Oduniyyad Caliphate: Difference between revisions

On several occasions popular resentment against Jewish conspicuous wealth claiming being usury collected and Christian employment in the government was manifested in public demonstrations. Muslims resorted to arson, burning sanctuaries to express their hatred. Under such pressure, the Rhūm government dismissed Christians from the bureaucracy and ordered all the churches to be closed. As a result of these intermittent persecutions and the destruction of churches, it is believed that the rate of conversion to Islam accelerated markedly in the period and many smaller old Christian sects disappeared. By the end of Caliphical rule, the Muslims reached the same numerical superiority that they enjoy in modern times.

==Culture==

Arabic had been the language of the bureaucracy since the late 7th century and the language of religion and culture. Moreover, the prevalence of Arabic as a written and spoken language is attested by the discovery of thousands of letters and documents from the 11th century written in Hebrew characters, the actual language of most of these documents is Arabic, which proves that Arabic was widely used even by non-Muslims. The main incentive for learning Arabic must have come from the desire of a subject population to learn the administrative and scholarly language of the ruling and learned elite. The immigration of tribesmen during the early centuries of the occupation, and their intermarriage with the indigenous inhabitants, must also have contributed to the gradual spread of Arabic.