quitted the Byzantine empire to seek a refuge in Persia and 15abylon,Vhere the Israelite was treated with more leniency. Compare also Samauitans.
As we have said, their condition was more tolerable in the Western empire, where, upon the irruption of the barbarous tribes, they were more favorably regarded than their Cliristian neighbors. The Jews also formed a part of all the kingdoms which rose up out of the ruins of ancient Kome; but, unfortunately, our information respecting tliem, for a considerable period at least, is very imperfect. " In the absence of a literature of their own, we know of them only through ecclesiastical writ- ers, wlio take notice of them chiefly as the objects of the converting zeal of the Catholic Church. The suc- cess of the Christian priesthood among their barbarous invaders inspired them with hopes of gaining converts among the Jews. But the circumstances of the two classes were altogether different. Among the heathen, when a prince or a successful warrior was converted to the faith, he carried along with him all his subjects or his companions in war. But the Jews moved in masses only in matters connected with their own reUgion ; in every other respect they were wholly independent of each other. Their conversion, therefore, could only be the effect of conviction on the part of each individual. The character of the Christian clergy did not fit them for so arduous an undertaking. Their ignorance and frequent immorality placed them at a disadvantage in regard to the Jews, who were in possesiion of the O.-T. Scriptures, and had arguments at command Avhich their opponents could not answer. Besides, there were no inducements of a worldly nature at this period to influ- ence the .Jews in exchanging their religion. They had no wish for the retreat of the cloister, nor did they stand in need of protection on account of deeds of violence and rapine. Their habits were of a description altogether different from those of the monk or brigand. The at- tempts of the clergy, however, were unremitted, and threats and blandishments were alternately resorted to, so that the struggle was constant between Catholicism and Judaism . . . till the appearance of a new religion wrought a diversion in favor of the latter."
4. According to Grivtz {Gesch.d.Juden,y,S\),t'he. his- tory of the Jews in Arabia a century preceding Moham- med's appearance and during his activity presents a beautifid page in Jewish annals. IMany were the Ara- bian chiefs and their tribes who had assimilated with the Jews or become actual converts to the INIosaic relig- ion. Indeed, for several centuries previous to IMoham- med's appearance, a Jewish kingdom had existed in the south-west of Arabia, and some even claim that it ex- tended back previous to the birth of Christ. Others as- sert that a Jew did not mount the throne of Yemen (q. V.) until about A.D. 320; while Griitz (v,91 sq.,442 sq., especially p. 443.447) liolds that the conversion of the Himyaritic kingdom to Judaism did not take place until tlie 5th century. So much, however, is nov,- settled, that in the early part of the Gth centurj' (about A.D. 520- 530) the last king who reigned over the country Zunaan or Zu-n-Nuwas was a Jew (comp. Perron, Sur Vhistoire des Arahes ncant VIslamisme, in the Journal A siatique, 1838, Oct., Nov., p. 353 sq., 443 sq.), and that only with his death Judaism ceased to be the religion of the Himyarites (([.v.). See article Arabia (/?e%w«). The infhience, then, which the Jews must have exerted in the Arabian peninsula at the time of Mohammed's ap- pearance failed not to be perceived by the prophet, and he hastened to secure the aid of these countrymen of his, wlio were equally, with his other Arabian brethren, tlie descendants of Abraham, and had with them at least the common cause of extirpating idolatry and Christianity. There was, perhaps, also another rea- son why the prophet of Arabia should have sought an association with the Jews. His own mother was a Jewess by descent, and had only in after life teen con- verted to Christianity by the Syrian monk Sergius. To her maternal instructions he is supposed to have
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