IMAGInInG ThE “ISrAElITES” • 149brethren in their abilities.”^62 For rida and al-Manār, as for other con-
tributors to these journals, Jews were a model of modern success to be
respected and emulated by other “easterners” and fellow members of
the “Semitic race.”
race and the history of Jewish- Arab Coexistencethough the contemporary implications of Jewish- arab racial kinship
(i.e., providing evidence for hope in arabs’ own potential for “prog-
ress”) were clearly important for these editors, the journals employed
this theory to explain earlier historical moments as well. For some, the
racial link between Jews and arabs helped to account for the relatively
good relations between Jews and arabs in previous periods. (these
supposed good relations were themselves a common theme in these
journals). For example, in February 1908 al-Muqtaṭaf published a six-
page article on “philosophy among the Jews.” In the middle of the arti-
cle, after discussing various ancient Jewish “philosophical movements”
such as the pharisees, Sadducees, essenes, and rabbinic Judaism, the
author reaches the subject of Jews’ first interactions with Arabs, and
then, with Islam. Some Jews, the author explains, “refused to remain
under the roman yoke, suffering from chauvinistic oppression.” These
Jews “came to the land of the arabs, before Islam, and settled there.”
In contrast to the roman- controlled lands from which they fled, in “the
land of the arabs” there was “harmony between them [the Jews] and
the natives because they were similar in language and close in race [al-
jins], and because of the absence of a state that distinguished between
native and foreigner.”^63 With the advent of Islam, “its oppression of
the Jews was not severe.” In fact, Jews “welcomed the conquerors,”
and their spirit— which had been distressed by “the tyranny of the ro-
mans and Persians”— “was revived.” This article on Jewish philosophy
highlights that under arab- Islamic rule a group of Jews “devoted them-
selves to knowledge and literature.” Such Jewish scholars included the
famed thinkers Saadiah bin Yusuf (Saadiah Gaon) and Samuel bin hof-
ni.^64 In other words, one of the reasons for the “harmony” between
Jews and arabs (and thus Muslims) was the fact that they were “close
in race,” that their racial connections facilitated a natural coexistence
and permitted Jews to reach great philosophical heights.
(^62) al-Manār 13:5 (1910), 355.
(^63) al-Muqtaṭaf 33:2 (February 1908), 125.
(^64) Samuel bin hofni (d. circa 1034) is regarded as the last Gaon of Sura. On the Geonic
period, see Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture.