1

In the summer of 2015, I participated in a Fulbright-Hays Group Project abroad in Morocco. There were three faculty and twelve students, seven of whom were themselves current professors at colleges and universities, and five were in a master’s program in education and teaching. We spent a month in the country, travelling and visiting museums, archeological sites, and receiving lectures from thirty different Moroccan intellectuals: sociologists, linguists, historians, and language instructors, members of business, educators, and government representatives. We had formal and informal tour guides, and our professors themselves, were a good source of perspective. As an historian, my ear was particularly sensitive to hearing the Moroccans we were interacting with explain their national story. This was usually in bits and pieces, but at times we heard a longer narrative. As the days went by, I began to realize that there were omissions from their story that even I, who has no particular training in Moroccan or Islamic history, were aware of. The version of the story that I was hearing was sounding very sanitized; the general metanarrative that I was hearing from the presenters did not align with the metanarrative that even I was aware of, for it ignored historical details about Moroccan intercultural relationships. A Metanarrative is a broad story that provides a “comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge.”1 Metanarratives provide a culture with a comprehensible account of its history, in a way that provides meaning and coherence. All cultures use story as metanarrative, (though postmodern theory postulates that metanarratives are inherently inaccurate, or even impossible. Jean François Lyotard famously regards metanarrative as unhelpful and reductionist. 2) As first I wondered if this distortion was because we were all Americans, and perhaps the Moroccans were putting on a positive spin on their history, in order to present Morocco in the most positive light. I soon rejected this explanation, because these same Moroccans were willing to express their criticism of their government, their institutions, and even other reformers in Morocco. Then I wondered if perhaps the version of the metanarrative that I knew was inaccurate. Perhaps I had mis-remembered what I had read, or perhaps what I thought I knew was wrong. Perhaps I should reject my own, western-biased and American perspective, and embrace the Moroccan and Islamic story that I was hearing. But, I rejected this, feeling that since I had learned my information from outside Morocco, from non-Moroccan sources. I felt that my information was more likely

1 See “Grand Narrative”, at http://www.researchgate.net 2 See, among other places, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Metanarrative

2

reliable, because it was published in regions of the world that protected academic freedom, and in which an author did not fear for this or her professional reputation, or livelihood. As I pondered this though, I soon discarded it as well. The professors who taught us frequently told us that they felt they had intellectual freedom to research, discuss and publish in their academic fields. Many of them had worked and studied abroad in Europe or the United States, and understood the ideas of western academic freedom. When pressed though, they admitted that sometimes they had to publish abroad, or in French and not in Arabic, so that the information would not enter general Moroccan society. To be sure, there was not any freedom to criticize the office of the monarchy, the king himself, his role as the “Defender of the Faith”, of Islam itself, nor of recent political decisions taken, especially regarding the Western Sahara and its status as Moroccan Territory. Academic freedom was limited by the political environment. Moroccan Academic freedom is also limited by the religious environment. In Morocco, according to the Pew Forum, Muslims comprise 99.9% of the population. 3 However, the academics we engaged felt that they had the freedom to say and write critically of Morocco. But what of its history? These thoughts led me to develop a working thesis: “The limits on intellectual freedom that Moroccans operate under caused them to be unable to criticize their own history in the way that Americans can.” Therefore their academic freedom did not extent to the historical narrative. Metanarrative in American History There have been many myths in American History that were a part of the American Metanarrative. Over time, these myths or known falsities were identified, and in many cases removed. Some persist still, but are known to be false or unverified, even if they are told and celebrated. Examples include the story of Washington and the Cherry Tree; Paul Revere’s Ride; Lincoln and the borrowed book, Pocahontas’ rescue of John Smith, the First Thanksgiving, Paul Bunyan and Babe, Over time, with a free press and free academia, distortions and misperceptions are identified and removed from the historical metanarrative, and micronarratives that were previously omitted are included. There is less distortion between the “truth of history” and the version that is taught to the public and believed. So, in American history, Columbus’ true motivations and behaviors are included, the First

3 http://www.pewforum.org/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population10/ accessed 9/12/15

3

Thanksgiving is accurately reported, slavery not seen as a “positive good” but as an evil, with the resultant fallout. The “Noble Savage” and his need to be “civilized is identified as a racist myth. Similar treatments are given to Manifest Destiny, Indian Relocation, the brutality of the Indian Wars; the “missile gap” during the Cold War, the Sinking of the USS Maine. Developing an accurate metanarrative requires freedom of access to information, well-trained historians with the support of academia and political institutions, a passion for truth and accuracy, and the ability for the population to be presented with narratives that will alter the nation’s perception of itself. This has been the challenge the United States has endured for the past forty years or more, with reporting of the Civil Rights Era, the Kennedy Assassinations, Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination, and the actions of the Nixon Administration. Other political events such as the role of the US Government in deposing Prime Minister Mussadegh and installing the Shah of Iran, the Involvement in the Chilean government and Allende’s assassination in 1973, the American relationship with Castro, American support for Ngo Dien Diem in Vietnam, the role and effect of racism in history, the Internment of Japanese Americans. The list of topics that are susceptible to revision and reexamination is very large. A tension between the public and academia can develop when historians explore the details and sources about such topics and reach conclusions very different from the standard and publically-held metanarrative. Frequently, such historians are met with skepticism and perhaps hostility. Famously, Howard Zinn and James W. Lowen published well-researched books which fell into this category. An example of this is the recent debate about what should be taught about American history Colorado’s Jefferson County, the textbook debates that happen every year in school districts around the nation. However, it would be wrong to interpret such a struggle as a concern or a problem. Americans struggle with their own history; it is permitted to do so. Freedom to assert and freedom to dissent are important natural rightes. The very existence of a struggle and debate about the “accuracy of history” shows academic health. So, the absence of a debate about a national history is cause for great concern. In places such as communist USSR or in China, where the state can mandate a metanarratives, there are official metanarratives, because in such places, there is not access to new and different historical information that may challenge the dominant historical metanarrative.

