Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alternative: Jews
Converting to Islam
A BSTR ACT
The article discusses the phenomenon of Jewish conversion to Islam in Yemen in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mainly in the tribal-rural areas where the major-
ity of the Jews lived. This phenomenon is explained against the background of politi-
cal, social, and economic developments: the intervention in Yemen of outside forces;
the penetration of the world economy; and the weakening of Jewish institutions. Reli-
gious conversion is presented as a familiar and tempting phenomenon in Jewish life.
Social considerations are put forward as the main reasons for Islamization, whereas
the role of religious conviction is seen as insignificant. The article also deals with the
symbolic meanings of the conversion ceremony and with its practical implications—in
the convert’s community of origin and in his or her new community. This article is
based on oral history, on personal interviews with Yemeni Jews now living in Israel,
and on written sources such as letters, memoirs, itinerary books, and legal writings on
issues resulting from conversion.
Key words: Conversion, Islamization, Yemeni Jews, tribal
T
he phenomenon of religious conversion continues to exist and
to intrigue even after the age of conversions that stabilized the
religious map of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What causes
a person or a group to abandon their faith, their traditions, and their
community affiliations and to adopt new sets of beliefs and a new social
structure? What is the role of religious convictions, and what is the ef-
fect of social considerations and pressures? Although processes of con-
version differ as a result of political, social, and economic factors,
During the first half of the twentieth century, the Yemeni population
was estimated at between 3.5 and 4 million. The number of Yemeni
Jews was estimated at 60 to 70 thousand, and they represented the larg-
est religious minority. (Another minority was composed of a small
number of urban Hindi merchants.) Yemeni society is tribal in charac-
ter.7 The tribes are sedentary, making their living from agriculture, and
are organized as armed political units. Until the 1970s, 97 percent of
the Yemeni population lived in the tribal-rural districts in tens of thou-
sands of small settlements.8 About 85 percent of the Jews lived in the [91]
tribal-rural areas, alongside the mainly Zaydi Muslim inhabitants, in
more than a thousand small, even tiny, settlements. The remainder Jews Converting
to Islam
lived in the capital of Sanaa and in a number of towns. After the 1630s,
following about a century of Ottoman occupation, Yemen was governed •
Bat-Zion Eraqi
by Zaydi imams. In 1872, the Ottomans reoccupied central Yemen and Klorman
the Red Sea coastal plain, and they remained until 1918. The rest of
Yemen continued to be governed by Zaydi imams.
After the Ottoman withdrawal, a Zaydi leader—Imam Yahya ibn
Muhammad al-Mutawakkil (r. 1918–48)—once again took over the
government of Yemen. Subsequently, Zaydi imams ruled Yemen until
the republican revolution of 1962. Like the Atlas tribes of southern
Morocco, who since the sixteenth century have consistently defied
the authority of the sharifian sultan,9 the Yemeni tribes, though for-
mally accepting the imams’ leadership, resisted efforts by any central
government to dominate them. Yemen’s tribal-territorial division was
further enhanced by the religious differences between its Sunni-
Shafi’i tribes and Shi’i-Zaydi tribes as well as by the country’s rugged
mountainous terrain. The period under consideration witnessed re-
markable political development as a result of the increased interven-
tion of Western powers in the Red Sea area and particularly the 1839
capture of Aden by the British, who remained there until 1967. Thus,
despite the fact that Yemen had never been directly affected by West-
ern colonial powers, during this period it began a slow process of
modernization and was pushed into the world economy. Economic
changes, especially the import of industrial goods, weakened the eco-
nomic base of the Jewish community, whose members engaged
mainly in crafts. Some Jewish artisans became migrant laborers in
Aden and in African centers across the Red Sea, some turned to ped-
dling and commerce, and others emigrated from Yemen. Between
1881 and 1914, about 8 percent of Yemeni Jews immigrated to Pales-
tine. This emigration continued in 1920, soon after World War I.
Dhimma Status
During the entire period under consideration, Jews were legally de-
fined as dhimmis, protected people lacking political rights. As in North
Africa, where there were no other significant religious minorities, the
term dhimmis, originally designated by the shari‘a to describe non-
Muslims living under Islam, became identical with Jews.10 The Jews
were granted religious freedom and assurances of personal security
and property in exchange for their acknowledgment of Muslim politi-
[92] cal and social supremacy, which was conveyed by the payment of the
jizya (poll tax), and obedience to a list of restrictions as detailed in the
Jewish shari‘a. For example, Jews were required to wear distinguishing clothes;
Social they could ride a donkey only side-saddle and were not allowed to ride
Studies horses at all; and their homes could not rise above those of the Mus-
• lims. The Ottomans tried to equalize the Yemeni Jews’ legal status to
Vol. 14 that of other Jews in the empire but were thwarted by the vigorous op-
No. 1 position of the Yemeni population and religious scholars. Thus, restric-
tions that had gradually been lifted in other Muslim lands since the
middle of the nineteenth century were still in effect in Yemen, even
after the last major Jewish emigration in 1950.11
Communal Organization
An outstanding characteristic of communal life in Yemen that reflected
the country’s geography, demography, and political nature was the ab-
sence of any meaningful central organization. Communal structures
on the national and local district levels were weak, and each community
managed its own affairs. Most communities were small, at times num-
bering only three or four families. The aqil (secular leader) represented
the Jews vis-à-vis the authorities, and the mori (rabbi) managed religious
life. The mori was often the judge who settled religious and civil cases.
However, in all matters that did not concern family law, his authority
competed with that of the local sheikh or the district qadi ( judge). Jews
often appealed to the Muslim judicial system both because their courts
lacked the power of enforcement and because of their integration into
the tribal system. The Jews did not pay regular communal tax. Conse-
quently, charity and welfare, like other communal activities, were not
regularized. Most of these were conducted voluntarily on a personal
basis. (Only in Sanaa did the community fund organized charity activi-
ties.) This system usually functioned well, but in times of crisis and gen-
eral hardship it totally collapsed.12 After the mid-nineteenth century,
Jewish communal organization was affected by the opening of Yemen
to outside influences. Jewish emigration, shifts of employment, and en-
lightenment trends13 all weakened the Jewish community’s ability to su-
pervise and control the conduct of its members.
