The Sabbateans (or Sabbatians ) were a variety of Jewish followers, disciples, and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), an Ottoman Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza .
190-450: Vast numbers of Jews in the Jewish diaspora accepted his claims, even after he outwardly became an apostate due to his forced conversion to Islam in the same year. Sabbatai Zevi's followers, both during his proclaimed messiahship and after his forced conversion to Islam, are known as Sabbateans. In the late 17th century, northern Italy experienced a surge of Sabbatean activity, driven by
380-517: A religion of peace and not of violence. John R. Neuman, a scholar on religion, describes Islam as "a perfect anti-religion" and "the antithesis of Buddhism". Lawrence Wright argued that role of Wahhabi literature in Saudi schools contributing suspicion and hate violence against non-Muslims as non-believers or infidels and anyone who "disagrees with Wahhabism is either an infidel or a deviant, who should repent or be killed." Most Muslim scholars, on
570-424: A "Semitic" religion. The term "Mohammedanism" was used by many to criticize Islam by focusing on Muhammad's actions, reducing Islam to merely a derivative of Christianity rather than acknowledging it as a successor of Abrahamic monotheisms. By contrast, many academics nowadays study Islam as an Abrahamic religion in relation to Judaism and Christianity. The Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton criticized Islam as
760-537: A Jew, albeit excommunicated by his Jewish brethren. After Sabbatai Zevi's apostasy, many Jews, although horrified, clung to the belief that Zevi could still be regarded as the true Jewish Messiah . They constituted the largest number of Sabbateans during the 17th and 18th centuries. By the 19th century, Jewish Sabbateans had been reduced to small groups of hidden followers who feared being discovered for their beliefs, that were deemed to be entirely heretical and antithetical to Rabbinic Judaism . These very Jews fell under
950-622: A Muslim ruler, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, and for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state. Harris argues that Muslim extremism is simply a consequence of taking the Quran literally, and is skeptical that moderate Islam is possible. Max I. Dimont interprets that the Houris described in the Quran are specifically dedicated to "male pleasure". According to Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Umar Ahmed Usmani "Hur" or "hurun"
1140-611: A Roman colonia and foreign cults. It is commonly held that this was done as an insult to the Jews and as a means of erasing the land's Jewish identity, Others argued that this project was expressive of an intention of establishing administratively and culturally a firm Roman imperial presence, and thus incorporating the province, now called Syro-Palaestina, into the Roman world system. These political measures were, according to Menachem Mor, devoid of any intention to eliminate Judaism, indeed,
1330-604: A clear paternal link between the Bene Israel and the Levant." "The most parsimonious explanation for these observations is a common genetic origin, which is consistent with an historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant." In conclusion the authors are stating that the genetic results are concordant "with the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout
1520-487: A denial of allegiance as well as of religious belief and loyalty". The English historian C. E. Bosworth suggests the traditional view of apostasy hampered the development of Islamic learning, like philosophy and natural science, "out of fear that these could evolve into potential toe-holds for kufr , those people who reject God." While in 13 Muslim-majority countries atheism is punishable by death, according to legal historian Sadakat Kadri , executions were rare because "it
1710-452: A denigrated minority, stripped of such rights, in the host society. Sometimes diaspora and galut are defined as 'voluntary' as opposed to 'involuntary' exile. Diaspora, it has been argued, has a political edge, referring to geopolitical dispersion, which may be involuntary, but which can assume, under different conditions, a positive nuance. Galut is more teleological , and connotes a sense of uprootedness. Daniel Boyarin defines diaspora as
1900-694: A disputed province of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria. In the early part of the 2nd century BCE, a revolt against the Seleucids led to the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans adopted a deliberate policy of imitating and reconstituting the Davidic kingdom, and as part of this forcibly converted to Judaism their neighbours in the Land of Israel. The conversions included Nabateans ( Zabadeans ) and Itureans ,
2090-572: A figure of 6,944,000 Jews in the Roman world. Salo Wittmayer Baron considered the figure convincing. The figure of seven million within and one million outside the Roman world in the mid-first century became widely accepted, including by Louis Feldman . However, contemporary scholars now accept that Bar Hebraeus based his figure on a census of total Roman citizens and thus, included non-Jews. The figure of 6,944,000 being recorded in Eusebius' Chronicon . Louis Feldman, previously an active supporter of
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#17327919787702280-481: A firm Christian majority. Judaism was the only non-Christian religion tolerated, but the Jews were discriminated against in various ways. They were prohibited from building new houses of worship, holding public office, or owning slaves. The 7th century saw the Jewish revolt against Heraclius , which broke out in 614 during the Byzantine–Sasanian War . It was the last serious attempt by Jews to gain autonomy in
2470-460: A fixed-term or short-term contractual marriage in Shia Islam . The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. For this reason, nikah mut'ah has been widely criticised as the religious cover and legalization of prostitution . Shi'a and Sunnis agree that Mut'ah was legal in early times, but Sunnis consider that it
2660-411: A full one-tenth (10%) of the population of the ancient city of Rome itself. Finally, if the sums confiscated by the governor Lucius Valerius Flaccus in the year 62/61 BCE represented the tax of a didrachma per head for a single year, it would imply that the Jewish population of Asia Minor numbered 45,000 adult males, for a total of at least 180,000 persons. The 13th-century author Bar Hebraeus gave
2850-464: A heresy or parody of Christianity, David Hume ( d. 1776 ), both a naturalist and a sceptic , considered monotheistic religions to be more "comfortable to sound reason" than polytheism but also found Islam to be more "ruthless" than Christianity. The Greek Orthodox bishop Paul of Antioch accepted Muhammed as a prophet, but did not consider his mission to be universal and regarded Christian law superior to Islamic law. Maimonides ,
3040-436: A human rights perspective in a 2011 UNICEF report. Allowing girls under 18 to marry by religious courts is another criticism of Islam Sharia grants women the right to inherit property but a daughter's inheritance is usually half that of her brother's but that is because the brother needs to care of his family and her sister if a male guardian isn't present and take care of her needs. Furthermore, slave women were not granted
3230-580: A largely anti-Sabbatean agenda. Accusations coming from anti-Sabbatean Jews revolved around the idea that Sabbatai Zevi's feigned conversion to Islam was rightfully an indicator of a false claim of Messianship. Inside the Ottoman Empire , those followers of Zevi who had converted to Islam but who secretly continued Jewish observances and brit milah became known as the Dönmeh ( Turkish : dönme "convert"). There were some internal sub-divisions within
3420-589: A majority of the population until some time after Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century. The ban on Jewish settlement in Jerusalem was maintained. There was a minor Jewish rebellion against a corrupt governor from 351 to 352 which was put down. In the 5th century, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire resulted in Christian migration into Palestine and the development of
3610-415: A medieval polemical work, describes the narratives in the Quran as "all jumbled together and intermingled," and regards this as "evidence that many different hands have been at work therein." Critics point to various pre-existing sources to argue against the traditional narrative of revelation from God . Some scholars have calculated that one third of the Quran has pre-Islamic Christian origins. Aside from
3800-741: A military class that successively served the Persian , the Ptolemaic and Roman governments down to the early decades of the second century CE, when the revolt against Trajan destroyed them. Their presence was buttressed by numerous Jewish administrators who joined them in Egypt's military and urban centres. According to Josephus , when Ptolemy I took Judea, he led 120,000 Jewish captives to Egypt, and many other Jews, attracted by Ptolemy's liberal and tolerant policies and Egypt's fertile soil, emigrated from Judea to Egypt of their own free will. Ptolemy settled
3990-543: A monopoly on truth. Apologetic writings, attributed to the philosopher Abd-Allah ibn al-Muqaffa ( d. c. 756 ), include defenses of Manichaeism against Islam and critiques of the Islamic concept of God, characterizing the Quranic deity in highly critical terms. The Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammuna , criticized Islam, reasoning that Sharia was incompatible with the principles of justice. During
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#17327919787704180-618: A notable dispute between Rabbi Jacob Emden (Ya'avetz) and Jonathan Eybeschuetz . Additionally, a successor movement known as Frankism , led by Jacob Frank , began in Eastern Europe during this century. Part of the Sabbateans lived on until well into 21st-century Turkey as descendants of the Dönmeh. Sabbatai Zevi was a Sephardic ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir , Turkey). A kabbalist of Romaniote origin , Zevi, who
4370-522: A purely human origin. Richard Carrier regards this reliance on pre-Islamic Christian sources as evidence that Islam derived from a Torah-observant sect of Christianity. It has been suggested that there exists around the Hadith (Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah (words and deeds) of Muhammad) three major sources of corruption: political conflicts, sectarian prejudice, and the desire to translate