4

To the extent that this debate is joined by new generations, growing numbers of minorities and people with stories suppressed or distorted shows a healthy and growing national discourse of ideas and thoughts. The observation that I made over and over again in Morocco was that Moroccans today truly believe that their culture is religiously tolerant, and that Jews and Christians have been treated well by Muslims in the Maghreb and Andalusia throughout their history. They are proud of their ethnically rich Islamic-Arab-French-Spanish-Jewish-Amazigh heritage, and, even though the historical record shows that Muslims persecuted and subjugated the Christians, Jews and Amazigh who populated the region before and after the advent or Arab Islam, for modern Moroccans this is transparent to them. Moroccans believe that their history is one of toleration and peace. This is similar to how American treatment of Native Indian Populations during the Jackson administration, or treatment of blacks in the Post-Civil war South were transparent to most Americans, say in the 1930s-1970s. More observations about the nature of metanarrative will help to explain this. The Maghreb With this discussion about metanarrative under our belts, we turn our attention to the area of northwestern Africa, across from the Strait of Gibraltar, and running eastward to modern Tunisia, the Maghreb. This region and the Iberian Peninsula will be the focus of our narrative. The name Andalusia comes from Arabic “land of the running water”. There are many rivers flowing in Spain or Andalusia. Iberia likely comes from the Ebro River, in Latin Iberus This is a region that has been, and still is, a crossroads of cultures, ethnicity, nations, languages. Maghreb simply means “west”, and can refer to the modern area of Morocco and Algeria, or to a broader region including Tunisia, Western Sahara, and Mauritania and Libya. This region is of interest to me when I teach a Western Civilization course. In an exploration of western civilization textbooks, there is a dearth of information about this region, and ignorance therefore, about its significance. There are a variety of reasons for this. First, he coverage of the region before the rise of Islam is almost nil. The Maghreb is only of importance to the spread of Islam, but even then, it is minimal. Second, the coverage of the spread of Islam is cursory, both in the Maghreb and outside of it. For example, there are three textbooks that we use to teach Western Civilization I. Here is the totality of the coverage of Islam and its spread through the Maghreb and into Hispania:

5

• “The success of Islam in organizing itself and in promoting the religion not only throughout Arab lands, but beyond to Europe and the east is one of the great dramas of history.”4

• “Islamic forces now turned westward toward north Africa, capturing Byzantine Egypt by 646 and extending their control throughout the rest of north Africa during the following decades…but in 711 the Arabs crossed from north Africa into Visigothic Spain and quickly absorbed most of that territory, too.”5

• “During the next century one rich province of the old Roman Empire after another came under Muslim domination—first Syria, then Egypt, and then all of North Africa.”6

So, part of the my purpose with this project is to develop and include a fuller treatment of the details of the history of this region, as well as to challenge both the Moroccan metanarrative, and the broader Islamic conquest narrative because it ignores some of the truths of its Jewish, Amazigh, and Islamic history. It is an antiseptic version of its history. What follows are my observations about Islamic and Moroccan history. Much of what I write about was inspired by my time in Morocco. In some places I relate what I learned there; in other places, I heard or saw something in Morocco which prompted me to do some research when I returned. What follows is certainly not exhaustive; it will focus on what I discovered and what I found interesting. Also, it is written by an historian who comes to the subject of Islamic history through the lenses of a Messianic- Jewish American Europeanist male who teaches European and world history, both of antiquity and in the 20th century. My observations come from this perspective. The Project In order to more fully develop this narrative, there are a few population groups to have a look at: the Jews, the Carthaginians, the Berbers, the Romans, the Vandals, and the Arabs.

4 Perry M. Rogers, Aspects of Western Civilization: Problems and Sources in History, vol II, 7th ed., (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2011), p. 212. 5 Joshua Cole, Carol Symes, et. al., Western Civilizations, Their History & Their Culture, Vol 2, 18th edition (New York: Norton) 2014, p. 224. 6 John P. McKay, et. al., A history of Western Society, Vol 1, 11th ed., (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s) 2014, p. 223-

4.

6

Jews. There are references to Jews in the Maghreb in antiquity. Jews likely joined Phoenician Traders, for there is evidence of Jewish settlement in at Carthage (Kart Hadash, or "New City"), in their immigrations toward the west. Jews arrived in the Maghreb sometime after 586 BCE. 586 marks the Babylonian Captivity, after which some Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon tore down the city walls and Solomon’s temple Perhaps. 70-80% of the population was enslaved, and taken into captivity. Some of the Jews left in Judea fled westward into the Mediterranean system. A diaspora of Jews begins to be established in Damascus, Antioch, Ionian Cities, Athens and Rome. These are in place by the time of Paul’s journeys, for it is among these networks that the Gospel spreads. Some migrated west into Alexandria, where they established a thriving community in exile. Philo and Josephus both put the Jewish population of Egypt at one million Jews. It was the Carthaginians who influenced the coastal regions of Mauritania, as it was known then, and in these centuries between 500 and 202. This is when Jews join the local Amazigh (Berber) tribes. As a result, there were many Jewish-Amazigh tribes and families. Still other Jews moved further west, to Cyrene in Libya, where in that city there were and migrated as far as the Maghreb, into Morocco.7 There were Jews living in the Carthaginian cities of Carthageand then Roman city of Volibulis during the first three centuries BCE. 8 After the Great Jewish Revolt from 68-70 CE, Josephus tells us that Rome destroyed some 900+ Jewish villages, and upwards of a million people. Thousands more Jews fled into the Diaspora, to join older Jewish populations, and to establish new ones. These populations played essential roles in the spread of Christianity in the 1st-3rd centuries. In some ways, the Romans in 70 AD sewed the means for the establishment of Christianity and the collapse of Roman paganism. After the Bar Hochba Revolt in Judea of 132-135, the Romans prohibited Jews from remaining in Judea. Cassius Dio reports that 580,000 Jewish civilians were massacred, the rest sold into slavery. This revolt began over Circumcision, whether the temple would be rebuilt, and the Hellenization of Jerusalem, among other topics. Emperor Hadrian changed the name of Judea (iudea in Latin) to Philistia (named after

7 Owing to the gradual depopulation of Jews in Morocco during the 20th Century, especially after 1948, there

are few left, though ties are still present with Israeli Moroccans. I find it amazing that Morocco, falling from a

pre WWII Jewish population of some 140,000, to less than 5,000 today, is able to say with a straight face, that

they treated their Jews fairly. 8 http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4085-carthage Sept 12, 2015

7

the Jews ancient enemies, the Philistines) as a snub to Jews, who were barred from the region except on Tisha b’Av, a day of mourning, and it is now known as Palestine. The emperor also prohibited the practicing of the Sabbath, circumcision, the construction of synagogues. Jews who were Christians, so-called Messianic followers of Jeshua, were also prohibited from the region. This begins a significant divide between Messianic and Rabbinical Jews, and will motivate anti-Jewish sentiments which will later culminate in the anti-Jewish edicts and decisions of the Council of Nicaea in 325. Jews then fled all over the empire, and strived to live traditional lives, and continue to expand the Rabbinical synagogue system. Jews flee also into the Maghreb. Those who settle there will become known as the tovashim. They will strive to protect their identify and culture. In the Maghreb, the Carthaginians, who were the continuation of the Phoenician "Punic Peoples" grew and expanded into the Carthaginian Empire. This expansion brought it into conflict with the expanding Roman Republic, and famously, into a series of three Wars, the Punic Wars, which were fought between 264-146 BCE. Rome conquered Carthage, and reduced her to a vassal city state by 146. To administer the region, the Romans proclaimed Mauritania a client kingdom, and in 33 BC, established Volibulis as its capital with a puppet King, Juba, as the monarch. Juba was an Amazigh. The Maghreb became Roman, but rather than put a Roman in as governor, the Romans ruled it through a proxy king. The whole region of the Maghreb was divided into four provinces. The westernmost, Mauretania Tingitana , eventually became Morocco. The city of Volibulis was founded earlier as a Phoenician city, then became Carthaginian, then Roman, then Islamic and then was the capitol of Idriss I, the founder of the Idrissid Dynasty 788-791. He was the great, great, great, great Grandson of Muhammad the Prophet. He established the city of Fez, which will become the capitol under his son, Idriss II, after Idriss I was assassinated by poisoning in 791. It was under Idriss I that the Islamification of the region began After Juba died in 23 AD, the Romans eventually made Mauritania a Roman province, under an imperial governor in 44. The Amazigh, and Jews with them, remained in the interior of the Maghreb. Clashes and riots occasionally occurred. The 3rd century Crisis in the Roman Empire gave the Magazigh people the chance to grab self-government from the Romans, though they adopted Roman governing methods and maintained relations with the Romans. The expansion of Christianity brought the Roman areas under the control of local bishops, but only as far

