Judaism in Arabia before Islam

Jews came to the Arabian Peninsula in at least two movements, as al-Rahiq al-Makhtum presents them: a migration after the Babylonian and Assyrian conquests of Palestine, and a migration after the Roman occupation of it. Through them Judaism spread among a part of the Arabs, and it came to have a place in the political events that preceded the rise of Islam and that occurred in its early days. ^{1 2}

The migration of the Jews in the time of the Babylonian and Assyrian conquests of Palestine arose from the pressure upon them, the devastation of their land, and the destruction of their temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE, and the captivity of their leaders to Babylon. A part of them left Palestine for the Hijaz and settled in its northern regions. ^{1 2}

It begins with the Roman occupation of Palestine under Titus in 70 CE. The pressure of the Romans on the Jews and the destruction of the temple led many of their tribes to travel to the Hijaz, where they settled in Yathrib (Medina), Khaybar, and Tayma, and founded villages, fortified towers, and castles there. ^{1 2} Judaism spread among a part of the Arabs through these migrants. ¹

When Islam came, the best-known Jewish tribes were those of Khaybar, al-Nadir, al-Mustaliq, Qurayza, and Qaynuqa'. Al-Samhudi in Wafa al-wafa noted that the number of Jewish tribes exceeded twenty. ^{1 3} See the Jewish tribes of the Hijaz.

Judaism entered Yemen through Tubba' As'ad Abu Karib, who went to Yathrib as a warrior, embraced Judaism there, and brought two rabbis from the Banu Qurayza to Yemen. Judaism then expanded and spread there. Later his son Dhu Nuwas did what he did to the Christians of Najran in the trench. ^{1 4 5}

The author holds that by the time Islam came, Judaism had turned into hypocrisy and arbitrariness, its leaders controlled the people and called them to account even for the thoughts of the soul, and they made their aim the favour of wealth and leadership. ⁶

The last paragraph is the author's judgement rather than a neutral description. The views of modern scholarship, and of the Jews themselves, on the history of the Jews of the Hijaz have not yet been added. The name "al-Mustaliq" appears among the Jewish tribes as the book gives it, although the biographers count the Banu al-Mustaliq as a branch of Khuza'a; this needs checking.