Tribal Protection
The discriminatory restrictions were strictly observed in Sanaa and
[93]
its environs and in a few towns where the imams exercised direct con-
trol; however, most Jews resided in areas dominated by tribal sheikhs Jews Converting
who did not strictly enforce these laws. While officially recognizing to Islam
the imam’s sovereignty, in practice the tribesmen maintained their •
independence and customary laws (‘urf ), which included protection Bat-Zion Eraqi
of the Jews. Thus, for instance, though homes in the Jewish quarter of Klorman
Sanaa were kept lower than Muslims’ houses, there was no difference
in height between Jewish and Muslim houses in the tribal-rural dis-
tricts. In the north and the northeast of Yemen, Jews even carried
arms, much like the tribesmen. In the tribal areas, the Jews lived
under the protection of the sheikhs and other members of the tribe
in a sort of client-patron relationship. Each Jewish household had
special ties with a Muslim jar (patron, or one who has a patron) and
helped him in time of need. Offending his Jew was taken by the Mus-
lim jar as an offense to his honor. Sometimes tribes went to war
against each other because a Jewish jar had been attacked, and it
would be shameful for them not to respond.14 Notions of honor and
shame similarly regulated Muslim-Jewish relations and protection
traditions in the tribal areas of southern Morocco and in rural Libya
during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, specifically in
regard to traveling Jewish peddlers.15 In the Yemeni arena, however,
these codes related to the Jews living within the tribe. Thus, though
Yemeni Jews were officially inferior, second-class subjects and were
considered a weak segment attached to a particular tribe,16 they were
tied to the tribe through the laws of protection, and in many respects
their lives resembled the lives of their Muslim neighbors.
Famine
Yemen’s economy was based on agriculture, which depended, at least
until the second half of the nineteenth century, on the monsoon
rains of spring and summer. In times of drought, plants died, food
was scarce, and economic activity came practically to a halt, resulting
in famine and starvation. During such times, the authorities and/or
charity establishments distributed food rations to hungry Muslims.
Jews who had converted to Islam could also receive provisions.19
Being a weak sector in the society, Jews were, in times of calamity,
reduced to a state of great distress. Their wish to survive led to con-
version, at times even on a large scale. For example, during the fam-
ine of 1724, more than 700 Jews were reported to have converted and
thereafter received food rations.20 An anonymous letter from the
nineteenth century tells of Jews, the writer’s son among them, who
left their homes in search of a livelihood. In the course of their wan-
derings, many died of hunger or were preyed on by wild animals,
while others converted.21 Similarly, during the famine caused by
Imam Yahya’s siege on Sanaa in 1903–04 as part of his rebellion
against the Ottomans, a number of Jews converted.22 An account sub-
mitted to the Jewish agency in the early 1940s reported Jewish or-
phans who “converted as a result of hunger.” 23
Heavy taxation did not play a role in Jewish Islamization in
Yemen.24 Yemeni Jews were obliged to pay only the jizya (although in
the towns occasional fines were levied on them), which in the rural-
tribal districts was not meticulously collected. In fact, the legal tax re-
quired from the Jews, at least during the twentieth century, was
generally lighter than that collected from Muslims.25
Improving Social and Economic Status
As dhimmis, Jews were excluded from social mobility within the Ye-
[95]
meni society. Even capable Jews could have no significant impact on
the affairs of the state, and the wealthy were required to conceal their Jews Converting
wealth. External expressions of affluence, like elaborate attire or or- to Islam
namented homes, defied the Muslims and were perceived as chal- •
lenging the covenant of the dhimma. Thus, as in other parts of the Bat-Zion Eraqi
Muslim world (and much like in the Christian world before the twen- Klorman
tieth century), those who wished to improve their social status and
economic conditions within the larger society could do so only if they
converted.26 Nissim, who lived in the settlement of al-Radma in the
Yarim district, exemplifies the desire to belong to the majority soci-
ety. He specialized in medicine and treated many Jewish and Muslim
patients, especially by summoning demons for healing purposes. At
the end of the 1930s, he moved to the al-Mahwit district, where he
posed as a Muslim and pursued his practice. When discovered to be a
Jew, he announced his wish to convert. His name was changed to Ab-
dalla al-Mahwiti, and he then joined the imam’s army. Soon after, he
was promoted to the rank of officer.27
In addition, unfortunate and lonely Jews who were not cared for by
their small and feeble community often turned to the tribal organi-
zation for support. Such people, usually men, were not in dire straits
but were poor and hungry. Sometimes they lived on the margins of
the Jewish community. Jewish sources state that “Muslims tempted
them to Islamize, they offered them good food.” 28 For example, dur-
ing the 1920s, a needy young Jewish man from the village of al-Jum‘ah
(in the Khawlan district) approached Ahmad ibn ‘Ali, the sheikh of
the village, “on account of hunger,” and asked to convert. He Is-
lamized, married a Muslim girl, and had children.29 During the early
1940s, a 13-year-old youth from Damt with no visible family was found
wandering around and was fed occasionally by Jewish families. “The
Arabs recognized that he was drifting, and the sheikhs managed to
tempt him and to lead him astray.” He converted, and the Muslims
“made of him a soldier in Damt and they gave him a gun.”30
Alternative to Punishment
In Yemen, as in other Muslim countries, dhimmis who were sentenced
in Muslim courts to heavy fines, long terms of imprisonment, or death
could escape punishment if Islamized.51 Yosef al-Shaykh Levi, for ex-
ample, was in charge of the state’s mint. In 1846, he changed the ratio
of the silver and copper that constituted the Yemeni coin by enlarg-
ing the amount of copper, and he embezzled the difference. When
the fraud was discovered, the Jewish silversmiths who worked at the
mint were heavily fined. Al-Shaykh Levi was ordered to pay an ex-
tremely high fine that there was no conceivable way he could pay.
Thus, he was sentenced to death but promised a pardon if Islamized.