8

south as Volibulis. The Roman army remained in the area providing stability. The region remained a part of the Western Roman Empire until 429-430, when the Vandals conquered it. During the Vandal siege of Hippo in 430, Augustine died, symbolically marking the end of the Roman era and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Hippo fell in 432. Vandals conquered the coastal areas, but again not the interior. They marched on Carthage and conquered it in in 439. The city population was at the races at the hippodrome, and the city fell without a fight.9 When the Byzantine general Belisarius attacked the Vandals in 534, the Romans had a variety of justifications. First, Justinian had protested the imprisonment of the Vandal King Hilderic by the usurper Gelimer. Gelimer refused to comply with two emissaries from Justinian for his release. Second, Vandal Arian Christians had persecuted Nicene Christians in North Africa. Justinian considered himself to be the “defender” of these Nicenes, who complained about persecution. Third, Vandal raids on Byzantine, Ostrogothic Italy and other nations were seen as unjustified and vicious. Finally, the territory the Vandals controlled was former Roman territory, and was the breadbasket of Africa. Belisarius landed in North Africa in 534, bent on the destruction of the Vandals. Historian Joshua Mark reports that he had a “fleet of 500 ships, 20,000 sailors, 10,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 92 smaller warships rowed by 2,000 slaves.”10 Outside Carthage, Belisarius fought the Vandal general Gelimer twice, once at the Battle of Ad Decimum (September 13, 533) after which he captured Carthage, and again at the Battle of Tricamarum (December 15 533). Gelimer’s surrender returned much or Roman Africa to the Byzantines. Justinian saw this as a major achievement, though it would be short-lived. 11 After his return to Constantinople, Belisarius received the last Triumph ever given in the Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The historian Procopius tells us that the spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem were paraded here, as well as vandal treasure from their raids. These included the Lampstand and the Menorah. So we see that the tangible consequences of the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 continue to be seen more than 400 years later. According to historian Wil Durant, “…no general since Caesar

9 Joshua j. Mark, Vandals, http://www.ancient.eu/Vandals/ 9/15/15 10 Mark, 316. 11 http://ahencyclopedia.tumblr.com/post/116568757724/people-of-the-ancient-world-flavius-belisarius

9/12/15.

9

ever won so many victories with such limited resources of men and funds; few ever surpassed him in strategy or tactics, in popularity with his men and mercy to his foes; perhaps it merits note that the greatest generals – Alexander, Caesar, Belisarius, Saladin, Napoleon – found clemency a mighty engine of war.”12.

12 Wil Durant, The Story of Civilization, accessed online at

https://archive.org/stream/storyofcivilizat035369mbp/storyofcivilizat035369mbp_djvu.txt

10

Mauritania became nominally a Roman territory again; This is to say, under a Byzantine Christian King. There would continue to be tensions between the residual Christian inhabitants, who practiced both Arian and Orthodox versions of Christianity. It was not until 548, that Byzantines subdued the local coastal Amazigh tribes, though not far inland, and not at all completely. The Byzantines took steps to suppress non-orthodox Christian religions in the coastal regions, but not in the Amazigh tribes. There were particular focus on the Donatists, as well as the Arians British historian Edward Gibbon relates that "five millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and government of the emperor Justinian"13. Those Vandals who survived continued to live under Roman rule in North Africa or migrated to Europe, but never formed a cohesive ethnic group again.”14 Let us now turn our attention to the spread of Islam. In the late 500s and into the Early 600s, the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empires fought a series of wars which left them, by 632, bankrupt, war-weary and internally divided. Neither was capable of defending their empires, and the new and motivated Islamic armies were able to defeat both of them, fairly quickly. From 622-718, Islamic armies, begun under Muhammad and afterwards by the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs initiated a series of military invasions of Arabia, Persia, the Byzantine Empire, and North Africa. The Caliphs who succeeded Muhammad were Abu Bakr (632-634 A.D.), Umar (634-644 A.D.), Uthman (644-656 A.D.), and Ali (656-661 A.D.) These caliphs ruled over the military and political expansion of Islam. The overall consequence of these operations were the unification of Islam in Arabia, and the and expansion of the territory under Islamic control to almost three million square miles. During Muhammad’s lifetime, he ordered or conducted as many as one hundred discrete military or operations (raids, attacks, assassinations, executions and battles).15 During the first 150 years of Islamic expansion, Muslims conquered by using force, threat of force, restrictive civil laws, persecution and manipulation. These methods help to explain Islam’s rapid and complete success. These methods were modeled upon Muhammad’s own example, and treatment of the tribes he encountered. According to Richard Gabriel,

13 Edward Gibbon, History of the decline and fall of the Roman empire,Vol 4, ch 23, Thomas Bowdler ed,

(London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green 1826; Google Books, online, Dec 12, 2015. 14 Mark, 316. 15 Richard Gabriel, Muhammad: Islam’s First Great General (Campaigns and Commanders Series), (Norman,

OK: University of Oklahoma Press), 2007.

