the .303 bookworm wrote:
Interesting, last time I read anything about the decline of Islam (The Haj) it said that one of the reasons was the increasing mongol invasions that bled the empire causing a regression as well as causing more intolerance towards outsiders...
The "Haj" or "Hajj" is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Unles you've run across a take on the word that I have not heard before.
But yes, the decline in the Islamic Empire was caused by the Mongols, but the distrust in outsiders and foreign beliefs and philosophies was a part of that. Still, the Mongols were in many areas assimilated into Islam, to the point that there is a large Muslim population living in Western China today.
...Jews for example were once the doctors, philosophers etc.. of the empire and were very highly regarded by Muhamed after a few centuries even before the increased Palestine immigrations the status towards jews was nearly as bad as in eastern europe. (slightly less progroms but pogroms nonetheless)
During the Crusades, Salah-al'diin (Saladin) had a close advisor who was a Jew, Musa Maimun ibn-Maimun, or Moses Maimonodes as he was known in the West. Salah-al'diin himself was a Kurd from northern Iraq. Jews and Chjristians wer elaregley tolerated and even held in high esteem. Jews frequently held high positions in the courts of the sultans.
If there was some need to blame the Sultan for anything, he would deflect blame onto the 'court Jew' and dismiss him, frequently, I am told, to re-hire him some time later when the ruckus had died down. Christians and Jews had to pay a tax but I am of the understanding that it was a largely live-and-let-live situation.
Again, tolerance was more widely practiced back in these much-ballyhood "Golden Age Days" of Islam, something the radical fundies haven't stopped to consider. This hypocrisy is not pointed out by Muslim scholars in the know, and most of them are. They've got oo much tied in with the jihadist movement to declare them apostates now.