He soon converted.52 In 1877, a young Jewish man was imprisoned in
[100] Sanaa (the result of “a false charge”). He declared that he wished to
convert and be pardoned.53 In the village of al-Gadas, sometime in
Jewish the first half of the twentieth century, a Jewish youth stole from his fa-
Social ther’s house. The father reported his son to the local sheikh so that
Studies he would punish him. Wishing to escape punishment, and probably
• out of anger at his father, the youth Islamized.54 And in the mid-
Vol. 14 1940s, a Jew from Shagadra committed a crime and awaited impris-
No. 1 onment. Instead, he Islamized, taking his two young daughters with
him.55 Nevertheless, the Muslim authorities did not always approve Is-
lamization as an alternative to punishment.56
Yemeni Muslims were pleased to have Jewish converts, and they en-
couraged them. This is well demonstrated in supplying food condi-
tional on conversion, in the joyful expressions at the conversion
ceremonies, and in the efforts to help converts adjust to the new soci-
ety.71 The convert was treated in a protective manner designed to sub-
stitute for the cohesion of the Jewish community. The Muslims
“honored him and gave him a house and house articles and all his ne-
cessities, as was customary regarding apostates.” 72 Now and then, con-
verts who had no source of income received, in addition to initial
economic aid, a position in the army as exemplified by the case de-
scribed above of ‘Abdallah al-Mahwiti. He was taken into the imam’s
army, where he later reached officer’s rank.73 [103]
Nevertheless, it is hard to point to a specific master policy directed
at Islamizing the Jews of Yemen. On the contrary, the Yemeni authori- Jews Converting
to Islam
ties did not accept new converts in every case. They often checked the
sincerity of the request to convert and whether it was made with suffi- •
Bat-Zion Eraqi
cient deliberation. Thus, in 1887, Ma’uda Ibn Hasan al-Shajari of
Klorman
Sanaa was seemingly on his way to Islam but had not yet decided. He
moved from the Jewish quarter of Sanaa to the Muslim neighborhood,
and he ceased to participate in Jewish rituals. The Jewish court ruled
that he should return to the Jewish quarter and forced him to do so
with the help of Sheikh Qasim Ahmad Salih, to whom al-Shajari
agreed to pay a fine if he did not comply with the court ruling.74 Al-
Shajari’s return was thus coordinated by the Jewish leadership to-
gether with a Muslim authority. In addition, the two conversion cases
in the late 1940s in northern Yemen, mentioned earlier, were com-
pleted only after the authorities had verified that the parties under-
stood their motion and were adopting Islam wholeheartedly. When
the Jewish woman who had romantic relations with her Muslim neigh-
bor fled to the governor’s house asking to convert, the governor and
his assistants “tried to persuade her not to take this step, and they
warned her a few times lest she would regret it, but they were not suc-
cessful.” 75 Similarly, the young Jew who was rejected by the Jewish com-
munity on account of his “bad deeds” was not immediately accepted
by the Muslim community. The governor tried to persuade him to give
up his plan to convert. Only after insisting that he had come to the de-
cision of his own free will and that he had no request or condition for
his Islamization did the authorities accept his proposal.76
In 1943, Imam Yahya inspected a complaint by the mother of
young Nadra of ‘Amran who had Islamized and married an officer in
his army. The mother claimed that her daughter was cunningly taken
from her house and forced to convert, and she asked to get her daugh-
ter back. After examining the case, the imam found that Nadra had
converted willingly. Thereafter he dismissed the mother’s plea.77
What was the attitude toward the convert following the joyful cere-
monies? The picture is incomplete because of a lack of relevant Ara-
bic sources and fieldwork in Yemen. The prevalence of the
phenomenon, however, suggests that the converts generally inte-
grated into Muslim society. As to Jewish sources, they naturally at-
tempt to present the absorption into Muslim society as difficult and
unsuccessful. They report that the Muslims treated the convert with
suspicion and viewed him with contempt,78 and they cite a Muslim
saying “qad al-yahudi yahudi walaw aslama” (a Jew remains a Jew even
[104] if Islamized).79 According to Nissim Binyamin Gamlieli, there were
some villages whose inhabitants were probably of Jewish origin; they
Jewish were degradingly called al-muhtadyin and were treated with dislike.80
Social He also said that a muhtadi could not marry a tribeswoman unless he
Studies was well off.81 Some Yemeni expressions reflect the Muslim attitude
• toward Jews or Jewish converts: parents used to scold their unruly
Vol. 14 children by calling them “ibn (bint) Yahudi!” (Son [daughter] of a
No. 1 Jew!).82 These expressions raise a question as to how successful the
converts were in fully assimilating into Muslim society.
Conclusion
1 For legal debates regarding apostates (people who had been Muslims [109]
and renounced Islam), see Yohanan Friedmann, Tolerance and Coercion
in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition (Cambridge, Engl., Jews Converting
2003), 121–59. to Islam
2 During the eighteenth century, Yemeni (Zaydi) legal interpretations •
formalized a unique statute, known in Jewish sources as the “Orphans’ Bat-Zion Eraqi
Decree,” that obligated the Yemeni state to take custody of dhimmi Klorman
(non-Muslim) children who had been orphaned and to raise them as
Muslims. Regarding this law and its implementation, see Bat-Zion
Eraqi Klorman, “The Forced Conversion of Jewish Orphans in Yemen,”
International Journal of Middle East Studies 33 (2001): 23–47.
3 For example, the Sanaa Jewish court records from the second half of
the eighteenth century up to the second half of the nineteenth century
(which are the only records that remained) register 20 cases related to
converts. See Yehiel Nahshon, “Ha-hanhagah ha-yehudit be-teman
(meot 18–19)” (Ph.D. diss., Bar-Ilan University, 1998), 167, 175–76.
4 See, e.g., Amram Qorah, Searat teman ( Jerusalem, 1954), 15; Said Sadi,
“Dofi ha-zman: Korot yehudei teman bi-shnot 5477–5486 (1717–1726),”
Sefunot 1 (1957): 59–116.
5 Shalom Lahav, “Yeladim she-uslemu be-teman,” Afikim 117–18 (2000):
56–58 and Afikim 119–20 (2001): 52–53, esp. 52; Yosef Tobi, “Ha-ke-
hilah ha-yehudit be-teman,” in his Moreshet yehudei teman: Iyunim u-meh-
karim ( Jerusalem, 1977), 87; Nissim Binyamin Gamlieli, Ahavat teman:
Ha-shirah ha-amamit ha-temanit—shirat ha-nashim (Tel Aviv, 1996), 244,
and an interview with me in June 1994; Shalom Benei Moshe, Ba-mesi-
lah naaleh (Rehovot, 1988), 101. Hereafter, all interviews cited were
conducted by me.