11

The idea of Muhammad as a military man will be new to many. Yet he was a truly great general. In the space of a single decade he fought eight major battles, led eighteen raids, and planned another thirty-eight military operations where others were in command but operating under his orders and strategic direction. Wounded twice, he also twice experienced having his positions overrun by superior forces before he managed to turn the tables on his enemies and rally his men to victory. More than a great field general and tactician, he was also a military theorist, organizational reformer, strategic thinker, operational-level combat commander, political-military leader, heroic soldier, and revolutionary. The inventor of insurgency warfare and history’s first successful practitioner, Muhammad had no military training before he commanded an army in the field.16

These practices served to maintain the spread of Islam. In particular the use of the Jizya Tax, often referred to as the “head tax,” provided those subjugated with the opportunity to choose to join the Muslims, or to exist as second-class citizens saddled with an annual tax and behavioral restrictions, or to flee the region, abandoning their property in the process. Of these choices, often paying the Jizya was the most attractive. This series of choices would become a template for use for centuries. Later, after Islam established dominance, then it was able to moderate its treatment of non-Muslims, and indeed, gain by permitting Jews and Christians to remain unconverted and pay the Jizya tax. It is during these later episodes, after 711 in particular, that Islam shifted from the role of conqueror and subjugator, to the role of administrator and consolidator; the two roles should not be confused. There are many examples of Islamic expansion during this period, which are almost frequently absent from Western Civilization textbooks. What follows here is an annotated list to enrich the metanarrative and to exemplify how it was that Islam conquered the Christian and North African territories it will control for the next 1300 years. A number of examples will provide a sense of what is absent from the metanarrative: • 623 Caravan raids against Meccan caravans17 16 Richard A Gabriel, “Muhammad: The Warrior Prophet”, Military History Quarterly, May 17, 2007,

http://www.historynet.com/muhammad-the-warrior-prophet.htm 17 For more information about this see: Richard Gabriel, Muhammad: Islam’s First Great General (Campaigns and

Commanders Series), (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press), 2007); The Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library

12

• 624-625, attacks against various Arab tribes such as the Banu Nadir, Banu Muharib and Banu Talabah, Banu Salim to prevent them from leaving the Islamic faith, or to leave Muhammad’s authority

• 624 Attack and subjugation of the Jewish Banu Quazaru in Medina. • 624-627 Assassinations of five to seven Arabic leaders • 627 Battle of the Trench in Medina, and the consequent thousands of casualties. • Expulsion of two Jewish Tribes from Medina (Yathrib) • Massacre of Banu Qurayza, 900 beheaded, women and children enslaved. • Jan 630- Battle of Hunayn, waged in order to “attack the people of Hawazin and

Thaqif for refusing to surrender to Muhammad and submit to Islam because they thought that they were too mighty to admit or surrender" after the Conquest of Mecca18. After this, 6000 Women and children were captured.19

• Dec 627 --200 Banu Mustaliq families enslaved20 • 630 Battle of Autus: Defend against an attack by a league of tribes that formed an

alliance to attack [Muhammad]. Washington Irving asserts that the league was motivated and hostile against Muhammad because he was using force to spread Islam. They feared his retribution.21Under Abu Bakr, according to Moshe Gill, “They destroyed the local population mercilessly, destroying, burning and taking as many captives as they could” 22

• In 631, there were three armies of perhaps 3000-5000 each sent into Moab and Palestine. Defeated in 634 at Marj Suffar, but were victorious against the Byzantines later near Gaza. At this battle, the Byzantine army was the first to leave the field,

Project (DILP) at http://www.al-islam.org/life-muhammad-prophet-sayyid-saeed-akhtar-rizvi/battles ; Sahih

Bukhari, Book 59:at http://www.sultan.org/books/bukhari/059.htm ; and a well-documented list at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_expeditions_of_Muhammad . 18 Ar-Raheeq-ul-Makhtum, The Sealed Nectar, 1979, http://www.sunnahfollowers.net/sealednectar/ p. 261. 19 William Muir, The life of Mahomet and history of Islam to the era of the Hegira, Voll IV (Kessinger Publishing,)

2003, p. 142. 20 Ibid. 21 Washington Irving, Life of Muhammad (Ipswich Press; Rev Sub edition ) 1990, 111-113. 22 Moshe Gill, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1997, pp. 31–32,

accessed https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC&pg=PA31&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false Sept

6, 2015.

13

fleeing. The Samaritans were not able to escape. Some 4000 Christian, Jewish and Samaritan villagers were killed by the Arab armies. 23

• In the Riddah Wars, the Wars against Apostasy, Abu Bakr formed 11 corps, and sent them into Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen with the following instructions about how to force tribes back into submission:

23 Gill, 36-38.

14

With these instructions Abu Bakr launched the forces of his Caliphate against the apostates.

Apart from their specific objectives, the corps commanders were given the following instructions:

Seek the tribes which are your objectives

Call the Azaan.

If the tribe answers with the Azaan, do not attack. After the Azaan, ask the tribe to confirm its submission,

including the payment of zakat. If confirmed, do not attack.

Those who submit will not be attacked.

Those who do not answer with the Azaan, or after the Azaan do not confirm full submission, will be dealt

with by the sword.

All apostates who have killed Muslims will be killed.24

• East of the Sea of Galilee, the most significant battle between the Mulisms and the

Christian Byzanine Empire, the Battle of Yarmuk 636, happened. Here, the Byzantine army was destroyed and lost Syria and Palestine, territory that Rome had controlled for almost 700 years. This was under Umar.

• At Yarmuk more than 50,000 Byzantines were killed in this set-piece formation battle, at which there were as many as 150,000 participants total. Mark Welton notes, “Although Yarmouk is little known today, it is one of the most decisive battles in human history...... Had Heraclius' forces [the Byzantines] prevailed, the modern world would be so changed as to be unrecognizable” 25

• After Syria fell, the Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-A'as led an army of some 16,000, seized the city of Alexandria in 642, and the rest of Egypt along with it. This short list of military accomplishments gives the reader a sense of the speed and aggression that Islam used as it sent its armies to conquer Persia, and North Africa.26

Uthman succeeded Umar as Caliph. Under him, in 647, Abdallah ibn al-Sa’ad took 40,000 soldiers into central Africa to attack Carthage and Tripolitania. The Byzantine garrison, one of the last holdings outside Annatolia, and its army in Tunisia

24 Laura V. Vaglieri in The Cambridge History of Islam, vol 1A, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1970

p.58, accessed Sept 6, 2015: https://books.google.com/ 25 Mark Walton, Islam at war

26 The reader should be reminded that Islamic armies will penetrate as far north as Poitiers in France, and

will besiege the city of Vienna for a year in 1529.

