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For some 1,400 years, most of the world’s Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews lived under Muslim rule, from Morocco to Iran and from Yemen to the Balkans. Those centuries included long periods of security, trade and great learning. They also included expulsions, forced conversions, massacres and humiliating laws, and in the 20th century the near-total uprooting of Jewish life from the Arab world.
This timeline records the documented episodes of persecution and violence, from the Jewish tribes of 7th-century Arabia to the terror attacks of our own time. Each entry is dated, placed and linked to a source you can check. It is not the whole story of Jews and Muslims: for the Golden Age of al-Andalus, the Ottoman welcome of the exiles of 1492 and the communities themselves, follow the links throughout the page.
7th century
Arabia in the time of Muhammad
Large Jewish tribes lived in the oases of western Arabia, in Medina (Yathrib), Khaybar, Fadak and Wadi al-Qura. Within a few years of Muhammad's arrival in Medina in 622, they had been expelled, killed or made subject. Almost everything we know comes from Muslim biographies of Muhammad written more than a century later, chiefly Ibn Ishaq's; historians accept the broad outline, while some question details and numbers.
- 624
ArabiaExpulsion & exile
The Qaynuqa expelled from Medina
After the Battle of Badr, Muhammad's forces besieged the Jewish clan of Qaynuqa in Medina. After it surrendered, the clan was expelled from the city and resettled in Syria.
Source: Invasion of Banu Qaynuqa#
- c. 624
ArabiaMassacres & riots
The killing of Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf
Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf, a poet of the Jewish Nadir clan, wrote verses mourning the Meccans killed at Badr and attacking Muhammad. He was killed by men sent on Muhammad's orders.
Source: Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf#
- 625
ArabiaExpulsion & exile
The Nadir expelled from Medina
After the Battle of Uhud, the Jewish clan of Nadir was besieged in its fortresses, and its palm groves were cut down. The clan surrendered and left with what its camels could carry, most of it settling in Khaybar.
Source: Banu Nadir#
- 627
ArabiaMassacres & riots
The Qurayza massacre
After the Battle of the Trench, the last Jewish clan of Medina, the Qurayza, was besieged for 25 days and surrendered. According to Ibn Ishaq, between 600 and 900 men were beheaded, including boys who had reached puberty, and the women and children were enslaved. Some modern historians question the scale or the account itself.
Source: Banu Qurayza#
- 624–627
ArabiaMassacres & riots
The killing of Abu Rafi‘
Sallam ibn Abi al-Huqayq (Abu Rafi‘), a Nadir leader at Khaybar, was killed in his home by a small group sent by Muhammad. The sources disagree on the year.
Source: Abu Rafi‘ ibn Abi al-Huqayq#
- 628
ArabiaMassacres & riots
The conquest of Khaybar
Muslim forces took the Jewish oasis of Khaybar. According to Ibn Ishaq, the Nadir leader Kinana ibn al-Rabi‘ was tortured to reveal the tribe's treasure and then killed. The Jews were allowed to keep farming the land in return for half of the harvest. The nearby Jewish settlements of Fadak and Wadi al-Qura submitted on similar terms, and Fadak became Muhammad's personal property.
Source: Battle of Khaybar#
- 630
ArabiaDiscriminatory laws
Treaties of submission in the north
During the expedition to Tabuk, the Jewish and Christian towns of Maqna, Ayla (today's Eilat), Adhruh and Jarba agreed to pay tribute in return for protection, an early model for the status of non-Muslims under Islam.
Source: Expedition of Tabuk#
640–1000
The early caliphates
As Islam spread, Jews and Christians became dhimmis: protected subjects who paid a special tax (the jizya) and accepted restrictions on dress, worship and status, set out in rules known as the Pact of Umar. Daily life was usually far safer than in Christian Europe, and Jewish learning flourished in Babylonia under the Geonim. When Caliph Umar took Jerusalem from the Byzantines, he let Jews live there again; a Geniza chronicle says seventy families were allowed to settle. The restrictions were enforced unevenly, and the worst periods came when rulers chose to enforce them harshly.
- c. 640
ArabiaExpulsion & exile
Jews expelled from Khaybar and the Hejaz
Caliph Umar expelled the Jews of Khaybar, along with the Christians of Najran, and resettled them in Syria and Iraq. Non-Muslims were barred from living in the Hejaz, the region of Mecca and Medina.