6 See, e.g., Yosef Tobi, “Ha-mivne ha-hevrati veha-kalkali shel yehudei
teman ba-meot ha-19 veha-20,” in his Yehudei teman ba-et ha-hadashah
( Jerusalem, 1984), 200; and Yosef Tobi, “Hitaslemut be-kerev yehudei
teman tahat ha-shilton ha-zaydi: Emdot ha-halakhah ha-zaydit, ha-shil-
ton ha-imami veha-hevrah ha-muslemit,” Peamim 42 (1990): 105–26,
esp. 122–23. Tobi wrote that Jewish existence in Yemen was perceived
by the Muslim society as “an anomaly that has to be altered by constant
pressure and various methods. This pressure was very efficient in con-
verting Jews to Islam.” See also Nissim Binyamin Gamlieli, Teman ba-
teudot: Yehudei damt veha-mahoz ( Jerusalem, 1998), 47, which describes
Jewish Islamization as a rare phenomenon, known mainly in Sanaa and
other towns and hardly ever in the small towns and villages, and Ye-
huda Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman (Yemen Paths) (Tel Aviv, 1988), 234, re-
garding Islamization as a result of compulsion or as happening “by
force of the time and fatal circumstances.” About temptation, see Aha-
ron Gaimani, “Ha-yibum be-kerev benei teman le-halakhah ule-
maaseh,” Mi-mizrah umi-maarav 7 (2004): 85–115, esp. 105.
7 For different aspects of tribal society, see Dale F. Eickelman, The Middle
East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach (Upper Saddle River,
[110] N.J., 1998). For the tribal society in Yemen, see Paul Dresch, Tribes, Gov-
ernment, and History in Yemen (Oxford, 1989).
8 The first population census was undertaken in North Yemen in 1975,
Jewish
according to which its population numbered about 4.7 million. For
Social
more about this census and its findings, see Manfred W. Wenner, The
Studies Yemen Arab Republic: Development and Change in an Ancient Land (Boul-
• der, Colo., 1991), 19–22.
Vol. 14 9 Shlomo Deshen, The Mellah Society: Jewish Community Life in Sherifian
No. 1 Morocco (Chicago, 1989), 17; Michael M. Laskier, North African Jewry in
the Twentieth Century (New York, 1994), 9.
10 Harvey E. Goldberg, Jewish Life in Muslim Libya: Rivals and Relatives
(Chicago, 1990), 7.
11 See, e.g., Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times
(Philadelphia, 1991), 3–26.
12 For communal life, organization, and leadership, see Bat-Zion Eraqi
Klorman, Yehudei teman: Historyah, hevrah, tarbut, 3 vols. (Raanana,
2004), 2: 68–89.
13 See Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, “Haskalah, yahadut ve-Islam: Hebetim
hevratiyim ve-tarbutiyim,” in Kanaut datit, ed. Meir Litvak and Ora
Limor ( Jerusalem, 2007), 133–80.
14 On a tribal war caused by the robbery of a protected Jew, see Hayyim
Habshush, Masot habshush, ed. S. D. Goitein (Tel Aviv, 1939), 51–52.
15 Deshen, Mellah Society, 21; Daniel Schroeter, “Trade as a Mediator in
Muslim-Jewish Relations: Southwestern Morocco in the Nineteenth
Century,” in Jews Among Arabs: Contacts and Boundaries, ed. Mark R.
Cohen and Abraham L. Udovitch (Princeton, 1989), 113–40, esp. 124–
25. For Libya, see Harvey Goldberg, Mordecai Ha-Cohen: Higid Mordecai
( Jerusalem, 1978), 45, and Goldberg, Jewish Life in Muslim Libya, 12, 81.
16 Dresch, Tribes, 118–23. In twentieth-century Sanaa, “Yahudi” ( Jew) was
a derogatory name for a Muslim. A. Shivtiel, Wilfred Lockwood, and R.
B. Serjeant, “The Jews of San‘a’,” in San‘a’: An Arabian Islamic City, ed. R.
B. Serjeant and Ronald Lewcock (London, 1983), 391–431, esp. 422. In
other places, after uttering the word “Jew,” Muslims would apologize as
they would when saying something unpleasant; see R. B. Serjeant, Cus-
tomary and Shari‘ah Law in Arabian Society (Hampshire, 1991), 122.
17 S. D. Goitein, “Al ha-hayim ha-tsiburiyim shel ha-yehudim be-erets
teman,” in Ha-temanim: Historyah, sidrei hevrah, hayei ruah, ed. Menahem
Ben Sasson ( Jerusalem, 1983), 199–215, esp. 201–2; Serjeant, Custom-
ary and Shari‘ah Law, 120; Yosef Qafih, Halikhot teman ( Jerusalem,
1978), 227; Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, “Yehudei ha-kfarim ba-hevrah
uva-kalkalah shel teman,” Tehudah 15 (1995): 41–46, esp. 44; Carmela
Abdar, “Ha-mivneh ha-miktsoi shel toshvei Surm al-’Awd ke-vituy le-
mamado veha-tahalikhim she-avru alav,” in Le-Rosh Yosef, ed. Yosef Tobi
( Jerusalem, 1995), 481–502, esp. 493.
18 S. D. Goitein describes Jewish and Muslim relations in Yemen as “a very
tight symbiosis”; see his “Dyokano shel kfar orgim temani,” in Ben Sas-
son, Ha-temanim, 216–40, esp. 229. [111]
19 Occasionally the government supplied the Jews with some food. For ex-
ample, following the 1943 famine, Imam Yahya appropriated grain for Jews Converting
the Muslims of Sanaa as well as for the poor Jews. It was sold to them to Islam
below the very high market price. See the anonymous letter from Sanaa •
to Israel Yesha’yahu, May 11, 1943, Central Zionist Archives, S6 3802. Bat-Zion Eraqi
20 About famine, plagues, and Jewish conversions to Islam in 1724 and Klorman
1725, see Qorah, Searat teman, 15. Sadi, “Dofi ha-zman,” 205, describes
Jewish Islamization in 1724 as a large-scale phenomenon in Sanaa and
in the rural districts. See also Tobi, “Hitaslemut be-kerev yehudei
teman,” 114.
21 The letter was published in Yehuda Ratzaby, “Le-toldot yehudei teman:
Olelot historiyot,” Peamim 72 (1997): 106–23, esp. 112–13; the exact
date of the letter was not noted.