15

fell at the Battle of Suefetula, located one hundred fifty miles to the south of Carthage. Though this was the last opportunity the Byzantines had to hold Islam back, religions and imperial differences undermined the local governor, Gregory the Patrician’s leadership. Al-Sa’ad returned to Egypt, but the campaign would continue later. Cyprus and Crete fell in 653 to invasion. In 656, Uthman was murdered and then in 661 Ali was murdered also. These events enabled the establishment of the Umayyad Dynasty in 662 in Damascus. Caliph Muawiya I consolidated his hold on lands from the Aral Sea to Egypt. (After Hussayn was assassinated in Karbala in 680, the family of Muhammad no longer ruled.) The Umayyads revived the extension of Islam again. Sicily was taken by a Naval expedition in 663. Then, in 665-689 Islamic armies progress through Annatolia itself, and finally laid the Siege to Constantinople herself in 674-678. This was the high tide of Islamic expansion until Constantinople fell in 1453. Note that this is only 42 years after Muhammad has died. It is one of the fastest military conquests in human history. As an exercise, on might compare this with the very slow and haphazard expansion of Christianity after 42 years. Also in 665-689, a second invasion to expand Islam across Africa began. In about 670, a Muslim army of perhaps 40,000 moved on Carthage via Barca. The Byzantines lost an army of 20,000. Afterwards, General Uqba ibn Nafi led 10,000 Arabs westward. To support this advance, The Umayyad Muslims (661-750) established a military base called Kairouan, which later became a city, in Tunisia, to support future operations westward. With Tunisia subdued, as historian Edward Gibbon notes: "Ibn Nafi plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fes and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert. In his conquest of the Maghreb (western North Africa) he besieged the coastal city of Bugia as well as Tingi or Tangier, overwhelming what had once been the traditional Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana.” 27 Here we see Islam arriving for the first time in the Maghreb. Though Uqba reached the Atlantic coast Amazigh and Byzantines ambushed him and he abandoned Tangier, returning to the Atlas Mountains. These local tribes saw the presence of Arab Muslims in the region as unwelcome. They were not seen here as liberators, but as occupiers. Meanwhile, the Byzantines continued to resist the Islamic conquest of Carthage. In 698, under the command of John the Patrician, a Byzantine landing force conducted a

27 Gibbon, Decline and Fall , Vol 2 CH XIII

16

surprise attack and recaptured Carthage while the local commander, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was fighting the Amazigh tribes in Tunisia. He returned, laid siege to the city, and successful recaptured it. Now, with the east consolidated, the Muslims were able to turn their full attention to the west, and the Maghreb. This summary of Islamic expansion emphasizes the importance of telling the complete metanarrative, to understand that Islam’s expansion was aggressive and determined. What becomes apparent is that the Muslims used a combination of military and political action to conquer a huge region in blatant aggression. All of the territory outside of Arabia was governed and occupied by people or governments, which had long been in place. The enthusiasm of Muslims to establish suzerainty with their young religion as the centerpiece was successful. Their goal was the expansion of Islam and the conquest and subjugation of the Roman Empire, and Christian nations in North Africa and Europe. We also see that both Islamization and Arabization were at work from the 680s through the late Middle Ages. The new religion, and the new Arab culture will both come to dominate the conquered regions. This historical perspective is absent from the western metanarrative, leaving students with the inaccurate impression that the expansion of Islam “just happened.” This narrative also helps to describe the early nature of Islam, and provides modern students with the opportunity to compare the agenda and objectives of a spreading Islam in the modern era with Islam in antiquity. The goal of Islam, even in the modern world, is still the expansion of the dar-al-Islam, the house of Islam, and the subjugation of the dar-al-harb, the non-Islamic world or the House of War. In the Maghreb Since the Amazigh and Jews were already present in the Maghreb, as Dr. Khalid Saqi, said to the Fulbright –Hays Morocco group “they are the target of Islam’”28 Islam will convert Jewish Amazigh tribes to Islam, as well as pressure non-Jewish Amazigh to convert, until, by the modern era, the existence of Jewish Amazigh tribes in Morocco and the Maghreb will only be a memory, and modern Muslims will sell their artifacts in the medina in Fez, and in Moroccan museums. Jews will not be able to withstand, and

28 Dr. Khalid Saqi, Lecture to the Fulbright-Hays Morocco group, 5/28/15 in Rabat. Dr. Khalid is the Director

of the Mohammed VI Institute for Koranic Readings and Studies.

17

will become subjugated by Arabs over the following centuries. The nomadic Amazigh Berber tribes tended to convert to Islam quickly, seeing benefit in joining the new religion, as well as cooperating with the most dominant political force in the region. However, after 700, some Amazigh and Jewish Amazigh tribes resisted Arabization. This is still being resisted today. Jews, Christians, and animists did not convert easily, and the process of their marginalization continued until completed under the twelfth century Almohad dynasty. Jews, who were well-experienced with living under occupation such as the Romans, the Babylonians, and the Byzantines, were able to adapt and continue to live within Northern Africa as dhimmis. This status under Islamic law gave them a modicum of protection. As such, they continued to serve in prominent economic and political positions. Jews in Morocco suffered under periods of great persecution At times these were small pogroms and deportations and massacres; these have become ignored or forgotten under the greater metanarrative of Moroccan-Jewish positive relations. There is speculation that a reason why Jews were better able to adapt is that by the 700s, Jews had been a second-class ethnicity and religion under the romans for 700 or more years, and they had endured occupation of their homeland since the times of the Assyrians, 1400 years ago. Judaism thus had learned to thrive under “occupation.” Christianity, on the other hand, while it had developed from a small Jewish sect, had come to dominate the Roman empire, and still was in Eastern and northern Europe. The concept of syncretism and cultural submission was not a concept that Christians could draw on, and thus, they were not willing to remain in a subject (dhemis) status. Since they were unused to living as a minority people since the Council of Nicaea in 324, and were unpracticed in living as a subject minority, indigenous local Christian communities in Morocco were gradually expelled or forced to move. Islamic rule did not tolerate them in positions of freedom and power. There are some Christian in North Africa today, but they trace their lineage to the colonial period, not to the time of Islamic expansion. These are very small, and only exist nominally. In the Maghreb, to the east of Morocco, the years from 690 until 697 saw the resistance by Kusaila, who led Christian Berbers in the Maghreb. When he converted to Islam, there was fighting between the Arabs and Amazigh, with converted Amazigh supporting the Arabs against the Christian Amazigh. By 711, Umayyad military forces were supported by converted Amazigh, and gained control of all of North Africa (Tunesia, Algeria and Morocco).

18

Arabs did not accept Amazigh as their peers, and a practice of Arabization and implementing cultural superiority and discrimination began. Methods such as taxation, being treated like second class citizens, being used as shock troops in front of Arab soldiers who survived in higher numbers, and enslavement in particular, or being treated like Dhimmis both alienated and infuriated the Amazigh. There are many stories of Arabs capturing and selling Amazigh women and girls into slavery. Indeed, slavery will become normalized and extensive by the 15th century. 29 This Amazigh desire for cultural protection is manifest today in Morocco, in campaigns by Amazigh to gain equality to Arabs in language, education and culture. Amazigh has only recently been recognized as an official language in Morocco. In 710 the Visigothic Governor in Hispania, Count Julian, asked for aid against his enemy Roderic, his King. This Visigoth civil war gave Musa bin Nusair the chance to enlarge his realm. He could not imagine how much success he would achieve. He ordered Tariq to invade but in a matter of days Tariq was advancing into the heart of Hispania . Musa led another army into Hispania in order to grab land and wealth. Both Musa and Tariq were summoned to the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus for treachery. Eventually, however, Musa was called to account for his treachery. Both he and Tariq Presented themselves to the Caliph in Damascus, and Musa was rebuked for his treachery. He died in disgrace shortly thereafter. 30 Amazigh Muslims, led by the Amazigh Tariq ibn Ziyad, crossed the Strait that bears his name today, Gibraltar, and landed at the rock in 711. The North African Viceroy, Musa ibn Nusayr, was astounded at Tariq’s quick success against the Visigoths, so in 712, he led another army into the interior. At the Battle of Guadalete in Hispania, fought in 711 or 712, the Christian Visigothic King Roderic lost to Tariz ibdn Ziyad, who led a force of Muslim Arabs and Amazigh. Roderic likely was killed, leading to the Muslim capture of Toledo, the ChristianVisigoths capital. According to Dr. Muhammad Chtatou, a handy way to think about the organization of society in the Maghreb is based on a consideration of the “Home

