History of The Jews in Egypt - Arab Rule (641 To 1250)

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 (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.