1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,980 Imagine it's the year 600 CE. Okay, setting the 2 00:00:03,980 --> 00:00:06,019 scene. Right. And if you're looking at a demographic 3 00:00:06,019 --> 00:00:08,779 map of the world's Jewish population, nearly 4 00:00:08,779 --> 00:00:12,000 90 % of it is just concentrated right there in 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,919 Babylonia. Yeah, nestled right in the Fertile 6 00:00:13,919 --> 00:00:16,420 Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 7 00:00:16,719 --> 00:00:19,879 Exactly. It's this massive, deeply rooted community, 8 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,719 and they're living under the rule of the Sasanian 9 00:00:22,719 --> 00:00:25,379 Persian Empire. And their whole demographic center 10 00:00:25,379 --> 00:00:28,140 of gravity is just firmly anchored in the east. 11 00:00:28,300 --> 00:00:31,019 I mean, it's dominated by these great rabbinic 12 00:00:31,019 --> 00:00:33,780 academies like Surah and Pumbedida. Yeah, the 13 00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:36,020 ones who are like in the final stages of compiling 14 00:00:36,020 --> 00:00:38,799 the Babylonian Talmud. Exactly. But, you know, 15 00:00:38,799 --> 00:00:41,460 just over the horizon, there is this massive 16 00:00:41,460 --> 00:00:44,740 storm brewing in the Arabian Peninsula. A storm 17 00:00:44,740 --> 00:00:46,619 that is basically going to radically transform 18 00:00:46,619 --> 00:00:49,280 the globe. Oh, absolutely. It redraws the entire 19 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:51,880 geopolitical map and fundamentally alters the 20 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,229 trajectory of Jewish history. We're talking about 21 00:00:54,229 --> 00:00:57,799 the rise of Islam. Right. Welcome to the Deep 22 00:00:57,799 --> 00:01:01,039 Dive. Today we are taking on part one of a massive, 23 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,939 super meticulously detailed, three -part exploration 24 00:01:04,939 --> 00:01:07,640 of the Cambridge history of Judaism, volume five. 25 00:01:07,859 --> 00:01:11,019 Yeah, specifically looking at Jews in the medieval 26 00:01:11,019 --> 00:01:14,280 Islamic world. Our mission today is to really 27 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,140 unpack this foundational period, so roughly 600 28 00:01:17,140 --> 00:01:20,560 to 1500 CE. And we are covering a sprawling geography 29 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:23,319 here. Stretching all the way from the Iberian 30 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:26,120 Peninsula in Spain straight across to the fringes 31 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:28,719 of China. It's a huge area. But more importantly, 32 00:01:28,819 --> 00:01:30,879 we're going to dissect the social dynamics, the 33 00:01:30,879 --> 00:01:34,299 legal frameworks and the economic mechanisms 34 00:01:34,299 --> 00:01:37,480 that irrevocably shapes Judaism in this Islamic 35 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:39,780 world. Because if we connect this to the bigger 36 00:01:39,780 --> 00:01:43,120 picture, the overarching thesis of this volume 37 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,480 is that this isn't just your standard narrative 38 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:49,969 of like. a passive minority living quietly under 39 00:01:49,969 --> 00:01:52,250 a dominant majority. Right. It's a story of profound 40 00:01:52,250 --> 00:01:54,890 synthesis. Exactly. We're looking at incredibly 41 00:01:54,890 --> 00:01:57,569 complex trans -regional networks. The history 42 00:01:57,569 --> 00:02:00,209 of medieval Jewish civilization in this era is 43 00:02:00,209 --> 00:02:02,650 just inextricably entwined with the history of 44 00:02:02,650 --> 00:02:04,849 Islam. You literally can't understand one without 45 00:02:04,849 --> 00:02:07,109 the other. No, you really can't. To understand 46 00:02:07,109 --> 00:02:09,270 Jewish life and commerce during these centuries, 47 00:02:09,449 --> 00:02:11,349 you have to understand the political machinery 48 00:02:11,349 --> 00:02:14,520 of the Islamic empires they lived in. Now, before 49 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:16,520 we really plunge into the mechanics of those 50 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:19,560 empires, I do want to establish a framework for 51 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,340 you, the listener, regarding how we'll navigate 52 00:02:22,340 --> 00:02:24,479 some of these historical events today. That's 53 00:02:24,479 --> 00:02:27,210 a good idea. Yeah. Because... When we look at, 54 00:02:27,250 --> 00:02:29,629 say, the early encounters between the Prophet 55 00:02:29,629 --> 00:02:32,250 Muhammad and the Jewish tribes of the Arabian 56 00:02:32,250 --> 00:02:35,229 Peninsula, we are stepping into an arena that 57 00:02:35,229 --> 00:02:38,349 is heavily, heavily fraught with modern political 58 00:02:38,349 --> 00:02:41,169 and religious charge. Highly charged, yeah. So 59 00:02:41,169 --> 00:02:44,169 our approach today is strictly analytical and 60 00:02:44,169 --> 00:02:47,590 entirely impartial. We are just examining the 61 00:02:47,590 --> 00:02:51,169 cold, hard historical mechanisms that drove these 62 00:02:51,169 --> 00:02:53,490 conflicts. We're looking at it entirely through 63 00:02:53,490 --> 00:02:56,030 the lens of the historical texts and the scholarly 64 00:02:56,030 --> 00:02:58,229 analysis provided in the Cambridge history. Right. 65 00:02:58,289 --> 00:03:00,789 We aren't endorsing any specific modern viewpoint 66 00:03:00,789 --> 00:03:03,370 or taking sides. We just want to explore how 67 00:03:03,370 --> 00:03:06,490 these events forged the medieval world. And that 68 00:03:06,490 --> 00:03:09,110 historical rigor is vital. especially when you're 69 00:03:09,110 --> 00:03:11,210 dealing with late antiquity in the early medieval 70 00:03:11,210 --> 00:03:14,009 period. Because honestly, before we can understand 71 00:03:14,009 --> 00:03:16,669 what happened, we have to confront how we even 72 00:03:16,669 --> 00:03:19,069 know it. Right. The fragility of historical memory. 