Language:
English
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2008) 577-588
Keywords:
Muslim converts from Judaism
;
Jews History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Islam Relations Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Judaism
;
Islam Relations 1500-
;
Judaism
Abstract:
The official policy of the Zaydi rulers in Yemen (897-1962) accorded with Islamic law that no one must be forced to adopt Islam. Zayda is the Shi'ite sect closest to Sunni orthodoxy. Although conversion was not forced upon the Jews (except for the singular Zaydi law that Jewish orphans must be raised as Muslims), certain Imams and Muslim society throughout the centuries applied various strategies of pressure to convert. Describes territorial restrictions - parts of the Arabian Peninsula were declared holy to Islam and no Jews could live there. Conversion to Islam could free any Jew accused of a crime. In times of famine, conversion assured the granting of food from storehouses open only to Muslims. Social pressure was the most successful means of conversion: enticement, especially of children and young girls; religious argument (if a Jew was caught denigrating Islam his protected status was annulled and he had to choose between conversion or death); and discriminatory legislation which grew more and more severe. Concludes that Jews in Yemen lived under constant pressure to convert and that many Jews in fact converted although Jewish sources tried to hide that fact.
Note:
In Hebrew:
,
"פעמים" 42 (תשן) 105-126
URL:
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