Source: History of the Jews in Khaybar#
- 850
Iraq & IranDiscriminatory laws
Al-Mutawakkil’s dress decree
The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil ordered Jews and Christians to wear honey-colored outer garments, distinctive patches and the zunnar belt, one of the earliest documented badge laws, centuries before Europe's.
Source: Yellow badge#
1000–1250
Fatimids, al-Andalus and the Almohads
This is the age of the Sephardic Golden Age in Muslim Spain, and also of some of the worst persecutions Jews faced under Islam. Under the Almohads, Jewish life in Morocco and al-Andalus was nearly extinguished, and the family of Maimonides went into exile.
- 1004–1014
EgyptDiscriminatory laws
The persecutions of al-Hakim
The Fatimid caliph al-Hakim ordered Jews to wear black robes and a wooden image of a calf, and a bell in the bathhouses. In 1009 he had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre destroyed, and churches and synagogues across his realm were torn down. Many of these measures were reversed later in his reign.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Yellow badge; Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah#
- 1013
Al-AndalusMassacres & riots
The sack of Córdoba
During the civil war that broke up the Caliphate of Córdoba, Berber troops sacked the city. Jews were among the victims, and many fled, among them the young Samuel ibn Naghrela, later vizier of Granada.
Source: Samuel ibn Naghrillah#
- 1033
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Fez massacre
Forces of the Banu Ifran, a Berber tribe, took Fez and killed more than 6,000 Jews, seized their property and carried off Jewish women.
- 1057
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The fall of Kairouan
The Banu Hilal, Arab tribes sent west by the Fatimids, sacked Kairouan, one of the great centers of Jewish learning. Muslims and Jews alike fled, and the city's Jewish community never recovered.
The Jews of Tunisia →Source: Banu Hilal#
- 1066
Al-AndalusMassacres & riots
The Granada massacre
On December 30, 1066, a mob stormed the royal palace of Granada and killed Joseph ibn Naghrela, the Jewish vizier, then attacked the Jewish community. Later sources speak of 1,500 families or 4,000 people killed.
- 1140s–1160s
North AfricaForced conversion
The Almohad persecution
The Almohads, a militant Berber movement, conquered Morocco (Fez and Marrakesh by 1147) and then al-Andalus. Jews and Christians were told to convert or leave, and synagogues were closed. Many Jews converted outwardly and kept their faith in secret. Under al-Mansur (1184–1199), even the descendants of converts had to wear dark blue garments; his successor imposed yellow, a rule that lasted until 1224.
The Jews of Morocco →Source: The Almohads, My Jewish Learning; Yellow badge#
- c. 1148–1165
Al-AndalusExpulsion & exile
Maimonides in exile
After the Almohads took Córdoba, the family of Moses ben Maimon wandered through al-Andalus and settled in Fez around 1160. In his Epistle on Martyrdom, Maimonides defended Jews forced into outward conversion. In 1165, the year Rabbi Judah ibn Susan of Fez was executed for refusing Islam, the family left for the Land of Israel and then Egypt.
- 1159–1160
North AfricaForced conversion
Convert or die in Ifriqiya
When the Almohads conquered Tunis and the rest of Ifriqiya, the Jews and Christians there were given the choice of Islam or death.
The Jews of Tunisia →Source: The Almohads, My Jewish Learning#
- c. 1165–1173
Yemen & AdenForced conversion
Forced conversion in Yemen
The ruler ‘Abd al-Nabi ibn Mahdi ordered the Jews of Yemen to convert. Maimonides' Epistle to Yemen (1172) was written to strengthen the community in this crisis.
- 1198
Yemen & AdenForced conversion
Forced conversion in Aden
The Ayyubid ruler of Yemen, al-Malik al-Mu‘izz Isma‘il, forced the Jews of Aden to convert. They returned to Judaism after his death in 1202.
The Jews of Yemen →Source: Adeni Jews#
- c. 1249
EgyptDiscriminatory laws
Badge or death under the Ayyubids
Under the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, a Jew or Christian found in the street without the distinguishing badge or zunnar belt could lose life and property.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Yellow badge#
1250–1500
Mamluks, Mongols and Marinids
Old dress laws were revived in Egypt and Syria, a Jewish vizier's fall set off riots in Mongol-ruled Iran and Iraq, and in Morocco the Jews of Fez were moved into the first mellah. After 1391 and 1492, North Africa also took in tens of thousands of Jews fleeing Spain, the megorashim, whose customs shaped Moroccan Jewry.
- 1267
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonDiscriminatory laws
Jews barred from the Cave of the Patriarchs
The Mamluk sultan Baybars barred Jews and Christians from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Jews could climb only to the seventh step outside. The ban lasted 700 years, until 1967.
