The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History (Hardcover)

by Andrew G. Bostom (Editor), Ibn Warraq (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Andrew Bostom produces a vast literature of Middle Eastern Islamic antisemitism, and critics may be as surprised at his conclusions as they are unable to refute his carefully compiled corpus of evidence." -- Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, author of Carnage and Culture (2001), and A War Like No Other (2005)

"For years scholars focused almost exclusively on the roots of Christian and secular antisemitism to understand the animosity targeted toward Jews in Western civilization during more than two millennia. But there's a parallel tradition, one far more explosive today: Islamic antisemitism and anti-Zionism. September 11, 2001 fostered a new age of conflict based on it. It's crucial that we don't shy away from analyzing its misconceptions, its history and strategies. Postponing such exploration is not only foolish but dangerous. Andrew Bostom offers a wide-ranging sampler of readings to start the task, from the Qur'an itself and the early biographers of Muhammad to the pre-modern theologians and jurists, and onwards to the major articulators of discontent in the modern era. His eye-opening anthology should become an essential resource." -- Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture & Five-College 40th Anniversary Professor, Amherst College, author of The Disappearance: A Novella and Stories, and editor of The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature and The Scroll and the Cross: 1,000 Years of Jewish-Hispanic Literature.

"Stimulating and informative: a fascinating and disturbing voyage of historical discovery...It is magnificent." -- Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill, and author of Never Again: A History of the Holocaust, (2000), and The Jews of Arab Lands: Their History in Maps, (1976)

"The publication of the present anthology...is a ground breaking event of major scholarly, cultural, and political significance....Everyone interested in Jewish and Islamic history, as well as current events in the Middle East should read this book--and soon." -- Steven T. Katz, Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University, and author of Post-Holocaust Dialogues (1984), and The Holocaust in Historical Context (1994)

"[A] priceless, indispensable, and authoritative resource which is being made available when it is most needed. -- Richard L Rubenstein, President Emeritus University of Bridgeport; Lawton Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus, Florida State University; Author, After Auschwitz, The Cunning of History, and Jihad and Genocide: The Nuclear Dimension (forthcoming)

"Andrew Bostom has performed a rare and welcome service with the publication of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism. He has patiently assembled an enormous body of primary sources that document the brutal Jew-hatred that has characterized much of Islamic culture from its earliest days. The book's importance goes far beyond the historical record, for it shows convincingly that the fledgling movement--and widespread Western hopes--to reform Islam, and imbue it with anything approaching true toleration, faces enormous obstacles." -- Dr. Michael Ledeen, author of Universal Fascism (1972), and most recently, The Iranian Time Bomb (2007)

"Andrew Bostom's book is timely and instructive in educating all who wish to learn the roots of Islamic Antisemitism. It is one of the most important books of our time and should be read by all." -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel (2007), and The Caged Virgin (2006)

Product Description
Foreword by Ibn Warraq

This comprehensive, meticulously documented collection of scholarly articles presents indisputable evidence that a readily discernible, uniquely Islamic antisemitism--a specific Muslim hatred of Jews--has been expressed continuously since the advent of Islam. Debunking the conventional wisdom, which continues to assert that Muslim animosity toward Jews is entirely a 20th-century phenomenon fueled mainly by the protracted Arab-Israeli conflict, leading scholars provide example after example of antisemitic motifs in Muslim documents reaching back to the beginnings of Islam.

The contributors show that the Koran itself is a significant source of hostility toward Jews, as well as other foundational Muslim texts including the hadith (the words and deeds of Muhammad as recorded by pious Muslim transmitters) and the sira (the earliest Muslim biographies of Muhammad). Many other examples are adduced in the writings of influential Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars, from the Middle Ages through the contemporary era.

These primary sources, and seminal secondary analyses translated here for the first time into English--such as Hartwig Hirschfeld's mid-1880s essays on Muhammad's subjugation of the Jews of Medina and George Vajda's elegant, comprehensive 1937 study of the hadith--detail the sacralized rationale for Islam's anti-Jewish bigotry. Numerous complementary historical accounts illustrate the resulting plight of Jewish communities in the Muslim world across space and time, culminating in the genocidal threat posed to the Jews of Israel today.

