Feb 2, 202111 min read

The Cornerstone of the Jewish-Kurdish friendship

Updated: Feb 10, 2021

Moses Ben Maimon-Saladin Ibn Ayyub:

The beginning and expression of the Jewish-Kurdish relationship

From Beyar Robarî and Dr Akram Naasan

Translated into English by Hülya Finnigan

Iraqi Kurds fly an Israeli flag and Kurdish flags during an event to urge people to vote in the independence referendum in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of another Iraq, on September 16th, 2017. (AFP/Safin Hamed) THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

The first contact between the Jewish and Kurdish peoples goes back to the history of the Babylonian captivity (expulsion) of the Jews. Historical sources, including Jewish sources (like the Torah) as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, reveal that the history of the Jewish presence in Babylon reaches back to 6 BC.

That means with the beginning of the military campaigns (Assyrian-Babylonian) against the Jewish kingdoms in Judea and Samaria were deported from the homeland and some of them were slaves in Niniveh, Babylon and Erbil and other cities.

In Israel, there is a street named after the Kurdish region of Al-Hakkari.

Al-Hakkari Street a traditional street sign

The Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar 2nd and his name Nabu-kudurri-usr

(his name means "O Nabu, watch over my heir.") carried out the expulsion of the Jews, this occurs in the years between 581-586 and 597 BC.

The war of the Babylonian kings was documented in Jeremiah the Prophet 52:28-30. “this is the people who Nebuchadnezzar 2nd has led away.”

In the seventh year of the regency of King Nebukadnezar 2nd 3100 Jews were expelled and in the eighth year of his regency, 2600 more people were expelled. In the twenty-third year of his regency, a further 1800 Jews were taken into captivity.

Those Jews who had special jobs or who had specific knowledge were especially likely to be deported. The Babylonian Kingdom benefitted from this knowledge and the acquired experience.

According to historical sources, the total number of Jews expelled is estimated at 6-10,000 men and women. This was a big loss for a little people like the Jews.

At the same time, Babylonians controlled the lands of Kurdistan (North Mesopotamia) and Persia. The reign of King Nebuchadnezzar 2nd lasted 42 years. This was the first contact between Kurdish and Jewish people.

Jews and Kurds lived together in peaceful cooperation until the arrival of Islam and the conquest of Persia and Kurdistan.

Injustice, persecution and oppression of the Jews in Kurdistan was not reported at all.

The relationship between Jews and Kurds was always friendly and therefore they influenced each other in their development.

From this development emerged the first woman rabbi in the history of Judaism in Kurdistan. Her name was Asnat Barazani and they called her in Kurdish “Sinaz Barazani."

Sinaz Barazani was born in Mosul in the year 1550 and died in the Year 1670 AC. From her handwriting, we know now that she was mastered the Hebrew language, Jewish law and the Talmud.

Sinaz was the daughter of the Jewish Rabbi Shmuel b. Netanel Ha-Levi of Kurdistan.

She married the rabbi Yaqoub Mizrahi. He was studying and was in charge of a Jewish school in the city of Amadiya in South Kurdistan. After his death, she took over the presidency of the school of religion. While she was working she also started studying administration until she was a professor and senior scientist.

Sinaz Barzani was one of the most famous heroines in the history of the Oriental Jews, who are called Sefardim. Not only that, because she was the first woman educator in the whole of Jewish history, she takes on a morally and historically significant position in the Jewish community.

There are different personalities and celebrities from Barzan who are today occupying an important position in the state of Israel.

Another example, Moshe Barzani was a senior adviser to PM Menachem Begin and one of many Kurdish IDF officers.

After his execution by the British colonial authorities, Moshe Barazani was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Later his friend Menachem Begin was buried next to him.

The Jewish presence in Babel and Kurdistan led in our opinion to one of the important events in the history of the Jewish people. The Jewish religion is founded on the basis of the Torah, which consists of five books.

Among these books, the first is the most important. It is called “Genesis”.

It originates completely from the Sumerian “Gilgamesh” –Epos.

Ezra is the author of this book and he wrote it down in several stages. Consequently, it is not a heavenly book, as some ignorant Muslims claim it is.

The influence of the Zoroastrian legislation in Talmud leaves no doubt about it, that this has been the first and the biggest cultural merger between both peoples in the course of history.

Many Jews who were expelled to Babylon and were labelled as prisoners returned to Judea and Samaria. The liberation of the Babylonian exile took place through the victory of Cyrus, the last grandchild of the king of the Mittani kingdom and King of Persia. After Persians took power over the Mittani kingdom and over the kingdom of Babylonia, they expanded their power over the whole east Mediterranean area. In 539 BC. the city of Babel (Babylon?) and in 606 BC. the city of Niniveh fell into their hands.

