The Jews, World of Islam and Andalusia

Rabbinical Oligarchs and New Judaism

The Iberian Peninsula is a land whose inhabitants voluntarily joined with the Arab commanders to get rid of the oppression of foreign rulers. It was due to the help of these inhabitants that Islam surrounded this vast peninsula with a tremendous speed. Same people, group by group, converted to Islam and established a bright and glorious civilization in association with the Muslim immigrants. The inhabitants of Iberian Peninsula examined the Russian occupiers' government for almost six decades and then it was time for the plunder of various European nations; and finally in the year 415 AD, the German Visigoth tribes attacked them and established a cruel and oppressive government.
These rulers were never pacified; they were either fighting the aggressive tribes flowing from the heart of Europe continent or igniting the Iberian land in the furnace of indoor bloody wars. Finally the same people summoned Tariq ibn Ziyad, the Muslims' commander in chief, from the north of Africa, and guided him and when seven thousands of Tariq's army entered the Iberian land (May, 711 AD), the mass army of the Visigoth king suddenly collapsed. What happened was a huge social revolution and was not related to expanding the land. Tariq did nothing except opening the path for the frustrated people. This is the secret behind the fast and amazing flourishing of Islamic civilization in Andalusia. The real architects of this civilization were the same people and not the Muslim immigrants that were always considered as an insignificant minority. With the flourishing of the Islamic civilization in the Iberian Peninsula, the immigrations of the Jews to Andalusia were started and resulted in the creation of the most massive and most important Jewish society today. Rafael Patay, the editor of the Israel and Zionist encyclopedia named the mentioned ages as the “Golden Age” and The Peak Flourishing of the Jewish Culture”. In this time, the Jews achieved such a cultural welfare and boom that 3 thousand Hebrew-speaking Andalusia-resident poets only had their names registered. Thus, since the 12th decade AD and in Andalusia, a new step pf Jewish culture started. The philosophical thinking entered the Judaism by Maimonides, the peripatetic philosopher (Son of Maimon) (1135-1204 AD). Jewish historiography was soared by Abraham ibn David (1110-1180 AD) and the Jewish poetry and literature was flourished by Judah Halevy (1075-1141 AD).
The Islamic Andalusia opened a new step in the Jewish culture and excluded the Jews from a tight Talmudic world. This is considered as a revolution in the Jewish culture. In such an environment there appeared famous characters from within the Andalusia’s Jewish Society: Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167 AD.) the poet, theologian and globe trotter who has 108 published volumes, Moses ibn Ezra (1055-1135 AD) the Hebrew-speaking poet, Solomon ibn Ghabiroul (1020-1057 AD) the poet and philosopher, Benjamin Tudela (the second half of the 12th century AD) the author of famous itinerary and tens of other names. Truly it shall be said that the basics of the contemporary Jewish culture was founded in this age and in the Islamic Andalusia. As was the contemporary Jewish plutocracy oligarchy also, as we will see, mainly developed in this time and in Andalusia.
The authors of the Hebrew university of Jerusalem have acknowledged that in these ages, life was easier in these Islamic lands than other parts of the world and the Jews had this opportunity to establish their active cultural clubs. Thus, “for hundreds of years a massive majority of the Jews lived in Islamic lands”. Then they bring examples of those Jews that achieved high political ranks in the Islamic Spain. Hasdai ibn Shaprut (915-970 AD) was the first Jew to achieve a high state rank in the Iberian Peninsula.
His father was a rich merchant that resided in the city of Cordoba, the capital city of Spanish Umayyad Caliphate. Hasdai finished his education in the major of medicine and serviced the court of Abd-ar-Rahman III, Umayyad caliph Al-Andalus (912-961 AD.) He entered financial, political and diplomatic jobs in later years and performed important missions in Byzantine empires and "Holy Roman" and the court of Christian Kings of Leon and Navarre, in the north of Spain. In this time, Hasdai was officially appointed as the head of the Jews by Andalusia’s caliph. After the death of Hasdai, a wealthy businessman named Jacob Ben Zhao (d. 990 CE.) was appointed as the head of the Jews of Andalusia. .
Hasdai ibn Shaprut is of the "David Princes" and in addition to his state office, the Andalusian Jews regarded him as their "Nasi". Hasdai tried so hard for Jewish settlement in Andalusia and their promotion and it was due to his help that the situation of Jews in Islamic Spain got boomed, and some of them came to important government officials. Hasdai had a lot of respect and authority among the world's Jews and his dignity was no less than the "King David" of Baghdad. For example, the Jews that were settled in France called their Hasdai the "Your servants, the French community” in a letter. French Jews had a close relationship with Hsadai, and they tried to convince Toledo officials not to take taxes of the merchandise of the French Jews or to decrease them.
