Jewish Tribes of Arabia - Rise of Islam

Rise of Islam

Four-hundred ninety years (70x7) years had passed from the destruction of Bar Kochba's armies until the year 622 CE. Bar Kochba was a failed Messiah and now, according to Daniel, "would come the true warrior Messiah". "A warrior with 'the helmet of deliverance on His head' and clad in armor". "He will don garments of vengeance (as his) clothing and will put on a cloak of zealousness". "He will fight the battle of Gog ha-Magog and against the army of Armilos (Heraclius)". Most of the Jewish tribes of Arabia were on alert for a new Messiah—anxious to usher his arrival. This is in agreement with Islamic sources which state that the coming of the Final Prophet, Mohammed, was predicted in both the Torah and Bible and other sacred scriptures, and as forefold by prophets and messengers of God. With this knowledge in divinely revealed books, the Jewish tribes of Arabia were aware that soon a new divinely-appointed leader would arise in Arabia and that he would usher a new era.

The Jewish tribes played significant role during the wake of Islam. Mohammed had many contacts with Jewish tribes, both urban and nomadic, and apparently received some influence of Judaism, as his early teachings seems to borrow from Jewish tradition. The Islamic Prophet Mohammed could neither write nor read and history attests to this fact; so it is highly questionable to assert borrowing from Jewish tradition. However, when the Jews began to distance themselves from Muhammad not recognizing him as a prophet, he started to minimize the Jewish influence on Islam, shifting the direction of prayers from Jerusalem to Mecca, making Friday a holy day, and shifted from the Jewish dietary laws, although the eating of pork have always been strongly prohibited in both religions. It is noteworthy to mention that Saturday, the Jewish day of Sabbath, was never considered holy in the sense it is to Jews. And although both Islamic and Jewish dietary laws share many similarities, the two sets of rules are not identical nor equal. The shift of the prayer direction from Jerusalem to Mecca has to been seen from a historic and religious perspective. This shift of direction was primarily a divine test from Allah to distinquish the true believers that followed Prophet Mohammed, from those who would turn their back to the Prophet of God. (Quran 2:143).

In 622 CE, Mohammed leveraged Jewish-Arab despondency at successive military defeats, abandonment by Persian Jews, loss of Jerusalem (again), the Murder of the Exilarch Nehemiah ben Hushiel, and the renewed opposition of the Banu Quraish, set out for Taif. Mohammed was working hard to turn the hearts of the Jewish-Arabian and Pagan tribes from their esoteric Jewish Prophesies and Pagan believes respectively—he succeeded in stimulating the Messianic fervor of Jews and coercing the Pagan tribes. Against this back-drop, Mohammed capitalized upon a confluence of events that rendered the Jewish Arab tribes hopeful for redemption at the hands of a Messiah.

When Mohammed arrived in Taif, and called upon the Jewish tribes to hear his teachings, he was rejected.

In late 622 CE, Shallum ben Hushiel went to visit Mohammed in Medina, and offered his submission (desiring conversion to Islam). With the submission of an Exilarch, Mohammed found resistance to submission, by Judaized Arab tribes, begin to wane.

Some of these tribes, or some of their members, were conquered and converted to Islam, some lived as crypto-Jews, while others remained Jews living among Muslims though protected by the Constitution of Medina.