4560-541: A reminder of the hallowed past, and, through most of the era, a Jewish regime existed in Palestine. Yet the Jews of the diaspora, from Italy to Iran, far outnumbered those in the homeland. Although Jerusalem loomed large in their self-perception as a nation, few of them had seen it, and few were likely to. Israel Yuval contends the Babylonian captivity created a promise of return in the Jewish consciousness which had
4750-552: A result of Eybeschutz and other rabbis in Prague formulating a new (and different) ban against Sabbatianism in September of that year his reputation was restored and Eybeschutz was regarded as having been totally vindicated. The issue was to arise again, albeit tangentially, in the 1751 dispute between Emden and Eybeschutz. The controversy was a momentous incident in Jewish history of the period, involving both Yechezkel Landau and
4940-494: A result, many Jews emigrated to Babylon under the more tolerant Sassanid Empire , where autonomous Jewish communities continued to flourish, lured by the promise of economic prosperity and the ability to lead a full Jewish life there. Between the 3rd and 7th centuries, estimates indicate that the Babylonian Jewish community numbered approximately one million, which may have been the largest Jewish diaspora population of
5130-403: A secret Sabbatean. The Emden-Eybeschutz controversy arose concerning the amulets which Emden suspected Eybeschutz of issuing. It was alleged that these amulets recognized the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi. Emden then accused Eybeschutz of heresy. Emden was known for his attacks directed against the adherents, or those he supposed to be adherents, of Sabbatai Zevi. In Emden's eyes, Eybeschutz
5320-513: A similar semantic range, bear some distinct differences in connotation. The former has no traditional equivalent in Hebrew usage. Steven Bowman argues that diaspora in antiquity connoted emigration from an ancestral mother city, with the emigrant community maintaining its cultural ties with the place of origin. Just as the Greek city exported its surplus population, so did Jerusalem, while remaining
5510-736: A single event. There is no sudden expansion of the population base of 30,000 and no credible indication of any special interest in Yehud . Although most of the Jewish people during this period, especially the wealthy families, were to be found in Babylonia, the existence they led there, under the successive rulers of the Achaemenids , the Seleucids , the Parthians , and the Sassanians ,
5700-417: A stance against multiculturalism closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers . Recent critics include Pascal Bruckner and Paul Cliteur . Tatar Tengrist criticize Islam as a semitic religion, which forced Turks to submission to an alien culture. Further, since Islam mentions semitic history as if it were the history of all mankind, but disregards components of other cultures and spirituality,
5890-411: A state where people have a dual cultural allegiance, productive of a double consciousness , and in this sense a cultural condition not premised on any particular history, as opposed to galut, which is more descriptive of an existential situation, that properly of exile, conveying a particular psychological outlook. The Greek word διασπορά (dispersion) first appears as a neologism in the translation of
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6080-568: A state's function would be to 'sustain Jewish nationhood' in the diaspora. In 722 BCE, the Assyrians , under Sargon II , successor to Shalmaneser V , conquered the Kingdom of Israel , and many Israelites were deported to Mesopotamia . The Jewish proper diaspora began with the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE. After the overthrow of the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (see Babylonian captivity ) and
6270-554: A study by Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Technion and Ramban Medical Center in Haifa, Israel demonstrated that the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews, both men and women, have Middle Eastern ancestry. According to Nicholas Wades' 2010 Autosomal study Ashkenazi Jews share a common ancestry with other Jewish groups and Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews have roughly 30% European ancestry with the rest being Middle Eastern. According to Hammer,
6460-488: A time, be it temporary or permanent. Some Shia scholars also view Mut'ah as a means of eradicating prostitution from society. Nikah Misyar is a type of Nikah (marriage) in Sunni Islam only carried out through the normal contractual procedure, with the provision that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy ,
6650-401: A twelfth-century rabbi , did not question the strict monotheism of Islam, and considered Islam to be a instrument of divine providence for bringing all of humankind to the worship of the one true God, but was critical of the practical politics of Muslim regimes and considered Islamic ethics and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts. In his essay Islam Through Western Eyes ,
6840-433: A twig or leaf can be used by a man to "strike" their wife and this is not allowed to cause pain or injure their wife but to show their frustration. Moreover, confusion amongst translations of Quran with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them", "beat", "strike lightly" and "separate". The film Submission critiqued this and similar verses of the Quran by displaying them painted on
7030-672: A view that was expressed by one of the spokesmen of colonial French Algeria named André Servier . The Victorian orientalist scholar Sir William Muir criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslim countries. Jocelyne Cesari , in her study of discrimination against Muslims in Europe, finds that anti-Islamic sentiment may be difficult to separate from other drivers of discrimination because Muslims are mainly from immigrant backgrounds and
7220-487: Is dominant in the Qur'an, thirteen hundred years of imperialist expansion have made Muslims a militant body. Other self-described Muslim organisations have emerged more recently, and some of them have been associated with jihadist and extreme Islamist groups. Compared to the entire Muslim community, these groups are sparsely populated. They have, however, received more attention from governments, international organisations, and
7410-540: Is no doubt of a Middle Eastern origin. In June 2010, Behar et al. "shows that most Jewish samples form a remarkably tight subcluster with common genetic origin, that overlies Druze and Cypriot samples but not samples from other Levantine populations or paired diaspora host populations. In contrast, Ethiopian Jews ( Beta Israel ) and Indian Jews (Bene Israel and Cochini ) cluster with neighboring autochthonous populations in Ethiopia and western India, respectively, despite
7600-558: Is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances. According to Yohanan Friedmann , "The real predicament facing modern Muslims with liberal convictions is not the existence of stern laws against apostasy in medieval Muslim books of law, but rather the fact that accusations of apostasy and demands to punish it are heard time and again from radical elements in the contemporary Islamic world." Sadakat Kadri noted that "state officials could not punish an unmanifested belief even if they wanted to". The kind of apostasy which
7790-531: Is only after the destruction of Jerusalem that Jews are found in northern Europe and along the western Mediterranean coast. Howard Adelman and Elazar Barkan challenge the "widespread notion" the Jews in Judea were only expelled after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Jewish defeat during Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. They also contend it is "misleading" that the expulsion from Judea created
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7980-519: Is placed in an inferior position as an object of study, thus forming a considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up. In an alleged dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos ( r. 1391–1425 ) and a Persian scholar, the emperor criticized Islam as a faith spread by the sword. This matches the common view in Europe during
8170-647: Is the dispersion of Israelites or Jews out of their ancient ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel ) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of the globe. In terms of the Hebrew Bible , the term "Exile" denotes the fate of the Israelites who were taken into exile from the Kingdom of Israel during the 8th century BCE, and the Judahites from the Kingdom of Judah who were taken into exile during
8360-480: Is the drive of the Dönmeh in Turkey for secularizing their society just as European Jews promoted the values of Age of Enlightenment and its Jewish equivalent the haskalah . Jewish diaspora The Jewish diaspora ( Hebrew : גוֹלָה , romanized : gōlā ), dispersion ( Hebrew : תְּפוּצָה , romanized : təfūṣā ) or exile (Hebrew: גָּלוּת gālūṯ ; Yiddish : golus )
8550-437: Is the plural of both "ahwaro" which is a masculine form and also "haurao" which is a feminine, meaning both pure males and pure females. Basically, the word 'hurun' means white, he says. According to Bernard Lewis , the Islamic injunctions against the enslavement of Muslims led to massive importation of slaves from the outside. Also Patrick Manning believes that Islam seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than
8740-595: The "Crisis under Caligula" (37–41) was the "first open break between Rome and the Jews". Meanwhile, the Kitos War , a rebellion by Jewish diaspora communities in Roman territories in the Eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, led to the destruction of Jewish communities in Crete, Cyprus, and North Africa in 117 CE, and consequently the dispersal of Jews already living outside of Judea to further reaches of
8930-487: The 2 Kings 17:23 's reference to the deportation of the Judean elite to Babylonia. Stéphane Dufoix, in surveying the textual evidence, draws the following conclusion: galuth and diaspora are drawn from two completely different lexicons. The first refers to episodes, precise and datable, in the history of the people of Israel, when the latter was subjected to a foreign occupation, such as that of Babylon, in which most of
9120-620: The Antichrist " or the Antichrist himself. ' Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii , an Andalusian manuscript of unknown origins, describes how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim ) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation: God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their deviation from the faith. He then sent an angel to the Christian monk Osius who ordered him to preach to