Scholars, educators, and interested lay readers will find this collection an invaluable resource for understanding the phenomenon of Muslim antisemitism, past and present.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 766 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; Reprint edition (June 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591025540
• ISBN-13: 978-1591025542
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #278,304 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muslims Contra Jews and Christians, May 26, 2008

By	F. Ramos "Exhaustive Thinker" (Ontario, CA USA) - See all my reviews

On a Side Note, here is a book that may be of interest to those who are interested in reading about Buddhist Violence through the centuries (Buddhism is pretty bloody actually, despite the euphemized western version of peaceful and compassionate Buddhism) : Buddhism and Violence (Publications of the Lumbini International Research Institute, Nepal) (Publications of the Lumbini International Research Institute, Nepal)

Andrew Bostom does humanity a great service to historians, theologians, sociologists, archeologists, Christians, Jews, and Musims by writing this huge book. This book is a database of historical accounts (unaltered and complete) on Islamic sentiments towards Christians, but mainly Jews, throughout the centuries up to today's manifestations anti-Hebrew ideology with incredible detail. One should buy this book just to have an exhaustive history of Muslim persecutions, anti-semitic laws, punishments, stereotypes, beliefs, and even disgust of Christians and Hebrews from the primary sources and secondary sources of Islamic texts.

This book lets history represent itself and allows for the historical Muslims to speak their minds and views as they originally did in their allotted time. Through this book, Historical Islam can be scrutinized and compared to Modern Islam to see if the situation between Muslims and Jews has gotten any better through out the centuries. The Qu'ran is given extensive treatment as well and the contributing authors document verses of the Qu'ran, passages of the Sira (the early biographies of Muhammad) and the Hadith (the traditions of the Muslims) that are used by anti-semitic Muslims to justify their views on their supposed fallen Hebrew and Christian brothers. Along with this, a huge amount of historical testimony, expert commentary, multiple stories of Muslims in power throughout history express their sentiments toward the Hebrew. The origins of Muslim anti-Semitism are documented, including detailed accounts of Muhammad's encounter with the Hebrews during his lifetime.

The book is dense and informative and is to be seen as a historical database for Muslims and non-Muslims in terms of history of relations and views between Muslims and Hebrews. Muslims and non-Muslims should read this book and decide for themselves as to whether Islam was ever completely friendly to the Hebrews and Christians and how Islam has affected world history.

Here are the Parts and Chapter titles of the book (not all chapters will be named since there are so many. It's ridiculous. But, I will mention as many as possible):

Part 1: Islamic Antisemetism - Jew Hatred in Islam
1. A Survey of It's Theological-Juridical Origins and Historical Manifestations

Part 2: Anti-Jewish Motifs in the Quran and It's Exegesis
2. Quranic Verses
3. Jew Hatred in the Islamic Tradition and Koranic Exegesis

Part 3: Anti-Jewish Motifs in the Hadith
4. Excerpts form the Canonical Hadith Collections
5. Jews and Muslims according to the Hadith

Part 4: Anti-Jewish Motifs in the Sira
6. Muhammad's Jewish Adversaries at Medina
7. The Affair of the Banu Qaynuqa
8. The Assassination of Ka'b b. al-Ashraf
9. The Brothers Muhayysisa and Huwayyisa
10. The Raid against the Banu Nadir
11. The Extermination of the Banu Qurayza
12. Muhammad and the Jews of Khaybar
13. Excerpts form the Sira of Ibn Sa'd
14. Muhammad at Khaybar
15. History of the Jews of Medina

Part 5: Muslim Jurists, Theologians, and Scholars on the Jews: Classical and Postmodern Era
16. The First Jews Oath in Islam
17. Why the Muslims Prefer the Christians to the Jews
18. A Renegade Jew as the Source of the Shi'ite "Heresy" and the Conspiracy to Destroy the Early Islamic Caliphate
20. A Collection of Legal Opinions Demonstrating the Attitudes of Muslim Jurists and Citizens towards Jews of Muslim Spain and North Africa, 15th-19th Centuries
21. Anti Jewish Anecdotes from an Anti-Dhimmi Treatise
25. "Adversos Judaeos": A Treatise from Maghrib

Part 6: Muslim Jurists, Theologians, and Scholars on the Jews: Modern Era
26. Our Struggle with the Jews
27. The Jews in the Qu'ran
28. The Jewish Attitude toward Islam and Muslims in Early Islam
33. Our War with the Jews Is in the Name of Islam
34. The Jews of Today Bear Responsibility for their Forefathers' Crime against Jesus
35. The Jews' Twenty Bad Traits as Described in the Qu'ran

