Arab Rule (641 To 1250)
The Arab invasion of Egypt at first found support not only from Copts, and other Christians, but from Jews as well, all disgruntled by the corrupt administration of the Patriarch Cyrus of Alexander, notorious for his Monotheletic proselytizing. In addition to the Jews settled there from early times, some must have come from the Arabian Peninsula. The letter sent by Muhammad to the Jewish Banu Janba in 630 is said by Al-Baladhuri to have been seen in Egypt. A copy, written in Hebrew characters, has been found in the Cairo Geniza.
The Jews had no reason to feel kindly toward the former masters of Egypt. In 629 the Emperor Heraclius I had driven the Jews from Jerusalem this was followed by a massacre of Jews throughout the empire—in Egypt, aided by the Copts, who had old scores to settle with the Jews, dating from the Persian conquest of Amida at the time of Emperor Anastasius I (502) and of Alexandria by the Persian general Shahin Vahmanzadegan (617), when the Jews assisted the conquerors in fighting against the Christians. The Treaty of Alexandria (November 8, 641), which sealed the Arab conquest of Egypt, expressly stipulates that the Jews are to be allowed to remain in that city; and at the time of the capture of that city, 'Amr ibn al-'As, in his letter to the caliph, relates that he found there 40,000 Jews.
Of the fortunes of the Jews in Egypt under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates (641-868), little is known. Under the Tulunids (863-905), the Karaite community enjoyed robust growth.
Read more about this topic: Judaism In Egypt
Famous quotes containing the words arab and/or rule:
“As the Arab proverb says, “The dog barks and the caravan passes”. After having dropped this quotation, Mr. Norpois stopped to judge the effect it had on us. It was great; the proverb was known to us: it had been replaced that year among men of high worth by this other: “Whoever sows the wind reaps the storm”, which had needed some rest since it was not as indefatigable and hardy as, “Working for the King of Prussia”.”
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“All you people don’t know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for, and he fought for them once, for the only reason that any man ever fights for them. Because of just one plain, simple rule—Love Thy Neighbor. And in this world today, full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust.”
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