Jews in the World of Islam Lecture Series
For:
Students, Faculty, and Staff
Location:
Please join the Institute of Historical Studies for their Jews in the World of Islam Lecture Series during International Education Week!
This talk will focus on ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa, a prominent companion of the Prophet Muḥammad, who was entrusted with various tasks related to the Jews of Medina and Khaybar. Among his responsibilities was estimating Khaybar’s date produce following the defeat of its Jewish inhabitants. I will discuss rare accounts revealing that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa’s wet nurse was from Khaybar, and I will argue that his childhood connection with Khaybar’s Jews offers a persuasive explanation for his professional trajectory. The talk will also place the accounts of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa’s wet nurse in the broader context of nursing ties between Muḥammad’s Medinan supporters and the Jews. I seek to show that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa belonged to a group of Muḥammad’s supporters who had shared close connections with the Jews before the rise of Islam but who subsequently changed their attitude toward them during Muḥammad’s Medinan period.
This event is co-sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, and the Department of History.