73 00:03:19,409 --> 00:03:22,330 Exactly. Moving into the medieval Islamic period 74 00:03:22,330 --> 00:03:25,189 forces us to really grapple with the bias of 75 00:03:25,189 --> 00:03:27,550 the archive, like what physically survived. Well, 76 00:03:27,590 --> 00:03:29,530 talking about what physically survived brings 77 00:03:29,530 --> 00:03:32,389 us directly to like one of the most astonishing 78 00:03:32,389 --> 00:03:35,599 historical gold mines ever discovered. The Cairo 79 00:03:35,599 --> 00:03:38,639 Geniza. Oh, it's incredible. S .D. Goitin famously 80 00:03:38,639 --> 00:03:41,460 called it a true mirror of life, often cracked 81 00:03:41,460 --> 00:03:44,280 and blotchy, but very wide in scope. So for context, 82 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,199 if you don't know, in Jewish tradition, you can't 83 00:03:47,199 --> 00:03:49,259 just throw away a document that contains the 84 00:03:49,259 --> 00:03:51,919 name of God. It has to be stored in a specialized 85 00:03:51,919 --> 00:03:55,520 room, a geniza, and eventually buried. Right. 86 00:03:55,599 --> 00:03:58,860 But the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat, Old Cairo, 87 00:03:59,039 --> 00:04:01,990 they operated a little differently. Over centuries, 88 00:04:02,229 --> 00:04:04,550 they didn't just deposit sacred Torah scrolls. 89 00:04:04,550 --> 00:04:07,169 They tossed virtually every scrap of written 90 00:04:07,169 --> 00:04:10,669 text into this dry, dark attic. The sheer volume 91 00:04:10,669 --> 00:04:12,930 of this stuff preserved by that arid Egyptian 92 00:04:12,930 --> 00:04:15,310 climate is staggering. We're talking hundreds 93 00:04:15,310 --> 00:04:17,089 of thousands of fragments. It's everything. Personal 94 00:04:17,089 --> 00:04:19,449 letters, merchant ledgers, court records, marriage 95 00:04:19,449 --> 00:04:22,709 contracts. Even magical amulets and like children's 96 00:04:22,709 --> 00:04:26,019 school exercises, right? Yeah, exactly. Goitin 97 00:04:26,019 --> 00:04:28,800 used this unprecedented archive to write his 98 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,620 monumental work, A Mediterranean Society. It 99 00:04:31,620 --> 00:04:33,980 completely revolutionized our understanding of 100 00:04:33,980 --> 00:04:36,879 the era. It gives us this granular look at regular 101 00:04:36,879 --> 00:04:39,720 people's lives that you just do not get in the 102 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,500 standard dynastic chronicles of kings and wars. 103 00:04:42,779 --> 00:04:45,180 Right. But the Cambridge volume draws a very 104 00:04:45,180 --> 00:04:48,540 sharp boundary here. Goitin was producing sociography, 105 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,399 the study of daily life, not a strict chronological 106 00:04:51,399 --> 00:04:53,990 history of political events. Well, and let me 107 00:04:53,990 --> 00:04:55,689 push back a little here, or at least ask the 108 00:04:55,689 --> 00:04:58,949 question. If the Geniza is so focused on Egypt, 109 00:04:59,170 --> 00:05:02,009 and specifically Fustad, aren't we getting a 110 00:05:02,009 --> 00:05:04,970 highly distorted, almost Instagram -filtered 111 00:05:04,970 --> 00:05:07,149 view of the medieval world? Oh, that's exactly 112 00:05:07,149 --> 00:05:08,930 what it is. That's the cracked and blotchy part 113 00:05:08,930 --> 00:05:11,769 of the mirror. It heavily over -represents the... 114 00:05:12,300 --> 00:05:14,779 Literate, urban, middle and upper classes. Right. 115 00:05:14,860 --> 00:05:16,699 The merchants, the physicians, the people actually 116 00:05:16,699 --> 00:05:19,240 writing things down. Exactly. So historians are 117 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,519 left grappling with massive blind spots. Like 118 00:05:21,519 --> 00:05:23,240 what about the rural farmers in the hinterlands? 119 00:05:23,379 --> 00:05:25,699 They left almost no written records in the Geniza. 120 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:27,800 Plus there's that thing going called the documentary 121 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,139 silence, right? Yes. If you look at the timeline, 122 00:05:31,379 --> 00:05:33,560 there's just a gaping void in the documentary 123 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:36,920 record from the early Islamic conquests in the 124 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:39,060 7th century all the way up through the mid 9th 125 00:05:39,060 --> 00:05:41,730 century. We just don't have the paperwork. Wow. 126 00:05:41,870 --> 00:05:44,670 So if the record is practically silent for 200 127 00:05:44,670 --> 00:05:48,170 years and then super biased toward Egyptian elites 128 00:05:48,170 --> 00:05:50,910 after that, how do historians actually build 129 00:05:50,910 --> 00:05:53,810 a comprehensive history? They have to actively 130 00:05:53,810 --> 00:05:56,649 cross -reference the Geniza with a bunch of external 131 00:05:56,649 --> 00:05:59,529 sources. They use medieval travelogues like Benjamin 132 00:05:59,529 --> 00:06:01,750 of Tudela. The guy from northern Spain who traveled 133 00:06:01,750 --> 00:06:04,889 all the way to Baghdad. Yeah, exactly. And stallers 134 00:06:04,889 --> 00:06:07,810 also have to scour Islamic legal sources, government 135 00:06:07,810 --> 00:06:11,170 tax registers, thought was from Muslim jurists. 136 00:06:11,189 --> 00:06:13,170 You have to layer these different perspectives 137 00:06:13,170 --> 00:06:16,170 to counteract the bias. Okay, so we lean heavily 138 00:06:16,170 --> 00:06:19,430 on literary and religious texts, especially for 139 00:06:19,430 --> 00:06:22,370 those early centuries. But Stefan C. Rafe's chapter 140 00:06:22,370 --> 00:06:24,589 points out something that kind of upends how 141 00:06:24,589 --> 00:06:26,730 we think about ancient texts. Right, the idea 142 00:06:26,730 --> 00:06:28,850 that medieval religious writers didn't care about 143 00:06:28,850 --> 00:06:32,269 objective history at all. Yes. Like, the rabbinic 144 00:06:32,269 --> 00:06:34,629 leadership wasn't sitting down to write a textbook 145 00:06:34,629 --> 00:06:38,290 for us. They only used history if it justified 146 00:06:38,290 --> 00:06:41,089 their specific legal traditions, their halakha. 147 00:06:41,170 --> 00:06:43,790 Their whole attitude was fundamentally ahistorical. 148 00:06:44,129 --> 00:06:46,750 They just cared about proving the unbroken transmission 149 00:06:46,750 --> 00:06:49,209 of divine law. It's honestly like politicians 150 00:06:49,209 --> 00:06:51,470 writing their memoirs. You know, they write themselves 151 00:06:51,470 --> 00:06:54,069 into the absolute center of the story just to 152 00:06:54,069 --> 00:06:56,250 justify their current policies. That's a perfect 153 00:06:56,250 --> 00:06:59,170 analogy. Rafe says history is lived forward, 154 00:06:59,290 --> 00:07:01,750 but it's written backward. The groups that won 155 00:07:01,750 --> 00:07:04,329 constructed narratives that totally marginalized 156 00:07:04,329 --> 00:07:07,269 or erased any rival factions. Basically, if you're 157 00:07:07,269 --> 00:07:09,209 building a skyscraper, you need to prove your 158 00:07:09,209 --> 00:07:10,910 foundation goes all the way down to bedrock. 