Part 7: The Jews of Arab Muslim Lands: Historical Maps

Part 8: The Dhimmi Condition for Jews, and the Muslim Jew Hatred: Early Islam through the Modern Era
37. Evidence on the Poll Tax from Non-Muslim Sources: A Geniza Study
38. Concerning the Situation of Jews and Christians in Seville at the Beginning of the 12th Century
41. Moses b. Samuel, a Jewish Katib in Damascus, and His Pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca
43. The Pact of Umar in Morocco: A Reappraisal of Muslim-Jewish Relations
44. New Documents Regarding Attacks upon Jewish Religious Observance in Morocco During the Late 19th Century
45. Jews under Muslim Rule II: Morocco 1903-1912
46. A Moroccan Jewish Experience: A Revisionist View
48. "Outcaste": Shi'a Intolerance
49. The Expulsion of Yemenite Jewry to Mawza' in 1679-80 in Light of Recently Discovered Sources
50. Conversion to Islam among Yemenite Jews under Zaydi Rule: The Positions of Zaydi Law, the Imam, and the Muslim Society
52. Palestine under the Rule of Ibrahim Pasha
53. The Dhimmi Factor in the Exodus of Jews from Arab Countries
55. Modern Egyptian Jew Hatred: Indigenous Elements and Foreign Influences
56. Judaism and Islam as Opposites
57. Islamic Fundamentalism, Antisemetism, and Anti-Zionism
58. Based on Qu'ranic Verses, Interpretations, and Traditions, Muslim Clerics State: The Jews are Descendents of Apes, Pigs, and Other Animals
59. Jews as "Christ Killers" in Islam
60. Antisemetism in (Contemporary) Islam: Europe in the Conflict between Tolerance and Ideology

Part 9: Documents and Eyewitness Accounts
61. Decrees of Dhimmitude, 850-1905
62. Jews as Dhimmis and Muslim Chattel, 1790-1949
63. Two Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Modern Era before the Creation of Israel: Baghdad (1941) and Tripolitania (1945)
64. Light-Skinned Egyptian Muslim Repeatedly Beaten by His Co-religionists for "Looking Jewish"
65." Jews in Grave Danger in All Muslim Lands"
66. New York Times Reports on the Exodus of Jews from the Arab Muslim Middle East, 1955-1962
67. An Eyewitness Account of the Anti-Jewish Riots in Tunis at the Outbreak of the Six-Day War (1967)
68. A Libyan Jew Breaks Her Silence Thirty-Six Years after Surviving the 1967 Tripolitan Pogrom
69. The Modern Rhetoric of Antisemetic Jihad Genocide

Appendixes

Bravo for Bostom and Company! This book is an excellent reference and deserves a wide audience, especially the Muslim audience. Muslims should read this to understand they history of anti-semitism and non-Muslims like Christians, but mainly Jews should read this too for the friendly and unfriendly history of their ancestors and see what some of them had to put up with.

For anyone interested in the history of the Quran as a text and the corruption of the Quranic text please read: Variant Readings Of The Quran: A Critical Study Of Their Historical And Linguistic Origins by a Muslim, In Search of the Original Koran: The True History of the Revealed Text, and What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary.

For anyone interested in Islamic Superstitions like believing the Quran to be a work of science then please read The Bible, the Qu'ran and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge. To see how Islam has viewed science through the ages please read An Illusion of Harmony: Science And Religion in Islam.

For anyone curious about a Muslim-forged Gospel that is attributed to Barnabas of the New Testament and is believed by some Muslims to be the true Gospel of Jesus (from Surah 3:3 and other verses) by some Muslims please read Gospel of Barnabas (Apocrypha).

74 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Careful, Methodical, Debunking of Myths and Presentation of Important Data, June 1, 2008

By	Danusha Goska (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam." Andrew Bostom was working on a book about Islamic treatment of "dhimmis," "infidels" or non-Muslims, when he came across this quote by Sufi jurist Sirhindi (d. 1621). The virulence of this quote inspired Bostom to put his general work on Islamic treatment of dhimmis aside, for the moment, and to focus on Islamic anti-Semitism.

Andrew Bostom, a medical doctor, is a careful and ethical researcher and writer. Nowawdays, there is so much political frenzy around the question of Islam, that readers often fear that they are exposed to more heat than light in best-selling books. When reading Andrew Bostom, readers need not worry that they are being spoon fed propaganda.

Bostom works his way with painstaking slowness and exactitude through mountains of primary sources, and he presents that data to the reader, with full citations to original texts. Bostom uses Islam's own documents, including Islamic legal documents on Jews, and historical accounts of Jewish life in Muslim lands, to support his inevitable conclusion: from the earliest days, from the founding of Islam by Mohammed, and from Islam's central text, the Koran, anti-Semitism has been a central aspect of Islam, and any reform of this aspect of Islam will be very difficult.

Bostom effectively debunks three oft-repeated Islam-apologist myths: the alleged Islamic Golden Age, that Muslims learned their anti-Semitism from Christians or the West, and that anti-Semitism arose in the Muslim world only after the recognition of the state of Israel.

There was no "Islamic Golden Age" when persons of various faiths lived in peace and harmony under wise, tolerant Islamic rulers, Bostom insists. From the days of Mohammed, non-Muslims under Muslim rule were subject to taxation, humiliation, oppression, exile, and murder. Bostom devotes great energy to proving this through historical analysis.