22 Yehuda Ratzaby, “Ba-masor u-va-masok,” in his Boi teman (Tel Aviv,
1967), 67–102, esp. 69.
23 Zilberberg, “Kitsur dvarim meha-sihah shel hanhalat ha-mahlaka im
A. Nissim, ba-kohenu be-aden she-nitkaymah be-yom 1.4.1945,” Cen-
tral Zionist Archives, S6 3803. (Unless otherwise indicated, all transla-
tions from foreign-language sources are mine.) For more about
Islamization caused by hunger, see Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-yehudit be-
teman,” 65–117, esp. 80, 97.
24 This is in contrast to the Islamization of lower-class dhimmis in Syria
and Palestine for the purpose of avoiding payment of the jizya. See
Nehemia Levtzion, “Conversions to Islam in Syria and Palestine,” in
Conversion and Continuity, ed. Michael Gerves and Ramzi Jibran Bikhazi
(Toronto, 1990), 289–311, esp. 298.
25 Depending on place and time, Jews paid the jizya to the tribal sheikhs,
to the imam, or to the Ottomans. In the tribal areas, tax payment
meant, at times, participation in public projects such as clearing roads
leading to the village or building a catch basin for water. During the
first half of the twentieth century, Jewish taxpayers (i.e., males aged
between about 13 and 60) in the imam-controlled areas were required
to pay the following annually: the rich, 3–4 reals; the middle class, 2
reals; and the poor, 1 real. During the 1940s, the average wage for a few
working days was 1 real. The jizya payment therefore equaled the earn-
ings of a few working days and was estimated at one dollar or a dollar
and a half per year. See the discussion about the jizya and documents
related to its collection in Shalom Gamliel, Pikudei teman ( Jerusalem,
1982). See also Serjeant, Customary and Shari‘ah Law, 118, and Tudor
Parfitt, The Road to Redemption: The Jews of Yemen, 1900–1950 (Leiden,
1996), 104–5.
26 Nehemia Levtzion, “Toward a Comparative Study of Islamization,” in
Conversion to Islam, ed. N. Levtzion (New York, 1979), 1–23, esp. 9; Ber-
nard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (London, 1984), 95. Lieut.-Colonel H. F.
Jacob, “The Jews in the Yemen,” The Jewish Chronicle Supplement 29 (Apr.
[112] 1932), specifically discussed Jewish men in Sanaa who converted in
order to better their social standing. Regarding the Islamization of a
Jewish silversmith in the southern district of Hugariyya, see Ephraim
Jewish
Yaakov, ed., Temana: Mavo le-erets al-hugariyy (Nahariya, 1995), 136–39.
Social
See also Parfitt, Road to Redemption, 71 n. 19.
Studies 27 Mordechai Yishari, Hayiti ben aruba be-teman (Rosh Ha-ayin, 1989),
• 213–20.
Vol. 14 28 Nissim Ashri, interview, May 1994.
No. 1 29 Shalom Qahta, interview, Oct. 1994.
30 Gamlieli, interview, June 1994, and Gamlieli, Ahavat teman, 244. Other
examples include a Jew from the Hatuka family who lived in the Rada
district and who converted in the 1940s “because of poverty.” He
wished that his only daughter, eight years of age, would convert as well.
The rabbi of Rada, however, quickly married her as a second wife to an
older man, thus proving that she was of age and should not follow her
father. Sivya Yahya, interview, July 1994. And in the northern town of
Sa’da, three young men of the Hala family converted in the 1940s. Yair
Madar-Halevi, “The Relations between Jews and Muslims” (1982, man-
uscript), Bet Nehama ve-Yair Archives, Rehovot.
31 Shari‘a does not require the conversion of dhimmi women when mar-
ried to Muslims; however, the majority converted. On this phenom-
enon in the Ottoman Empire, see Lea Bornstein-Makovetsky,
“Hitaslemut ba-khilot ha-osmaniyot ve-hitnatsrut be-Italyah uve-ger-
maniah ba-meot ha-16 ve-ha-17,” Peamim 57 (1993): 29–47, esp. 35; in
Yemen, all Jewish women who married Muslims converted.
32 See Goldberg, Jewish Life in Muslim Libya, 75, about Jewish peddlers in
Libya who were allowed to enter Muslim homes and have direct contact
with the women of the household.
33 His children remained with his Jewish wife, whom he divorced when
she wanted to immigrate to Israel. Rason Halevi, Me-olam le-olam (Tel
Aviv, 2002), 288–91. For more about Jewish men who Islamized after
falling in love with Muslim women, see Zecharya ben ‘Awad al-’Adani,
quoted in Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-yehudit be-teman,” 84.
34 Two documents related to this story were published in Shalom Gamliel,
Ha-yehudim veha-melekh, vol. 1 ( Jerusalem, 1986), 409–15.
35 For example, Saida Sulayman and her husband immigrated to Israel in
1993. They left two daughters in Yemen, both married to Muslims.
Their third daughter married a Jew in Israel. Naftali Hilger, “Boi
teman,” Yediot aharonot, Feb. 13, 1998. This is seemingly a version of the
same case reported by Galya Zeevi, “Ha-masa sheli le-teman,” Tehudah
19 (1999): 121–26, esp. 125–26. Hilger traveled to Yemen in 1998 ac-
companied by young Yemeni Jews who immigrated to Israel in the
1990s. Some of the Jews they met in Yemen said that they were reluc-
tant to go to Israel because of its abundant temptations for religious
people. The young visitors replied: “Are there not Jews here who were
seen on the Sabbath in cars? Did not girls and boys Islamize here?” Hil-
ger, “Boi teman.” [113]
36 Gamlieli, Ahavat teman, 226.
37 Three of these songs were published in ibid., 227. Jews Converting
38 Shalom Benei Moshe, “Dangerous Love,” in manuscript (ca. 1990), and to Islam
in an interview with the author, Sept. 1995. Benei Moshe emphasized •
specifically that the woman was exceptionally beautiful and stated that Bat-Zion Eraqi
the story was told to him by the couple, who lived in the Israeli town of Klorman
Rosh Ha-ayyin. They had six children and about fifty grandchildren.