159 00:07:11,310 --> 00:07:13,569 The rabbis were writing histories to prove their 160 00:07:13,569 --> 00:07:16,069 foundation went straight back to Moses at Sinai. 161 00:07:16,110 --> 00:07:18,050 And that anyone else's building was structurally 162 00:07:18,050 --> 00:07:21,329 unsound. A prime example is Sherira Gowen's famous 163 00:07:21,329 --> 00:07:24,790 epistle from 987 CE. He was the head of the academy 164 00:07:24,790 --> 00:07:26,970 in Pumbedida, right? Right. He gets a letter 165 00:07:26,970 --> 00:07:29,629 from the Jewish community in Kairouan, which 166 00:07:29,629 --> 00:07:32,230 was this massively wealthy commercial hub in 167 00:07:32,230 --> 00:07:35,170 North Africa, asking how the Talmud was compiled. 168 00:07:35,759 --> 00:07:39,319 And his response is this incredibly detailed 169 00:07:39,319 --> 00:07:42,300 historical letter tracing the chain of authority 170 00:07:42,300 --> 00:07:45,420 straight back to antiquity and ending right at 171 00:07:45,420 --> 00:07:48,500 his own academy's doorstep. Exactly. It's a goldmine 172 00:07:48,500 --> 00:07:51,279 of names and dates for us, but its core function 173 00:07:51,279 --> 00:07:53,879 was just an assertion of geopolitical power. 174 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,500 He's telling this wealthy diaspora community 175 00:07:56,500 --> 00:08:00,079 we are the only authentic source of truth. And 176 00:08:00,079 --> 00:08:02,839 we see Abraham Ibn Daud do the exact same thing 177 00:08:02,839 --> 00:08:05,790 later in Spain with his Book of Tradition. He's 178 00:08:05,790 --> 00:08:08,769 building a narrative to prove his rabbinate Judaism 179 00:08:08,769 --> 00:08:11,949 is the true inheritor. Right, because both of 180 00:08:11,949 --> 00:08:14,350 them were using history as a polemical weapon 181 00:08:14,350 --> 00:08:16,970 against the Karaites. Ah, the Karaites. Yeah, 182 00:08:16,970 --> 00:08:19,230 this vibrant Jewish movement that completely 183 00:08:19,230 --> 00:08:21,990 rejected the oral law, the Talmud, and the authority 184 00:08:21,990 --> 00:08:24,829 of the rabbis. They argued for a direct interpretation 185 00:08:24,829 --> 00:08:27,170 of the Bible. So because they threatened the 186 00:08:27,170 --> 00:08:29,610 rabbis' power, they had to be written out of 187 00:08:29,610 --> 00:08:31,730 the narrative. Right. But the Karaites didn't 188 00:08:31,730 --> 00:08:34,399 just sit there. In the 11th century, a Karaites 189 00:08:34,399 --> 00:08:36,919 scholar named Elijah Ben Abraham wrote his own 190 00:08:36,919 --> 00:08:39,820 counter history. Oh, flipping the script. Completely. 191 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,460 He argued the Karaites were the ones who actually 192 00:08:42,460 --> 00:08:45,120 preserved the ancient orthodoxy and the rabbis 193 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:47,799 were the ones who deviated. So every historical 194 00:08:47,799 --> 00:08:50,960 text from this era is basically an active participant 195 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:54,159 in an ideological war. Exactly. You can't just 196 00:08:54,159 --> 00:08:56,559 take dates at face value. You have to ask who 197 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:59,100 is writing this and whose voice are they trying 198 00:08:59,100 --> 00:09:01,850 to silence? Okay, so our historical memory is 199 00:09:01,850 --> 00:09:05,690 cracked, blotchy, and heavily manipulated. That's 200 00:09:05,690 --> 00:09:07,710 good to keep in mind. Let's transition to the 201 00:09:07,710 --> 00:09:09,649 actual rules of the game. Like, how did everyday 202 00:09:09,649 --> 00:09:12,429 life function? Right, the legal and social frameworks. 203 00:09:12,970 --> 00:09:15,570 Mark R. Cohen's chapter really breaks down the 204 00:09:15,570 --> 00:09:18,889 core of Islamic policy toward non -Muslims, the 205 00:09:18,889 --> 00:09:21,769 Dima system. The Dima system. So Jews, Christians, 206 00:09:21,970 --> 00:09:24,610 Zoroastrians, they were classified as Dimmies, 207 00:09:24,610 --> 00:09:26,850 meaning protected people. Yes. It's a strict 208 00:09:26,850 --> 00:09:29,049 social contract. You acknowledge the absolute 209 00:09:29,049 --> 00:09:31,250 political supremacy of the Islamic State. You 210 00:09:31,250 --> 00:09:33,450 pay a discriminatory poll tax called the jizya. 211 00:09:33,649 --> 00:09:36,090 Which was sometimes literally paid in a degrading 212 00:09:36,090 --> 00:09:38,570 ritual to show submission, right? Right. But 213 00:09:38,570 --> 00:09:41,190 in exchange, you are guaranteed physical security, 214 00:09:41,570 --> 00:09:44,250 freedom to practice your religion, and a lot 215 00:09:44,250 --> 00:09:47,169 of internal communal autonomy. Which, if we zoom 216 00:09:47,169 --> 00:09:49,149 out and compare that to Christian Europe at the 217 00:09:49,149 --> 00:09:52,350 exact same time, the contrast is massive. Oh, 218 00:09:52,389 --> 00:09:55,370 night and day. In medieval Christendom, society 219 00:09:55,370 --> 00:09:57,730 was supposed to be this unified Christian body. 220 00:09:58,009 --> 00:10:00,710 Jews were often the only non -conforming group 221 00:10:00,710 --> 00:10:03,429 around. Right. They stood out as this singular 222 00:10:03,429 --> 00:10:06,649 other, making them huge targets. But in the Islamic 223 00:10:06,649 --> 00:10:10,750 empire, it's this vast pluralistic mosaic. You 224 00:10:10,750 --> 00:10:13,870 had Eastern Orthodox, Nestorians or Austrians, 225 00:10:14,250 --> 00:10:17,929 Islamized Slavs, Berber tribes. The Jewish community 226 00:10:17,929 --> 00:10:21,320 was just one tiny tile in that huge mosaic. Islam 227 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:23,639 didn't even have a specific Jewry law like Europe 228 00:10:23,639 --> 00:10:26,059 did. The rules applied to all infidels equally. 229 00:10:26,279 --> 00:10:28,519 Right, and what's fascinating here is that while 230 00:10:28,519 --> 00:10:30,820 the system provided protection, it did mandate 231 00:10:30,820 --> 00:10:33,399 subordination, eventually codified in the Pact 232 00:10:33,399 --> 00:10:35,759 of Umar. Right, the rules to keep them visibly 233 00:10:35,759 --> 00:10:37,919 submissive, like wearing specific clothing or 234 00:10:37,919 --> 00:10:40,039 not being allowed to ride horses. Yeah, restricting 235 00:10:40,039 --> 00:10:42,519 them to mules or donkeys, forbidding new houses 236 00:10:42,519 --> 00:10:44,759 of worship, and theoretically strictly forbidding 237 00:10:44,759 --> 00:10:46,659 them from holding political authority over Muslims. 238 00:10:46,940 --> 00:10:49,960 Okay, keyword there is theoretically. Because 239 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:52,519 the Cambridge volume keeps hammering home that 240 00:10:52,519 --> 00:10:55,019 there was a massive gap between the strict theory 241 00:10:55,019 --> 00:10:57,679 of the law and the messy reality on the ground. 