Editing Islamic–Jewish relations (section)

===Muhammad===
{{Islamic prophets|Views}}
{{Main|Muhammad's views on Jews}}
In the course of Muhammad's proselytizing in [[Mecca]], he initially viewed [[Christians]] and Jews (both of whom he referred to as "[[People of the Book]]") as natural allies, sharing the core principles of his teachings, and anticipated their acceptance and support. Ten years after his first revelation in [[Mount Hira]],<ref name="Muhammad">Uri Rubin, Muhammad, [[Encyclopedia of the Quran]]</ref> a delegation consisting of the representatives of the twelve important clans of Medina pledged to physically protect Muhammad and invited him as a neutral outsider to Medina to serve as chief arbitrator for the entire community, which had been fighting with each other for around a hundred years and was in need of an authority.<ref name="CHI">The Cambridge History of Islam, (1997), p. 39</ref><ref name="Esposito">Esposito, John. (1998), Islam: the Straight Path, extended edition. Oxford university press, p.17.</ref><ref name="Muhammad, Encyclopedia of Islam">'Muhammad, Encyclopedia of Islam', Alford Welch</ref>

Among the things Muhammad did in order to settle down the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was drafting a document known as the [[Constitution of Medina]]. The community defined in the Constitution of Medina had a religious outlook but was also shaped by the practical considerations and substantially preserved the legal forms of the old Arab tribes.<ref>Muhammad, Encyclopedia of Islam, Alford Welch</ref> Muhammad also adopted some features of the Jewish worship and customs such as fasting on the [[Yom Kippur]] day. According to Alford Welch, the Jewish practice of having three daily prayer rituals appears to have been a factor in the introduction of the Islamic midday prayer, but Muhammad's adoption of facing north toward Jerusalem, Islam's first Qiblah or direction of prayer (later changed to facing toward the Kabah in Mecca), when performing the daily prayers, was practiced among other groups in Arabia.

Many Medinans converted to the faith of the Meccan immigrants,<!--Please give date range for this--> particularly pagan and polytheist tribes, but there were fewer Jewish converts.<ref name="W">Watt (1956), p. 175, p. 177</ref> The Jews rejected Muhammad's claim to prophethood,<ref name="Esposito" /> and further argued that some passages in the Qur'an contradicted the [[Torah]].<ref name="CHI43">The Cambridge History of Islam, pp. 43–44</ref> Their opposition was due to political as well as religious reasons, as many Jews in Medina had close links with [[Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy]], who was partial to the Jews and would have been Medina's prince if not for Muhammad's arrival.<ref name="CHI43"/><ref>Gerhard Endress, Islam, Columbia University Press, p.29</ref>

[[Mark R. Cohen|Mark Cohen]] adds that Muhammad appeared "centuries after the cessation of biblical prophecy" and "couched his message in a verbiage foreign to Judaism both in its format and rhetoric."<ref name="Cohen">Mark R. Cohen, ''Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages'', p. 23, Princeton University Press</ref> [[Maimonides]], a Jewish scholar, referred to Muhammad as a [[false prophet]]. Moreover, Maimonides asserted that Muhammad's claim to prophethood was in itself what disqualified him, because it contradicted the prophecy of Moses, the Torah and the [[Oral Torah|Oral Tradition]]. His argument further asserted that Muhammad being illiterate also disqualified him from being a prophet.<ref>''Allusion to Muhammad in Maimonides' Theory of Prophecy in His Guide of the Perplexed'' By Yehuda Shamir, University of Cincinnati</ref>

In the [[Constitution of Medina]], Jews were given equality to Muslims in exchange for political loyalty<ref name="Esposito"/><ref name="God's Rule">Jacob Neusner, God's Rule: The Politics of World Religions, p. 153, Georgetown University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-87840-910-6}}</ref> and were allowed to practice their own culture and religion. A significant narrative symbolising the inter-faith harmony between early Muslims and Jews is that of the Rabbi Mukhayriq. The Rabbi was from [[Banu Nadir]] and fought alongside Muslims at the Battle of Uhud and bequeathed his entire wealth to Muhammad in the case of his death. He was subsequently called "the best of the Jews" by Muhammad.<ref>{{cite book|author=Akram Ḍiyāʼ ʻUmarī|title=Madīnan Society at the Time of the Prophet: Its characteristics and organization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2fHDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62|year=1991|publisher=IIIT|isbn=978-0-912463-36-0|pages=62–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Haggai Mazuz|title=The Religious and Spiritual Life of the Jews of Medina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RQcSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|date=3 July 2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-26609-4|pages=16–}}</ref> Later, as Muhammad encountered opposition from the Jews, Muslims began to adopt a more negative view on the Jews, seeing them as something of a [[fifth column]]. Jewish violations of the Constitution of Medina, by aiding the enemies of the community, finally brought on major battles of [[Battle of Badr|Badr]] and [[Uhud]]<ref>See {{qref|2|100|b=y}}</ref> which resulted in Muslim victories and the exile of the [[Banu Qainuqa]] and Banu Nadir, two of the main three Jewish tribes from Medina, and the mass slaughtering of all male adults of [[Invasion of Banu Qurayza#Massacre of Banu Qurayza|Banu Qurayza]].