39 Nissim Binyamin Gamlieli, Hevyon teman (Ramla, 1983), 86.
40 Seadia Shaar, quoted in Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-yehudit be-teman,” 101.
41 Benei Moshe, Ba-mesilah naaleh, 73–87.
42 Khursan Madhala, Sefer toldot mishpahat madhala (Rehovot, 1983),
99–100.
43 Ibid., 98.
44 Information given by Shalom Lahav (the son of Yahya Hilba) in Kehilat
yehudei bayhan (Netanya, 1996), 132–37. In 1996, Shalom Lahav, now
living in Israel, searched for and found his Muslim half brother.
45 This phenomenon is noted in Shemuel Yavneeli, Masa le-teman (Tel
Aviv, 1952), 50. See also Isaac Holander, “Ibra’ in Highland Yemen:
Two Jewish Divorce Settlements,” Islamic Law and Society 2, no. 1 (1995):
1–23, esp. 7.
46 Sivya Yahya, interview, July 1994. Habiba Sanani converted with her
daughter while her son remained with his father. In 1949, with the
mass emigration of the Jews from Yemen, she fled to Aden, returned to
Judaism, and immigrated to Israel. Her daughter remained in Yemen
because she was married to a Muslim.
47 Nissim Binyamin Gamlieli, Teman u-mahaneh geulah (Tel Aviv, 1966),
106. This story is also repeated in Benei Moshe, Ba-mesilah naaleh,
100–101.
48 Yehiel Habshush, Sheerit ha-pletah mi-teman (Tel Aviv, 1990), 128.
49 Neomi Cohen, interview, Mar. 1997. Wala Mahadun later married a
Jewish man from Barat. In 1942, they immigrated to Palestine and set-
tled in Rehovot, where she lived until her death in 1989.
50 Heftziba Hilger, “Four Personal Stories,” in Bat teman, ed. Shalom Seri
(Tel Aviv, 1993), 386–87. Aharon Ben-David, “‘Al aliyatam shel yehudei
Sada veha-svivah le-erets Yisrael bi-shnat 1951,” Tehudah 19 (1999): 74–
81, esp. 77, tells about a Jewish woman fighting with her husband while
traveling with her family to Aden on the way to Israel (in 1951). The
woman refused to climb into a pickup truck with her husband and
threatened that she would Islamize if forced to do so.
51 Lewis, Jews of Islam, 95–96; Bornstein-Makovetsky, “Hitaslemut,” 29–47,
esp. 33–34 and nn. 15, 16. See also the story above about Yosef Halevi,
who was offered freedom if he Islamized.
52 About Yosef al-Shaykh Levi and the circumstances of his conversion,
see Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, The Jews of Yemen in the Nineteenth Century:
A Portrait of a Messianic Community (Leiden, 1993), 94–95.
[114] 53 The heads of the Jewish community’s petition to the Ottoman gover-
nor helped to ensure that the youth would not Islamize. He was guided
to say in public that he did not wish to convert; thus, the Muslim schol-
Jewish
ars ruled that he should not be forced to Islamize. See David Qaraso,
Social
“Zikhron teman,” translated into Hebrew by Y. R. Molkho, in Yehudei
Studies teman ba-meah ha-esrim: Toldot u-mekorot, ed. Y. Tobi (Tel Aviv, 1976),
• 121–90, esp. 163–65. Qaraso adds that any Jewish prisoner who stated
Vol. 14 his wish to convert was released from prison.
No. 1 54 Goitein, “Dyokano shel kfar orgim temani,” 230.
55 Yosef Dahuh-Halevi, interview, Apr. 2002.
56 Imam Ahmad (r. 1948–62) opposed such conversions; see Goitein,
“Dyokano shel kfar orgim temani,” 230.
57 For Jewish men who Islamized and remained in Yemen, see Reuben
Ahroni, “Addressing the Plight of the Yemeni ‘Agunot,” in Be-derekh lo
slulah: Ovadia ben shalom—mishol hayim u-mifal hayim, ed. A. Mizrahi
(Netanya, 2000), 267–77. Serjeant, who visited Habban in Dec. 1947,
wrote that after his visit most of the Habbani Jews immigrated to Israel
but some remained and Islamized; see Serjeant, Customary and Shari‘ah
Law, 120–21.
58 After 1973, Yehiel Mabari called on the Israeli government to help him
bring his mother and her family to Israel. However, she passed away in
Yemen in 1986. See the correspondence relating to this matter in Bet
Nehama ve-Yair Archives, no. 43.
59 Yair Madar-Halevi, “Naarah she-husharah al yedei aviha be-teman,”
Bet Nehama ve-Yair Archives, Shaarayim File.
60 Lahav, Kehilat yehudei bayhan, 124.
61 The efforts of the boy’s Jewish relatives to contact him succeeded when
they met him in 1995. The story and the efforts to locate ‘Abdalla al-
Muslimani were told by his cousin to Shalom Lahav (Kehilat yehudei bay-
han, 120–31). The story was published again in Lahav, “Yeladim
she-uslemu be-teman.”
62 Zadoc ‘Umaysi, interview, Oct. 1994.
63 This act was also performed in the case of the Islamization of minor
orphans. But the orphan was not asked to pronounce the shahada.
Being an orphan, he was not perceived as yet educated in the religion
of his parents and therefore did not have to “convert.” See Eraqi Klor-
man, “Forced Conversion of Jewish Orphans,” 84.
64 See Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman, 231; Holander, “Ibra’ in Highland
Yemen,” 1.
65 This refers mainly to samna (clarified butter), an essential ingredient of
the Yemeni kitchen that was eaten with bread. About Jews eating in
tribesmen’s homes, see, e.g., Benei Moshe, Ba-mesilah naaleh, 86–87;
Moshe Libi, Bi-ntivot mosheh, ed. Aharon Ben David (Qiryat ‘Eqron,
2004), 67; Abraham Madhala, Ein li erets aheret (Tel Aviv, 1997), 34; and
Eraqi Klorman, Yehudei teman, 2: 47–48.
66 For the eating in public of meat soup by the Jewish convert, see Benei [115]
Moshe, Ba-mesilah naaleh, 86. For this act as a final proof of conversion,
see ibid., 90. Regarding a youth who was forcibly fed meat soup by Mus- Jews Converting
lims and believed that he had Islamized, see Gamliel, Ha-yehudim veha- to Islam
melekh, 399, 402–3. For a folk tale that explains the Islamization of the •
Jews in the village of al-Salaf as a result of their eating nonkosher meat, Bat-Zion Eraqi
see Nissim Binyamin Gamlieli, Hadrei teman: Sipurim ve-agadot (Tel Aviv, Klorman
1978), 207; another version of this tale can be found in Gamlieli,
Hevyon teman, 85–86.
