and this nation upon whom wrath descended has had the greatest share of that effacement; for it is the most ancient of nations ⦗1⦘, and every subsequent power has subjugated it—the Akkadians, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Christians.

There was not one of those nations that did not seek to annihilate them, burn their scriptures, and ravage their lands, until no city, army, or fortress was left to them save in the Ḥijaz and at Khaybar, where they enjoyed their last moment of strength.

When Islam arose and the Lord, exalted be He, was proclaimed from the mountains of Paran, it found the Jews living under the protection of the Persians and the Christians, and it confronted that small band in Khaybar and Madinah. God then made them taste—at the hands of the Muslims—an equal measure of killing, captivity, and ruin to what their predecessors had suffered. They belonged to a clan that had not yet been exiled; so God decreed exile for them, scattered them, and tore them apart through Islam in every direction.

Yet, despite all this, they have never lived with any people more pleasantly or securely than with the Muslims; for the harm they received from the Christians, the Persians, and the idol-worshippers far exceeded anything that befell them at the hands of the Muslims.

The same applies to what they endured under their own rebellious kings who killed the prophets, pursued them relentlessly, worshipped idols, imported idol wardens from distant lands to exalt those images and their rites, built chapels and temples for them, devoted themselves to their worship, and for long ages abandoned the rulings of the Torah and the law of Moses.

If this was their lot with their own kings, what do you imagine it was like with their enemies—the bitterest of enemies to them—such as the Christians, who hold that they killed and crucified the Messiah