoman Palestine
1839	Massacre of the Mashadi Jews, Iran
1839	Forced conversion of surviving Jews from Mashadi
1839	Campaign of forced conversions of Iranian Jews
1840	Persecution of the Jews of Damascus; ritual murder case
1840	Forced conversion of the Jews of Mashadi
1840	Damascus, ritual murders (French Muslims and Christians kidnapped, tortured and killed Jewish children for entertainment), Ottoman Syria
1841	Massive murders of Jews in Morocco; the sultan is obliged to consider the Jews as his personal property, which helps to protect them
1844	1st Cairo massacre, Ottoman Egypt
1847	Dayr al-Qamar Pogrom, Ottoman Lebanon
1847	Ethnic cleansing of Jews in Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine
1848	1st pogrom of Damascus, Syria
1848	Total disappearance of the Jews of Mashhad
1850	1st pogrom of Aleppo, Ottoman Syria
1854	Anti-Jewish pogrom in Demnate, Morocco
1857	Beheading in Tunis of the Jewish coachman Batou Sfez, accused of blasphemy, while he was drunk
1860	2nd pogrom of Damascus, Ottoman Syria
1862	1st pogrom of Beirut, Ottoman Lebanon
1864–1880	Marrakech massacre, Morocco
1866	Pogrom at Kuzguncuk, Ottoman Turkey
1867	Barfurush massacre, Ottoman Turkey
1868	Eyub Pogrom, Ottoman Turkey
1869	Massacre of Tunis, Ottoman Tunisia
1869	Massacre of Sfax, Ottoman Tunisia
1870	2nd Alexandria massacres, Ottoman Egypt
1870	1st pogrom in Istanbul, Ottoman Turkey
1871	1st Damanhur massacres, Ottoman Egypt
1872	Massacres in Edirne, Ottoman Turkey
1872	1st pogrom of Izmir, Ottoman Turkey
1873	2nd massacre of Damanhur, Ottoman Egypt
1874	2nd pogrom of Izmir, Ottoman Turkey
1874	2nd pogrom of Istanbul, Ottoman Turkey
1874	2nd pogrom of Beirut, Ottoman Lebanon

Locating the 'Jew' in the Early Islamic Textual Tradition: Research Paper Series: Publications & Research: Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism: Indiana University Bloomington

"The anti-Jewish sentiment that exists in the modern Middle East is a direct descendant of the picture of the “Jew” in the Islamic textual tradition...

Early relations between Muslims and Jews were apparently contentious. Three Jewish tribes in Medina had been foils for the nascent Muslim community of the city following the Prophet’s emigration to it. Following the Battles of Badr (624 CE) and Uḥud (625 CE) one tribe, the Banū Qaynuqāʿ, was exiled but allowed to keep its possessions. A second, the Banū al-Naḍīr, was exiled following the confiscation of its goods. A third, the Banū Qurayẓa, was accused of aiding the Prophet’s enemies from Mecca at the 627 CE “Battle of the Trench” and, while accounts do vary, they mostly corroborate the general outlines of the tribe’s fate: a good number of the adult males—according to Ibn Isḥāq, between 600 and 900 of them— were executed, and the women and children enslaved. Still another ostensibly Jewish community, at the Oasis of Khaybār, had been subjugated by the Prophet. These Jews are remembered in the Islamic tradition as deceitful and deserving of their fates...

The Qurʿan casts doubt on the authenticity of the Jewish Scriptures of its time and accuses the Jews of having falsified them, with the particular motive of suppressing or modifying passages that allegedly heralded the coming of Muhammad and Islam, as well as their triumph and superiority over all earlier religions, Judaism included

...

In summary, the Banū Isrāʾīl—the “children of Israel”—are depicted as “a chosen people (Q. 2:47 and Q.2:122) whom God freed from servitude by leading them out of Egypt and into the Holy Land (Q. 5:21)”[13] but also as polytheistic backsliders (Q. 5:13) and killers of Prophets. Truly, the Qurʾānic “children of Israel” carries a mixed record of religious accomplishment; the designation “Jews,” yahūd, conversely, generally refer to Muḥammad’s contemporaries, and as such are much more negative.

Functionally, the Qurʾān’s Jews (yahūd) and Banū Isrāʾīl frequently served as negative examples, with the “positive” notices providing a basis for a wider point about ingratitude or disloyalty... the Jews were chosen—but that choice could be revoked for bad behavior. The Qurʿān makes the case that Jewish misdeeds, which it recounts, were sufficient for this revocation of divine favor to occur.