The most important leader of the Jews of Islamic Andalusia, after the Hasdai ibn Shaprut, is Samuel Naghid.
Samuel Naghid (Ismail ibn Naghzile) (993-1056 AD) also, like Hasdai ibn Shaprut, belonged to “David House”. He was born in Cordova. He was occupied with study from the young ages and got familiar with Arabic language and religious texts in a high level. He migrated to Granada and started business in a condiment store. He was noticed by ibn Arif, the scriber (secretary) of the Granada’s minister as a literate and educated man. In the year 1020 AD, he found his way to the court of Abu ol Abbas, Granada’s minister. He was noticed by Habbus ibn Zavi ibn Ziri, the barbarian commander of Granada and became Granada’s minister in about 1026 AD. In the year 1027 AD, the Andalusian Jews chose Samuel as their leader. He started a friendly relationship with Badis ibn Habbus, and in the time of Habbus’s death, helped Badis to overcome his brothers and gain power. Thus, in the time of Badis’s government (1038-1073 AD) he took charge of all the ministry with dignity and was in war with other Andalusia’s Islamic governments, including Seville, for 16 years.
After Samuel, his son Joseph Naghid (1035-1066 AD) became the state minister of Granada. He was only 21 years old the time of his father’s death; thus Badis appointed him to ministry. In his time also, war among the Muslim states of Granada and Servile was soared. Joseph also, like father, gathered the rich Jews around himself and appointed them to high state ranks. In his time of ministry, Andalusian Muslim’s hatred of war-seeking and wealth-gaining of the Jews upraised. According to the Jews encyclopedia, the Muslim authors of that age showed their hatred of him. Including, Abu Ishaq ibn Masoud Albiri, Muslim thinker, who wrote a poem against Joseph Naghid, in which he had objected roughly to his tremendous wealth and his role in filling up the other Jews’ pockets. This hatred finally left its impact and Joseph was charged for murdering the prince of Granada and the conspiracy for poisoning Badis and sentenced to death.
Samuel Naghid was a thinker and poet and his bureau exists. An important part of this bureau is his war and epic poems in Hebrew. He had a close and friendly relationship with Hezekiah ibn David, “David king”. Joseph Naghid also had a close relationship with the “David king” of Baghdad. Two sons of Hezekiah escaped from Baghdad to Andalusia to unknown reasons and Joseph refuged them. Joseph in the year 1055 AD wrote a poem praising Hezekiah.
Samuel Naghid is known as one of the main founders of the construction of fabulous palace of Alhamra in Granada. Samuel Naghid’s wealth and power can be understood from his famous and selfish sentence which he said: “I am David of my own age.” Dr. Nouroldin Al Ali writes that ibn Naghzile (Samuel Naghid) let many of the Jews to do their economic and political affairs and even though he achieved ministry in Islamic state, he secretly and in heart sought enmity and hostility with Muslims and wrote the book in Arabic in violation of the Quran as Alabaneh.
The first Muslim philosopher who considered the inner political structure of the Jews and understood its dangers was the Andalusian Abu Moḥammad ʿAli ibn Aḥmad ibn Sa’id ibn Hazm (994-1064AD), the famous thinker with Iranian ancestry.
Ibn Hazm is known as one of the biggest philosophers of the world of Islam. He was a poet, historian, judge, philosopher and prolocutor and left near four hundreds of written texts. Ibn Hazm is known as the historian of the religions and he is the author of the big and resourceful book of Al-Milal and al-Nihal, the book which the Leiden encyclopedia calls as the religious philosophies’ encyclopedia.
Ibn Hazm was deeply acquainted with the Jewish society’ inner matters due to his researches in the religious philosophies’ history and started fighting by means of his pen with Samuel Naghid. He responded Samuel Naghid’s Alabaneh dissertation by his own dissertation named “Objection to the son of Jewish Naghzile”. Ibn Hazm, in his dissertation strongly attacked Baddis ibn Habbus for his link with the Jews and warned him so: “Let the damnation which God has promised the Jews be theirs and yours as well.” This dissertation of ibn Hazm in the year 1960 AD was published in his collection of dissertations by Dr. Ehsan Rashid Abbas in Cairo. Ibn Hazm in his fight by means of his pen with Shmuel, especially considered the institution of “Resh Geluta” and "house of David" based on the Jewish religious texts announced that this is only a symbolic and ceremonial title and "King David" has no authority over the Jews and non-Jews. Shmuel Naghid responded to ibn Hazm’s dissertation and in it, he granted some real authorities for "King David”. He said that the honor and authority of the "King David" applies to this verse of "Genesis" (10/49) that "The royal scepter will not be separated from Judah and the seats of governance will not go out from under his feet.” Leiden Islam Encyclopedia recognizes the fight by means of pen between Ibn Hazm and Shmuel Naghid as an indication of ibn Hazm’s exact information of the Jews’ past history and present state.