242 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,379 Exactly. The enforcement was wildly pragmatic. 243 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:03,120 And this brings us to a major historical debate 244 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:06,879 that Ross Brand analyzes. For a long time, historians 245 00:11:06,879 --> 00:11:10,039 forced this into two extreme boxes. Right. On 246 00:11:10,039 --> 00:11:12,259 one hand, you have the romanticized Golden Age 247 00:11:12,259 --> 00:11:15,519 myth, this utopian vision of Islamic Spain where 248 00:11:15,519 --> 00:11:18,879 Muslims, Christians and Jews are just. peacefully 249 00:11:18,879 --> 00:11:21,360 reading philosophy together in a sunlit courtyard 250 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:23,419 which isn't accurate and on the other extreme 251 00:11:23,419 --> 00:11:25,820 you have the neo -lacrimose view just endless 252 00:11:25,820 --> 00:11:29,419 unremitting persecution and misery right flattening 253 00:11:29,419 --> 00:11:31,679 centuries of complexity into a single narrative 254 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:35,080 of suffering both extremes fail brant says it 255 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,379 was undeniably a hierarchical society built on 256 00:11:37,379 --> 00:11:40,070 inequality But it was a highly functional hierarchy 257 00:11:40,070 --> 00:11:42,529 based on loyalties of category. Oh, I love this 258 00:11:42,529 --> 00:11:44,269 concept. Let's unpack loyalties of category. 259 00:11:44,570 --> 00:11:47,470 If you look at society as a rigid pyramid, the 260 00:11:47,470 --> 00:11:49,509 Muslim is always at the top and the Jew is at 261 00:11:49,509 --> 00:11:51,490 the bottom. Theologically, yes. The hierarchy 262 00:11:51,490 --> 00:11:54,549 is absolute. But in reality, people live on intersecting 263 00:11:54,549 --> 00:11:58,009 planes. So in the marketplace category, a Jewish 264 00:11:58,009 --> 00:12:00,610 merchant and a Muslim merchant operate as near 265 00:12:00,610 --> 00:12:03,120 equals. using the same trade routes. Exactly. 266 00:12:03,399 --> 00:12:06,100 Or in the intellectual category, a Jewish physician 267 00:12:06,100 --> 00:12:08,700 and a Muslim philosopher are reading the same 268 00:12:08,700 --> 00:12:11,519 Arabic medical texts and discussing the same 269 00:12:11,519 --> 00:12:15,039 theories. The boundaries were remarkably permeable 270 00:12:15,039 --> 00:12:17,580 in practice. And there's this specific example 271 00:12:17,580 --> 00:12:20,120 in the text that perfectly captures this whole 272 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,929 medieval paradox starring Moses Maimonides. Ah, 273 00:12:23,929 --> 00:12:26,549 yes. The letter to Obadiah the proselyte. Right. 274 00:12:26,610 --> 00:12:29,029 So Obadiah is a former Muslim who converts to 275 00:12:29,029 --> 00:12:32,610 Judaism. And he asks Maimonides if Islam is a 276 00:12:32,610 --> 00:12:35,159 pagan religion. Maimonides comes back with this 277 00:12:35,159 --> 00:12:38,139 really robust defense of Islam, saying it is 278 00:12:38,139 --> 00:12:40,720 strictly monotheistic and he respects their theology. 279 00:12:41,019 --> 00:12:43,320 But then you contrast that with Maimonides' own 280 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:45,919 lived experience. In his commentary on the Mishnah, 281 00:12:46,039 --> 00:12:48,559 he unleashes this agonizing lament about the 282 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:50,799 brutal violence inflicted on Jews by Islamic 283 00:12:50,799 --> 00:12:53,080 empires. I mean, the guy literally had to run 284 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:55,240 for his life from his native Cordoba in Spain. 285 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,519 He had to flee across North Africa to escape 286 00:12:57,519 --> 00:12:59,919 the Almohad regime, who were forcing Jews to 287 00:12:59,919 --> 00:13:02,200 convert at sword point. It's the ultimate paradox. 288 00:13:02,909 --> 00:13:05,870 intellectual proximity paired with severe physical 289 00:13:05,870 --> 00:13:09,470 precarity. How do you reconcile a guy intellectually 290 00:13:09,470 --> 00:13:13,450 respecting a religion's theology while simultaneously 291 00:13:13,450 --> 00:13:16,509 running for his life from its rulers? You reconcile 292 00:13:16,509 --> 00:13:19,289 it by understanding that theology and state policy 293 00:13:19,289 --> 00:13:22,519 aren't the same mechanism. Maimonides respected 294 00:13:22,519 --> 00:13:25,720 the strict monotheism of Islam, but he recognized 295 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,240 the Almohads were a completely different political 296 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,480 animal. They were this puritanical movement from 297 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:32,500 the Atlas Mountains, right? Right. They didn't 298 00:13:32,500 --> 00:13:34,620 care about the pragmatic Dima system. They thought 299 00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:37,240 previous rulers were too lenient, so they enforced 300 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,460 the theoretical restrictions with terrifying 301 00:13:39,460 --> 00:13:42,220 violence. They shattered those loyalties of category. 302 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:45,340 OK, to really understand the roots of those Islamic 303 00:13:45,340 --> 00:13:47,720 policies, we actually have to rewind the tape. 304 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:50,620 We need to go back to the cradle of this whole 305 00:13:50,620 --> 00:13:53,960 story, the Arabian Peninsula before Islam. Yes. 306 00:13:54,220 --> 00:13:56,940 This region usually gets bypassed in standard 307 00:13:56,940 --> 00:13:59,039 Jewish histories, which tend to focus on the 308 00:13:59,039 --> 00:14:01,620 Mediterranean or Babylonia. But Christian Julian 309 00:14:01,620 --> 00:14:05,059 Robbins' chapter introduces this phenomenal epigraphic 310 00:14:05,059 --> 00:14:07,970 evidence stone inscriptions. Wait, really? Because 311 00:14:07,970 --> 00:14:10,429 we usually just picture pre -Islamic Arabia as 312 00:14:10,429 --> 00:14:12,870 a vast desert with polytheistic tribes. That's 313 00:14:12,870 --> 00:14:15,730 the traditional map, yeah. But Robin details 314 00:14:15,730 --> 00:14:19,210 a powerful, independent Jewish kingdom in southern 315 00:14:19,210 --> 00:14:22,250 Arabia, in modern -day Yemen, the kingdom of 316 00:14:22,250 --> 00:14:25,049 Himyar. A Jewish kingdom in Yemen. And we have 317 00:14:25,049 --> 00:14:29,090 stone inscriptions from around 400 CE of a Jewish 318 00:14:29,090 --> 00:14:32,019 notable named Judah Yaakov. Building a palace. 