9310-602: The Ashkenazi of Northern and Eastern Europe, and the Sephardic Jews of Iberia (Spain and Portugal), North Africa and the Middle East . These groups have parallel histories sharing many cultural similarities as well as a series of massacres, persecutions and expulsions, such as the expulsion from England in 1290 , the expulsion from Spain in 1492 , and the expulsion from Arab countries in 1948–1973 . Although
9500-424: The Ashkenazi of Northern and Eastern Europe, and the Sephardic Jews of Iberia (Spain and Portugal), North Africa and the Middle East . These groups have parallel histories sharing many cultural similarities as well as a series of massacres, persecutions and expulsions, such as the expulsion from England in 1290 , the expulsion from Spain in 1492 , and the expulsion from Arab countries in 1948–1973 . Although
9690-539: The Baal Shem Tov , the founder of Hasidism, came at a time when the Jewish masses of Eastern Europe were reeling in bewilderment and disappointment engendered by the two Jewish false messiahs Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) and Jacob Frank (1726–1791) in particular. Some scholars have claimed that the Sabbatean movement in general fostered and connected well with the principles of modern secularism . Related to this
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#17327919787709880-578: The Battle of the Trench . Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt has said that Muhammad's policies were not directed exclusively against Jews (referring to his conflicts with Jewish tribes) and that Muhammad was more severe with his pagan Arab kinsmen. The September 11 attacks have resulted in many non-Muslims' indictment of Islam as a violent religion. In the European view, Islam lacked divine authority and regarded
10070-565: The Enlightenment period about Islam, then synonymous with the Ottoman Empire , as a bloody, ruthless, and intolerant religion. More recently, in 2006, a similar statement of Manuel II, quoted publicly by Pope Benedict XVI , prompted a negative response from Muslim figures who viewed the remarks as an insulting mischaracterization of Islam. In this vein, the Indian social reformer Pandit Lekh Ram ( d. 1897 ) thought that Islam
10260-542: The Hasidic movement within the Sabbatean movement. When Hasidism began to spread its influence, a serious schism evolved between the Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. Those who rejected the Hasidic movement dubbed themselves as misnagdim ("opponents"). Critics of Hasidic Judaism expressed concern that Hasidism might become a messianic sect as had occurred among the followers of both Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank . However
10450-454: The Italian poet Dante Alighieri contains defamatory images of Muhammad, picturing him the eighth circle of hell, along with his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib . Dante does not blame Islam as a whole but accuses Muhammad of schism for establishing another religion after Christianity. Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan , a "precursor of
10640-726: The Jewish-American Zionist academic Simon Rawidowicz , who to some degree argued for the acceptance of the Jewish presence outside the Land of Israel as a modern reality and an inevitability. The Greek term for diaspora (διασπορά) also appears three times in the New Testament , where it refers to the scattering of Israel, i.e., the Ten Northern Tribes of Israel as opposed to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, although James (1:1) refers to
10830-489: The Land of Israel prior to modern times. Jewish rebels aided the Persians in capturing Jerusalem , where the Jews were permitted autonomous rule until 617, when the Persians reneged on their alliance. After Byzantine Emperor Heraclius promised to restore Jewish rights, the Jews aided him in ousting the Persians. Heraclius subsequently went back on his word and ordered a general massacre of the Jewish population, devastating
11020-501: The Middle Ages , Christian church officials commonly represented Islam as a Christian heresy or a form of idolatry. They viewed Islam to be a material, rather than spiritual, religion and often explained it in apocalyptic terms. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European academics often portrayed Islam as an exotic Eastern religion distinct from Western religions like Judaism and Christianity, sometimes classifying it as
11210-585: The Muslim world itself faced criticism after the September 11 attacks . Criticism of Islam has been aimed at the life of Muhammad , the prophet of Islam, in both his public and personal lives. Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the scriptures of Islam , both the Quran and the hadiths , are also discussed by critics. Criticisms of Islam have also been directed at historical practices, like
11400-735: The Old Testament known as the Septuagint , where it occurs 14 times, starting with a passage reading: ἔση διασπορὰ ἐν πάσαις βασιλείαις τῆς γῆς (‘thou shalt be a diaspora (or dispersion) in all kingdoms of the earth’, Deuteronomy 28:25 ), translating 'ləza‘ăwāh', whose root suggests 'trouble, terror'. In these contexts it never translated any term in the original Tanakh drawn from the Hebrew root glt ( גלה ), which lies behind galah, and golah , nor even galuth. Golah appears 42 times, and galuth in 15 passages, and first occurs in
11590-679: The Roman province of Judaea . The Judean population revolted against the Roman Empire in 66 CE in the First Jewish–Roman War , which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. During the siege, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and most of Jerusalem . This watershed moment, the elimination of the symbolic centre of Judaism and Jewish identity motivated many Jews to formulate a new self-definition and adjust their existence to
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#173279197877011780-529: The Vilna Gaon , and may be credited with having crushed the lingering belief in Sabbatai current even in some Orthodox circles. In 1760 the quarrel broke out once more when some Sabbatean elements were discovered among the students of Eybeschutz' yeshiva . At the same time his younger son, Wolf, presented himself as a Sabbatean prophet, with the result that the yeshiva was closed. Some scholars see seeds of
11970-572: The diaspora uprisings of 116–117 CE resulted in the near-total destruction of Jewish communities in Cyrenaica and Egypt. By the third century, Jewish communities began to re-establish themselves in Egypt and Cyrenaica, primarily through immigration from the Land of Israel. Roman rule in Judea began in 63 BCE with the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey . After the city fell to Pompey's forces, thousands of Jewish prisoners of war were brought from Judea to Rome and sold into slavery. After these Jewish slaves were manumitted, they settled permanently in Rome on
12160-437: The 6th century BCE. While in exile, the Judahites became known as "Jews" ( יְהוּדִים , or Yehudim ). The first exile was the Assyrian exile , the expulsion from the Kingdom of Israel begun by Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria in 733 BCE. This process was completed by Sargon II with the destruction of the kingdom in 722 BCE, concluding a three-year siege of Samaria begun by Shalmaneser V . The next experience of exile
12350-411: The Arabs. Osius, however, was in ill-health and instead ordered a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders. Ozim set out to follow his orders, but was stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believed him to be the same angel that had spoken to Osius before. The evil angel modified and corrupted the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renamed Ozim Muhammad. From this followed
12540-410: The Ashkenazi population expanded through a series of bottlenecks—events that squeeze a population down to small numbers—perhaps as it migrated from the Middle East after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, to Italy, reaching the Rhine Valley in the 10th century. David Goldstein, a Duke University geneticist and director of the Duke Center for Human Genome Variation, has said that the work of
12730-497: The Babylonian destruction of Judah, the Roman destruction of Judea, and the subsequent rule of Christians and Muslims. After the revolt, the Jewish religious and cultural center shifted to the Babylonian Jewish community and its scholars. For the generations that followed, the destruction of the Second Temple event came to represent a fundamental insight about the Jews who had become a dispossessed and persecuted people for much of their history. Erich S. Gruen contends that focusing on
12920-403: The Bible, the Quran relies on several Apocryphal and sources, like the Protoevangelium of James , Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew , and several infancy gospels . Several narratives rely on Jewish Midrash Tanhuma sources, like the narrative of Cain learning to bury the body of Abel in Quran 5:31 . Norman Geisler argues that the dependence of the Quran on preexisting sources is one evidence of
13110-415: The Crusaders. The majority of Jerusalem's Jewish population was killed during the Crusader Siege of Jerusalem and the few thousand survivors were sold into slavery. Some of the Jews sold into slavery later had their freedom bought by Jewish communities in Italy and Egypt, and the redeemed slaves were taken to Egypt. Some Jewish prisoners of war were also deported to Apulia in southern Italy. Relief for
13300-424: The Empire. Jerusalem had been left in ruins from the time of Vespasian . Sixty years later, Hadrian, who had been instrumental in the expulsion from Palestine of Marcius Turbo after his bloody repression of Jews in the diaspora in 117 CE, on visiting the area of Iudaea , decided to rebuild the city in 130 CE, and settle it, circumstantial evidence suggesting it was he who renamed it Ælia Capitolina , with
13490-419: The Euphrates and in Adiabene (Kurdistan). In Josephus' own words, he had informed "the remotest Arabians" about the destruction. Jewish communities also existed in southern Europe, Anatolia, Syria, and North Africa. Jewish pilgrims from the diaspora, undeterred by the rebellion, had actually come to Jerusalem for Passover prior to the arrival of the Roman army, and many became trapped in the city and died during