Source: Cave of the Patriarchs#
- 1276
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Riot in Fez
A mob attacked the Jews of Fez and killed several before the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf intervened to stop it.
The Jews of Morocco →Source: Norman Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands (1979)#
- 1284
Iraq & IranMassacres & riots
Ibn Kammuna flees Baghdad
A treatise comparing Judaism, Christianity and Islam by the Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammuna set off riots in Baghdad. He was smuggled out of the city in a chest and died shortly afterward.
The Jews of Iraq →Source: Ibn Kammuna#
- 1291
Iraq & IranMassacres & riots
The fall of Sa‘d al-Dawla
Sa‘d al-Dawla, the Jewish physician who had risen to be chief minister of the Mongol ruler Arghun, was killed when Arghun died. Attacks on Jews followed in Baghdad, Tabriz and other cities.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Sa‘d al-Dawla; Tabriz, Jewish Virtual Library#
- 1301
EgyptDiscriminatory laws
The Mamluk dress laws
The Mamluk government of Egypt and Syria revived the old distinctive-dress rules: Jews had to wear yellow turbans, Christians blue.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Yellow badge#
- 1318
Iraq & IranState persecution
The execution of Rashid al-Din
Rashid al-Din, the great Persian historian and vizier, born Jewish and a convert to Islam, was executed after a court intrigue. His enemies made much of his Jewish origins.
- 1438
North AfricaDiscriminatory laws
The first mellah, in Fez
After the tomb of Idris II was found in the old city in 1437, the Jews of Fez were moved to a new quarter beside the royal palace, the first mellah in Morocco. Other cities followed over the next centuries.
- 1465
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Fez revolt
A revolt overthrew the last Marinid sultan and his Jewish vizier, Harun ibn Battash. One chronicler wrote that the mob killed nearly every Jew in Fez; historians doubt that scale, since no Jewish source mentions a massacre and a community is recorded in Fez soon after.
- 1492
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The destruction of Touat’s Jews
In the Saharan oases of Touat, the preacher al-Maghili incited the tribes against the Jews. Their new synagogue was destroyed and, in 1492, the community was massacred.
1500–1800
Ottomans, Safavids and Zaydi Yemen
The Ottoman Empire opened its cities to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal, and Salonica, Istanbul, Izmir and Safed became great Sephardic centers. Elsewhere the picture was darker: Shi'ite Iran under the Safavids and Yemen under its Zaydi imams saw forced conversions, expulsions and degrading rules.
- 1517
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
Attacks in Hebron and Safed
During the Ottoman conquest of the Land of Israel, Ottoman soldiers attacked the Jews of Hebron, killing many, and supporters of the defeated Mamluks attacked the Jews of Safed, many of whom fled.
Source: 1517 Hebron attacks; 1517 Safed attacks#
- c. 1613–1629
Iraq & IranForced conversion
Persecution under Shah Abbas I
Under Shah Abbas I, Iran's Jews were harassed and pressed to convert, and several of their religious leaders were killed for refusing Islam, according to the chronicle of Babai ibn Lutf.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Babai ben Lotf, Encyclopaedia Iranica#
- 1656–1662
Iraq & IranForced conversion
Forced conversion under Shah Abbas II
A royal decree ordered the Jews of Iran to convert; estimates of the number converted range from 20,000 to 100,000, above all in Isfahan and Kashan. A second decree in 1661 let them return to Judaism.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Persecution of Iranian Jews, EBSCO; Babai ben Lotf, Encyclopaedia Iranica#
- 1660
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
Safed and Tiberias destroyed
In a struggle for power among the Druze, the Jewish centers of Safed and Tiberias were destroyed, and Safed's community, home of the great kabbalists, was largely abandoned.
Source: 1660 destruction of Safed#
- 1677–1680
Yemen & AdenExpulsion & exile
The Mawza Exile
Under Imam al-Mutawakkil Isma‘il, Jews were ordered to convert, and some were made to stand in the sun for three days. His successor, Imam al-Mahdi Ahmad, destroyed synagogues in San‘a and elsewhere, then ordered Yemen's Jews to convert or die. He commuted this to exile to the desert town of Mawza‘, where many died of heat and hunger; some accounts say two in three. When they were allowed back in 1680, they had to live outside San‘a, in a separate Jewish quarter, under rules that forbade them to ride animals and made them walk on a Muslim's left.
