Preface
In light of world events, it is a matter of urgency that we understand the origins and development of Islam. Islam dawned at a time of great upheaval, located at the crossroads between the warring nations of Christian Byzantium, Zoroastrian Persia and its Babylonian holdings, Christian Ethiopia, pagan-turned-Christian Armenia, with diverse Jewish minorities residing within Persia, Rome, Palestine and Arabia, culminating at the volatile Arabian Peninsula. This book will present events that were pivotal to the dawn of Islam both politically, historically, and spiritually. Much that is written here will be new to the Western educated reader. Many of us recall a history as follows: Rome fell in the 400’s, followed by one thousand years of Dark Ages then redeemed by the Renaissance, Reformation, and the Enlightenment. It is time to entertain a different view, turning our focus to the Near East and the incredible dramas that unfolded during centuries hitherto somewhat overlooked, dramas which would later shape the history of the entire world.
Our journey begins in the distant past with background information to illuminate our path, and will culminate in seventh century Arabia. Here, we shall explore the conquests of Jerusalem in 614CE and 638CE within the context of previous attempts at Jewish restoration. We will discuss reasons for the Persian-Jewish alliance and later the Arab-Jewish alliance. In an attempt to reconcile contemporary sources, an account is given of Babylonian Jewish “Exilarch” (leader-in-exile) Nechemiah ben Hushiel, his brother Shallum (Salmaan Farsi) and nephew Yakov (Ka'b Al-Ahbar), who played pivotal roles in these conquests. We propose that the twelve men who went to Mecca to meet with the Prophet Muhammad were Jewish refugees from Edessa, by way of Medina, and we suggest that the authors of Sefer Zerubavel and of the Prayer of Shimon bar Yochai were Jews from Medina.