13680-672: The Great Revolt, a Jewish uprising to fight for independence, which began in 66 CE and was eventually crushed in 73 CE, culminating in the Siege of Jerusalem and the burning and destruction of the Temple, the centre of the national and religious life of the Jews throughout the world. The Jewish diaspora at the time of the Temple's destruction, according to Josephus , was in Parthia (Persia), Babylonia (Iraq), Arabia, as well as some Jews beyond
13870-545: The Islamic world , particularly in relation to the application of Islamic law . As of 2014, 26% of the world's countries had anti-blasphemy laws , and 13% of them also had anti-apostasy laws . By 2017, 13 Muslim countries imposed the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy . Amid the contemporary embrace of multiculturalism , there has been criticism regarding how Islam may affect the willingness or ability of Muslim immigrants to assimilate in host nations. The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are found in
14060-587: The Jewish academies of Palestine, and by the end of the third century they were reliant on donations from Babylon. The effect that the destruction of Jerusalem had on the Jewish diaspora has been a topic of considerable scholarly discussion. David Aberbach has argued that much of the European Jewish diaspora, by which he means exile or voluntary migration, originated with the Jewish wars which occurred between 66 and 135 CE. Martin Goodman states that it
14250-497: The Jewish communities of Jerusalem and the Galilee. As a result, many Jews fled to Egypt. In 638, Palestine came under Muslim rule with the Muslim conquest of the Levant . One estimate placed the Jewish population of Palestine at between 300,000 and 400,000 at the time. However, this is contrary to other estimates which place it at 150,000 to 200,000 at the time of the revolt against Heraclius. According to historian Moshe Gil ,
14440-510: The Jewish people to tribute. As early as the third century BCE Jewish communities sprang up in the Aegean islands, Greece, Asia Minor, Cyrenaica, Italy and Egypt. In Palestine, under the favourable auspices of the long period of peace—almost a whole century—which followed the advent of the Ptolemies, the new ways were to flourish. By means of all kinds of contacts, and particularly thanks to
14630-555: The Jewish population of Palestine came when the Ayyubid dynasty defeated the Crusaders and conquered Palestine (see 1187 Battle of Hattin ). Some Jewish immigration from the diaspora subsequently took place, but this came to an end when Mamluks took over Palestine (see 1291 Fall of Acre ). The Mamluks severely oppressed the Jews and greatly mismanaged the economy, resulting in a period of great social and economic decline. The result
14820-617: The Jews in China for pre-Roman (and post-) diasporic populations. King Agrippa I , in a letter to Caligula , enumerated among the provinces of the Jewish diaspora almost all the Hellenized and non-Hellenized countries of the Orient. This enumeration was far from complete as Italy and Cyrene were not included. The epigraphic discoveries from year to year augment the number of known Jewish communities but must be viewed with caution due to
15010-480: The Jews in Egypt to employ them as mercenaries. Philadelphus subsequently emancipated the Jews taken to Egypt as captives and settled them in cleruchs , or specialized colonies, as Jewish military units. Jews began settling in Cyrenaica (modern-day eastern Libya) around the third century BCE, during the rule of Ptolemy I of Egypt, who sent them to secure the region for his kingdom. By the early first century BCE,
15200-495: The Jews in Judaea in 70 CE and again in 135 CE, with large numbers of Jewish captives from Judea sold into slavery and an increase in voluntary Jewish emigration from Judea as a result of the wars, meant a drop in Palestine's Jewish population was balanced by a rise in diaspora numbers. Jewish prisoners sold as slaves in the diaspora and their children were eventually manumitted and joined local free communities. It has been argued that
15390-500: The Jews of Khaybar had done nothing to harm Muhammad or his followers, and ascribes the attack to a desire for plunder Montgomery Watt on the other hand, believes Jews' intriguing and use of their wealth to incite tribes against Muhammad left him no choice but to attack. Vaglieri and Shibli Numani concur that one reason for attack was that the Jews of Khaybar were responsible for the Confederates that attacked Muslims during
15580-557: The Jews. Heavy taxes on agricultural land forced many Jews to migrate from rural areas to towns. Social and economic discrimination caused significant Jewish emigration from Palestine, and Muslim civil wars in the 8th and 9th centuries pushed many Jews out of the country. By the end of the 11th century the Jewish population of Palestine had declined substantially. During the First Crusade , Jews in Palestine, along with Muslims, were indiscriminately massacred and sold into slavery by
15770-800: The Middle Ages. The Ashkenazi Jews later migrated from Germany (and elsewhere in Central Europe) into Eastern Europe as a result of persecution. Some Ashkenazi Jews also have minor ancestry from Sephardi Jews exiled from Spain, first during Islamic persecutions (11th–12th centuries) and later during Christian reconquests (13th–15th centuries) and the Spanish Inquisition (15th–16th centuries). Ashkenazi Jews are of mixed Middle Eastern and European ancestry, as they derive part of their ancestry from non-Jewish Europeans who intermixed with Jews of migrant Middle Eastern origin. In 2006,
15960-487: The Old World". Regarding the samples he used Behar points out that "Our conclusion favoring common ancestry (of Jewish people) over recent admixture is further supported by the fact that our sample contains individuals that are known not to be admixed in the most recent one or two generations." A 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA by Costa et al., reached the conclusion that the four major female founders and most of
16150-525: The Quran alone. Ghulam Ahmed Pervez was one of these critics and was denounced as a non-believer by thousands of orthodox clerics. In his work Maqam-e Hadith he considered any hadith that goes against the teachings of Quran to have been falsely attributed to the Prophet. Kassim Ahmad argued that some hadith promote ideas that conflict with science and create sectarian issues. John Esposito argues that modern Western scholarship has raised doubts about
16340-479: The Quran is in part a redaction of other sacred scriptures, in particular the Judaeo-Christian scriptures. The Christian theologian Philip Schaff ( d. 1893 ) praises the Quran for its poetic beauty, religious fervor, and wise counsel, but considers this mixed with "absurdities, bombast, unmeaning images, and low sensuality." The Iranian journalist Ali Dashti ( d. 1982 ) criticized
16530-444: The Quran was compiled shortly after the death of Muhammad in 632 and canonized by end of the caliphate of Uthman ( r. 644–656 ). The idea that Quran is perfect and impossible to imitate as asserted in the Quran itself is disputed by critics. One such criticism is that sentences about God in the Quran are sometimes followed immediately by those in which God is the speaker. The modern historian John Wansbrough believes that
16720-419: The Quran, saying that "the speaker cannot have been God" in certain passages. Similarly, the secular author Ibn Warraq gives Surah al-Fatiha as an example of a passage which is "clearly addressed to God, in the form of a prayer." The orientalist Gerd Puin believes that the Quran contains many verses which are incomprehensible, a view rejected by Muslims and many other orientalists. Apology of al-Kindy ,
16910-637: The Roman Legions during their conquests. However, for the most part, modern Ashkenazi Jews originated with Jews who migrated or were forcibly taken from the Middle East to southern Europe in antiquity, where they established Jewish communities before moving into northern France and lower Germany during the High and Late Middle Ages . They also descend to a lesser degree from Jewish immigrants from Babylon, Persia, and North Africa who migrated to Europe in
17100-439: The Technion and Ramban team served only to confirm that genetic drift played a major role in shaping Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited in a matrilineal manner. Goldstein argues that the Technion and Ramban mtDNA studies fail to actually establish a statistically significant maternal link between modern Jews and historic Middle Eastern populations. This differs from the patrilineal case, where Goldstein said there
17290-528: The Temple rebuilt. The differences in content and tone of the two decrees, one in Hebrew and one in Aramaic, have caused some scholars to question their authenticity. The Cyrus Cylinder , an ancient tablet on which is written a declaration in the name of Cyrus referring to restoration of temples and repatriation of exiled peoples, has often been taken as corroboration of the authenticity of the biblical decrees attributed to Cyrus, but other scholars point out that
17480-542: The Three Communities, supported Eybeschutz: the accusation was "utterly incredible". In July 1725, the Ashkenazic beth din of Amsterdam had issued a ban of excommunication on the entire Sabbatian sect ( kat ha-ma’aminim ). Writings of Sabbatian nature found by the beit Din at that time were attributed to Eybeschutz. In early September, similar proclamations were issued by the batei din of Frankfurt and
17670-407: The accession of recruits from various quarters, it awoke to a consciousness of itself, and strove once again for national independence and political enfranchisement and sovereignty. The first Jewish diaspora in Egypt arose in the last century of pharaonic rule , apparently with the settlement there, either under Ashurbanipal or during the reign of Psammeticus of a colony of Jewish mercenaries,
17860-613: The archaeological evidence is suggestive of a Roman genocide taking place during the Second revolt. A significant movement of gentiles and Samaritans into villages formerly with a Jewish majority appears to have taken place thereafter. During the Crisis of the Third Century , civil wars in the Roman Empire caused great economic disruption, and taxes imposed to finance these wars impacted the Jewish population of Palestine heavily. As
18050-434: The biblical acceptance of slavery" if Jesus had owned slaves, as Muhammad did. Only in the early 20th century did slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, with Muslim-majority Mauritania being the last country in the world to formally abolish slavery in 1981. Murray Gordon characterizes Muhammad's approach to slavery as reformist rather than revolutionary that abolish slavery, but rather improved