29 Professor Robert Davis (Ohio State University, Dept of History) in his book Christian Slaves, Muslim

Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500–1800 (Palgrave Macmillan:

2004). Places the African slave trade into a different perspective. He asserts that from the 1500s to the 1800s

North African Muslim slavers enslaved over one million Christian Europeans and brought them into Muslim

nations. Muslim slavers from Tunis and Algiers were particularly successful. 30 Alexander Mikaberidze, Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO:,

2011), p. 121.

19

Grown” Dynasties which ruled Morocco:31 In the 740s Morocco began to behave like and empire, under the following ruling dynasties Idrissids (789-974) 788 began the Abassid dynasty in Baghdad, after the last of the Umayyads were killed. However, two Umayyads escape to Egypt, one died and the other, Idriss, eventually fled to Morocco. With his claim to be the great, great grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, he became the leader of the Moroccans, and was crowned king by the local tribe, the Awarba. Thus, Morocco became separate and seceded from both the Umayyad and Abassid dynasties in the East. The Idrissid dynasty, which traces its history to the family of Muhammad, was established independently in Morocco. But, Idriss was not Amazigh, he was Arab. So, the establishment of this Islamic Dynasty in the Maghreb, which is still present today under the Aoulite King Muhammad VI, came at the expense of both the culture and the political autonomy of Amazigh, as well as Jewish pre-Arabian inhabitants. This part of the metanarrative is also omitted, both from western textbooks, as well as from Moroccan popular history. Idriss established his capital initially in Volubulis in 788. Then, he moved it to a hill that was defendable, called Moulay Idriss. Later the dynasty would found the city of Fez 789. During the rest of his reign, he subjugated Christian and Jewish Amzaigh tribes in the region to submit to him. From this point forward in history, the Maghreb will be described as “religiously tolerant,” but it was not tolerant in the modern use of that term. The minority religions of Judaism and Christianity were not tolerated, they were subjugated. To consolidate his rule among non-Arab Muslim tribes, Idriss demanded a Baya. This is the concept of a sworn allegiance. For Morocco, it will be the basis for the legitimate rule of the Idrissids and others. In a similar move of control, Idriss I married an Amazigh (Helena) in order to unite and pacify the Amazigh. When the Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid, in Baghdad learned of the existence of a competing Umayyad ruler in the Maghreb, Rashid decided to send an assassin. In this dramatic story, which has become part of the culture of Morocco, Idriss is poisoned by perfume. It was Idriss II, a bastard from a concubine born after his father’s death who succeeded Idriss I. This man, who was raised by Idriss I’s servant Rashid built Fez in 789.

31 Section based on information and organization in “Aspects of Morocco’s Foreign Policy”, handout and

lecture, by Dr. Mohamed Chtatou, June 2015 in Morocco.

20

From 808 onward, Jews and other non-muslims were permitted their own section in the city. For Jews, the Mellah became a place of refuge for them, since it was located close to the palace in the city, but also became a place of focus when anti-Jewish sentiments broke out. By the 850s, there was resistance on the part of Christian Visigoths. St Eulogius, defended the actions of the so-called “40 martyrs of Cordoba", Christians who were publically executed by beheading for denouncing Islam and the Prophet between 850 and 859. Eulogius himself would become a martyr for defending the forty. Some historians see the events as hagiography, for the martyrs may have incited the verdicts, wanting to make a statement about the nature of life under the Q’uran. 32 This incident, again absent from western textbooks, is helpful for providing a context for how Islam treats non-muslims when threatened. Kim Ezra Shienbaum and Jamal Hasan report in Beyond Jihad: Critical Voices from Inside Islam, about the historic and modern use of beheadings by Islamic governments. They show that the use of beheadings today, not only by ISIS, but also by nation-state governments, continue today because it is required by Quranic law. The use of executions for infidels was practiced during the time of the consolidation of Islam, and it remains a part of it today. As Andrew Bostom argues, the practice of beheading today is a normal and regular feature of Islam, for it has an historical basis, extending back to the Prophet who practiced it, as well as a legitimacy coming from later Islamic governments. 33 Professor Ahmed Radi , speaking to the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, noted that the “Moroccan Dynasties will all derive their legitimacy from Islam” 34 “Islamization was the most important event of the period, for it enables Morocco and Andalusia to detach themselves from Europe. Islam unifies the people and provides legitimacy and authority.35

32 Kim Ezra Shienbaum and Jamal Hasan Beyond Jihad: Critical Voices from Inside Islam (Academica Press,LLC, 2006). Also see Ramona Forrest and Judith Corcora, Lifting the Veil of Secrets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Black Opal Books, Dec 21, 2013 for a discussion about the persistence of beheadings today in Saudi Arabia. 33 Andrew G. Bostom “The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading” FrontPageMagazine.com, Thursday, May 13,

2004, http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=13030 accessed 12/5/15. Also see

http://phoenicia.org/berber.html . 34 Professor Ahmed Radi ,“History of Marrakech” lecture presented to Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad

June 16, 2015. Prof. Radi is Professor of English at the University Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech, Morocco. 35 Radi.