With the Arabic conquest of the Kurdish city of Sassanid in the year 634 which included the whole of Kurdistan, Persia and today's Iraq, the condition of the Jews deteriorated considerably. This was a result of political, religious and ethnic discrimination which the Arabs practised against them. As a result, an accelerated Jewish migration took place out of Kurdistan, Persia and Mesopotamia. A considerable number of Jewish citizens stayed however in Kurdistan and left only after the establishment of the state of Israeli in 1948. With the establishment of the state of Israel reprisals against the Jews became more violent.

The seizure of power by the chauvinistic Baath party in Iraq and in Syria led to Jews moving to Israel.

Saladin – a man of the past, or of the future?

Saladin and Ibn Mimoun

The cornerstone of the Jewish-Kurdish friendship in the modern sense.

The behaviour of Saladin and his action has nothing to do with the Islamic religion, in my opinion.

We think that his social inspiration was the education in Kurdistan, at that time Armenians, Jews and Kurds lived together. This also explains why Saladin released 800 Armenians.

His call to the Jewish people “return back to Jerusalem” has more weight than the recognition “Jerusalem is the capital city of the Jewish people” by the American President Donald Trump.

The Jewish-Kurdish relationship after the liberation of Jerusalem in the year 1187 experienced a qualitative leap and increased considerably. This was brought by the internationally known Kurdish knight Saleh al-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin the knight).

Saladin led and decided the battle of Hattin and fought against Richard Lionheart and his Crusader.

Saladin was not only an experienced commander, but he was also an experienced statesman and politician.

He fought honourably against his enemies and behaved humanely with the prisoners of the Crusaders. Some Kurds accused Saladin of not doing anything for his people. Certainly, you can blame Saladin for small mishaps, but this does not diminish his historical significance as a respected military and political figure.

The first thing what Saladin did after the liberation of the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings was to allow the Jews to return to their homes and gave them their houses back again.

It was forbidden under the Crusaders for them to visit their property in Jerusalem, their religious cities, and their businesses.

Saladin justified his decision to let Jews return to their homes in the following way. When the Crusaders occupied Jerusalem, they first entered the Jewish quarter. Thus, the Jews became the first victims, and this was why they the first right to go back to their city.

Consequently, the Jews returned to their city and their liberated houses.

Furthermore, Saladin inquired about the prisoners.

There were 800 Armenians (Christians) who were released without paying the ransom, despite what is prescribed in Islamic law.

Saladin’s relations with the Jews in historical sources:

1. The Jewish encyclopaedia said about the authority of Saladin:

In his attitude, he was tolerant of the Jews and issued a decree that encouraged them to settle in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Al-Harizi visited Jerusalem in 1216 and mentioned that Saladin had died in 1193. Rabbi Al-Harizi found an important Jewish community consisting of immigrants from France, Morocco, and former residents of Ashkelon.

2. Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides, saw in Saladin a prominent leader. Moses ben Maimon himself was one of the greatest Jewish philosophers. Ibn al-Mali, one of Saladin’s advisers, was married to Moses ben Maimon’s sister and Moses ben Maimon’s son were married to Ibn al-Mail’s sister himself.

3. The pioneer of European enlightenment, Voltaire, wrote in 1756 a. Chr. A fascinating one and extraordinary presentation of western culture, in favour of religion, when he wrote and said:

“We found out that Saladin ordered in his will charity should be distributed in equal parts for Muslims, Christians and Jews. With that he wanted to tell us, that all people are brothers”.

Saladin saw people starving or suffering from pain and he did not care, whether they are Jews, Christians, or Muslims.

Furthermore, said the German writer and philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing “we were told that he never persecuted a person because of religion”.

The German poet and playwright wrote this in his piece “Nathan the wise” which was published in 1779: “Saladin was a conqueror of the Crusaders and an enlightened king.”

The second particularly important thing in this regard is that Saladin allowed Moses ben Maimon to convert to Judaism after he was forcibly converted to Islam in Córdoba where he was born.

This is a violation of the mandatory provisions of Islam.

As is known to anyone familiar with the rules of apostasy in Islam, the apostate’s punishment is death.

Moses ben Maimon, born in the Spanish city of Córdoba, is the doctor’s son and judge of Maimon ben Joseph. He is considered to be the greatest of the great Jews of the Middle Ages and among the sayings of the Jews is their proverb: a man like Moses did not appear from the days of Moses to Moses.

Moses ben Maimon lived in Andalusia between (1135-1204) where he became a Muslim. Then he moved to Morocco and then to Egypt. There he joined Saladin and became his personal doctor.

He authored some of the most important books in all of Jewish heritage.

The best known of which is “The sign of confusion.”