Jews are presented as rebellious breakers of the Covenant (sūra 8), which may well be a topical reference to the Jews of Medina, who will be discussed shortly. Their backsliding into the polytheistic worship of the Golden Calf is probably their worst offense (sūra 20), which “serves to underscore the Hebrews’ idolatry and to call into question their commitment to monotheism.”[15] According to the Qurʾān, the Torah predicted the life and prophethood of Muḥammad, but the Qurʾān “accuses the Jews of tendentiously falsifying (taḥrif) the [Torah] and modifying (tabdil) the order of its verses” (sūra 2 and sūra 4, among others).[16] The Qurʾān also seeks to establish that the Jews were killers of Prophets (sūra 2 and sūra 5), although the identities of the slain prophets are never revealed...

The rebelliousness, unruliness, and ingratitude of the Jews were both necessary preconditions to God’s decision to reveal the Qurʾān and useful object lessons on crime and punishment for the believers...

In the Sīra, the Prophet Muḥammad encountered many Jews. Rarely are the stories complimentary. After a brief discussion of the holy men, including Jewish rabbis who “had spoken about the apostle of God before his mission when his time drew near,”[18] which when viewed against other references to Jews in the work is clearly designed to set up later Jewish perfidy, the Sīra has sections with titles like “The Jewish Warning about the Apostle of God.”[19] Then, after the Prophet’s emigration to Medina, there are sections called “The Names of the Jewish Adversaries,”[20] “The Jews are Joined by Anṣārī Hypocrites,”[21] “The Rabbis who Accepted Islam Hypocritically,”[22] and “References to the Hypocrites and the Jews in Sūrat al- Baqara [“the Cow”].”[23] The “Jewish Adversaries” are pilloried for “annoy[ing] the apostle [Muḥammad] with questions and introduc[ing] confusion, so as to confound the truth with falsity.”[24] The story does praise a couple of Jews by name: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām for accepting Islam, and when he does so he asks the Prophet for protection with the words “the Jews are a nation of liars and wish you would take me into one of your houses and hide me from them,” and Mukhayriq, a “learned Rabbi owning much property in date palms,” who willed his property to the Prophet Muḥammad.[25] Jews are further castigated for “assembl[ing] in the mosque and listen[ing] to the stories of the Muslims and laugh[ing] and scoff[ing] at their religion.”[26]

From this inauspicious start, matters progressed to the tale of the three Jewish tribes who ran afoul of the Prophet’s leadership in Medina already described. The story of the expulsion of the Banū al-Nadīr, the second of the two tribes to be expelled from Medina, concludes with a poem, rife with descriptors about the Jews:

“The rabbis were disgraced through their treachery,

Thus time’s wheel turns round.

They had denied the mighty Lord

Whose command is great.

They had been given knowledge and understanding

And a warner from God came to them,

A truthful warner who brought a book

With plain and luminous verses….

He said ‘(I offer) Peace, woe to you,’ but they refused

And lies and deceit were their allies.

They tasted the results of their deeds in misery,

Every three of them shared one camel.

They were driven out and made for Qaynuqāʿ,

Their palms and houses were abandoned.”[27]

In this story, the deportation of the Banū al-Nadīr was followed by the assault on the Banū Qurayẓa, the execution of most of its men, the enslavement of most of its women and children, and the plundering of its property. The Banū al-Nadīr, too, did not escape destruction for long; the Prophet used a period of ceasefire in his war with Mecca to attack, subdue, plunder the lands of, and ultimately destroy the Jewish community of the oasis of Khaybār, to which the Nadīr had previously fled.

When Ibn Hishām composed his version of the Prophet’s biography in the early 9th century CE, he presented the Jews of the Prophet’s time with the same communal characteristics and (lack of) values as the Qurʾān’s Jews: challengers, deniers, fighters, and occasionally killers of Prophets; doubters, questioners, and mischief makers who sew the seeds of doubt with their lies, obfuscations, and stubborn rejections of obvious truths; and deservers of punishment inflicted both by God and by righteous men. The Qurʾān described them as such, and the Sīra provides perfect examples in the hypocrite Rabbis, the few Jews who left the fold, and the perfidious Jewish tribes of Medina.

Within Islam’s classical textual tradition, the Jews played an irredeemable role...

If the episode involving the three Jewish tribes was indeed invented, then the Jews of Medina have far more in common with William Shakespeare’s Shylock than with any historical persons: they were characters constructed to embody prevailing stereotypes, whose actions and identities serve as mirrors for the cultural and theological biases of their creators. The Islamic variety of antisemitism deploys the “Jews” as prophet-fighting, God-opposing, underhanded villains. In the end, the “Jew” is precisely what the tradition needed him to be: an adversary. Prevailing antisemitic notions may be based on a misapplication of the name “Jew” or on a fiction created for the purpose of substantiating a Qurʾānic misunderstanding of Jewish and Christian theology. On the other hand, early antisemitic Christian notions of the “Jew” were also based on fictions, in that case deployed in the service of Christian theological self-definition. Thus, it would seem that, for all their seeming differences, Islamic and Christian antisemitism were cut from the same self-serving fabric."

I also quoted from The Jews of Islam by Bernard Lewis (previously quoted on this blog).