Nicholas Blincoe

"Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished, laying foundations for subsequent Jewish cultural prosperity - also in Christendom - through the medieval period into the modern world." This is the opening paragraph of "So, What Did The Muslims Do For The Jews?", an essay by David J Wasserstein, the Eugene Greener Jr Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. It was published in The Jewish Chronicle on 24 May 2012. History is not a science, and historians will often interpret the same data in different ways, particularly so when writing in different eras. This reality notwithstanding, Professor Wasserstein's essay, and the many details he references, provides a useful and necessary corrective to the fact-free, ahistorical ideological ravings that have become all-too-common substitutes for serious historical research and analysis. My thanks to @xtc_uk for drawing my attention to this important essay in his response to one of my less gifted trolls. Link to full article, well worth reading in its entirety: thejc.com/opinion/so-what-di…