18240-573: The bodies of abused Muslim women. Some critics argue that the Quran is incompatible with other religious scriptures as it attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions. Sam Harris interprets certain verses of the Quran as sanctioning military action against unbelievers as it said "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt
18430-582: The capital to Adrianople (the imperial court's seat) for judgment on accusations of fomenting sedition , Sabbatai was given by the Grand Vizier, in the name of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire , Mehmed IV , the choice of either facing death by some type of ordeal, or of converting to Islam . Sabbatai seems to have chosen the latter by donning from then on a turban . He was then also rewarded by
18620-437: The category of "sectarian" Sabbateans, which originated when many Sabbateans refused to accept that Zevi's feigned apostasy might have been indicative of the fact that their faith was genuinely an illusion. Another large group of Sabbateans after Zevi's apostasy began to view Islam in an extremely negative light. Polemics against Islam erupted directly after Zevi's forced conversion. Some of these attacks were considered part of
18810-454: The commencement of the reign of Caesar Augustus , there were over 7,000 Jews in Rome (though this is only the number that is said to have escorted the envoys who came to demand the deposition of Archelaus ; compare: Bringmann: Klaus: Geschichte der Juden im Altertum, Stuttgart 2005, S. 202. Bringmann talks about 8,000 Jews who lived in the city of Rome.). Many sources say that the Jews constituted
19000-494: The conditions of slaves by urging his followers to treat their slaves humanely and free them as a way of expiating one's sins. In Islamic jurisprudence , slavery was theoretically an exceptional condition under the dictum The basic principle is liberty . Reports from Sudan and Somalia showing practice of slavery is in border areas as a result of continuing war and not Islamic belief. In recent years, except for some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars, most Muslim scholars found
19190-453: The controversy reached the stage of intense and bitter antagonism. Emden maintained that he was at first prevented by threats from publishing anything against Eybeschutz. He solemnly declared in his synagogue the writer of the amulets to be a Sabbatean heretic and deserving of ḥerem (excommunication) . The majority of the rabbis in Poland , Moravia , and Bohemia , as well as the leaders of
19380-411: The creation of political and war refugees, enslavement, deportation, overpopulation, indebtedness, military employment, and opportunities in business, commerce, and agriculture. Before the middle of the first century CE, in addition to Judea, Syria and Babylonia, large Jewish communities existed in the Roman provinces of Egypt, Crete and Cyrenaica , and in Rome itself. In 6 CE the region was organized as
19570-511: The cultural and religious centre or metropolis ( ir-va-em be-yisrael ) for the outlying communities. It could have two senses in Biblical terms, the idea of becoming a ' guiding light unto the nations ' by dwelling in the midst of gentiles, or of enduring the pain of exile from one's homeland. The conditions of diaspora in the former case were premised on the free exercise of citizenship or resident alien status. Galut implies by comparison living as
19760-527: The cultural critic Edward Said suggests that the Western view of Islam is particularly hostile for a range of religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity." In his view, the general basis of Orientalist thought forms a study structure in which Islam
19950-432: The cylinder's text is specific to Babylon and Mesopotamia and makes no mention of Judah or Jerusalem. Lester L. Grabbe asserted that the "alleged decree of Cyrus" regarding Judah, "cannot be considered authentic", but that there was a "general policy of allowing deportees to return and to re-establish cult sites". He also stated that archaeology suggests that the return was a "trickle" taking place over decades, rather than
20140-577: The day of Tisha B'Av . There was a further shift of the center of religious authority from Yavne , as rabbis regrouped in Usha in the western Galilee, where the Mishnah was composed. This ban struck a blow at Jewish national identity within Palestine, while the Romans however continued to allow Jews in the diaspora their distinct national and religious identity throughout the Empire. The military defeats of
20330-604: The death of Muhammad. Islam nevertheless often remained a minority religion in conquered territories for several centuries after the initial waves of conquest, indicating that the conquest of territories beyond the Arabian Peninsula did not instantly result in large conversions to Islam. In the lifetime of Muhammad, the Quran was primarily preserved orally and the written compilation of the whole Quran in its current form took place some 150 to 300 years later, according to some sources. Alternatively, others believe that
20520-417: The death penalty in Quran, the historian W. Heffening states that Quran threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only., the historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet." According to Islamic law , apostasy is identified by a list of actions such as conversion to another religion, denying
20710-604: The deportation of a considerable portion of its inhabitants to Mesopotamia , the Jews had two principal cultural centers: Babylonia and the land of Israel . Deportees returned to the Samaria after the Neo-Babylonian Empire was in turn conquered by Cyrus the Great . The biblical book of Ezra includes two texts said to be decrees allowing the deported Jews to return to their homeland after decades and ordering
20900-564: The destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, more Jews lived in the Diaspora than in Israel. Jonathan Adelman estimated that around 60% of Jews lived in the diaspora during the Second Temple period. According to Gruen: Perhaps three to five million Jews dwelled outside Palestine in the roughly four centuries that stretched from Alexander to Titus . The era of the Second Temple brought the issue into sharp focus, inescapably so. The Temple still stood,
21090-662: The destruction of the Temple misses the point that already before this, the diaspora was well-established. Gruen argues compulsory dislocation of Jews during the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) cannot explain more than a fraction of the eventual diaspora. Rather, the Jewish diaspora during this time period was created from various factors, including through the creation of political and war refugees, enslavement, deportation, overpopulation, indebtedness, military employment, and opportunities in business, commerce, and agriculture. Avrum Ehrlich also states that already well before
21280-522: The development of commerce, Hellenism infiltrated on all sides in varying degrees. The ports of the Mediterranean coast were indispensable to commerce and, from the very beginning of the Hellenistic period, underwent great development. In the Western diaspora Greek quickly became dominant in Jewish life and little sign remains of profound contact with Hebrew or Aramaic, the latter probably being
21470-471: The diaspora. Israel Bartal contends that Shlomo Sand is incorrect in his claim that the original Jews living in Israel were not exiled by the Romans, instead arguing that this view is negligible among serious Jewish study scholars. These scholars argue that the growth of diaspora Jewish communities was a gradual process that occurred over the centuries, starting with the Assyrian destruction of Israel,
21660-483: The difference of punishment between male and female. Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion. In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Some contemporary Islamic jurists, such as Hussein-Ali Montazeri have argued or issued fatwas that state that either the changing of religion
21850-406: The domain of history, but of theology.' In Talmudic and post-Talmudic Rabbinic literature, this phenomenon was referred to as galut (exile), a term with strongly negative connotations, often contrasted with geula (redemption). Eugene Borowitz describes Galut as "fundamentally a theological category The modern Hebrew concept of Tefutzot תפוצות, "scattered", was introduced in the 1930s by
22040-537: The early Roman period, particularly in Alexandria. It was not least for this reason that the Jewish people became a major political factor, especially since the Jews in the diaspora, notwithstanding strong cultural, social and religious tensions, remained firmly united with their homeland. Smallwood writes that, 'It is reasonable to conjecture that many, such as the settlement in Puteoli attested in 4 BCE went back to
22230-408: The effect of enhancing the Jewish self-perception of Exile after the destruction of the Second Temple, albeit their dispersion was due to an array of non-exilic factors. According to Hasia R. Diner , the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, followed by the dissolution, in 132 CE, of Jewish sovereignty over the territory renamed Syria Palaestina, had launched the second dispersion of the diaspora,
22420-498: The erroneous teachings of Islam, according to Tultusceptru . According to the Catholic Encyclopedia , while there is much to be admired and affirmed in Islamic ethics, its originality or superiority is rejected. Critics stated that the Quran 4:34 allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them. There is however evidence from Islamic hadiths and scholars such as Ibn Kathir that demonstrates that only
22610-479: The existence of God , rejecting the prophets , mocking God or the prophets, idol worship, rejecting the sharia , or permitting behavior that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery or the eating of forbidden foods or drinking of alcoholic beverages. The majority of Muslim scholars hold to the traditional view that apostasy is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance, at least for adults of sound mind. Also Sunni and Shi'a scholars, agree on
22800-622: The existence of false hadith, but believe that through the scholars' work, these false hadith have been largely eliminated. The traditional view of Islam has faced scrutiny due to a lack of consistent supporting evidence, such as limited archaeological finds and some discrepancies with non-Muslim sources. In the 1970s, a number of scholars began to re-evaluate established Islamic history, proposing that earlier accounts may have been altered over time. They sought to reconstruct early Islamic history using alternative sources like coins, inscriptions, and non-Islamic texts. Prominent among these scholars
