Carl,
You obviously didn't read all of your links, because if you had, you would have seen that while they all have those keywords, they don't all mean what you imply they mean.
Here, though, is one that addresses the issue of "second class citizenry" historically--reviewing a book that discusses a time when the shoe was on the other foot, with Jews being second class citizens in Islamic lands, at least legally. Interesting article (the ninth on your list), from the Jerusalem Post:
How Jews fared 'Under Crescent and Cross'
By ABRAHAM RABINOVICH
(October 29) -- A new book compares Jewish life in the Christian and Islamic worlds during the Middle Ages - two very different worlds for the Jews.
Once upon a time, in a not-so-distant land, Jews and Arabs lived in harmony.
The Jews paid discriminatory taxes, had to wear an article of clothing that set them off from Moslems, had no right of political self-determination, were prohibited by law from building new synagogues or repairing old ones, were required by law to take a subservient role in any business partnerships with Moslems and were, by law, second-class citizens. It was a golden age.
Off the books, the Jews prospered, lived full Jewish lives, built new synagogues and repaired old ones, were generally dominant in business partnerships with Moslems, mingled fraternally with Moslems at various social levels, and enjoyed extensive self-rule.
The land was Egypt - and, by extension, most of the Arab lands. The time was the high Middle Ages, the 10-13th centuries.
Are there lessons that Israelis and Arabs can learn today from that not-bad-at-all experience in coexistence?
No, says Prof. Mark Cohen of Princeton University, not if the aim is to use that history as a base for current policies. The circumstances then and now are just too dissimilar.
Yes, says Cohen, an authority on Jewish-Moslem relations in the Middle Ages, once Israelis and Palestinians have already made peace. This history can cement myths that will be useful in enabling the two peoples to live alongside each other as good neighbors.
Cohen, who has just completed a sabbatical at the Hebrew University, is the author of Under Crescent and Cross, which deals with Jewish life in the Christian and Islamic worlds during the Middle Ages. Those were two very different worlds for the Jews.
In the Christian countries, Jews could not own land, they lived in ghettos and occupied very confined niches in the economy, spurned by Christians. They were not indigenous and stood out physically, culturally and as newcomers. Above all, to the Christians the Jews were the despised killers of Christ.
On the face of it, the situation of the Jews in Islam didn't seem all that rosy, either. It was a tenet of Islamic faith that Jews and Christians were less worthy than Moslems and subject to restrictions. Every member of these minorities, rich or poor, was obliged to pay a burdensome head tax to which Moslems were not subject. In addition, taxes on their commercial dealings were twice that applied to Moslems. Members of the minorities were obliged to wear special belts to make it clear to all that they were not Moslems. There were restrictions too on building or repairing houses of worship. In practice, notes Cohen, a professor of Near Eastern studies, these restrictions were honored mostly in the breach by the Moslem authorities except for taxation. "That's money after all, and they took it seriously."
Unlike in Europe, Jews were permitted to own land, both urban and rural. Jews were involved in agriculture as they had been in Babylon as well. A major reason for the difference in attitudes towards Jews in the Moslem world from that in the Christian world was theological, contends Cohen. "Mohammed was not a messiah, he was a prophet. He recognized the existence of other religions. And he wasn't killed. There is no deicide for which the Jews could be blamed." The cross was an icon which served as a constant reminder to the Christian masses that Jesus had been crucified, but there was no similar icon in Islam that could serve as an incitement against Jews.
Another factor in the relative acceptance of the Jews was that they were not the only religious minority around as they were in Europe. Christians shared their status with them, which made them less of the "other."
While Jews in Europe were relative newcomers, easily distinguishable, Jews in Islamic lands were indigenous. "For the most part, they looked exactly like the Arabs," says Cohen. They also shared, to a large extent, their cultural milieu. There were largely Jewish neighborhoods but no exclusively Jewish ghettos.
Medieval documents found a century ago in the Cairo Geniza indicate that Jews and Arabs often lived next to each other amicably during that period. The Geniza also shows that far from being confined to a few occupations shunned by the majority population, such as moneylending, the Jews in Moslem lands practiced hundreds of occupations and were apparently not subject to any occupational restrictions.
"The marketplace was an interdenominational and nearly egalitarian venue," notes Cohen. "Islamic law permitted business partnerships with non-Moslems, as long as the Moslems had the dominant role. It was common for Jews and Moslems to go into business together. And we see from the Geniza that despite the law, the Jews were often clearly the controlling partner."
