The Rise of Islam and Muhammad
In a single generation a new religion and empire arose in Arabia, and within a few years swallowed Persia and the Near East — together with most of the world's Jews.
Muhammad was born in Mecca around 4330. In 4382 he and his followers moved to Yathrib — from this migration, the hijra, Muslims count their era, and the town became Medina. There he met the Jewish tribes. At first he hoped for their support: prayer faced Jerusalem, and a fast was set on a day coinciding with Yom Kippur. When the tribes did not accept him as a prophet, prayer was turned toward Mecca and relations became open conflict: the Banu Qaynuqa and Banu Nadir were expelled, the men of the Banu Qurayza executed after a siege, and Khaybar taken and made tributary.
By his death in 4392 nearly all Arabia was under the new faith. Then events moved with astonishing speed: within twenty years the caliphate took the Land of Israel, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Persia. In 4397 the Sasanian capital fell, and the Jews of Babylonia — the majority of the people — came under Arab rule.
For them the change was largely for the better. The Magi's persecutions ceased; the academies worked openly, the geonim were recognized, the exilarch confirmed by the caliph. Jews and Christians became People of the Book — protected but subordinate subjects paying a special tax. That arrangement shaped Jewish life in the East for a thousand years. Maimonides, who lived under Islam, wrote both of persecution and of the view that Christianity and Islam each prepare the world for what is to come.