Moses ben Maimon the return to his original religion was allowed and he was protected from the death penalty imposed in Islam, together with Saladin he founded the cornerstone of the Jewish-Kurdish friendship.

Thus, you strengthened the relationship between Jewish and Kurdish people.

Some like this behaviour of Saladin i.e., tolerance of someone who is apostate to Islam like Moses ben Maimon, will be surprised.

Where does all this grace, this tolerance come from?

We, the Kurds, are not surprised. We know the source which Saladin worshipped.

Saladin grew up in a multi-religious society. This included the Kurdish-Mesopotamian culture, which stems from the religious heritage of Al-Azdan’I and Zoroastrianism.

Their basic values and roots include tolerance and the coexistence of different peoples.

An integral part of the culture is to reject extremism and identity murder.

The Jewish-Kurdish relationship today?

In spite of this good, solid and old foundation, the relationship between the two peoples, the Kurds and the Jews, has been frozen for a long period of time. This was beyond the power of both peoples and was forced by external circumstances. Incomprehensibly, since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, we have not noticed any improvement in relations between the two peoples.

In our opinion, there are a number of objective and subjective reasons which prevent this.

We think we know who or what is causing this. The greatest responsibility rests on the Israeli side and we will get into that later. For several reasons, it was difficult for the Kurdish liberation movement to establish a relationship with the state of Israel.

The reasons are:

- The removal of Israel from the borders of Kurdistan.

- Israel maintains close ties with two countries that divided the Kurdistan region and the Kurdish people (Iran and Turkey are the archenemies of the Kurds).

- Israel has the feeling that it does not need the Kurds because it has received and continues to receive political and military support from the West and the USA in particular.

-Israel only tries to build relationships with the governments of the region, but not with the

people in the region, they have been neglected (which was and is a mistake).

The Kurds feared the reaction of the Islamists (Arabs, Turks, and Persians), but that fear has subsided or is unfounded.

-The Kurds tried to distance themselves from the accusation of establishing a second Israel in the region and therefore the Kurdish left did not dare to establish a normal relationship with the Israeli left. Especially the Communist Party of Israel (Rakah), to the Israeli Workers’ Party.

The question is now:

Is there a way to renew, strengthen and open up new horizons for this relationship?

We have seen that there is an opportunity to renew these relationships and strengthen their relationships in a way that serves the Kurdish and Jewish peoples.

First, we need to build trust between the Kurdistan National Liberation Movement and the State of Israel.

That must be a healthy political will. To take this courageous step from both sides.

Israel must break out of existing thought patterns and recognize the Kurds as one people, who fight for a political solution to their problem instead of seeing Kurdistan as a humanitarian issue. Israel must think strategically far-reaching.

Strategically, the Kurds receive their national rights when they represent themselves in the form of associations in the four countries.

The ideal would be to find an independent Kurdish state, which is in the interests of the Jewish people and the state.

Because Israel lives in a hostile environment, just like a small island in the middle of rough seas.

Given the small size of Israel and its small population, the military power cannot protect Israel in the long term. Israel cannot always rely on the American strength that protects it today.

The life of the Jewish people should not depend on American power.

Peace agreements with the neighbouring Arab countries of Israel such as Egypt and Jordan are no guarantee of Israel’s protection.

The Arab conflict with the Jews, which shows a historical path full of pain and blood, will continue to weaken Israel.

In our opinion, both sides cannot overcome this, but in the walking part, the barriers have widened over time. For Arabs, the problem is Israel’s existence, not its borders. They rejected/reject the existence of the State of Israel.

Israel is hated and ostracized by the Turks for its influence on the legacy of Arab-Islamic culture. They believe that the Jews have seized part of their property (the property of the Ottoman Empire). The same is true of the Persians, regardless of who rules Iran. The Kurds are the only people in the Middle East who are not hostile to the Jews. Historically, too, there was no conflict between the two peoples.

Therefore, the Kurds are not in competition with the State of Israel and do not seek leadership.

On the other hand, those responsible for the Kurdish National Liberation Movement must overcome their fear. It is important to establish normal relations with the State of Israel because Israel was not an enemy of the Kurdish people and, in our opinion, they will not be in the future either. Isn’t it strange that the enemies of the Kurds have had normal relations with Israel for 60 years and more?

Like the Shah, Turkey, and Iran; why do the Kurdish leaders forego it? The Kurdish and Jewish parties must recognize that every relationship means give and take.

06-2020

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Referenzen:

1 - The Torah Book - Arabic translation more than a thousand years old.

Achieve and Submit: a. Dr Suhail Zakar

First Edition - Damascus 2007

2- Book: The Truth of the Babylonian Exile.

Author: Fadel Al-Ribai

Publishing house

e: Road of Knowledge Library - 2011.

3- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.