Following the death of Muhammad and under his successors known as Caliphs, the Islamic religion spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. It was also during this time that the Islamic world diverged into two main branches - the Sunna and Shi'a, a division originated in a dispute regarding Muhammad's rightful successor. The Muslim Empire lasted in different forms up until the beginning of the 20th century, when it ended with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Over the centuries several imperial centers arose, each viewing itself as a leader of the entire Muslim community. During the years of expansion, in early medieval times, the derogatory characterizations and descriptions of the Jews found in the Quran were expanded and amplified in Islamic sacred texts, such as the Hadith, a collection of traditions containing sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as in literature dealing with the life of the Prophet. At the same time however, the traditions and policies stemming from the more tolerant attitudes were present as well. The vast territories that came under Islamic rule brought with them large numbers of non-Muslim groups and peoples. This diversity demanded a practical policy that would regulate the activities of non-Muslims and would ascribe a clear place to them. Members of monotheistic religions gained the status of Dhimmi, non-Muslims under protection of Muslim law. On the one hand, this status meant they had to exist under restrictions and limitations, but on the other, it allowed them a certain level of religious and social autonomy. As part of this status, Jews who were living in various areas throughout Islamic ruled North Africa, Iberia, and the Middle East, were able to exist in relative peace, especially compared to Jews in Christian Europe. However this relatively peaceful existence depended on their acceptance of their inferior status in society. Islam, again, regards Judaism and Christianity as divine religions. The Jews and the Christians are what is called "People of the Book", that is they have a divine book given to them by God. Therefore Jews and Christians, although they are inferior to Muslims and although they should always be subordinate to Muslims, under Islam, or under Islamic law and Islamic culture, they enjoy tolerance. They are allowed to practice their religion, they enjoy internal autonomy. However it should be essential that their inferiority toward Islam, vis-à-vis Islam, should always be emphasized. Now if we look at the attitude of Muslims or Islam toward Jews and Christians we have to distinguish between texts and historical conduct. Texts as I mentioned - Jews enjoyed tolerance, they are "People of the Book", but there ara also a series of restrictions imposed upon the Jews. For instance Jews were not allowed, ideally, to build synagogues, they were not allowed to ride horses, they were supposed to wear special dress, or signs on their dress, they had to pay a special tax called Jizya, which is a poll tax, and here the Quran says that they had to do it in a humiliating way. So textually there is a very clear discrimination against Jews. In reality we can see changing periods, and it depends on the place and time, and historical circumstances. We can say clearly that Jews enjoyed much greater tolerance under Islam than under Christianity. until the modern period. More than that, except for few cases, there waere no forced conversions of Jews, except for Iran and in Morocco in the 11th century, and we hardly saw any physical attacks on Jews. In this regard Islam as a religion, or the Muslim world, was much better toward Jews than Christianity. In fact Jews historically regarded Islam or the Muslim kingdoms as what they called "Malkhut Khesed", that is "righteous kingdom". Jews emigrated from Christian countries to Islam. For instance if we look at the 15th century, when there was the mass expulsion of Jews from Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the largest Muslim empire at the time, opened its gates toward the Jews, welcomed the Jews, and tens of thousands of Jews moved to the Ottoman Empire where they enjoyed great tolerance and autonomy, and Jews were very grateful to the Ottomans. On the other hand as I said, Jews are always subordinate, inferior to Muslims. Here we should say that the Muslims were very anxious lest the non-Muslims do not understand their place. That is whenever a minority tried to change its allotted place of inferiority, here you can say Muslim tolerance disappeared, and then we see signs of great intolerance. For instance in Spain, when we had a Jew, Shmuel HaNagid, fulfilling a very high position in the Muslim Kingdom, this created anger when he died and his son succeeded him, there were anti-Jewish riots which ended in a mass pogrom. That is Jews should know their place. In the 19th century for instance we see much greater intolerance toward Christians, because Christians violated their allotted [place], or tried to challenge their rightful place in the Muslim hierarchy. The Jews in fact were not touched.