Muslims did not learn their anti-Semitism from Christianity. Muslims who had never met a Jew or a Christian brought their culturally-ingrained anti-Semitism with them into India, a largely Hindu and Buddhist sub-continent. Nor did they aquire anti-Semitism from Scientific Racism's or Nazism's racial disdain for Jews. Arabs are Semites, just as Jews are. Muslims forced Jews to wear distinctive badges more than a thousand years before Hitler did so. Christians also had to wear identifying badges under Muslim leaders.

The Koran is replete with anti-Semitic verses, most notoriously, the ones equating Jews with "pigs and monkeys." There is also the hadith, or saying of Mohammed, that rocks will speak to Muslims, asking them to kill Jews. These verses are freely cited by Islamic religious leaders today, as Muslim sermons posted on youtube reveals. Mohammed, the founder of Islam, exercised murderous hostility toward Jews.

It will be very difficult to discover reformers within Islam who wish to co-exist with Jews in respect and tolerance; it will be even harder for those reformers to realize their dreams. Islam leaves no room for reform, especially when it comes to hostility to non-Muslims, especially Jews. The Koran is believed to be the perfect, unchanging, eternal word of God, and the Muslim God refers to Jews as monkey and pigs.

Bostom's book is essential reading for those hoping to understand the truth about Islam.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Could Not Put the Book Down!, June 15, 2008

By	Elmann "Kenneth Ellman" (Newton, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have recently finished reading "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism by Bostom." I could not put the book down. I read it three times, perhaps more. I am still reading it again.
Bostom's presentation, organization and source material being vaster than my previous exposure gave an immersion that was both compelling and revealing.
I am familiar with the Koran having studied from the very well done edition "Revised and Edited by The Presidency of Islamic Researches, IFTA, Call and Guidance" published by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur-an. I have also read from various books such as "The Meaning of the Quran by Maududi" which is published by Islamic Publications (Pvt) Ltd. Lahore. There are parts of the Koran that impressed me with its adoption of the high moral and religious teaching of the Old Testament and parts that astounded me in its banality. I do believe that the Koran was written for its audience at that time. Perhaps for those people it fulfilled and gave them what was then needed. Certainly the commentary and Judicial decision of the Muslim community give greater insight into the meaning the Koran has for its community and geography.

But Bostom has now done a great service to those who want to learn. Every once in a while a book is created by a dedicated individual like Bostom who possesses the skill, commitment and time to exhaustively exclaim on a subject in a fully dispositive and authoritative manner. Whether that book is in the sciences or law or history does not matter. What matters is that such a book shines and leaves much of the related literature behind. You feel that having read the book its point is proven and that little else on that question needs to be told.

What Bostom has done is using unimpeachable sources and fully reliable documentation he has forcefully presented the argument that those who adhere to Islam cannot live in peace and equality with other faiths and peoples. Yes, he couches this argument as being directly related to the literature of conflict between Jews and Muslims, and of that he shows there is no doubt whatsoever. But his presentation leave no question that the legally formalized hatred toward Jews and Israel is fully transferable and perhaps equally directed to our Western Civilization and tradition and that of every other civilization Western or otherwise. And he does this largely but not exclusively with the documentation of various time periods from the Islamic community and others present in the community.

Keep in mind that Bostom in this book is not interested in the validity or merit of the Islamic faith. This is not an attack upon the religious choices made by those who are Muslim. It is though a clear and unassailable portrayal of the Islamic world as Islam views those non-Muslims who make up the rest of humanity. And it shows Islamic law and practice as a shadow and whip upon the human dignity and a miserable weight upon the future of the rest of humanity.

IF the beliefs and practices of the majority of those who adhere to Islam are truly as reflected in the sources and literature that Bostom has collected, then humanity will have a continuing nightmare that will only be resolved by the defeat and repudiation of such practices and ideas.
His work provides an insight in what Israel must cope with on a daily basis and with why Israel is only the first of many targets in this attack upon civilization as we know it. The Muslim world now has full and complete access to Western science and technology. If Bostom is correct then Islamic Law will use Western attainments as a sword to destroy what Islam perceives as its enemy and an incompatible civilization. Bostom has provided a valuable academic and scholarly discourse of this haunting problem. Kenneth Ellman, [e-mail]

Additional Comment on January 18, 2009:
This is in reply to those critical reviews and to "M.Sullivan", "Sam" and others who give no details of the alleged mistakes in this book.
I assume they give no details because they in reality cannot find any errors.
If you believe the author has committed error in the book then you should state where in the book that can be found and support it with citations to other authority such as the Koran.
You do not refer to any citations nor quote and page reference any support for your assertions. You fail to make any showings that this author made any statements that are untrue.
Where are mistakes by this author? You do not even refer to any chapter or verse of the Koran, and you pose no questions. You say nothing.
Why don't you actually make an analysis and aid in understanding.
Explain with citations what you are putting forth. What are the factual errors of this author?
Thank you.
Kenneth Ellman
[e-mail]