When Jews & Muslims Got Along

The hostile relations between Israel and the Muslim world make one wonder if Jewish-Muslim relations were ever amicable. The idea of a so-called Golden Age, a Jewish-Muslim interfaith utopia in Islamic Spain and elsewhere in the middle ages, has rightly been called a myth: it overlooks the inferior legal status of Jews during that time and glosses over episodes of conflict and hardship. But to say that Muslims have always persecuted the Jews, and that anti-Semitism in the Arab-Muslim world today represents a continuation of fourteen centuries of oppression, would be just as wrong--indeed, a counter-myth.

In the premodern Muslim world Jews, like all non-Muslims, were second-class subjects, but they enjoyed a considerable amount of toleration, if we understand toleration in the context of the times. They were a "protected people," in Arabic, dhimmis, a status that guaranteed free practice of religion, untrammeled pursuit of livelihood, protection for houses of worship and schools, and recognition of communal institutions--provided that able, adult males paid an annual head-tax, accepted the hegemony of Islam, remained loyal to the regime, and acknowledged the superiority of the Muslims.