From
the pages of history:
Moslem
conquest of the Middle East
In
the Byzantine state there was constant hatred between Christians
and Jews and this intensified Jewish hope for help from
Iranian side. In 556 Justinian faced a Samaritan-Jewish
uprising in Palestine as also did Justin II in 578.
In
September 610 when the Iranian army of Khusro II drew near
Antioch, the Jewish community rose in rebellion but was
put down. At Tyre & Acre the Jews attempted to support
the invading army and suffered in retaliation. The invaders’
route from Damascus to Caesarea passed through the heart
of the Jewish settlements. Jews from all parts of the country
joined in the struggle and Jewish support greatly facilitated
the invasion.
In
April 614 Iranian units and Jewish detachments stood before
the holy city. Zachariah, the Christian patriarch organised
the defence. The siege lasted 20 days. The victorious army
massacred "60,000" Christian inhabitants and burned
many churches. The Iranian general selected 37,000 skilled
workmen for deportation to Iran. According to the eye-witness
account of strategies, the Jews offered to ransom Christian
captives if they would accept Judaism.
After
the Iranian army left with the Christian captives, the Jews
destroyed the rest of the churches in the city as part of
their effort to "sanctify" it once again. They
apparently renewed the sacrificial offerings.
Shortly
thereafter the Iranians declined to extend to the Jews the
right of self-government and of rebuilding the Temple and
became hostile to them possibly through the intervention
of Christian court officials in Ctesiphon in 617 they punished
the Jews who had participated in the slaughter of Christians
and forbade Jewish settlement in Jerusalem. Iran thus
sacrified the Jews in an effort to seek reconciliation and
friendship with the Byzantine court. They permitted
the Christians to rebuild the ruined churches. The Iranians
may have been willing to leave Palestine in Jewish hands
if they were numerous enough to control it but being a minority
of 10% to 15% the Jews could hardly do so. As they would
not agree to co-operate with the Iranians to restore normal
conditions for all the population, the Iranians had to turn
to the Christians for support.
Heraclius
re-occupied Jerusalem in 627. When in 637 the Moslem armies
invaded Palestine, the Jews there generally sided with
the Moslem cause.
by
Dr Jacob Neusner
A History of the Jews in Babylonia
Vol. V., Page 122
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