In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert

This book's full title is In Ishmael's House, a History of Jews in Muslim Lands. One interesting comment Martin Gilbert makes that I find quite interesting. It is that the Jews under Islamic rule never had it as bad as in Christendom at its worse and never as good as Christendom at its best.

In Islamic lands, there were never parallels of the Spanish expulsion during the inquisition or the Russian pogroms or the Nazi Holocaust. However, there was never in Islamic lands the progressive emancipation and acceptance that there was in the West in recent centuries.

I do wonder about the comment of no the parallels to the Spanish expulsion etc. This is because a lot of Jews were expelled from Muslim lands in 1948 under what was termed community violence. Also Mohammed attached and defeated the Jews in Arabia because he was disappointed that they would not follow him. Who he did not kill, he sold as slaves. Also recently in Europe, anti-Semitism seems to be rising.

David J Goldberg writing in The Guardian makes the same point as I did above. There are also some very good reviews at Good Reads. Mohammed Amin gives an extremely detailed review of this book.

Martin Gilbert speaks on Jewish History. This is a longish video over just over 1 hour. Martin starts speaking just over 3 minutes in.

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