22990-456: The figure, now states that he and Baron were mistaken. Philo gives a figure of one million Jews living in Egypt. John R. Bartlett rejects Baron's figures entirely, arguing that we have no clue as to the size of the Jewish demographic in the ancient world. The Romans did not distinguish between Jews inside and outside of the Land of Israel/Judaea. They collected an annual temple tax from Jews both in and outside of Israel. The suppression of
23180-485: The first being the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE. She writes that, "Although many Jews had lived outside Judea even before that [the destruction of Judea], the ending of home rule set in motion the world’s longest diaspora." In the 4th century, the Roman Empire split and Palestine came under the control of the Byzantine Empire . There was still a significant Jewish population there, and Jews probably constituted
23370-535: The following period of Jewish–Roman Wars . Ashkenazi Jews is a general category of Jewish populations who immigrated to what is now Germany and northeastern France during the Middle Ages and until modern times used to adhere to the Yiddish culture and the Ashkenazi prayer style . There is evidence that groups of Jews had immigrated to Germania during the Roman Era ; they were probably merchants who followed
23560-464: The former, while consequential on the latter, was a psycho-spiritual framework that was not wholly dependent on the conditions of life in diasporic exile, since one could technically remain in galut even in Eretz Israel . Whereas Theodor Herzl and his follows thought that the establishment of a Jewish state would put an end to the diasporic exile, Ahad Ha-am thought to the contrary that such
23750-592: The geographer Strabo identified Jews as one of the four main groups residing in the city of Cyrene . While communities in Alexandria and Rome dated back to before the Maccabean Revolt , the population in the Jewish diaspora expanded after the Pompey's campaign in 62 BCE. Under the Hasmonean princes, who were at first high priests and then kings, the Jewish state displayed even a certain luster and annexed several territories. Soon, however, discord within
23940-518: The heads of the Ottoman state with a generous pension for his compliance with their political and religious plans. Sabbatai's conversion to Islam was extremely disheartening for the world's Jewish communities. In addition to the misery and disappointment from within, Muslims and Christians jeered at and scorned the credulous and duped Jews. In spite of Sabbatai's apostasy, many of his adherents still tenaciously clung to him, claiming that his conversion
24130-465: The historical and contemporary realities of Muslim women's lives. Conservative Muslims in particular (in common with some Christians and Jews) see women in the West as being economically exploited for their labor, sexually abused, and commodified through the media's fixation on the female body. Muslim immigration to Western countries has led some critics to label Islam incompatible with secular Western society. This criticism has been partly influenced by
24320-495: The historicity and authenticity of hadith, while Joseph Schacht argued that there is no evidence of legal traditions prior to 722. Schacht concluded that the Sunna attributed to the Prophet consists of material from later periods rather than the actual words and deeds of the Prophet. However, scholars like Wilferd Madelung have argued that a complete dismissal of hadith as late fiction is "unjustified". Orthodox Muslims do not deny
24510-480: The international approach of Islam is seen as a threat. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , founder of the Turkish Republic, described Islam as the religion of the Arabs that loosened the national nexus of Turkish nation, got national excitement numb. In the early 20th century, the prevailing view among Europeans was that Islam was the root cause of Arab "backwardness". They saw Islam as an obstacle to assimilation,
24700-401: The international media than other Muslim groups. This is as a result of their participation in actions intended to combat alleged enemies of Islam both at home and abroad. Years later however, Al-Qaeda has yet to succeed in gaining the support of the majority of Muslims and continues to differ from other Islamist organizations in terms of both philosophy and strategy. Nikāḥ al-Mutʿah is
24890-417: The jurists generally deemed punishable was of the political kind, although there were considerable legal differences of opinion on this matter. Wael Hallaq states that "[in] a culture whose lynchpin is religion, religious principles and religious morality, apostasy is in some way equivalent to high treason in the modern nation-state". Also Bernard Lewis consider the apostasy as a treason and "a withdrawal,
25080-583: The lack of precise evidence of their numbers. According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, the next most dense Jewish population after the Land of Israel and Babylonia was in Syria , particularly in Antioch , and Damascus , where 10,000 to 18,000 Jews were massacred during the great insurrection. The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo gives the number of Jewish inhabitants in Egypt as one million, one-eighth of
25270-464: The late (pre-Roman Empire) Roman Republic or early Empire and originated in voluntary emigration and the lure of trade and commerce." Many Jews migrated to Rome from Alexandria due to flourishing trade relations between the cities. Dating the numerous settlements is difficult. Some settlements may have resulted from Jewish emigration following the defeat of Jewish revolts. Others, such as the Jewish community in Rome, were far older, dating back to at least
25460-568: The late Roman period to the present. By 1764 there were about 750,000 Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The worldwide Jewish population (comprising the Middle East and the rest of Europe) was estimated at 1.2 million. After the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, Judah ( יְהוּדָה Yehuda ) became a province of the Persian empire . This status continued into the following Hellenistic period , when Yehud became
25650-438: The late Roman period to the present. Diaspora has been a common phenomenon for many peoples since antiquity, but what is particular about the Jewish instance is the pronounced negative, religious, indeed metaphysical connotations traditionally attached to dispersion and exile ( galut ), two conditions which were conflated. The English term diaspora , which entered usage as late as 1876, and the Hebrew word galut though covering
25840-445: The majority of the population was Jewish or Samaritan . The land gradually came to have an Arab majority as Arab tribes migrated there. Jewish communities initially grew and flourished. Umar allowed and encouraged Jews to settle in Jerusalem. It was the first time in about 500 years that Jews were allowed to freely enter and worship in their holiest city. In 717, new restrictions were imposed against non-Muslims that negatively affected
26030-416: The mid second century BCE, although it expanded greatly following Pompey’s campaign in 62 BCE. In 6 CE the Romans annexed Judaea. Only the Jews in Babylonia remained outside of Roman rule. Unlike the Greek speaking Hellenized Jews in the west the Jewish communities in Babylonian and Judea continued the use of Aramaic as a primary language. As early as the middle of the 2nd century BCE the Jewish author of
26220-807: The minor female founders had ancestry in prehistoric Europe, rather than the Near East or Caucasus. According to the study these findings 'point to a significant role for the conversion of women in the formation of Ashkenazi communities" and their intermarriage with Jewish men of Middle Eastern origin. Criticism of Islam Criticism of Islam can take many forms, including academic critiques, political criticism, religious criticism, and personal opinions. Subjects of criticism include Islamic beliefs, practices, and doctrines. Criticism of Islam has been present since its formative stages, and early expressions of disapproval were made by Christians , Jews , and some former Muslims like Ibn al-Rawandi . Subsequently,
26410-505: The missionary efforts of Abraham Miguel Cardoso . Around 1700, a radical faction within the Dönmeh movement, led by Baruchiah Russo, emerged, which sought to abolish many biblical prohibitions . During the same period, Sabbatean groups from Poland migrated to the Land of Israel . The Sabbatean movement continued to disseminate throughout central Europe and northern Italy during the 18th century, propelled by "prophets" and "believers." Concurrently, anti-Sabbatean literature emerged, leading to
26600-492: The more prevalent. Jews migrated to new Greek settlements that arose in the Eastern Mediterranean and former subject areas of the Persian Empire on the heels of Alexander the Great 's conquests, spurred on by the opportunities they expected to find. The proportion of Jews in the diaspora in relation to the size of the nation as a whole increased steadily throughout the Hellenistic era and reached astonishing dimensions in
26790-455: The occurrences are found. The second, perhaps with a single exception that remains debatable, is never used to speak of the past and does not concern Babylon; the instrument of dispersion is never the historical sovereign of another country. Diaspora is the word for chastisement, but the dispersion in question has not occurred yet: it is potential, conditional on the Jews not respecting the law of God. . . It follows that diaspora belongs, not to
26980-443: The one hand, some critics claim that certain verses of the Quran sanction military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after. Jihad , an Islamic term , is a religious duty of Muslims meaning "striving for the sake of God". It is perceived in a military sense (not spiritual sense) by Bernard Lewis and David Cook. Also Fawzy Abdelmalek and Dennis Prager argue against Islam being
27170-418: The other hand, argue that such verses of the Quran are interpreted out of context, and argue that when the verses are read in context it clearly appears that the Quran prohibits aggression, and allows fighting only in self-defense. Charles Mathewes characterizes the peace verses as saying that "if others want peace, you can accept them as peaceful even if they are not Muslim." As an example, Mathewes cites