Ibn Hazm was exiled form Andalusia due to such positions, and lived in isolation for years in a village and died there. One of the most important developments in the history of the Jews is the conversion of the Caspian tribes to Judaism. Caspian people are a group of Turk races and Turkish speakers, who were settled in northeast of the Black Sea and northwest of the Caspian Sea in the seventh century to the tenth Century AD.
Around the year 740 AD, Emperor of the Caspian and the courtiers and the people around him, the ruling class of the people, converted to Judaism. Jewish Caspian government lasted about two centuries. In the year 965 AD this government was attacked by the Russians and was collapsed. By the middle of the twelfth century there were remnants of tribes in the Caspian region, and since then there has not been any sing of it.
We do not know what happened that the Caspian Turks were suddenly converted to Judaism, and do not know how their links with the central Jewish institutions was in Baghdad and Andalusia. Correspondence related to Hasdai ibn Shaprut and an individual named Joseph, who is claimed to be “Caspian King", exists in the library of "Christchurch" Oxford. The authenticity of this correspondence is questionable. However, what matters is the consequences of the conversion of the Caspian people to Judaism. Jewish Encyclopedia writes:
[This government] has taken control of important ways of trade [Volga] played a sensitive role in the history of Christianity in the east Europe as a buffer state between dynamic Islam and the Slavic people, who are today called Russians.
The simple meaning of this saying, which was addressed to Christians, is that if it wasn’t for the Jew’s Caspian state, Russians and East Europeans were Muslim today. This is a serious claim. We consider the itinerary of Ibn Fazlan, which is one of the most important sources of the mentioned region's ancient history, consider:
Ibn Fazlan’s travel is in the year 921 AD. Slavs are converted to Islam and are being harassed by the Caspian Turks. The Muslim king of Slav sends an ambassador to Almoghtadar, the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, and asks for strengthening his links with the world of Islam. Ibn Fazlan sets off to the land of the Slavs as an ambassador of the caliph. Ibn Fazlan's itinerary is a telling document of Islam’s deep penetration into the depths of the lands, which are today called Russia.
In modern times, the unknown fate of Caspian tribes have raised some intellectual debate.
Some researchers believe that the Caspian people moved to East Europe and Eastern Europeans established Jewish communities. The Jewish Professor, Puliak, the professor of Jewish middle history at Tel Aviv University, has such a belief. He believes that an important part of todays’ Jews are the remains of the Turk Caspian people. The Jewish Arthur Koestler also represents the same opinion in his book.
What made this claim is more theoretical and political conflicts. These are usually people who recognize the Caspian phenomenon as a good means of combating the dominant racism in the modern Judaism. This effort is commendable. Ethnic background of Judaism has gone so far that they call that group of followers of the Jewish faith who are ethnically not "Jewish" as the "Converted to Jewish", and not "Jewish". Such groups exists among the black African, Indians of Mexico and even in Japan.
That is why Koestler rejects the Jews "Legend of racial purity"; he emphasizes the importance of ethnic element of "Caspian" in combining the contemporary Jews, and he counts the factors such as the racial mixture and sexual assaults of various winners of Israel's land as reasons of the absurdity of this "legend". However, the "Caspians" and the exaggeration of their quantity, and also their strong emphasis on Judaism, is not a reasonable excuse for this battle.
According to some reports, including Kamel ibn al-Athir, after the Russians invasion in 965, the Caspian Khaghan converted to Islam to win the support of the Khwarezm Muslim people. It is not clear why these reports should not be noticed and in opposite, the committed and tough Caspian Jews are supposed to refuge to the faraway lands of east Europe to keep their faith? Note that at the time of ibn Fazlan’s travel n important part of Caspian land’s people were converted to Islam, to the extent which the capital of the Caspian beside the Volga River was divided into two parts: in one part, "The King and his companions" lived and on the other part, the Muslims. Directorate of Muslims was upon one of the Muslim slaves of the king named “Khaz” or "Khazmeh”. The conversion of the rest of the Caspian people to Islam in the next decades is totally plausible and reasonable.
