Editing Antisemitism in Islam (section)

===Iberian Peninsula===
With the [[Al-Andalus|Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]], Spanish Judaism flourished for several centuries. Thus, what some refer to as the "[[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain|golden age]]" for Jews began. During this period the Muslims of Spain tolerated other religions, including Judaism, and created a heterodox society.<ref name="Poliakov741">Poliakov (1974) pp. 91–6</ref>

Muslim relations with Jews in Spain were not always peaceful, however. The eleventh century saw Muslim pogroms against Jews in Spain; those occurred in [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] in 1011 and in [[Granada]] in 1066.<ref name="Schweitzer267-268">Schweitzer, pp. 267–268.</ref> In the [[1066 Granada massacre]], a Muslim mob crucified the Jewish [[vizier]] [[Joseph ibn Naghrela]] and massacred about 4,000 Jews.<ref>[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=412&letter=G&search=Granada Granada] by Richard Gottheil, [[Meyer Kayserling]], ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]''. 1906 ed.</ref> The Muslim grievance involved was that some Jews had become wealthy, and others had advanced to positions of power.<ref name="Schweitzer267-268" />

The [[Almohad]] dynasty, which seized rule over Muslim Iberia in the 12th century, offered Christians and Jews the choice of conversion or expulsion; in 1165, one of their rulers ordered that all Jews in the country convert on pain of death (forcing the Jewish rabbi, [[theologian]], [[philosopher]], and [[physician]] [[Maimonides]] to feign conversion to Islam before fleeing the country). In Egypt, Maimonides resumed practicing Judaism openly only to be accused of [[apostasy]]. He was saved from death by [[Saladin]]'s chief administrator, who held that conversion under coercion is invalid.<ref>Kraemer, Joel L., ''Moses Maimonides: An Intellectual Portrait'' in ''The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides'' pp. 16–17 (2005)</ref>

During his wanderings, Maimonides also wrote [[The Yemen Epistle]], a famous letter to the Jews of [[Yemen]], who were then experiencing severe persecution at the hands of their Muslim rulers. In it, Maimonides describes his assessment of the treatment of the Jews at the hands of Muslims:<blockquote> ... on account of our sins God has cast us into the midst of this people, the nation of Ishmael [that is, Muslims], who persecute us severely, and who devise ways to harm us and to debase us.... No nation has ever done more harm to Israel. None has matched it in debasing and humiliating us. None has been able to reduce us as they have.... We have borne their imposed degradation, their lies, their absurdities, which are beyond human power to bear.... We have done as our sages of blessed memory have instructed us, bearing the lies and absurdities of Ishmael.... In spite of all this, we are not spared from the ferocity of their wickedness and their outbursts at any time. On the contrary, the more we suffer and choose to conciliate them, the more they choose to act belligerently toward us.<ref>Maimonides, "Epistle to the Jews of Yemen", translated in Stillman (1979), pp. 241–242</ref></blockquote>

[[Mark R. Cohen|Mark Cohen]] quotes Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, a specialist in [[medieval]] European Jewish history, who cautioned that Maimonides' condemnation of Islam should be understood "in the context of the harsh persecutions of the 12th century and that furthermore one may say that he was insufficiently aware of the status of the Jews in Christian lands, or did not pay attention to this, when he wrote the letter". Cohen continues by quoting Ben-Sasson, who argues that Jews generally had a better legal and security situation in Muslim countries than Jews had in [[Christendom]].<ref>Cohen (1995) pp. xvii–xviii</ref>