The Jews of Yemen →Source: Mawza Exile#
- 1790–1792
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The reign of Mawlay Yazid
Sultan Mawlay Yazid took revenge on the Jews who had not backed him for the throne. In Tetouan, wealthy Jews were tied to horses and dragged through the streets, and his troops plundered the Jewish quarter; other communities suffered too.
- 1790s
Iraq & IranBlood libels
Tabriz: blood libel and massacre
Between 1790 and 1797, the Jews of Tabriz were accused of a blood libel and massacred. By 1828 a visitor found no Jewish community left.
- 1793–1795
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Ali Burghul in Tripoli
The corsair Ali Burghul seized Tripoli and committed atrocities, burning at the stake the son of Abraham Halfon, leader of the Jewish community. When he was driven out, the city's Jews began celebrating Purim Burghul each year on the 29th of Tevet.
1800–1914
The 19th century
European consuls, travelers and the Alliance Israélite Universelle recorded events in more detail than ever before. Blood libels, an accusation imported from Christian Europe, spread across the Ottoman world. Reforms gradually ended the legal inferiority of non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire and Tunisia, while Iran and Morocco saw some of the century's worst violence.
- 1805
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Riots in Algiers
A janissary assassinated Naphtali Busnach, the powerful Jewish merchant and adviser to the dey. Anti-Jewish riots by the Ottoman troops followed, and many Jews, including most of the Busnach family, fled to Tunis and Livorno.
The Jews of Algeria →Source: Busnach family, Encyclopaedia Judaica#
- 1807
North AfricaDiscriminatory laws
Into the mellahs
Sultan Mawlay Sulayman ordered the Jews of Morocco's coastal towns, among them Tetouan, Rabat and Salé, to move into walled mellahs.
- 1811
North AfricaState persecution
The head of Algiers’ Jews beheaded
The dey of Algiers, Hadj Ali, had David ben Joseph Coen Bakri, head of the Jewish community, beheaded.
The Jews of Algeria →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1815
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Massacre in Algiers
Jews were massacred in Algiers. Community tradition holds that Rabbi Isaac Aboulker was executed in these events.
The Jews of Algeria →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1818
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Attack on the Jews of Constantine
Turkish troops from Algiers attacked the Jews of Constantine, looting their homes, killing, and carrying off 17 young Jewish girls.
The Jews of Algeria →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1830
Iraq & IranForced conversion
Forced conversion in Shiraz
The Jews of Shiraz were forced to convert to Islam.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1834
North AfricaState persecution
Sol Hachuel
Sol Hachuel, a seventeen-year-old Jewish girl of Tangier, was beheaded in Fez for refusing to convert to Islam. Moroccan Jews remember her as Lalla Solica, the righteous one, and her grave in Fez became a place of pilgrimage.
- 1834
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The looting of Safed
During a peasant revolt against Egyptian rule, villagers sacked the Jewish quarter of Safed for more than a month, killing and raping Jews and destroying homes, synagogues and Torah scrolls.
Source: 1834 looting of Safed#
- 1834
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The sack of Hebron
After crushing the revolt, the Egyptian troops of Ibrahim Pasha sacked Hebron for hours, killing, raping and plundering Muslims and Jews alike.
- 1838
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
Druze attack on Safed
During a Druze revolt, rebels plundered the Jewish community of Safed again.
Source: 1838 Druze attack on Safed#
- 1839
Iraq & IranForced conversion
Allahdad: the forced conversion of Mashhad
A mob attacked the Jews of Mashhad and killed some 30 to 40. The whole community, about 2,400 people, was forced to declare Islam. For a century they lived outwardly as Muslims, the Jadid al-Islam, while keeping Judaism in secret.
- 1840
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonBlood libels
The Damascus affair
When a Capuchin friar and his servant disappeared, local Christians, backed by the French consul, accused the Jews of murder for ritual purposes. The governor had leading Jews arrested and tortured; several died, and 63 children were held to force their parents to confess. Moses Montefiore and Adolphe Crémieux won their release, and in November 1840 the Ottoman sultan issued a decree calling the blood libel a slander.
The Jews of Syria →Source: Damascus affair, Encyclopedia.com#
- 1841
Iraq & IranBlood libels
Blood libel in Mosul
A year after the Damascus affair, the Jews of Mosul were accused of ritual murder.