Until now, the Caspian tribes’ unknown fate has been neglected from the angle of their conversion to Islam.
Some researchers believe that the name "Caspian" is originally "Qachar" from the Turkish roots "Qachmak" (migration, running). If we consider that the letters "Kh" and "Z" in the name, come from the Hebrew pronunciation, its Turkish pronunciation is that same “Ghachar” or “Ghajar”. Thus, this hypothesis can be raised that the Slav’s Caspian people are the “Ghajar Tribes" which are known as the “Ghajars” after they migrated to Iran.
According to Saeed Nafisi, we encounter the names “Ghajars” and Ghajar” in the Iranian historical sources only in the middle of the tenth century AH / sixteenth century AD. This tribe, in the past, lived in the west regions of Caspian Sea, the old settlement of Caspian tribes. One contemporary historian wrote:
Modern research shows that the Ghajars were not from Mongols, but were from the Turk tribes. However not those west Turks, meaning the relatives or the survivors of Seljuq dynasty, but from the east Turks of Caspian Sea and from the close relatives of Caspian and Qipchaqs and Bulgars and Bochnaqs…
The entering of the mentioned tribes to Iran happened about two centuries after the Mongol’s conquest of Iran and the Safavid took them from Azerbaijan to Mazandaran and Gorgan and center of Iran (Qazvin) or to distant lands of eastern border (Balkh). This tribe and the Afshar tribes and Bayat and Binder, all lived in the beach of the Caspian Sea, and are very close in the language and share a common destiny. Apparently, Shah Abbas, forced them to migrate to the interior and east parts, but their entering to Astarābād happened way further.
According to Farhad Mirza Mo’tamedodowleh is the first one of Qajar to come from Ganje to Astarābād. Shahgholi Khan is in the late reign of King Solomon Safavi. One of his sons, named Fath Ali Khan, is the ancestor of the Qajar kings. Thus, we must consider the establishment of Qajars in Astarābād in the late eleventh / seventeenth century.
The greatest philosophical work of Judah Halevi, the famous Jewish thinker and poet of the first of twelfth century AD, is called Caspian. This work is counted as one of the important political and theoretical statements of contemporary Judaism. It is interesting to note that the original language is Arabic, and later was translated into Hebrew. This is the second name: The book of “The Proof and the argument of spaniel Naseeruddin”.
It is said that Judah Halevi spent twenty years of his life to write the book and his main purpose was to respond to the Gharaies’. The Caspian has been developed in the form of debate. An Angel appears to the Caspian king and asks him to leave idolatry. He invites one Peripatetic philosopher and three Muslim and Christian and Jewish scholars. They say their ideas; and in this situation Halevi starts comparing the mentioned religions. Finally, the Caspian king, who has empathy with the Peripatetic philosopher, finds that, based on Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been formed; thus, he recognizes the superiority of the Jewish religion and is converted to Judaism. A detailed section of the book is specified to the questions of Caspian king from Judaism and the answers given. And finally, Halevi does not leave the Peripatetic philosopher and proves the inability of Aristotelian philosophy.
Raphael Patay, estimates that the population of the worlds’ Jews in the sixth century AH / twelfth century AD is 1/4 million, meaning that 93/3 percent of them lived in Islamic lands and an important part of them were living in Islamic Spain. For this reason the Jews living in Muslim lands, are called the Sephardic Jews (from the term Hebrew "Sephardic" meaning Spain). The second culture of these Jews was Islam and they spoke with the "Ladino" language (Spanish Jewish) or the eastern languages of the lands they settled in, (Arabic, Aramaic and Persian). At this time only one hundred thousand people (6/7 percent of the total Jews) lived in Christian Europe that were known as the Ashkenazi Jews (German). This group spoke in "Yiddish" language (German Jews).
In our view, the number of 1/5 million seems exaggerated. The population of Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century were estimated 330 thousand individuals. If we accept that they especially lived in Islamic Spain, which was so, according to numbers of Raphael Patay, in the late fifteenth century, their population must have been much more than this.
Historians of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem estimate that the population of the Jews of the world are 675 thousand individuals in the middle of the seventeenth century.
The historians of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also mentioned that the population of the Jews settling in Muslim lands in this period are more than 90 percent of the world's Jews. Jewish Encyclopedia writes that until the fifteenth century, the majority of the Jews lived in Muslim lands, including Andalusia. Since then, and especially since the nineteenth century, a reverse process began, and eventually the "Ashkenazi culture" overcame the Jewish society. In 1960, it was reported that the number of "Ashkenazi" Jews was 11 million individuals and number of "Sephardic" was only 500 thousand individuals.