21

Almoravids (Morocco and Al-Andalus, 1040–1147) In 1031, when the caliphate in Cordoba weakens, small emirates called taifas begin to rule, some aligning with Christian kingdoms. The taifas pay tribute to them for considerations and protection. The dynasty begins in 1041. Its focus is in expansion, the final conversion of Amazigh tribes, and expansion south into Ghana. These come from Mauritania 1055-1147) by 1058, they control the couth area. Marrakech was initially a military base till 1070. Under the Almoravids, Islam became a psudo-national force. Marrakech became a huge regional trading center, and saw extensive development, incluiding underground water, craft workshops. By1085 the Christian King Alfonzo has been able to retake the city of Toledo from the Islamic emirate. In response, in 1086, the Almoravid Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin crossed from Morocco into Hispania to assist the Andalusian Muslims, the taifas, and defeated Alfonso VI, of Castile at the Battle of az-Zallaqah. A second victory occurred in 1090. These actions delayed the Reconquista, and served to unite the Almoravids across the Strait. The Almoravids fought hard to keep Christians from reclaiming the land of Spain. They worked, as the Quran says, to fight against the infidel. According to Dr. Chtatou, “However, in the Muslim faith, assistance to Muslims in danger is a religious obligation on the Sultan, commonly known as nusrat al-muslim (assistance to a Muslim) that calls for Jihad in dar I-kufr (in the land of the infidels).”36 There is also a family proverb that applies: “Me and my brother against my cousin; me and my brother and my cousin against outsiders.” This helps to explain the unity of Islam across the Strait, and perhaps also the unity of Islam across national borders. When faced with the “other”, Islam unifies against it. From 1147-1269, the Almohads reigned in both Morocco and Al-Andalus. These were purists and fundamentalists in religion, and it is their actions that are very much absent from the metanarrative. They demanded a complete ban on music. Women were to be veiled. They used force to implement their agenda. They saw a need for absolution, for religious purification. They wrestled with questions about how to be robust academically as well as religiously purified and also rule by force. It is during this period that Sufism expanded and grew. The Almohads were intolerant of Jews in Morocco and to a lesser extent, in Muslim Spain. The Almohads showed this by “forcing [Jews] to convert to Islam, live

36 Chtatou, p. 6.

22

under strict dhimmi status or leave their dominions all together.” 37 This is omitted from the metanarrative. 38For example, it is often said that the ability of “ibn Maymoun [Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)] considered to be the Greatest and most accomplished Jewish philosopher, to live and work in Cordoba, is an example of religious tolerance. In reality, he lived in fear of his life. Due to persecutions, he faked his conversion to Islam, chose to flee from Andalusia, and eventually went to Fostat in Egypt, which was more welcoming.”39 There are many documented instances of Almohad persecutions against Jews.40 The nature of the culture was not one of toleration, but of subjugation. The Almohads controlled Hispania only until the Battle of the Three Kings (Castille, Navarre, Aragon & Portugal) Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. Islam will remain in Andalusia, only in Grenada after this, till 1492. In Morocco, the Marinids (1244–1465), compared to the Almohads, were more tolerant of other faiths, and welcoming. Since they had lost most of Hispania, were mindful of the need to consolidate and defend their territory in the Maghreb, they did treat minorities with toleration. The Wattasids , ruling in Morocco, from 1471to 1554, were a short-lived dynasty. These rulers were in power when the mass exodus of Muslims and Jews came from Spain in 1492. After 1492, Sephardic Jews were welcome in Morocco, since they had ties to the Morros in Spain, and were themselves persecuted by the Spanish Catholics. Sephardics descend from families from the Iberian Peninsula. 41 Jews from Hispania were the megorashim, versus the local Jews already in Morocco, the tovashim who were in place in Morocco since the diaspora from after 70 AD. The megorashim settled in the

37 Chtatou, p. 5. 38 While outside the scope of this lecture, the actions of Moroccans against Jews after World War II will echo

this. Jewish population plummets from 180,000 in 1948 down to some 4-5000 today. 39 Ibid. 40 These include forced conversions, as well as killings. For some of these see: Ross Brann, Power in the Portrayal:

Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain, Princeton University Press,

2009, pp. 121–122 electronic, available at Google Books; Amira K. Bennison – MaríA ÁNgeles Gallego, “Jewish

Trading in Fes on the Eve of the Almohad Conquest”, University of Cambridge , electronic, accessed 9/12/15

http://www.cchs.csic.es/sites/default/files/Actividades/Almohad.MEAH_.pdf ; Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman,

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, (Cambridge University Press, 2003). 41 Other divisions of Jews include the Ashkenazi Jews, those who are in Europe and the Holy Roman Empire at the

turn of the first millennium. The Ashkenazi descends into the German and E. European Jews by the 20th Century.

Additionally, there are the Mizrahi Jews, which is a more recent and broad label for Jews of the Middle East.

23

Capital, Fez, in Tetouan, and in Marrakech, and in Rabat, Sale, El Jadida, and Tangier. They worked as royal interpreters, commercial agents, advisors. Some worked as ministers and government officials too. Because of the education and history of participation and advising of the various taifas in Hispania, some Jews are able to rise to positions of influence. There are trading networks as well. The Sharifian dynasties follow. These claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad, and therefore are considered “holy” Sharifian. They begin with the Saadians (1549-1659). During their reign, there was a golden age of prosperity and stability, agriculture, sugarcane, wheat, barley, maize, caravan trade with Africa. Therefore art, architecture, music, dress and etiquette flourish. These are followed by the Alawites (1666-present). Due to the decadence (westernism) of the Saadians, the purists the Alawites claim divine grace, or Baraka. Moulay Ali Sherif founded the dynasty, and claimed not only descent from Muhammad, but his divine blessing as well. 42 Observations about the Amazigh. Islamization became very thorough, and it permeated almost every part of Amazigh society: legal, education, mysticism, customs and norms, sources of authority and challenges to their identity. It will eventually change their main language from Amazigh to Derija, to Arabic. Today, there has been a resurgence of Amazigh cultural awareness, language training, education and the establishment of Amazigh as one of the three official languages of Morocco. Arabs did not generally establish cities, but rather avoided ruling in them, or took them over from Amazigh. So, for example, Amazigh built and dwelled in both Casablanca (Anfa) and Rabat, but the Almohads replaced them with Banu Hilal Arabs. The Amazigh cities of Tangiers, Meknes and Marrakesh were not resettled, so those cities have people who trace themselves back to their ancestral forbears, and the Amazigh cultural practices in cities such as Meknes, Tangiers, Tetouan, and Marrakesh can still be seen. These are not ethnic Arab cities, even though the Arabic language is dominant within them. There are notable Berbers in medieval history: Tariq ibn Ziyad, General who crossed over to Gibraltar: (Gibr Al-Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq)

