90 r Yehoshua Frenkel
(being Muslims, Christians, or Jews) to strengthen their collective identi-
ties and produce opposite interpretations of familiar historical narratives.
Concentrating closely on the respective interpretations of these historical
texts, we can investigate the interaction between Muslims and the People
of the Book (ahl al-kitab) in the Fertile Crescent and to hypothesize about
the role of these accounts in political and communal discourse. In order
to advance the thesis stated above, I will present successive Islamic, Jew-
ish, and Christian historical traditions revolving around similar events,
after which I will draw conclusions from these narratives.
The Emergence of the Islamic Caliphate
The victories of Arab tribes over Byzantine and Sasanian armies and the
emergence of the Islamic Caliphate (c. 660) instigated deep changes in the
human, cultural, and religious map of western Asia and northern Africa.
A new political and social order emerged from the vestiges of the past
empires. Societies that for long centuries viewed themselves as the protec-
tors of human civilization and true believers, and looked upon the Arab
tribes of the desert as the barbarian enemy, found themselves controlled
by people they regarded as evil.^2
The Arabs, who for hundreds of years had been confined to the limits
of the civilized world, had become the new rulers of western Asia and
northern Africa (c. 650). They were a minority in the vast sea of Chris-
tians, Zoroastrians, Jews, and other religious and ethnic communities.
Under these circumstances, the caliphs adopted a sophisticated policy.
They did not aim to convert the indigenous occupied population, but
rather accepted the very continuation of these communities under the
shadow of Islam. The Islamic regime and holy law (shari ̔a) enabled non-
Muslims to retain their old systems of beliefs and practices. Administra-
tive measures enabled Jewish and Christian communities in the Fertile
Crescent to persist under Islam. They had only to state their recognition
of the hegemonic position of Islam and to pay a poll tax (jizya; jawaāli) to
the agents of the caliphate.^3
The community heads of the People of the Book (kitabiyūn) came to
terms with the inferior position of their communities. There are no note-
worthy indications to suggest that the majority of the non-Muslim popu-
lation rejected the Islamic polity, and it seems that the contrary reaction
was more common. Those among the indigenous people (muwalladūn)