Cousins: Jews and Arabs Seek Each Other Out
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Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So, it seems, is the rule governing Jews and Arabs: the farther apart they are from one another, the greater their mutual interest, while the greater their proximity, the more antagonistic they seem. The fascination that these kindred peoples have for one another and the fractious nature of their association is not just a contemporary phenomenon born of the modern Middle East “situation”; it has been ongoing since Muhammad published his first revelation and attempted to convert others to his cause.
Over the ensuing centuries, Jews and Arabs attempted to qualify and categorize one another’s religions as well as explore common features and mutual intersections. In his classic Jews and Arabs, S.D. Goitein described the relationship as a “symbiosis”; a fitting characterization of two religions and cultures seeking to live in cooperation and mutual benefit.
Islam regarded all of its pre-history as an age of “ignorance” (jahiliyyah) and professed no interest in any of its details—save for Persia and Israel. Why they were excepted from the rule of disdain is unclear. The reason may have been merely utilitarian: Jews were the most immediate neighbors of the early Muslims, while Persia was Islam’s first great conquest; they were therefore the likeliest source of prospective converts. Yet it might also have been theological: Judaism and Zoroastrianism—along with Christianity—were scripture-based religions whose adherents, named the “People of the Book” by the Qur’an, were granted relative religious tolerance.
In fact, the curiosity of early Muslims over the numerous biblical personalities and events mentioned in the Qur’an led to the creation of a genre known as “Isra’iliyat” (Israelite), in which Jewish converts combined traditional legends of the Talmud and Midrash with indigenous Arabic folklore. Later Jewish anthologies composed in Arabia, such as the Yemenite “Midrash HaGadol,” returned the favor by incorporating Muslim traditions (hadith) into their own.