The Jews of Iraq →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1840s–1900s
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonBlood libels
A wave of blood libels
Accusations that Jews killed for blood spread across the Ottoman world and Egypt: Cairo (1844), Dayr al-Qamar in Lebanon (1847), Aleppo (1860), Alexandria (1881), Port Said, Damanhur, Izmir, Istanbul and more. Most were raised by local Christians, some by Muslims; several ended in riots. Ottoman and Egyptian authorities often stepped in to protect the Jews.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century; Jacob Landau, “Ritual murder accusations in nineteenth-century Egypt”#
- 1857
North AfricaState persecution
The Batto Sfez affair
Batto Sfez, a Jewish cart driver in Tunis, was beheaded for allegedly insulting Islam during a quarrel, and his body was denied a Jewish burial. Under French and British pressure, the bey issued the Fundamental Pact that year, granting equality before the law and ending the special tax on non-Muslims.
- 1860–1892
Iraq & IranMassacres & riots
Persecution in Hamadan
In Hamadan, the city of Esther and Mordechai's tomb, Jews accused in 1860 of mocking a Shi‘ite mourning play were fined and some had their ears and noses cut off; in 1863 a mob lynched a Jew accused of insulting Muhammad. In 1892 a cleric decreed death for Jews who broke the humiliating rules imposed on them, and the community was then ordered to convert or die.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- c. 1866
Iraq & IranMassacres & riots
The Barfurush massacre
In Barfurush (today's Babol), in northern Iran, a mob attacked the Jewish quarter and killed 18 men and 6 women; two were burned alive. The survivors fled into the surrounding forests.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Mazandaran, Jewish Virtual Library#
- 1869
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Riot on Djerba
A mob on the island of Djerba looted Jewish homes and shops and burned synagogues; 18 Jews were killed.
The Jews of Tunisia →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1875
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Killings in Demnat
In the Moroccan town of Demnat, at the foot of the Atlas, a mob killed 20 Jews.
The Jews of Morocco →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1877
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Murders in Larache
Two Jewish families were murdered in Larache, on Morocco's Atlantic coast.
The Jews of Morocco →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1881–1882
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Attacks in Tlemcen and Algiers
Muslim mobs attacked the Jews of Tlemcen in 1881 and of Algiers in 1882.
The Jews of Algeria →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1897
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Attacks in Tripolitania
Synagogues in Ottoman Tripolitania were ransacked and Jews murdered.
The Jews of Libya →Source: Timeline of antisemitism in the 19th century#
- 1907
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The sack of the Casablanca mellah
When the French bombarded and landed at Casablanca, Moroccan soldiers and tribesmen plundered the city, above all the mellah. Witnesses described killing, rape, looting and burning; most of the victims were Jews.
The Jews of Morocco →Source: Jewish community in Casablanca#
- 1910
Iraq & IranBlood libels
The Shiraz pogrom
On the first day of Sukkot, a blood libel set off an attack on the Jewish quarter of Shiraz. Twelve Jews were killed, about 50 injured, and all 260 Jewish homes were looted.
The Jews of Iran →Source: Shiraz pogrom#
- 1912
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Fez riots (Tritel)
When the French protectorate was imposed, mutinous Moroccan soldiers and townspeople attacked Europeans and the mellah. Forty-two Jews were killed, and the mellah was devastated, partly by French artillery. Fez Jews remember it as the Tritel.
1914–1948
Nationalism and world war
The Arab–Jewish conflict in Mandatory Palestine, nationalist movements and Nazi propaganda turned Jews across the Arab world into targets. The deadliest attacks came in Baghdad in 1941 and in Libya in 1945.
- 1914–1917
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonExpulsion & exile
Ottoman deportations
During the First World War, the Ottoman authorities expelled thousands of Jews with foreign (mostly Russian) nationality from the Land of Israel, and in April 1917 ordered the evacuation of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
Source: Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation#
- 1920
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The Nebi Musa riots
During the Nebi Musa festival in Jerusalem, Arab rioters attacked Jews in the Old City. Five Jews and four Arabs were killed.
- 1921
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The Jaffa riots
Riots that began in Jaffa in May 1921 spread to Jewish villages nearby. Forty-seven Jews and 48 Arabs were killed.
Source: Jaffa riots (May 1921)#
- 1921
Yemen & AdenForced conversion
The Orphans’ Decree
After Ottoman rule ended, the Zaydi imam reintroduced an old law requiring fatherless Jewish children to be taken from their families and raised as Muslims. It was enforced with great rigor in its first decade, and families went to great lengths to hide children or marry them off young.
- 1929
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The 1929 riots and the Hebron massacre
Tension over Jewish prayer at the Western Wall erupted into riots across the country in August 1929. In all, 133 Jews were killed, among them 67 in Hebron and 18 to 20 in Safed. Hebron's ancient Jewish community, largely Sephardic, came to an end.