319 00:14:32,259 --> 00:14:35,259 Exactly. The royal house and a lot of the elite 320 00:14:35,259 --> 00:14:38,139 adopted Judaism. They were major players controlling 321 00:14:38,139 --> 00:14:40,419 the frankincense and myrrh trade, pushing back 322 00:14:40,419 --> 00:14:43,190 against Christian Byzantium in Ethiopia. But 323 00:14:43,190 --> 00:14:45,389 the Judaism they practiced looked really different 324 00:14:45,389 --> 00:14:47,350 from the rabbinic Judaism being developed in 325 00:14:47,350 --> 00:14:49,429 Babylonia at the same time, didn't it? Highly 326 00:14:49,429 --> 00:14:51,289 different, yes. Robin points out that we have 327 00:14:51,289 --> 00:14:54,710 at least six distinct epitaphs, tombstone inscriptions 328 00:14:54,710 --> 00:14:57,289 that wish for blessings in the afterlife, but 329 00:14:57,289 --> 00:14:59,409 not a single one mentions the resurrection of 330 00:14:59,409 --> 00:15:02,129 the dead. Which is a massive red flag, theologically 331 00:15:02,129 --> 00:15:04,830 speaking, because in mainstream rabbinic Judaism, 332 00:15:05,169 --> 00:15:08,049 bodily resurrection is literally a non -negotiable 333 00:15:08,049 --> 00:15:10,710 cornerstone of faith. Right. The Mishnah explicitly 334 00:15:10,710 --> 00:15:13,830 says, if you deny resurrection, you have no share 335 00:15:13,830 --> 00:15:16,409 in the world to come. So the fact that the Himyarites 336 00:15:16,409 --> 00:15:18,909 ignore it entirely suggests they were totally 337 00:15:18,909 --> 00:15:21,529 outside the Babylonian rabbi's control. And there's 338 00:15:21,529 --> 00:15:24,570 also that debated inscription about Ramanan, 339 00:15:24,570 --> 00:15:28,370 the merciful and the lord of the Jews, phrased 340 00:15:28,370 --> 00:15:30,669 in a way that almost sounds like dualism. Yeah, 341 00:15:30,710 --> 00:15:34,490 it sparks huge debates. Was it a localized, bitheistic 342 00:15:34,490 --> 00:15:37,389 theology? If so, that's a radical departure from 343 00:15:37,389 --> 00:15:40,269 strict monotheism. It just shows Arabia wasn't 344 00:15:40,269 --> 00:15:42,769 a blank slate. It was teeming with localized 345 00:15:42,769 --> 00:15:45,980 variations of monotheism. Which perfectly sets 346 00:15:45,980 --> 00:15:48,559 the stage for the prophet Muhammad in the early 347 00:15:48,559 --> 00:15:51,120 7th century. And again, keeping to our strictly 348 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,279 neutral analytical framework, we look at Michael 349 00:15:53,279 --> 00:15:55,559 Lecker's chapter on Muhammad and the Jewish tribes 350 00:15:55,559 --> 00:15:57,559 of Medina. Right. So initially, when Muhammad 351 00:15:57,559 --> 00:16:00,039 migrated from Mecca to Medina, the Hijra, he 352 00:16:00,039 --> 00:16:02,860 tried to integrate. Medina, or Yathrib, was a 353 00:16:02,860 --> 00:16:05,580 sprawling agricultural oasis with Arab tribes 354 00:16:05,580 --> 00:16:08,320 and wealthy Jewish Arab tribes. And Muhammad 355 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,960 drafted the constitution of Medina, which initially 356 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,059 actually included the Jewish tribes in the political 357 00:16:13,059 --> 00:16:15,309 community, the Ummah. As long as they allied 358 00:16:15,309 --> 00:16:17,250 with the Muslims against their enemies, yes, 359 00:16:17,409 --> 00:16:20,889 it was classic tribal diplomacy. But it didn't 360 00:16:20,889 --> 00:16:24,750 hold. The turning point was around 624 CE. After 361 00:16:24,750 --> 00:16:27,409 the Muslims won the Battle of Badr. Right. And 362 00:16:27,409 --> 00:16:30,029 there was that massive theological shift regarding 363 00:16:30,029 --> 00:16:32,450 the Qibla, the direction of prayer. Exactly. 364 00:16:32,529 --> 00:16:35,350 Initially, early Muslims faced Jerusalem to pray, 365 00:16:35,570 --> 00:16:37,750 aligning with older monotheistic traditions. 366 00:16:38,110 --> 00:16:41,230 But then the Qibla was changed to face the Kaaba 367 00:16:41,230 --> 00:16:44,210 in Mecca. Which isn't just a minor liturgical 368 00:16:44,210 --> 00:16:47,330 tweak. That's a profound declaration of independence. 369 00:16:47,750 --> 00:16:50,870 It established Islam as its own distinct revelation 370 00:16:50,870 --> 00:16:53,870 with its own geographic center. Yes. And after 371 00:16:53,870 --> 00:16:56,110 that, political tensions escalated into open 372 00:16:56,110 --> 00:16:58,669 warfare with the three major Jewish tribes, the 373 00:16:58,669 --> 00:17:01,549 Kanuka, the Nadir, and the Kariza. But Lekker 374 00:17:01,549 --> 00:17:03,370 points out the underlying mechanisms of these 375 00:17:03,370 --> 00:17:05,890 conflicts were largely economic and sociological. 376 00:17:06,089 --> 00:17:08,549 The economic warfare aspect is fascinating. Take 377 00:17:08,549 --> 00:17:10,789 the Kanuku tribe. They weren't farmers. They 378 00:17:10,789 --> 00:17:12,789 were prominent goldsmiths and merchants holding 379 00:17:12,789 --> 00:17:15,369 a lot of economic power. Right. So Muhammad didn't 380 00:17:15,369 --> 00:17:18,470 just use military force. He set up a rival tax 381 00:17:18,470 --> 00:17:20,750 -free Muslim market right to the southwest of 382 00:17:20,750 --> 00:17:22,920 the existing commercial center. Breaking their 383 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,140 financial monopoly. I mean, you can't sustain 384 00:17:25,140 --> 00:17:27,759 a growing political movement without an independent 385 00:17:27,759 --> 00:17:30,400 economic base. Precisely. And beyond economics, 386 00:17:30,559 --> 00:17:32,599 there's a really intense sociological detail. 387 00:17:32,799 --> 00:17:34,980 The targeted assassinations of prominent Jewish 388 00:17:34,980 --> 00:17:38,640 Arab poets like Abu Afaq and Asma bint Marwan. 