67 For Jews who Islamized and then returned to Judaism and were pun-
ished by the Jewish court with 40 lashes, see Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-yehu-
dit be-teman,” 80.
68 Aharon Eraqi, interview, Feb. 1996, as told to him by his father, Shlomo
Eraqi of al-Hajar.
69 Gamlieli, Teman ba-teudot, 47–48; Yehuda Ratzaby, “Yehudim be-teman
be-arkaot shel goyim: 11 shtarot hadashim (1864–1950),” Mi-mizrah umi-
maarav 6 (1995): 97–130, esp. 123; Gamliel, Ha-yehudim veha-melekh, 392.
Gamlieli, Hevyon teman, 87, mentions the name ‘Abd al-Rahman al-
Muhtadi; Gamliel, Pikudei teman, 97, indicates the name ‘Ali Salih Isma’il
al-Muhtadi; in Ahroni, “Addressing the Plight of the Yemeni ‘Agunot,”
271, a Jewish convert was named ‘Abd al-Malik Ibn Nasir Husayn; Shivtiel
et al., “The Jews of San‘a,” 422, writes that in Bayhan, in addition to al-
Muhtadi, the name al-Muslimani was known for Jewish families who had
converted in earlier generations. In places other than Yemen, the convert
also received the family name of al-Muhtadi. Sometimes the preferable
name was Muhammad. See Amnon Cohen, Jewish Life Under Islam: Jerusa-
lem in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), 127.
70 Gamlieli, Teman ba-teudot, 49; Benei Moshe, Ba-mesilah naaleh, 86; Nis-
sim ‘Ashri, interview, May 1994. For descriptions of the conversion cer-
emony, see also Yishari, Hayiti ben aruba, 220; Tobi, “Ha-kehilah
ha-yehudit be-teman,” 68, 97; and Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman, 234. Benei
Moshe, Ba-mesilah naaleh, 87, summarizes the conversion steps in his
view: “[C]utting the side locks as well as putting on the headdress,
wearing the dagger, riding a horse, and eating animals not slaughtered
ritually, symbolize the exit from the Jewish religion and the entrance
to the Muslim religion.”
71 See Shivtiel, “The Jews of San‘a,” 422.
72 See Madhala, Sefer, 100, regarding a Jewish convert in northern Yemen.
See also Yishari, Hayiti ben aruba, 220.
73 Ibid. See also the story mentioned above about the Jewish youth who
converted and was made a soldier (Gamlieli, interview, June 1994).
74 Yosef Tobi, “Horaat bet din Sana be-inyan yehudi she-hemir et dato
(1887),” in his Moreshet yehudei teman, 111–14.
75 Madhala, Sefer, 98–99.
76 Ibid., 100.
77 Gamliel, Ha-yehudim veha-melekh, 409–15. In 1941, Imam Yahya re-
[116] turned 12-year-old Yosef to his parents after the governor of al-Raydah
had taken the boy in and fed him meat soup—turning the boy, so to
speak, into a Muslim. The imam ruled that the governor acted unlaw-
Jewish
fully, since the boy was not an orphan. Ibid, 399–408.
Social
78 Gamlieli, Teman ba-teudot, 49–50; Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-yehudit be-
Studies teman,” 97.
• 79 Gamliel, Ha-yehudim veha-melekh, 392, 404; Gamlieli, Teman ba-teudot,
Vol. 14 49; Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman, 234.
No. 1 80 Gamlieli, Teman u-mahaneh geulah, 70.
81 Gamlieli, Teman ba-teudot, 50 n. 4.
82 Thomas B. Stevenson, Social Change in a Yemeni Highland Town (Salt
Lake City, Utah, 1985), 44.
83 Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman, 234.
84 Quoted from Zcharia Dori, “Yatmut u-ndod—shmad ve-hasala—aliyat
ha-yetomim be-mivtsa al kanfei nesharim,” Tehudah 19 (1999): 25–31,
esp. 26, in spite of the fact that he was referring to minor Jewish or-
phans who did not choose their conversion.
85 Gamlieli, Teman u-mahaneh geulah, 70.
86 According to Muslim law, the marriage of a woman who converted to
Islam and her husband who did not is irrevocably annulled. See Fried-
mann, Tolerance and Coercion in Islam, 164–66.
87 Gamlieli, Teman u-mahaneh geulah, 106.
88 Madhala, Sefer, 98.
89 Gamliel, Ha-yehudim veha-melekh, 392–98.
90 Halevi, Me-olam, 291–92.
91 See Jacob Katz, Bein yehudim le-goyim ( Jerusalem, 1977), 76. For the hal-
akhah’s perspective toward the convert and his descendants, see Mi-
chael Corinaldi, Hidat ha-zehut ha-yehudit ( Jerusalem, 2001), 107–13.
92 Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-yehudit be-teman,” 80.
93 Goitein, “Dyokano shel kfar orgim temani,” 230.
94 Gamlieli, Ahavat teman, 244; Gamlieli, interview, June 1994.
95 Gamlieli, Ahavat teman, 244.
96 He contacted Jewish acquaintances who encouraged him and helped
him to cross the border to Aden. See Yishari, Hayiti ben aruba, 221–37.
97 Dahuh-Halevi, interview, Apr. 2002. For more Jewish converts who re-
turned to Judaism and immigrated to Israel, see Tobi, “Ha-kehilah ha-
yehudit be-teman,” 90, 97.
98 For problems related to the division of property in cases of inheritance
or divorce when one of the parties Islamized, see Nahshon, “Ha-han-
hagah ha-yehudit be-teman,” 175.
99 See, e.g., Madhala, Sefer, 99. Ahroni, “Addressing the Plight of the Ye-
meni ‘Agunot,” 267, writes about a woman who immigrated to Israel in
1950 while her husband remained in Yemen and kept their two infants.
Madar-Halevi, “Naarah she-husharah,” writes about a woman who Is-
lamized in 1949 and took her two children with her.