Jewish and Arab partners, we see from letters found in the Geniza, trusted each other and were personal friends. Jewish doctors and Jews serving in the upper ranks of the government bureaucracy mingled as colleagues with Moslem counterparts.
Doctors like Maimonides, for instance, took turns with Moslem doctors on the duty roster at hospitals and exchanged medical knowledge and, presumably, gossip. "Everybody knew who was superior, religiously and legally," says Cohen. "The Moslems were. The Jews didn't think so, but they knew the Moslems thought so. Personal friendship was frowned upon in Arab law because the Arab is supposed to be on top. In spite of this, there was a significant amount of mutuality."
Although Islam forbade the construction of new synagogues and churches, such structures are found in towns built after the rise of Islam, clearly in violation of that edict. Likewise with the ban on repairs to Jewish and Christian houses of worship - the synagogue in which the Cairo Geniza was found had itself been extensively restored more than once.
Jews were forbidden by Islamic law to teach their children the Koran, but copies of a Koran written in Hebrew letters were found in the Geniza synagogue storeroom. Why would Jews have wanted to study the Koran?
"They were interested in Islam," says Cohen. "It wasn't a matter of knowing your enemy but knowing your neighbor. Islam is very close to Judaism, much more so than Christianity, and the Jews felt this." Many Jews were in fact drawn to Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism. Among them was the son of Maimonides, Abraham, who inherited his father's place as head of the Jewish community. Abraham maintained that some Sufis were worthier disciples of the Jewish prophets than were many of his fellow Jews. Some of his congregation, disturbed at reforms Abraham introduced in synagogue practice, appealed to the sultan against these innovations, another instance of symbiotic relations.
Jews felt comfortable in Islamic religious courts to which civil cases were brought. "They were treated with equality there," says Cohen. "There is no evidence in the documents that they were disadvantaged.
" The rabbis came to terms with rulings in the Islamic courts even though it is forbidden in Halacha for Jews to go to the courts of the goyim, and they accepted legal documents executed in those courts as valid. Maimonides's responsa refer frequently to the interplay of Islamic and Jewish law.
The poll tax was indeed onerous, particularly on the poor. But, notes Cohen, it constituted a precious insurance policy. "If you paid your tax, your personal and property rights and your freedom of religion were protected. Islam was not ambiguous or arbitrary about this. That's the reason Jews were so anxious to pay it and get their receipt."
Differing modern assessments of this period - golden age or golden myth - are colored by the politics and weltanschauung of the viewer. In the 19th century, European Jewish scholars conceived of it, says Cohen, "as a kind of interfaith utopia" and used it as an argument against the Christian societies in which they lived - "Why can't you treat us as well as the Moslems did then?"
In our own time, says the Princeton scholar, this view has been taken up by the Arabs for their own purposes - as an argument against Zionism.
"The Arabs adopted the myth of an interfaith utopia and said that if there is a problem today is is because of Zionism.
"Do away with Zionism, with the state of Israel, and let's return to the halcyon days of the golden age." In recent decades, a countermyth has been promulgated by some Jewish writers who portray Islam as a persecutory religion from its beginning.
"Today the historical issue of Moslem-Jewish relations has political force," notes Cohen. "If you believe that relations have always been terrible there is no reason to trust any Arab today. The right wing favors this interpretation because it supports their political position."
However, the findings from the Cairo Geniza published in recent decades refute such a view, says Cohen. "Islam is not innately tolerant of other religions any more than Judaism and Christianity are," he says.
"But there are theological reasons why Islam's attitude towards Judaism is different than Christianity's. There were also historical circumstances which mitigated this intolerance of Islam."
It is important to be aware today of Jewish-Moslem relations in the Middle Ages, says Cohen, because many people tend to equate Islam with Hamas. However, it is important as well to understand that the political-social situation in the Middle Ages was not comparable to today's. The image of a golden age has little relevance at the negotiating table.
"When peace is made here - and I believe there will eventually be a Palestinian state - it will have to be on the basis of modern realpolitik and in light of conflicting nationalisms, not on the basis of medieval history," says Cohen.
"Peace will be achieved when the Moslems come to terms with the fact that they are not going to return to the medieval situation in which they ruled in Palestine and when the Jews recognize that they are going to have to grant self-determination to the Arabs, who have a claim to it.
"Once the parties are at the point where they not only begrudge each other's existence but actually learn to live together in political and economic symbiosis, then I believe they can fall back on the memory of the past and feel that there is something intrinsic in Moslem-Jewish relations that can give encouragement to a new kind of relationship."
From Cohen's mouth to God's ear.
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