42 Ibid. 7.

24

ibn Battua: Journeyer of 73,000 miles in the early 14th century Donatus Magnus, leader of the Donatist sect Aurelius Augustinus, or St. Augustine of Hippo Arius, who would become a Bishop of Alexandria, and then become the namesake of the Arian Christian heresy. Observations and Summary of Jews in Middle Ages Muslims did not see Jews as Christians saw them, as the “preservation of the curse from God”, and as people who needed to be maintained to dissuade others from disobeying God. This was the medieval Christian teaching, that Jews were cursed by God, but needed to be preserved so that Christians could see what might happen to them if they too forsook God. Under Islam, Jewish life was better, but it was not as if religious freedom existed. The Pact of Umar, which was in some ways apocryphal, did form the basis for how Muslims treated non-Muslims. It did not give liberties to any subjugated minority. It was a list of restrictions and obligations designed to keep non-Muslims in a sub-ordinate status43. The Pact of Umar was the source for Muslim civil domination of the People of the Book. Jews experienced the need for protection, so they lived in the mellah. This was a walled, and closed portion of the city, usually close to the sultan or leader, that was protected by his troops. That there was a need to “protect” Jews from non-Jews itself shows that the idea of an idyllic paradise during the Middle Ages is a projection or a false metanarrative that many people have. But, their status as dhimini or “protected people” did not always afford them protection. For example, in Fez, “a section of the community was deported to Ashir (Algeria) in about 987. Later, -6,000 Jews were massacred in 1035 by Muslims, and in 1068 Almoravids sacked Fez and took vengeance upon its Jews. With the decline of the Merinids and the revival of fanaticism, Fez’s Jews were compelled in 1438 to live in the mellah. In 1464, after the Sultan appointed a Jew, Harun, as Prime Minister in order to straighten out public finances, Fex revolted, the Sultan and his Minister were assassinated, and most of the Jews were massacred (1465). In 1790, Moulay Yazid destroyed Fex’s sSynagogues, ordered the plunder of the Community, and expelled its inhabitants. The return of the Jews was authorized in 1792, but the community was reduced to a quarter of its former size. In 1912, two weeks after the establishment of the French Protectorate, a revolt broke out in Fez. The

43 See http://www.bu.edu/mzank/Jerusalem/tx/pactofumar.htm for an example of the Pact of Umar.

25

Community of 12,000 Jews was ransacked and their property set on fire by the mob; about 60 people died.” 44 Historian Mark R. Cohen says that while it is true that under Islam, Jews suffered less violence than Jews living in Christian Europe, it is not because Islam is a more peaceable religion. It is because Islam did not have a people group from which it had to disassociate. Christianity, being an off-shoot from Judaism, and positioning itself as the theological and historical replacement of Jews, usually felt the need to treat Jews in a discriminatory way. Islam had no such theological enemy, and therefore, no need to establish itself separate from Judaism. Jewish people, long without a national state, were not a threat to Muslims like the Christian Byzantine or Carolingian empires were. “Isolated events of persecution did occur but this does not change the fact that Jewish people were treated adequately.”45 Cohen sees the general sense as one of toleration. In summary, the metanarrative that I observed taught and believed in Morocco was based upon a particular interpretation of history. This interpretation was one that the Moroccan people felt accurately described the tenor and relationship with her Jewish and Christian cousins. The metanarrative is historically inaccurate, because Moroccans choose to not emphasize the meaner and baser stories from their past, and instead, tell themselves, and those who listen, a metanarrative that supports the modern Moroccans’ perspective of themselves as a tolerant, multi-ethnic and diverse people. This is true of many national metanarratives, including the America one.

44 http://dev.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cgi-bin/itemPrintMode.pl?Id=18103 12/5/15. 45 Mark Cohen, https://www.academia.edu/6560487/Neo_lachrymose_Conception_of_Jewish-Arab_History

26

Sources Ancient History Encyclopedia, Belisarius, at

http://ahencyclopedia.tumblr.com/post/116568757724/people-of-the-ancient-world-flavius-belisarius 9/12/15.

Bennison, Amira K. and Maria A ngeles Gallego, “Jewish Trading in Fes on the Eve of

the Almohad Conquest.”University of Cambridge accessed 9/12/15 http://www.cchs.csic.es/sites/default/files/Actividades/Almohad.MEAH_.pdf

Bostom, Andrew. “The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading.” FrontPageMagazine.com,

Thursday, May 13, 2004, http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=13030 , accessed 12/5/15.

Brann, Ross. Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and

Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain. Princeton University Press, 2009, electronic, available at Google Books.

Cohen, Ḥayyim J. “History of Fez.” Jewish Virtual Library accessed

http://dev.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cgi-bin/itemPrintMode.pl?Id=18103 12/5/15.

Cohen, Mark. “Neo-lachrymose Conception of Jewish-Arab History” Academia.edu.

https://www.academia.edu/6560487/Neo_lachrymose_Conception_of_Jewish-Arab_History, 12/05/15.

Cole, Joshua, Carol Symes, et. al. Western Civilizations, Their History & Their Culture, Vol

2, 18th edition (New York: Norton) 2014, p. 224. Chtatou, Mohamed. “Aspects of Morocco’s Foreign Policy”, handout and lecture to the

Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad. June 2015 in Morocco. Davis, Robert. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the

Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan: 2004

27

Durant, Wil. The Story of Civilization. https://archive.org/stream/storyofcivilizat035369mbp/storyofcivilizat035369mbp_djvu.txt.

Forrest, Ramona and Judith Corcora. Lifting the Veil of Secrets in the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia, Black Opal Books, 2013. Google Books. Gabriel, Richard. Muhammad: Islam’s First Great General; Campaigns and Commanders

Series. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. ----- “Muhammad: The Warrior Prophet.” Military History Quarterly, May 17, 2007,

http://www.historynet.com/muhammad-the-warrior-prophet.htm Gibbon, Edward. History of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, Vol 4, ch 23. Thomas

Bowdler ed, (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green 1826; Google Books, online, Dec 12, 2015.

Gill, Moshe. A History of Palestine, 634-1099. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

1997, pp. 31–32, accessed https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC&pg=PA31&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false Sept 6, 2015.

Irving, Washington. Life of Muhammad. (Ipswich Press; Rev Sub edition ) 1990, 111-113. McKay, John P. et. al., A history of Western Society, Vol 1, 11th ed., (Boston: Bedford/St.

Martin’s) 2014, p. 223- ul-Makhtum, Ar-Raheeq. The Sealed Nectar, 1979, http://www.sunnahfollowers.net/sealednectar/ p. 261. Mark, Joshua J. “Vandals. “ http://www.ancient.eu/Vandals/ ----- “Belasarius.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. http://www.ancient.eu/Belisarius/ Mikaberidze, Alexander. Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical

Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2011.

28

Muir, William. The life of Mahomet and History of Islam to theEera of the Hegira, Voll IV (Kessinger Publishing,) 2003, p. 142. Nafziger, George and Mark Walton. Islam at War: A History. Greenwood Publishing

Group, 2003 , Google Books. Pact of Umar, at http://www.bu.edu/mzank/Jerusalem/tx/pactofumar.htm Radi, Ahmed. “History of Marrakech” lecture presented to Fulbright- Hays Group

Project Abroad, Marakech, Morocco, June 16, 2015. Rogers, Perry M. Aspects of Western Civilization: Problems and Sources in History, vol II,

7th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2011. Saqi, Khalid. Lecture to the Fulbright-Hays Morocco group, 5/28/15 in Rabat. Shienbaum, Kim and Jamal Hasan. Beyond Jihad: Critical Voices from Inside Islam.

Academica Press, LLC, 2006. Vaglieri, Lauren V. The Cambridge History of Islam, vol 1A. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1970, accessed Sept 6, 2015: https://books.google.com/ 1