(meaning the Children of Israel). The Arabic term yahud, denoting
Jews, and its variants ("hud", "yahudi") occur eleven times and the
verbal form hāda (meaning "to be a Jew/Jewish") occurs ten times. Jews
are not mentioned at all in verses dating from the Meccan period.
According to Bernard Lewis, the coverage given to Jews is relatively
insignificant.
The references in the Qur'an to Jews are interpreted in different
ways. According to Frederick M. Schweitzer and Marvin Perry, these
references are "mostly negative" According to Tahir Abbas the general
references to Jews are favorable, with only those addressed to
particular groups of Jews containing harsh criticisms.
According to Bernard Lewis and other scholars, the earliest verses of
the Qur'an were largely sympathetic to Jews. As monotheists Mohammed
admired them and saw them as natural adherents to the new faith and
Jewish practices helped model early Islamic behavior -- perhaps most
famously the fact that until 623 Muslims prayed toward Jerusalem, not
Mecca. But after he and his followers settled in Medina in 622, which
at the time had a large Jewish merchant population, he found his
message rejected by most of the Jews and his positions ridiculed. The
direction of prayer was shifted towards Mecca and the most negative
verses about Jews were set down after this time. According to Laqueur,
conflicting statements about Jews in the Qur'an have effected Muslim
attitudes towards Jews to this day, especially during periods of
rising Islamic fundamentalism.