27360-564: The pagan reframing of Jerusalem may have been a strategic move designed to challenge, rather, the growing threat, pretensions and influence of converts to Christianity, for whom Jerusalem was likewise a crucial symbol of their faith. Implementation of these plans led to violent opposition, and triggered a full-scale insurrection with the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE), assisted, according to Dio Cassius , by some other peoples, perhaps Arabs who had recently been subjected by Trajan. The revolt
27550-553: The peoples of the former Philistine cities, the Moabites , Ammonites and Edomites . Attempts were also made to incorporate the Samaritans , following takeover of Samaria. The success of mass-conversions is however questionable, as most groups retained their tribal separations and mostly turned Hellenistic or Christian, with Edomites perhaps being the only exception to merge into the Jewish society under Herodian dynasty and in
27740-614: The population. Alexandria was by far the most important of the Egyptian Jewish communities. The Jews in the Egyptian diaspora were on a par with their Ptolemaic counterparts and close ties existed for them with Jerusalem. As in other Hellenistic diasporas, the Egyptian diaspora was one of choice not of imposition. To judge by the later accounts of wholesale massacres in 115 CE , the number of Jewish residents in Cyrenaica , Cyprus , and Mesopotamia must also have been large. At
27930-460: The practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality". In Islam, apostasy along with heresy and blasphemy (verbal insult to religion) is considered a form of disbelief. The Qur'an states that apostasy would bring punishment in the Afterlife, but takes a relatively lenient view of apostasy in this life (Q 9:74; 2:109). While Shafi'i interprets verse Quran 2:217 as adducing the main evidence for
28120-399: The preexilic emigrants in Egypt. . . Galut is a religious–nationalist term, which implies exile from the homeland as a result of collective sins, an exile that will be redeemed at YHWH’s pleasure. Jewish messianism is closely connected with the concept of galut.’ In Zionist debates a distinction was made between galut and golus/gola . The latter denoted social and political exile, whereas
28310-506: The prospect of an indefinite period of displacement. In 132 CE, Bar Kokhba led a rebellion against Hadrian , a revolt connected with the renaming of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina . After four years of devastating warfare, the uprising was suppressed, and Jews were forbidden access to Jerusalem. During the Middle Ages , due to increasing migration and resettlement, Jews divided into distinct regional groups that today are generally addressed according to two primary geographical groupings:
28500-477: The recognition of slavery as an institution as well as Arab imperialism impacting indigenous cultures. More recently, Islamic beliefs regarding human origins , predestination , God's existence , and God's nature have received criticism for their apparent philosophical and scientific inconsistencies. Other criticisms center on the treatment of individuals within modern Muslim-majority countries , including issues which are related to human rights in
28690-457: The religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled."( Quran 9:29 ) However, the Islamic hadiths and scholars such as Dr Zakir Naik refer to fighting and not to trust "non-believers" and Christians in certain situations or events such as during times of war. Jizya is a tax for "protection" paid by non-Muslims to
28880-458: The reverse. Brockopp, on the other hand believe that the idea of using alms for the manumission of slaves appears to be unique to the Quran ( and ). Similarly, the practice of freeing slaves in atonement for certain sins appears to be introduced by the Quran (but compare Exod 21:26-7). Also the forced prostitution of female slaves, a Near Eastern custom of great antiquity, is condemned in the Quran. According to Brockopp "the placement of slaves in
29070-543: The right bank of the Tiber as traders. In 37 BCE, the forces of the Jewish client king Herod the Great captured Jerusalem with Roman assistance, and there was likely an influx of Jewish slaves taken into the diaspora by Roman forces. In 53 BCE, a minor Jewish revolt was suppressed and the Romans subsequently sold Jewish war captives into slavery. Roman rule continued until the First Jewish-Roman War , or
29260-426: The royal family and the growing disaffection of the pious towards rulers who no longer evinced any appreciation of the real aspirations of their subjects made the Jewish nation easy prey for the ambitions of the now increasingly autocratic and imperial Romans, the successors of the Seleucids. In 63 BCE Pompey invaded Jerusalem, the Jewish people lost their political sovereignty and independence, and Gabinius subjected
29450-505: The same category as other weak members of society who deserve protection is unknown outside the Qur'an. Some slaves had high social status in the Muslim world , such as the Mamluk enslaved mercenaries , who were assigned high-ranking military and administrative duties by the ruling Arab and Ottoman dynasties. Critics argue unlike Western societies there have been no anti-slavery movements in Muslim societies, which according to Gordon
29640-552: The same legal rights. On 14 January 2009, the Catholic Portuguese cardinal José Policarpo directed a warning to young women to "think twice" before marrying Muslim men . In contrast to the widespread Western belief that women in Muslim societies are oppressed and denied opportunities to realize their full potential, many Muslims believe their faith to be liberating or fair to women, and some find it offensive that Westerners criticize it without fully understanding
29830-432: The scattering of all twelve tribes. In modern times, the contrasting meanings of diaspora/galut have given rise to controversy among Jews. Bowman states this in the following terms, (Diaspora) follows the Greek usage and is considered a positive phenomenon that continues the prophetic call of Israel to be a 'light unto the nations' and establish homes and families among the gentiles. The prophet Jeremiah issues this call to
30020-478: The second sura, which commands believers not to transgress limits in warfare: "fight in God's cause against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits [in aggression]; God does not love transgressors" (2:190). Orientalist David Margoliouth described the Battle of Khaybar as the "stage at which Islam became a menace to the whole world". In the battle reportedly Muslims beheaded Jews. Margoliouth argues that
30210-446: The sect, according to the geographical locations of the group, and according to who the leaders of these groups were after the death of Sabbatai Zevi. The Emden-Eybeschutz controversy was a serious rabbinical disputation with wider political ramifications in Europe that followed the accusations by Rabbi Jacob Emden (1697–1776), a fierce opponent of the Sabbateans, against Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz (1690–1764) whom he accused of being
30400-430: The siege. According to Josephus, about 97,000 Jewish captives from Judea were sold into slavery by the Romans during the revolt. Many other Jews fled from Judea to other areas around the Mediterranean. Josephus wrote that 30,000 Jews were deported from Judea to Carthage by the Romans. Exactly when Roman Anti-Judaism began is a question of scholarly debate, however historian Hayim Hillel Ben-Sasson has proposed that
30590-529: The sole purpose of "sexual gratification in a licit manner" Islamic scholars like Ibn Uthaimeen or Al-Albani claim that misyar marriage may be legal, but not moral. According to Sunni hadith sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married to Muhammad and nine when the marriage was consummated. The Muslim historian al-Tabari ( d. 923 ) reports that she was ten, while Ibn Sa'd ( d. 845 ) and Ibn Khallikan ( d. 1282 ), two other Muslim historians, write that she
30780-412: The subject of intense debate among experts. While many scholars claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women, many Muslim scholars arguing that it acts as a deterrent against domestic violence motivated by rage. Shari'a is the basis for personal status laws such as rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody which was described as discriminatory against women from
30970-494: The subsequent conversion of Medina, was indeed peaceful. In the years to come, Muslims defended themselves against frequent Meccan incursions until Mecca's peaceful surrender in 630. By the time of his death in 632, many of the Arabian tribes had formed political alliances with Muhammad and adopted Islam peacefully, which also paved the way for the subsequent conquests of Syria , Iran , Egypt and (the rest of North Africa ) after
31160-496: The sword as the route to heaven. Karen Armstrong , tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad's teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Quran alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society. According to Mahatma Gandhi , the leader of the 20th-century Indian independence movement, although non-violence
31350-597: The texts found by the Amsterdam beit din Va'avo Hayom el Ha'Ayin "And I Came This Day into the Fountain" was authored by Jonathan Eybeschütz and declared that the all copies of the work that were in circulation should be immediately burned. Emden later suggested that the rabbis decided against attacking Eybeschutz out of a reluctance to offend his powerful family and a fear of rich supporters of his living in their communities. As
31540-685: The third book of the Oracula Sibyllina addressed the "chosen people," saying: "Every land is full of thee and every sea." The most diverse witnesses, such as Strabo , Philo , Seneca , Luke (the author of the Acts of the Apostles ), Cicero , and Josephus , all mention Jewish populations in the cities of the Mediterranean basin . See also History of the Jews in India and History of
31730-603: The time of her marriage. At any rate, Muhammad's marriage to Aisha may have not been considered improper by his contemporaries, for such marriages between an older man and a young girl were common among the Bedouins . In particular, Karen Armstrong , an author on comparative religion, writes, "There was no impropriety in Muhammad's marriage to Aisha. Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger than Aisha." The meaning of Quran 4:34 has been
