The Linguistic and Cultural Ties Between Arabs and Jews

Inter-cultural relations between Arabs and Jews trace their roots to pre-Islamic times and have taken place in the shadow of a prolonged and violent political setting in the Middle East.

Judaism originated in the Fertile Crescent. Since the 2nd century BC, Jewish populations inhabited the region of Babylonia and were sharing their land with people of other religions. The beginnings of the Diaspora in the 6th century BC and the Muslim presence in the Holy Land in the 7th century with the capture of Palestine led to a linguistic influence on Jewish populations that adopted the Aramaic language. Jewish urban residents, who specialized in trade and crafts, were speaking Arabic.

Under the rule of Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain Jewish populations flourished. Their exceptional prosperity took place, for the most part, in Spain, under the reign of the Caliphate of Cordoba (756-1031). For the Jewish populations of Spain, known as Sephardic Jews, this period is considered the Golden Age because they have exposed an increased activity in commerce, agriculture, medicine and finance, although initially Muslim bureaucrats had tried to keep them out of the political sphere of influence.

Beyond any doubt, Arabic culture and language had a lasting effect on the Sephardic cultural evolution. The adoption of Arabic language, not only facilitated the integration of the Jews into the Arabic culture, but it also influenced Sephardic philosophy and science. Educated Jews had the opportunity to come in contact with intellectual achievements of Arabic culture as well as Arab texts and translations of classical Greek and Roman literature. The thorough regard of the Arab grammar and style stirred an interest for philology, while a wider interest in the arts, math, medicine, astronomy, and geography led to a mental awakening of the Sephardic population.

In the 11th century, the Jews suffered the invasions of the Seljuk Turks in Jerusalem in 1071 and the Siege of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099. Because of the poor relations between the Muslims and the Christian Western Europe, in 1096, nearly 30,000 Crusaders gathered upon the call of Pope Urban II to fight against Islam to recover control of Jerusalem and to hinder the expansion of Seljuk Turks into Anatolia. On July 15, 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, invading it through the Jewish quarter. Jews, greatly disappointed from Christian anti-Semitism that was strongly evident before the Crusades, fought side-by-side with the Muslims to defend the Holy Land.

In the 19th century, a great number of non-Arabic speaking Jews emigrated to Palestine and Egypt. Many Jews from Baghdad emigrated to India and the Far East. After 1945, Arab nationalism turned against the Jewish populations of Syria and Iraq leading them to immigrate to Israel. Because of the Suez War, in 1956, large part of the Jewish population in Egypt had to leave the country. Because of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), most of the Jews had to immigrate.

Jews who have been living in the Arab world are widely known as Arab Jews. Advocates of the term suggest that ‘Arab’ refers mostly to linguistic and cultural influences rather than to ethnic identity. Many people use this term to define Arabic-speaking Jews, but definitely not to identify Jews as Arabs in terms of religion, race or ethnicity.

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