In his comprehensive history Children of Abraham: The 1,400-Year History of Jewish – Muslim Relations, Marc David Baer debunks prevailing myths regarding Jewish – Muslim relations. Baer, a professor and the chair of the International History Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science, argues that the Israeli – Palestinian conflict does not accurately represent the broader historical relationship between Muslims and Jews. He asserts that depictions of pre-1948 relations as either consistently antagonistic or as interfaith utopias oversimplify their complex and often productive nature. Drawing on extensive research, Baer offers a more nuanced account.
The book is divided into two sections: the pre-modern period (610–1789) and the modern era (1789 to the present), focusing on the Middle East and Europe. Baer analyzes Jewish–Muslim relations through the lens of power dynamics. During the pre-modern period, Jews living in Muslim-majority countries adopted the local language and culture while practicing their faith. Baer points out similarities in religious beliefs and practices, which added to the groups’ compatibility. He claims that a “creative symbiosis” developed that enhanced the groups’ shared secular cultures in language, literature, science, philosophy, poetry, music, and commerce.
Baer analyzes relations in Middle Eastern and North African countries during the pre-modern period. He also explores the Turkish Jewish Khazar Kingdom (during the eighth to tenth centuries), the Muslim–Jewish alliance in Al-Andalus, the Muslim Kingdom in Spain (during the eighth through the seventeenth centuries), and the Ottoman Empire and Morocco’s acceptance of the Sephardic Jews following their expulsion from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. That the Jews saw the Muslims as allies and saviors is unsurprising, given their policy of dhimmi, which provided tolerance and protection to descendants of the Abrahamic tradition, Jews and Christians. This stood in stark contrast to Jews’ treatment in the Christian West, where forced conversion, expulsion, and pogroms, often leading to death — such as during the Crusades — were prevalent.
The conception of tolerance in pre-modern Muslim society differs from today’s view. The dhimmi was a hierarchical system where Muslims at the top provided protection in exchange for acceptance of legal and social restrictions and payment of a yearly poll tax, the jizya. Islam was considered the true faith, while other religions were tolerated and allowed communal autonomy and religious freedom. Enforcement of the dhimmi varied by place and time, allowing some Jews to rise to prominence.
The second part of the book details the decline of Jewish–Muslim relations in the modern era, which Baer attributes to European colonialism, the rise of ethno-racial nationalism, and Islamophobia. He explains how the shift from religious anti-Judaism to racial antisemitism in parts of Europe led to the Holocaust. Baer argues that the postwar conflict between Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism, along with the creation of Israel, intensified hostilities. This led to the gradual expulsion of nearly one million Jews from Arab lands, where they had lived since pre-modern times. Baer also notes that these Jews faced discrimination from European Jews upon arriving in Israel.
Despite the trauma and tragedy of the modern period, Baer argues that enmity is not a result of ongoing religious hatred but a consequence of recent historical forces. He believes that the past can be a prologue to a future where Israeli and Palestinian states can coexist and prosper. The final chapter explores Jewish–Muslim interfaith organizations working to promote understanding and hope today.
Linda Kantor-Swerdlow is a retired Associate Professor of History Education from Drew University and the author of Global Activism in an American School: From Empathy to Action. She is currently freelancing and reviews books and theater.