31920-602: The time, possibly outnumbering those in the Land of Israel. Palestine and Babylon were both great centers of Jewish scholarship during this time, but tensions between scholars in these two communities grew as many Jewish scholars in Palestine feared that the centrality of the land to the Jewish religion would be lost with continuing Jewish emigration. Many Palestinian sages refused to consider Babylonian scholars their equals and would not ordain Babylonian students in their academies, fearing they would return to Babylon as rabbis. Significant Jewish emigration to Babylon adversely affected
32110-512: The triple community of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck. The three bans were printed and circulated in other Jewish communities throughout Europe. Rabbi Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen , the chief rabbi of the Triple Community and Rabbi Moses Hagiz were unwilling to attack Eybeschütz publicly, mentioning that "greater than him have fallen and crumbled" and that "there is nothing we can do to him". However, Rabbi Katzenelenbogen stated that one of
32300-432: The two branches comprise many unique ethno-cultural practices and have links to their local host populations (such as Central Europeans for the Ashkenazim and Hispanics and Arabs for the Sephardim), their shared religion and ancestry, as well as their continuous communication and population transfers, has been responsible for a unified sense of cultural and religious Jewish identity between Sephardim and Ashkenazim from
32490-432: The two branches comprise many unique ethno-cultural practices and have links to their local host populations (such as Central Europeans for the Ashkenazim and Hispanics and Arabs for the Sephardim), their shared religion and ancestry, as well as their continuous communication and population transfers, has been responsible for a unified sense of cultural and religious Jewish identity between Sephardim and Ashkenazim from
32680-436: The underlying meaning, rather than the original words verbatim. Muslim critics of the hadith, known as Quranists , reject its authority on theological grounds, arguing that the Quran itself is sufficient for guidance, as it claims that nothing essential has been omitted. They believe that reliance on the Hadith has caused people to deviate from the original intent of God's revelation to Muhammad, which they see as adherence to
32870-437: The unique legal nature of temporary marriage distinguishes Mut'ah ideologically from prostitution. Children born of temporary marriages are considered legitimate, and have equal status in law with their siblings born of permanent marriages, and do inherit from both parents. Women must observe a period of celibacy (idda) to allow for the identification of a child's legitimate father, and a woman can only be married to one person at
33060-438: The wife's rights to housing, and maintenance money ( " nafaqa " ), and the husband's right of homekeeping and access. Essentially the couple continue to live separately from each other, as before their contract, and see each other to fulfil their needs in a legally permissible ( halal ) manner when they please. Misyar has been suggested by some western authors to be a comparable marriage with Nikah mut'ah and that they find it for
33250-447: The writings of Christians such as John of Damascus . He viewed Islamic doctrines as a mix of ideas taken from the Bible and claimed that Muhammad was influenced by an Arian monk. Other notable early critics included arabs like Abu Isa al-Warraq and Ibn al-Rawandi . al-Ma'arri , an eleventh-century antinatalist and critic of all religions. His poetry was known for its "pervasive pessimism." He believed that Islam does not have
33440-489: Was John Wansbrough . Additionally, Gerd R. Puin's study of the Sana'a manuscripts revealed some variations in text and verse order, suggesting that the Quranic text may have evolved over time. The Christian missionary Sigismund Koelle and the former Muslim Ibn Warraq have criticized Muhammad's actions as immoral. In one instance, the Jewish poet Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf provoked the Meccan tribe of Quraysh to fight Muslims and wrote erotic poetry about their women, and
33630-433: Was a convicted Sabbatean. The controversy lasted several years, continuing even after Eybeschutz's death. Emden's assertion of heresy was chiefly based on the interpretation of some amulets prepared by Eybeschutz, in which Emden professed to see Sabbatean allusions. Hostilities began before Eybeschutz left Prague ; when Eybeschutz was named chief rabbi of the three communities of Altona , Hamburg , and Wandsbek in 1751,
33820-491: Was a part of the Messianic scheme. This belief was further upheld and strengthened by the likes of Nathan of Gaza and Samuel Primo , who were interested in maintaining the movement. Many within Zevi's inner circle followed him into Islam, including his wife Sarah and most of his closest relatives and friends. Nathan of Gaza , the scholar closest to Zevi, who had caused Zevi to reveal his Messiahship and in turn became his prophet, never followed his master into Islam but remained
34010-435: Was abrogated. Currently, however, mut'ah is one of the distinctive features of Ja'fari jurisprudence . Sunnis believe that Muhammad later abolished this type of marriage at several different large events, Bukhari 059.527 Most Sunnis believe that Umar later was merely enforcing a prohibition that was established during Muhammad's time. Shia contest the criticism that nikah mut'ah is a cover for prostitution, and argue that
34200-450: Was active throughout the Ottoman Empire , claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah . He was the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently were to be known as Dönmeh "converts" or crypto-Jews. In February 1666, upon arriving in Constantinople , Sabbatai was imprisoned on the order of the grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha ; in September of that same year, after being moved from different prisons around
34390-451: Was apparently plotting to assassinate Muhammad. Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b, and he was consequently assassinated by Muhammad ibn Maslama , an early Muslim. Such criticisms were countered by the historian William M. Watt , who argues on the basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards and norms of his own time and geography, rather than ours. The fourteenth-century poem Divine Comedy by
34580-433: Was crushed, with the Jewish population of Judea devastated. Jewish war captives were again captured and sold into slavery by the Romans. According to Jewish tradition, the Romans deported twelve boatloads of Jews to Cyrenaica . Voluntary Jewish emigration from Judea in the aftermath of the Bar-Kokhba revolt also expanded Jewish communities in the diaspora. Jews were forbidden entrance to Jerusalem on pain of death, except for
34770-548: Was due to the fact that it was deeply anchored in Islamic law, thus there was no ideological challenge ever mounted against slavery. According to sociologist Rodney Stark, "the fundamental problem facing Muslim theologians vis-à-vis the morality of slavery" is that Muhammad himself engaged in activities such as purchasing, selling, and owning slaves, and that his followers saw him as the perfect example to emulate. Stark contrasts Islam with Christianity , writing that Christian theologians wouldn't have been able to "work their way around
34960-454: Was grown through violence and desire for wealth, while the Nigerian author Wole Soyinka considers Islam as a "superstition" that it is mainly spread with violence and force. This "conquest by the sword" thesis is opposed by some historians who consider the transregional development of Islam a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon. The first wave of expansion, the migration of the early Muslims to Medina to escape persecution in Mecca and
35150-471: Was large-scale migration from Palestine, and the population declined. The Jewish population shrunk especially heavily, as did the Christian population. Though some Jewish immigration from Europe, North Africa, and Syria also occurred in this period, which potentially saved the collapsing Jewish community of Palestine from disappearing altogether, Jews were reduced to an even smaller minority of the population. The result of these waves of emigration and expulsion
35340-453: Was nine years old at marriage and twelve at consummation. Muhammad Ali ( d. 1951 ), a modern Muslim author, argues that a new interpretation of the Hadith compiled by Mishkat al-Masabih , Wali-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Khatib, could indicate that Aisha would have been nineteen. Similarly, on the basis of a hadith about her age difference with her sister Asma , some have estimated Aisha's age to have been eighteen or nineteen at
35530-461: Was obscure and devoid of political influence. The poorest but most fervent of the exiles returned to Judah / the Land of Israel during the reign of the Achaemenids (c. 550–330 BCE). There, with the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem as their center, they organized themselves into a community, animated by a remarkable religious ardor and a tenacious attachment to the Torah as the focus of their identity. As this little nucleus increased in numbers with
35720-590: Was that the Jewish population of Palestine was reduced to a few thousand by the time the Ottoman Empire conquered Palestine, after which the region entered a period of relative stability. At the start of Ottoman rule in 1517, the estimated Jewish population was 5,000, composed of both descendants of Jews who had never left the land and migrants from the diaspora. During the Middle Ages , due to increasing geographical dispersion and re-settlement, Jews divided into distinct regional groups which today are generally addressed according to two primary geographical groupings:
35910-426: Was the Babylonian captivity , in which portions of the population of the Kingdom of Judah were deported in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II . A Jewish diaspora existed for several centuries before the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Jewish diaspora in the second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) was created from various factors, including through
36100-465: Was widely believed" that any accused apostate "who repented by articulating the shahada " ( LA ILAHA ILLALLAH "There is no God but God") "had to be forgiven" and their punishment delayed until after Judgement Day. William Montgomery Watt states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived." Quran's teachings on matters of war and peace have become topics of heated discussion in recent years. On
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