389 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,519 Okay, let's unpack this. Why target poets? From 390 00:17:42,519 --> 00:17:45,359 a modern perspective, assassinating a poet sounds 391 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:49,079 insane. We think of poets as folks writing introspective 392 00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:51,440 sonnets. You have to completely discard that 393 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:54,259 modern idea. In pre -Islamic Arabia, poets were 394 00:17:54,259 --> 00:17:56,180 the mass media. They were the journalists, the 395 00:17:56,180 --> 00:17:58,880 opinion leaders, the propagandists. So a skilled 396 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,039 poet could literally destroy a rival clan's reputation 397 00:18:02,039 --> 00:18:05,000 or incite a war. Exactly. And these specific 398 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,160 poets were composing inflammatory verses undermining 399 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,440 Muhammad's authority. Assassinating them was 400 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:12,559 basically destroying the opposition's communication 401 00:18:12,559 --> 00:18:15,420 network. It was also about breaking tribal solidarity, 402 00:18:15,660 --> 00:18:18,829 wasn't it? Yes, profoundly so. Arabian society 403 00:18:18,829 --> 00:18:22,210 ran on blood feud and tribal loyalty. By targeting 404 00:18:22,210 --> 00:18:24,529 these figures, sometimes using assassins from 405 00:18:24,529 --> 00:18:27,089 within the victims' own allied clans, it drove 406 00:18:27,089 --> 00:18:29,970 a wedge into that social architecture. It signaled 407 00:18:29,970 --> 00:18:32,509 that old tribal loyalties were dead, and you 408 00:18:32,509 --> 00:18:34,329 had to choose between your bloodline and the 409 00:18:34,329 --> 00:18:37,130 new Islamic Ummah. Exactly. It was dismantling 410 00:18:37,130 --> 00:18:39,509 the old world order. And as that new Islamic 411 00:18:39,509 --> 00:18:42,750 order exploded outward in the conquests, the 412 00:18:42,750 --> 00:18:45,349 entire demographic map of the Jewish world was 413 00:18:45,349 --> 00:18:47,730 redrawn. Right. The center of gravity gets yanked 414 00:18:47,730 --> 00:18:49,789 westward out of Babylonia into Egypt, across 415 00:18:49,789 --> 00:18:52,710 North Africa and up into Spain. And Menahem Ben 416 00:18:52,710 --> 00:18:55,410 Sasson and Oded Zinger's research really digs 417 00:18:55,410 --> 00:18:58,569 into this shift. In 969 CE, the Fatimid dynasty 418 00:18:58,569 --> 00:19:01,869 conquered Egypt and founded Cairo. And the Fatimids 419 00:19:01,869 --> 00:19:05,650 were a rival Siya Caliphate, right? So they deliberately 420 00:19:05,650 --> 00:19:08,849 reoriented the empire's focus away from Baghdad 421 00:19:08,849 --> 00:19:11,269 and firmly toward the Mediterranean. Yep. And 422 00:19:11,269 --> 00:19:13,609 Jewish merchant networks adapted instantly. We 423 00:19:13,609 --> 00:19:17,349 see a massive wave of Maghrebi Jews, North African 424 00:19:17,349 --> 00:19:19,849 Jews migrating to Egypt. But they kept their 425 00:19:19,849 --> 00:19:22,049 fierce regional identity, right? Yeah. Then Sasson 426 00:19:22,049 --> 00:19:24,250 says they dominate the Cairo Geniza so much it 427 00:19:24,250 --> 00:19:26,309 should really be called a Maghrebi Geniza. Yeah, 428 00:19:26,430 --> 00:19:28,549 they set up this incredibly integrated trans 429 00:19:28,549 --> 00:19:31,569 -Mediterranean network. And that deep integration 430 00:19:31,569 --> 00:19:34,250 bled right into the legal structures of everyday 431 00:19:34,250 --> 00:19:36,970 life. Okay, this is my favorite part. The legal 432 00:19:36,970 --> 00:19:40,710 pluralism. So the Dimas system gave Jews the 433 00:19:40,710 --> 00:19:43,250 right to run their own rabbinic courts, right? 434 00:19:43,390 --> 00:19:45,849 Right, for internal disputes, family law, all 435 00:19:45,849 --> 00:19:47,990 of that. But Zinger's research in the Geniza 436 00:19:47,990 --> 00:19:50,630 shows that Jews were constantly taking their 437 00:19:50,630 --> 00:19:53,430 internal disputes out of Jewish courts and going 438 00:19:53,430 --> 00:19:55,930 to Muslim judges, the Qadis, instead. Or even 439 00:19:55,930 --> 00:19:58,109 appealing to government Muslim courts, yeah. 440 00:19:58,329 --> 00:20:00,470 If they had their own Jewish courts and communal 441 00:20:00,470 --> 00:20:03,410 autonomy, why are they airing their dirty laundry 442 00:20:03,410 --> 00:20:05,750 in front of Muslim judges? Doesn't that undermine 443 00:20:05,750 --> 00:20:08,529 their own rabbis? Oh, the rabbis absolutely hated 444 00:20:08,529 --> 00:20:10,789 it. They issued edicts against it constantly. 445 00:20:11,049 --> 00:20:14,190 But people are ruthless pragmatists. They engage 446 00:20:14,190 --> 00:20:16,509 in legal forum shopping. They just went to whichever 447 00:20:16,509 --> 00:20:18,529 court would give them a better deal. Exactly. 448 00:20:18,630 --> 00:20:21,309 And Zinger highlights how Jewish women use this 449 00:20:21,309 --> 00:20:23,849 specifically for marriage and divorce. Because 450 00:20:23,849 --> 00:20:27,049 under Jewish halakha, divorce is completely unilateral. 451 00:20:27,559 --> 00:20:30,160 The husband has to willingly grant to get a bill 452 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:33,890 of divorce. If he refuses, the woman is an aguna, 453 00:20:33,970 --> 00:20:36,710 a chained woman. Right, she's trapped. The rabbinic 454 00:20:36,710 --> 00:20:39,490 courts had limited leverage. But the Islamic 455 00:20:39,490 --> 00:20:42,009 legal system had different mechanisms for financial 456 00:20:42,009 --> 00:20:44,630 settlements and dissolving marriages. So a Jewish 457 00:20:44,630 --> 00:20:47,289 woman would just go to the Muslim Qadi court, 458 00:20:47,430 --> 00:20:49,829 or threaten to go, not to actually get an Islamic 459 00:20:49,829 --> 00:20:52,750 divorce, but to use the Muslim judge's coercive 460 00:20:52,750 --> 00:20:55,430 power against her husband. Precisely. She'd use 461 00:20:55,430 --> 00:20:57,410 the threat of a worse financial ruling under 462 00:20:57,410 --> 00:21:00,250 Islamic law to force him back to the Jewish court 463 00:21:00,250 --> 00:21:03,059 to grant the get. It's brilliant. It's an incredibly 464 00:21:03,059 --> 00:21:05,339 sophisticated manipulation of the system. It 465 00:21:05,339 --> 00:21:07,619 just proves they weren't cowering in isolated 466 00:21:07,619 --> 00:21:11,140 ghettos. They were deeply embedded in the Islamic 467 00:21:11,140 --> 00:21:13,680 legal fabric. And that intense pragmatism is 468 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,339 the perfect bridge to Spain or Allen Dulles, 469 00:21:16,380 --> 00:21:18,779 which Janus Gerber covers. This is the famous 470 00:21:18,779 --> 00:21:21,660 golden age. Right. The era everyone thinks of. 471 00:21:21,930 --> 00:21:24,650 urbanized elites in Cordoba and Granada, Hebrew 472 00:21:24,650 --> 00:21:27,549 poetry, advancements in philosophy and medicine. 473 00:21:27,750 --> 00:21:29,890 And at the pinnacle, you have figures like Hz. 474 00:21:30,009 --> 00:21:32,369 Ibn Shaprut in the 10th century. He served the 475 00:21:32,369 --> 00:21:34,849 Umayyad Caliphs in Cordoba. He was a physician, 476 00:21:34,890 --> 00:21:37,009 but he basically acted as a prime minister and 477 00:21:37,009 --> 00:21:39,450 chief diplomat. He's the one who oversaw the 478 00:21:39,450 --> 00:21:41,910 translation of that ancient Greek medical text, 479 00:21:42,089 --> 00:21:45,430 the Oscorides Materia Medica, into Arabic, right? 