Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 April 14
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April 14
editWhy did the Almohads fail to eliminate the Jewish presence in North Africa like they did with the Christian presence there?
editWhy did the Almohads fail to eliminate the Jewish presence in North Africa like they did with the Christian presence there? Was it because the Jewish population in North Africa was subsequently replenished by Jewish refugees from Iberia fleeing the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula? Or was there also some other reason for this–and, if so, what exactly? Futurist110 (talk) 22:25, 14 April 2021 (UTC)
- Jews fulfilled a need, they performed unclean jobs.
Sleigh (talk)- And Christians couldn't do this why, exactly? Futurist110 (talk) 03:16, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- Christians and Muslims were not allowed to engage in money lending and banking in those days, because of strict interpretations of religious prohibitions against usury. The Jews filled the gap when they had the opportunity. To be clear, the Almohads were extremely repressive against both Jews and Christians, and most Jewish communities under their rule were eliminated. Many Jews survived by nominally converting to Islam, often at the point of a sword, while maintaining their Jewish identity in secret. While Christians had been dominant in Iberia for centuries, the Jews had long experience surviving and sometimes thriving as second class citizens, and may have been in a slightly better position to adapt. Catholic historian Paul Johnson (writer) describes the repression quite clearly in his book "A History of the Jews" on pages 178-179, where he wrote, "The splendid Jewish settlements of southern Spain did not survive this persecution, at least in any of their old dignity and grandeur." Maimonides was the most influential Jewish figure of the era, who encouraged Jews to feign conversion to Islam in order to avoid slaughter. Maimonides himself became a refugee from Almohad repression, spending his teenage years wandering from Spain to France to Morocco to Palestine and eventually settling in Cairo, which was not under Almohad rule. Cullen328 Let's discuss it 04:05, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- Why did the Maghrebi Christians not likewise feign conversion to Islam during the Almohads' reign and then revert back to Christianity when things looked a bit better for them? I know that the traditional Islamic penalty for apostasy was death, but AFAIK this was true for anyone who left Islam for any religion–including Judaism. Futurist110 (talk) 06:17, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- Christians and Muslims were not allowed to engage in money lending and banking in those days, because of strict interpretations of religious prohibitions against usury. The Jews filled the gap when they had the opportunity. To be clear, the Almohads were extremely repressive against both Jews and Christians, and most Jewish communities under their rule were eliminated. Many Jews survived by nominally converting to Islam, often at the point of a sword, while maintaining their Jewish identity in secret. While Christians had been dominant in Iberia for centuries, the Jews had long experience surviving and sometimes thriving as second class citizens, and may have been in a slightly better position to adapt. Catholic historian Paul Johnson (writer) describes the repression quite clearly in his book "A History of the Jews" on pages 178-179, where he wrote, "The splendid Jewish settlements of southern Spain did not survive this persecution, at least in any of their old dignity and grandeur." Maimonides was the most influential Jewish figure of the era, who encouraged Jews to feign conversion to Islam in order to avoid slaughter. Maimonides himself became a refugee from Almohad repression, spending his teenage years wandering from Spain to France to Morocco to Palestine and eventually settling in Cairo, which was not under Almohad rule. Cullen328 Let's discuss it 04:05, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- And Christians couldn't do this why, exactly? Futurist110 (talk) 03:16, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- Futurist110 -- According to formal Islamic law, monotheistic minorities are supposed to be protected in Muslim lands, as long as they do not defy their Muslim rulers (though this has not always been observed in practice, of course). Traditionally, Muslims have sometimes treated Jews with more toleration than they did Christians, since Jews weren't a military threat. It was only in the 20th century that Christian minorities began to be more protected than Jews... AnonMoos (talk) 06:17, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- According to Christianity in Africa § After the Muslim conquest of Eastern Roman North Africa, the Almohad Abd al-Mu'min forced the Christians and Jews of Tunis to convert in 1159. So this is evidence of at least some Almohads not respecting the status assigned by the Qur'an to the People of the Book. --Lambiam 10:17, 15 April 2021 (UTC)