[smegger001]

And not everything goes back to the crusades some like this goes back farther still see the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 ad. Or you could look back farther still to the Babylonian conquest and captivity. History is deep that way trying to trace back to first causes is an exersise in futility. If the religions of both sides are to believed on this it goes back to an inheritance despute over the blessing of their mutual patriarch about 3500 years or so ago in a episode of religious history that reads more like bronze age episode of the Maury Povitch show.

[rayiner]

We’re not talking about ancient history that recedes into mythology here. The Arabs conquered a whole bunch of land during a specific period of time that’s well documented in written history. When the Jews came back to their ancestral homeland, it wasn’t the Romans or Babylonians they found there. That matter fact is directly related to that former fact.

[smegger001]

Interesingly their wouldn't be Islamic Arab there if it weren't for the the Roman conquest many of those scattered Jew moves to what is now southern Saudi Arabia and Yemen and eventually converted the Himyarite Kingdom to Judaism. Those Hymarite Jew along with several other monotheistic religons that moved into the area (early christian, Mandaeins, Sameritain Zorastrians) became highly influential culturally and created the environment in which Mohammed and Islam emerged.