100 Yehuda Ratzaby, “Maasei bet din sana ba-meah ha-18,” Mi-mizrah umi- [117]
maarav 4 (1983): 79–109, esp. 88. ‘Umaysi (interview, Oct. 1994) told
about a Jew from Rada who Islamized in the first half of the twentieth Jews Converting
century and deserted his wife. One Friday the Jews came to the mosque to Islam
and asked the Muslim notables: “Is this person a Jew or a Muslim?” •
They answered: “He is a Muslim.” The Jews asked: “If this is the case, Bat-Zion Eraqi
why does he have a Jewish woman?” They asked that the convert give Klorman
his wife a divorce. The Muslim notables said that they did not have any
objection, and the convert signed the get. About a Jew who Islamized in
1942 and agreed to divorce his wife who refused to convert with him,
see Laurence D. Loeb, “Gender, Marriage, and Social Conflict in Hab-
ban,” in Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: History and Culture in the
Modern Era, ed. Harvey E. Goldberg (Bloomington, Ind., 1996), 259–
76, esp. 271.
101 About women who were deserted following the conversion of husbands or
brothers-in-law in medieval Jewish society, see Katz, Bein yehudim, 77–78.
102 For the legal deliberation concerning the effort to release a young
woman whose husband Islamized and disappeared when she immi-
grated to Israel in 1950, see Shlomo Siyani, Orhot shlomoh (Bnei Braq,
1992), and Ahroni, “Addressing the Plight of the Yemeni ‘Agunot.”
103 Yemeni rabbis ruled in accordance with Jewish law that requires halit-
sah from a converted yavam. In very few such cases did they permit the
release of the widow without halitsah. See Gaimani, “Ha-yibum be-
kerev benei teman,” 104–5, nn. 95, 96.
104 Qaraso, “Zikhron teman,” 163. About Qaraso himself, see ibid., 122–
23. Seemingly there were whole villages that Islamized. These were
probably the al-Muhtadiyin (reference to a Jewish past) villages in the
Ashar district that might have Islamized as the result of a catastrophic
event. They engaged in weaving, which was a typical Jewish trade. See
Gamlieli, Teman u-mahaneh geulah, 70.
105 Nehemia Levtzion, “Conversions and Islamization in the Middle Ages:
How Did the Jews and Christians Differ?” Peamim 42 (1990): 8–15, esp.
10; Nehemia Levtzion, “Toward a Comparative Study of Islamization,”
in Conversion to Islam, ed. N. Levtzion (New York, 1979), 1–23, esp. 9.
See also Richard Bulliet, “Conversion Stories in Early Islam,” in Conver-
sion and Continuity, ed. Michael Gervers and Ramzi Jibran Bikhazi (To-
ronto, 1990), 123–33.
106 Tobi, “Hitaslemut be-kerev yehudei teman”; Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman;
Gaimani, “Ha-yibum be-kerev benei teman.”
107 For the conversion of Jews in Muslim lands in medieval times, see
Lewis, Jews of Islam, 95–102. On conversions in medieval times in the
geniza documents, see S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 2
(Berkeley, 1971), 299–311. For the conversion of Jews in Ottoman Jeru-
salem, see A. Cohen, Jewish Life Under Islam, 74–76, and Amnon Cohen
and Elisheva Simon-Pikali, Jews in the Moslem Religious Court: Society,
Economy and Communal Organization in the 16th Century Documents from
[118] Ottoman Jerusalem ( Jerusalem, 1993), 127–30. For more on Jewish Is-
lamization in the Ottoman Empire, see Bornstein-Makovetsky, “Hitasl-
emut,” 29–47; Zvi Zohar, Masoret u-tmurah: Hitmodedut hakhmei yisrael
Jewish
be-mitsrayim u-ve-Suryah im etgarei ha-modernizatsyah 1880–1920 ( Jerusa-
Social
lem, 1993), 187–93; and Nissim Kazzaz, “Hamarot dat be-kerev yehudei
Studies Iraq ba-et ha-hadashah,” Peamim 42 (1990): 157–66.
• 108 See Maimonides’ attitude toward Islam and Christianity in Amos
Vol. 14 Funkenstein, “Tfisato ha-historit veha-meshihit shel ha-rambam,” Tad-
No. 1 mit ve-todaah historit (Tel Aviv, 1991), 103–56, esp. 139–42, and Amos
Funkenstein, “Political Theory and Realistic Messianism,” Miscellanaea
Mediaevalia 11 (1970): 81–103. See also Eliezer Schlossberg, “Yahaso
shel ha-rambam el ha-islam,” Peamim 42 (1990): 38–60. Regarding the
absence of absolute rejection of Islam’s values, see Menahem Ben-
Sasson, “Le-zehutam ha-yehudit shel anusim: Iyun be-hishtamdut bi-
tekufat ha-almuwahidun,” Peamim 42 (1990): 16–36, esp. 20. About Jews
in Jerba, Tunisia, showing religious empathy toward their Muslim
neighbors and saying that they are true monotheists and have “descent
laws,” see Shlomo Deshen, “Yehudei drom Tunisyah: Tsarfatyut, arvi-
yut, yahadut,” Zmanim 82 (2003): 4–15, esp. 11.
109 See Mark R. Cohen, “Ha-Islam veha-yehudim: Mitos, mitos negdi, his-
toria,” in Sofrim muslemim al yehudim ve-yahadut, ed. Hava Lazarus-Yafeh
( Jerusalem, 1996), 21–36, esp. 34–35. For the Jews’ attitude toward
Christianity, see Y. Yuval, “Ha-nakam veha-klalah, ha-dam ve-ha-ali-
lah,” Zion 58, no. 1 (1993): 33–90.
110 Sadi, “Dofi ha-zman,” 87.
111 See Sara Stroumsa, “Al intelektualim yehudim mumarim bi-ymei ha-
benayim ha-muqdamim tahat shilton ha-Islam,” Peamim 42 (1990): 61–75.
112 Nevertheless, Rabbi Yahya Qafih and Hayyim Habshush, leading
maskilim in Sanaa at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of
the twentieth centuries, were interested in Islamic lore and read Is-
lamic history books and legal literature in Arabic. Habshush even con-
ducted dialogues with Muslim scholars on these matters, but their
content was not registered. See Eraqi Klorman, “Haskalah, yahadut
ve-Islam.”
113 Ratzaby, Be-maaglot teman, 231; Holander, “Ibra’ in Highland Yemen,” 1.