A major new inscription that recently surfaced on the antiquities market and has been acquired by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem sheds dramatic new light on the run-up to the Maccabean revolt in the second century B.C.E. Until now, almost everything we know about the Maccabean revolt, which freed the Temple from the desecration of […]
Geniza Document, trans. S. D. Goitein, in Mosseri Collection, L-12, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton, 1973), pp. 213–15. Excerpted from Norman Stillman, Jews of Arab Lands, 247-248. (August 1198) to Aden. Immediately after his arrival he was brought before the self-styled caliph, who said to him: “Become a Muslim, or you will cause the death of your brethren.” […]
Primary Sources Forced Conversion of the Jews of Aden A Twentieth-Century Yemenite Version of the Pact of Umar, 1905. Sir John Hope and the Yemenites, Excerpt from The Statistical Bases of Sir John Hope’s Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development in Palestine, Jewish Agency, 1931. Secondary Sources The Exodus from Yemen Images San’a Pentateuch, […]
Jews settled in the Middle East in antiquity and came under Muslim rule in the 7th century. In the medieval period, Jews were protected and tolerated by their governments, but also treated as inferior to the local Muslims. In the twentieth century, the Jews were expelled from almost every Islamic country and centuries-old communities were […]
Jews and Judaism stood at the cradle of Islam. This fateful conjunction had a lasting impact on the character of the new religion and greatly affected the destinies of the Jews who were to live under its shadow. The Prophet Muhammad created a religion — Islam; a unique book — the Qur’ān; and a state […]
Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group The reverse shows Zeus(King of the Gods) enthroned carrying the Goddess Nike(Victory). See also: Silver Tetradrachm of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 164 BCE