480 00:21:45,589 --> 00:21:48,309 Yes, coordinating with Byzantine monks and Muslim 481 00:21:48,309 --> 00:21:50,470 scholars. Okay, but applying our theoretical 482 00:21:50,470 --> 00:21:53,660 framework from earlier, The Pact of Umar explicitly 483 00:21:53,660 --> 00:21:57,079 says Jews cannot hold political authority over 484 00:21:57,079 --> 00:22:00,759 Muslims. Yet here is Hasdeh negotiating treaties 485 00:22:00,759 --> 00:22:03,160 and bossing around Muslim administrators. It's 486 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:05,920 a massive structural contradiction. It's like 487 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,539 a company having a strict dress code in the handbook, 488 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,700 but the CEO wears sweatpants every day. The rule 489 00:22:11,700 --> 00:22:14,680 exists. But reality is totally different. That's 490 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:17,259 a great analogy, but Gerber warns that this discrepancy 491 00:22:17,259 --> 00:22:20,180 was incredibly dangerous. The state desperately 492 00:22:20,180 --> 00:22:22,500 needed competent, multilingual administrators, 493 00:22:22,519 --> 00:22:25,440 so they hired whoever worked best. But the general 494 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,380 populace knew what the religious law demanded. 495 00:22:27,839 --> 00:22:30,220 Exactly. When the gap between the theoretical 496 00:22:30,220 --> 00:22:33,240 lowly demistatus and their actual vast wealth 497 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:35,880 and power became too glaring, it offended the 498 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,000 divinely ordained order in the eyes of the majority. 499 00:22:38,319 --> 00:22:41,069 Which triggered violent backlashes. Like when 500 00:22:41,069 --> 00:22:43,589 the Almoravids and Almohads swept in from North 501 00:22:43,589 --> 00:22:46,529 Africa. They saw these powerful Jews, thought 502 00:22:46,529 --> 00:22:49,069 the society was corrupt, and just shattered the 503 00:22:49,069 --> 00:22:51,430 Golden Age. They forced them to choose between 504 00:22:51,430 --> 00:22:54,829 conversion, exile, or death. So you have the 505 00:22:54,829 --> 00:22:57,230 Mediterranean core oscillating between cultural 506 00:22:57,230 --> 00:23:01,109 heights and terrifying purges. Meanwhile, the 507 00:23:01,109 --> 00:23:03,890 frontiers were experiencing huge geopolitical 508 00:23:03,890 --> 00:23:06,509 chaos. Right, moving into Section 5, Cross and 509 00:23:06,509 --> 00:23:08,920 Crescent. Brendan Goldman's chapter talks about 510 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,740 the 11th century, where the Seljuk Turks are 511 00:23:11,740 --> 00:23:14,440 invading Syria and Catholic Normans are invading 512 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,660 Islamic Sicily. The political map is just being 513 00:23:16,660 --> 00:23:19,259 shredded. Yeah. So imagine you're an Arabic -speaking 514 00:23:19,259 --> 00:23:22,119 Jewish merchant in Palermo, Sicily. Your trade 515 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,799 networks go to Cairo. Suddenly, a massive army 516 00:23:24,799 --> 00:23:27,180 of French -speaking Catholic Norman knights conquers 517 00:23:27,180 --> 00:23:29,220 your city. You'd think your world is over, right? 518 00:23:29,279 --> 00:23:31,839 You would. But Goldman highlights the surprising 519 00:23:31,839 --> 00:23:34,779 historical mechanism, administrative continuity. 520 00:23:35,279 --> 00:23:37,480 Wait, they just kept things running? Yeah. The 521 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,839 Norman invaders didn't want to destroy the economy. 522 00:23:40,059 --> 00:23:42,799 They wanted to tax it. And they didn't have the 523 00:23:42,799 --> 00:23:45,599 manpower or linguistic skills to manage this 524 00:23:45,599 --> 00:23:48,240 complex Mediterranean tax system. So they just 525 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:50,839 surrendered on terms. The new Catholic bosses 526 00:23:50,839 --> 00:23:53,539 kept the old Arabic -speaking Jewish and Muslim 527 00:23:53,539 --> 00:23:55,900 bureaucrats because they were the ones who knew 528 00:23:55,900 --> 00:23:58,759 how the ledgers worked. Exactly. The Jewish merchants 529 00:23:58,759 --> 00:24:01,660 adapted seamlessly. They kept their trans -regional 530 00:24:01,660 --> 00:24:04,119 networks alive across these violently shifting 531 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,920 borders, trading between the cross and the crescent 532 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,779 because the demand for spices and textiles didn't 533 00:24:09,779 --> 00:24:12,079 stop for regime changes. Speaking of spices, 534 00:24:12,380 --> 00:24:15,160 Amir Asher and Elizabeth Lamburn's chapter takes 535 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:17,700 us way beyond the Mediterranean, all the way 536 00:24:17,700 --> 00:24:19,940 to the Malabar coast of India. Right, the India 537 00:24:19,940 --> 00:24:22,240 book documents from the Geniza. These merchants 538 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,819 were sailing across the Arabian Sea to buy pepper 539 00:24:24,819 --> 00:24:27,240 and iron. But there's this one phenomenal artifact 540 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,759 they highlight that predates most of the Geniza. 541 00:24:29,900 --> 00:24:34,000 The column copper plates from 849 CE. Yes, it's 542 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,619 a land grant from a local Hindu ruler to a Syrian 543 00:24:36,619 --> 00:24:38,859 Christian church. But to make it legitimate, 544 00:24:39,039 --> 00:24:41,180 the ruler needed the signatures of the prominent 545 00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:43,619 merchant guilds in the port. And among the Arabic 546 00:24:43,619 --> 00:24:46,390 and Middle Persian signatures. There is a signature 547 00:24:46,390 --> 00:24:49,410 in Judeo -Persian Persian written in Hebrew letters. 