148 • ChAPTEr 4
What was implicit in the 1906 article on Suares is explicit in this
1913 article on the Jews of France: the Jews can be viewed as role
models for the Arabs especially (if not only) when Jews are defined in
racial terms. here, explains the author, “we consider the Israelites as an
eastern people [shaʿbsharqī] in the sense that they are a race of human-
ity [jinsminajnāsal-bashar] and not as a people with a particular reli-
gion [ahldīnkhāṣṣbi-him].” as a result, there is, for these purposes, no
distinction between Jews who practice Judaism and “those who have
converted to Christianity or Islam.”^58 For example, “the rise of [Benja-
min] Disraeli to prime minister of england is the rise of a member of
the Jewish nation [al-ummaal-yahūdiyya] or of an eastern nation, even
though he was born a Christian.”^59 the same is true for all Christian
“scholars and ministers in european countries whose origins are Jew-
ish [aṣluhumyahūdī] and for those with Jewish origins who converted
to Islam in Muslim countries. all of these people have eastern blood
[damuhumsharqī] and are of the Semitic race like arabs, assyrians,
Syrians and others of the Semitic nations.”^60 Viewing the Jews in racial
terms, even deeming their religious affiliation irrelevant to their fun-
damental identity, the author asserts an arab- Jewish connection that is
intrinsic and irrevocable. “If researching this topic does nothing more
than convince the readers of their natural ability as an eastern people
who are not prevented from reaching the highest ranks of the advanced
nations,” such a result would be “more than enough.” For al-Muqtaṭaf,
the Jews were a model of a successful “eastern nation” and “Semitic
race”^61 — at once inspiration and proof that success was within reach.
this perspective on the close familial kinship between Jews and
arabs was not the interest exclusively of al-Muqtaṭaf or its Christian
coeditor, Shahin Makaryus. In 1910 rashid rida, editor of the Islamic
journal al-Manār, noted in passing the relationship between Jews and
Arabs in his discussion of the Jewish role in finance. rida remarked
that it is well- known that finance is concentrated “in the hands of the
Jews and [that] they are [part] of us (i.e., the easterners) in kinship
[nasab] and homeland [mawṭin].” Moreover, in europe, the Jews’ “skill
in establishing justice and freedom has become clear.” In fact, rida
concludes, Jews “are superior to the rest of their Syrian and palestinian
(^58) Ibid., 564.
(^59) the author’s choice to highlight Disraeli in particular from among all of history’s
converts from Judaism was not accidental, for Disraeli himself, “a romantic Orientalist”
in the words of scholar Ivan Kalmar, held this racialist view. Kalmar, “Benjamin Disraeli,
romantic Orientalist.”
(^60) al-Muqtaṭaf 43:6 (December 1913), 564.
(^61) Ibid.