Abbasid and Early Medieval Judaism

TIMELINE 4C

Abbasid and Early Medieval Judaism

750 to 1099

The Abbasid caliphs rule from Baghdad, where the Geonim guide the Jews of the world. Tiberias fixes the text of the Bible, and Jerusalem passes to the Fatimids of Cairo.

TURNING POINTS

750 The Abbasids take power. The capital moves from Damascus to Baghdad, and the land becomes a far province.

c. 900 The Masoretes of Tiberias. They fix the vowel signs and the text of the Hebrew Bible.

928 Saadia Gaon heads the academy of Sura. He translates the Bible into Arabic and writes the first great work of Jewish philosophy.

969 The Fatimids conquer the land. Rule passes to Cairo. Wars between the Fatimids and their rivals wear the land down.

1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is destroyed. Caliph al-Hakim orders it torn down and persecutes Christians and Jews.

1073 Seljuk Turks take Jerusalem. In 1077 they put down a revolt in the city with a massacre. The Jerusalem academy of the Jewish sages later moves to Tyre.

ALSO IN THIS PERIOD

c. 880 Karaite Jews, who reject the oral law, settle in Jerusalem.

c. 920 The Aleppo Codex of the Bible is written in Tiberias.

921 Aaron ben Meir of the Jerusalem academy clashes with Saadia Gaon of Babylonia over the calendar.

c. 985 The geographer al-Muqaddasi of Jerusalem describes his home province.

1033 An earthquake damages Jerusalem, Ramla and other towns.

1071 Seljuk Turks invade the land.

1098 The Fatimids retake Jerusalem a year before the Crusaders arrive.