548 00:24:49,630 --> 00:24:53,930 From an Arabophone Jew named Ismail B. Yakub, 549 00:24:54,150 --> 00:24:56,829 signing a legal document in India in the year 550 00:24:56,829 --> 00:25:00,829 849. That is just incredible physical proof of 551 00:25:00,829 --> 00:25:03,529 a permanent, deeply integrated Jewish community 552 00:25:03,529 --> 00:25:06,509 operating in India centuries before the Geniza 553 00:25:06,509 --> 00:25:09,170 letters. It proves how global this network was, 554 00:25:09,369 --> 00:25:11,970 which transitions perfectly to the farthest reaches 555 00:25:11,970 --> 00:25:15,430 of our deep dive, the Islamic East. from Iran 556 00:25:15,430 --> 00:25:18,509 to China, covered by Ofer Haim. Because we've 557 00:25:18,509 --> 00:25:20,329 been so focused on the Mediterranean thanks to 558 00:25:20,329 --> 00:25:22,549 the Cairo Geniza, but there's a newly discovered 559 00:25:22,549 --> 00:25:25,210 Afghan Geniza, right? Right, found in caves in 560 00:25:25,210 --> 00:25:27,549 Vamiya in Afghanistan. It dates from the 11th 561 00:25:27,549 --> 00:25:29,890 to 13th centuries, and it totally de -centers 562 00:25:29,890 --> 00:25:32,789 our view. We're seeing huge, vibrant Jewish communities 563 00:25:32,789 --> 00:25:35,450 on the eastern frontiers. Haim even notes they 564 00:25:35,450 --> 00:25:37,569 reached Guangzhou in China by the 9th century. 565 00:25:37,829 --> 00:25:39,970 But being that far out totally changed how the 566 00:25:39,970 --> 00:25:42,049 religion developed. They were thousands of miles 567 00:25:42,049 --> 00:25:44,450 away from the rabbinic academies in Babylonia. 568 00:25:44,710 --> 00:25:47,049 Right. The rabbis couldn't enforce their rulings 569 00:25:47,049 --> 00:25:49,789 out there. So geographic isolation became an 570 00:25:49,789 --> 00:25:52,990 incubator for theological innovation. The East 571 00:25:52,990 --> 00:25:55,930 became this volatile hotbed for non -rabbinic 572 00:25:55,930 --> 00:25:59,430 sects and messianic movements, like Abu Isa al 573 00:25:59,430 --> 00:26:02,450 -Isfahani in the 8th century. Oh, that's a spectacular 574 00:26:02,450 --> 00:26:05,789 example. He claimed to be a prophet, instituted 575 00:26:05,789 --> 00:26:08,930 totally new religious laws like seven daily prayers 576 00:26:08,930 --> 00:26:12,339 instead of three, banned meat and wine. And he 577 00:26:12,339 --> 00:26:14,180 actually militarized his movement, right? Yes. 578 00:26:14,319 --> 00:26:17,599 He raised a rebel army of thousands of Jews and 579 00:26:17,599 --> 00:26:20,700 openly clashed with the Abbasid Caliphate. It 580 00:26:20,700 --> 00:26:22,740 was a military failure, but the fact that he 581 00:26:22,740 --> 00:26:25,240 could mobilize that many people shows how fiercely 582 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,019 independent and pluralistic those Eastern communities 583 00:26:28,019 --> 00:26:30,920 were. They were just synthesizing new theologies 584 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,519 and charting their own paths. Okay, let's take 585 00:26:33,519 --> 00:26:35,339 a breath and recap this immense journey. Good 586 00:26:35,339 --> 00:26:37,720 idea. It's a lot of ground. We started with the 587 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,460 cracked mirror of the Cairo -Guineas, and how 588 00:26:40,460 --> 00:26:42,759 history was written backward by victors like 589 00:26:42,759 --> 00:26:46,539 Shirira Gaon to silence rivals. We broke down 590 00:26:46,539 --> 00:26:48,740 the Dima system and the Pact of Umar, seeing 591 00:26:48,740 --> 00:26:51,440 how pragmatic rulers ignored the rules to hire 592 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,359 Jewish elites, which eventually led to puritanical 593 00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,009 backlashes. And we traced it back to Arabia, 594 00:26:57,329 --> 00:27:00,029 looking at pre -Islamic Jewish kingdoms and how 595 00:27:00,029 --> 00:27:02,930 Muhammad used economic warfare and the assassination 596 00:27:02,930 --> 00:27:06,369 of poets to dismantle tribal loyalties. Then 597 00:27:06,369 --> 00:27:08,710 we watched the center of gravity shift to Egypt, 598 00:27:08,890 --> 00:27:11,289 where women were legal shopping in Muslim courts. 599 00:27:11,839 --> 00:27:15,019 We saw merchants survive Norman invasions through 600 00:27:15,019 --> 00:27:18,380 administrative continuity, found a Judeo -Persian 601 00:27:18,380 --> 00:27:21,619 signature in India, and ended with armed messianic 602 00:27:21,619 --> 00:27:24,059 rebellions in the Afghan mountains. It is just 603 00:27:24,059 --> 00:27:26,599 a breathtaking historical tapestry, and it really 604 00:27:26,599 --> 00:27:28,700 leaves us with a profound final thought about 605 00:27:28,700 --> 00:27:30,660 human societies. Oh, I like where this is going. 606 00:27:30,990 --> 00:27:33,349 Well, we've seen how massive geographic distance 607 00:27:33,349 --> 00:27:35,789 from the center allowed communities in the East 608 00:27:35,789 --> 00:27:38,410 to innovate and rebel, right? While communities 609 00:27:38,410 --> 00:27:41,109 in the Mediterranean thrived by embedding themselves 610 00:27:41,109 --> 00:27:44,009 deeply in the majority culture systems. Right. 611 00:27:44,089 --> 00:27:46,849 Isolation bred radical innovation and proximity 612 00:27:46,849 --> 00:27:49,549 bred deep synthesis, which makes you wonder about 613 00:27:49,549 --> 00:27:52,230 our hyper -connected modern world. Exactly. Today, 614 00:27:52,549 --> 00:27:55,549 there is no frontier left. There's no isolated 615 00:27:55,549 --> 00:27:57,630 province weeks away from cultural authority. 616 00:27:58,319 --> 00:28:01,880 So is it even possible anymore for entirely new, 617 00:28:02,019 --> 00:28:05,819 isolated variations of a culture to incubate 618 00:28:05,819 --> 00:28:08,660 like they did on the fringes of medieval empires? 619 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,920 Or, because we are constantly digitally connected, 620 00:28:12,220 --> 00:28:14,839 are we mechanically destined for just a completely 621 00:28:14,839 --> 00:28:17,440 homogenized global identity? It's the ultimate 622 00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,380 paradox. We have instant communication, but we 623 00:28:20,380 --> 00:28:22,680 might have destroyed the deep, slow incubation 624 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,650 that only physical isolation provides. Whether 625 00:28:25,650 --> 00:28:27,849 our world can sustain that medieval level of 626 00:28:27,849 --> 00:28:30,750 profound diversity, it remains to be seen. Well, 627 00:28:30,829 --> 00:28:32,609 on that note, we want to thank you, the listener, 628 00:28:32,730 --> 00:28:34,710 for joining us on this meticulous, globe -spanning 629 00:28:34,710 --> 00:28:36,650 journey through Part 1 of the Cambridge History 630 00:28:36,650 --> 00:28:39,329 of Judaism, Volume 5. We have barely scratched 631 00:28:39,329 --> 00:28:41,529 the surface here. Our exploration into these 632 00:28:41,529 --> 00:28:43,210 mechanics will continue in the next installment. 633 00:28:43,630 --> 00:28:46,009 Until then, keep analyzing the history you read, 634 00:28:46,049 --> 00:28:48,150 and remember that the mirror of the past is always 635 00:28:48,150 --> 00:28:48,710 a little cracked.