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Muslim Attitudes toward Jewish Religion and Customs
Throughout the period under discussion, Yemen remained a traditional
society and did not undergo any process of secularization. Yemeni so-
ciety, urban and rural, was religious (though often tribesmen did not
observe many of the Shari῾a laws). This society maintained that its well-
being depended on the good conduct of its members and their obedience
to religious and customary laws; such behavior would ensure that the
Yemen: Muslim and Jewish Interactions in the Tribal Sphere · 131
social order would not be disrupted and that the people would not be
punished by Heaven. The basic Yemeni attitude toward the Jewish reli-
gion stems from Islam, which views Judaism as a legitimate monotheistic
religion and therefore tolerable. The Jews were expected to observe their
own religious laws and thus contribute to the general well-being. Public
deviation from Jewish religious law was not acceptable, and a good Mus-
lim would not hesitate to rebuke such behavior.
21
Two Jewish religious principles were best known to the Muslims of
Yemen: the dietary laws and observance of the Sabbath. Jews knew that
the Muslims of Yemen were familiar with the requirements of Jewish di-
etary law; therefore, they did not refrain from eating at their tables. Many
Jewish craftsmen and peddlers traveled around the tribe’s territory for
weeks, even for months, working in the villages and coming home only
for the Sabbath or on holidays. As there were often no Jewish settlements
en route, they stayed with Muslim acquaintances and, in return, gave
their hosts something from their merchandise. These travelers ate milk
products and bread in their hosts’ vessels and in the homes of Muslims
in which they worked.
22
A Jewish peddler in the Rada῾ district relates: “I
remember an Arab woman at whose house I stayed and I ate there. She
used to say, ‘ya yahudi, eat! You are on my conscience. I am responsible.
If there is a sin it would be on me.’ That means that the milk vessel is not
used for meat dishes, and the Arabs know it. The Arabs have faith. They
are religious.”
23
Jews also ate food prepared by Muslims in other circumstances. In the
village al-Jum῾ah of the Khawlan district, in the first half of the twentieth
century, the Jews were required to pay the Jizya by working one day a
year in the fields of the village shaykh. On this day, the shaykh used to
provide them with breakfast and lunch: ῾asid (meal porridge) and samna
(clarified butter) and sheep’s milk, “and we even ate in their vessels!”
24
Jews participated in their Muslim neighbors’ important life cycle events,
like weddings and mourning ceremonies.
25
In such cases, the Muslims
respected the dietary laws of their Jewish guests:
When Sayyid Salaḥ passed away [circa 1920], we went to his fu-
neral, about twelve people from Rada῾. After the shaykh was bur-
ied, his sons did not let us return to Rada῾, by any means. They
said that the Jews would stay [as their guests] for a whole week.
They gave us a special house, laborers to help us, and even took
132 · Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman
the trouble to bring a mori [rabbi] to slaughter for us for a whole
week. . . . In the morning we ate milk products, samna, and in the
evening meat.
26
Likewise, Muslims ate in Jewish homes and participated in Jewish wed-
ding festivals.
27
All of the above clearly show how comfortable Jews felt
in the Muslim tribal society.
Observance of the Sabbath was the second Jewish religious principle
respected by Yemeni Muslims. The Arabs knew of the Sabbath both from
their contacts with Jews and from Muslim sources. For example, surat
al-baqara (The Cow) of the Quran
28
dictates that the Jews ought to ob-
serve the Sabbath and that whoever desecrates the Sabbath will become
a monkey. The Sabbath is seemingly perceived as a punishment for Jews
who rejected Islam, a perception which implies the existence of tension
toward them. Hence, along with the Muslims’ genuine desire that the
Jews observe their religion for the sake of the general well-being, the
Sabbath often became a way to monitor the Jews and control them. This
dialectic is apparent in the following examples. Haim Habshush, who
traveled in Yemen in 1870, tells of a Jew who at a time of drought joined
his fellow Muslim villagers in gathering locusts for food. He persisted in
this task even on the eve of the Sabbath and did not listen to his Muslim
neighbors, who asked him to stop. The tribesmen then brought him to
trial before one of their judges, and he was sentenced to a few months
imprisonment.
29
And Reuben Shar῾abi (born in 1911 in the Bani Wah-
ban territory in Shar῾ab district), tells of being rebuked on account of
the Sabbath by ῾Ali Qaid, the village shaykh. He recalls that one Friday
afternoon he was late in returning home from his commercial dealings.
He hurried toward the village, riding on his donkey, and reached home
a few minutes before the Sabbath began. But he recounts:
Before I managed to enter my home and unload the pack from
the donkey, Shaykh ῾Ali arrived in my house, angry and shouting
loudly: “Ya Rubein, ya yahudi, you desecrated the Sabbath!” . . . I
came to him and told him: “Honorable Shaykh, you are mistaken.
The Sabbath did not begin yet, as the sun has not set. There is at
least a quarter of an hour left until the Sabbath.” But the Shaykh in-
sisted: “I am not wrong, but you are wrong! The Sabbath enters be-
fore the sun sets. And you still have to care for the donkey and wash
Yemen: Muslim and Jewish Interactions in the Tribal Sphere · 133
for the Sabbath, and there is no doubt that you have desecrated the
Sabbath! You should have arrived earlier!”
30
In some places, the tribesmen were careful not to disturb the Jews during
the Sabbath and even refrained from conversing with them.
31
At times,
Muslim tribesmen even used to gather during the Sabbath and the High
Holidays near the synagogue and listen attentively to the prayers, while
encouraging the Jews to pray wholeheartedly.
32
In the town of Dhamar,
for example, Muslims used to come on Thursdays to the place where
children were taught Torah and listen to their reading of the Tafsir (Rabbi
Saadia Gaon’s Arabic translation of the Torah), “and at the end would
kiss the book like we did.”
33
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