Why did the Muslims who ruled Spain appoint Jews as their ambassadors and heads of commerce ?

Answer 1

Muslims during that time period were very tolerant of other cultures. They established enclaves within their kingdoms allowing other religions to practice freely as long as they payed taxes. They also allowed people of all religions to be government officials.

You need to understand this was also over a thousand years ago, and the current brand of Islamic radicalism we see now has only been going on for the past Century or so.

Not to say there weren't radicals, (there are radicals of all religions), just the current idealism of Muslim radicals is a recent phenomena on a world history scale.

Answer 2

first of all when the Muslims conquered Spain, the most educated people in those lands are the Jews. Secondly, ethnically Muslims belong to the Semitic Race in which the Jews also belong. And also the hostilities between Muslims and Jews did not originate around this era. It originate when the British and the Americans initiate the Zionism program around late 1940's.

Answer 3

because the agenda was different in those days. The Moslems who ruled Spain also built universities that actually maintained the history of the western world after all the backward Europeans burned down and destroyed their own libraries. Without the Moors and Jesuits in Ireland, much would have been lost forever.

As for the Jews in Spain... they, like the Jews in Italy were seeking refuge from progroms. It was the Christians doing the killing, and I imagine the Moslems found resonance in this, and also respected the Jews proven business accumen and figured it was better to support them than alienate them.

This is a period of european history that your average westerner knows close to nothing about.

Answer 4

The Jews either became Muslim and/or feigned loyalty to their new masters, of course they played the same card as they did when they were under Christian masters too, check on the( Marrano Jews) this ruse worked well for them but in reality they could pull this off without fear of being heretical as the Talmud permits this practice by it`s own teaching that to Talmudic Jews all races are Goys or Goyim.
So in short the Jews promised their loyalty, and monetary &buisness skills to the Muslim over-lords.

Answer 5

Jews became involved in commerce and banking more than Muslims or Christians because both religions forbade charging interest on loans. Once established they had the best financial connections.

Answer 6

Mohammed had a lot of respect for Jews and considered Moses one of the great prophets. Since there was not the hatred there is today, I would say they did this because they knew that a Jewish person would be more likely to be accepted in "polite" society than a dark-skinned Arab.

Answer 7

Apparently, Islamic leaders back then were much wiser than they are today.

Answer 8

And so they should, if those people were best able to do the job.

Answer 9

Because they could, meaning they had no qualms about that.

Answer 10

They did? *mouthes the word "wow"* That's different from today.