Source: 1929 Hebron massacre; List of killings in Mandatory Palestine#
- 1934
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Constantine pogrom
After a quarrel outside a mosque, rioters in Constantine killed 25 Jews, on August 3–5, 1934; three Muslims were also killed. French authorities were slow to intervene.
- 1934
TurkeyExpulsion & exile
The Thrace pogroms
In June and July 1934, Turkish mobs attacked Jewish homes and shops in Edirne, Kırklareli, Çanakkale and other towns of Thrace. No one was killed, but up to 15,000 Jews fled to Istanbul.
- 1936–1939
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The Arab revolt
During the Arab revolt against British rule and Jewish immigration, Jews were attacked across the country: 16 were killed in the Jaffa riots of April 1936, and 19, eleven of them children, in the Tiberias massacre of October 1938.
- 1941
Iraq & IranMassacres & riots
The Farhud
On June 1–2, 1941, during Shavuot, mobs attacked the Jews of Baghdad after the collapse of Rashid Ali's pro-Nazi government. The official count was 128 Jews killed; community estimates were 150 to 180, with about 600 injured. Years of Nazi propaganda had prepared the ground.
The Jews of Iraq →Source: The Farhud, US Holocaust Memorial Museum#
- 1941–1945
WorldwideState persecution
The Mufti and Nazi Germany
Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the former Mufti of Jerusalem, backed the 1941 coup in Iraq, then spent the war in Berlin, broadcasting Nazi propaganda to the Arab world and recruiting Muslims for the SS.
Source: Amin al-Husseini#
- 1942
TurkeyDiscriminatory laws
The Varlık tax
Turkey's wartime capital tax fell far more heavily on Jews, Greeks and Armenians than on Muslims. Those who could not pay lost their businesses and were sent to labor camps in eastern Anatolia.
- 1945
EgyptMassacres & riots
Riots in Cairo and Alexandria
Demonstrations on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, November 2–3, 1945, turned into riots. A synagogue in Cairo was set on fire, and five Jews were killed in Alexandria.
- 1945
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Tripoli pogrom
On November 5–7, 1945, rioters in Tripoli and nearby towns killed more than 140 Jews, 36 of them children, and destroyed nine synagogues.
- 1947
EgyptDiscriminatory laws
Egypt’s Companies Law
A new law required companies to employ mostly Egyptian citizens. Since only a small share of Egypt's Jews held citizenship, many lost their jobs.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Jews of Egypt, Jewish Virtual Library#
- 1947
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonMassacres & riots
The Aleppo riots
Two days after the UN vote to partition Palestine, rioters burned ten synagogues in Aleppo and about 75 Jews were killed. Half of the city's 10,000 Jews soon left.
The Jews of Syria →Source: 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo#
- 1947
Yemen & AdenMassacres & riots
The Aden riots
In riots on December 2–4, 1947, 82 Jews were killed in Aden, more than 100 Jewish businesses were looted and about 30 homes burned.
1948–1979
The exodus
Between 1948 and the early 1970s, roughly 850,000 Jews left or were driven from Arab countries, after riots, arrests, confiscation of property and loss of citizenship. Most went to Israel, many to France and the Americas. Iran's Jews followed after the 1979 revolution. Communities that had lived in these lands for more than two thousand years all but disappeared.
- 1948
EgyptMassacres & riots
Bombings in Cairo
Between June and November 1948, bombs in Cairo's Jewish quarter killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Jews of Egypt, Jewish Virtual Library#
- 1948
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Oujda and Jerada
On June 7–8, 1948, rioters in the Moroccan towns of Oujda and Jerada killed 47 Jews.
- 1948
North AfricaMassacres & riots
Riots in Tripoli
Riots that began on June 12, 1948, killed 13 or 14 Jews in Tripoli.
The Jews of Libya →Source: 1948 anti-Jewish riots in Tripolitania#
- 1949
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Menarsha synagogue attack
On the eve of Shabbat, August 5, 1949, a grenade attack on the Menarsha synagogue in Damascus killed 12 people, eight of them children.
- 1950–1952
Iraq & IranState persecution
The end of Babylonian Jewry
A 1950 law let Iraq's Jews leave only if they gave up their citizenship; in 1951 the assets of those who left were frozen. Between 120,000 and 130,000 were airlifted to Israel, ending a community that dated to the Babylonian exile.
- 1955
TurkeyMassacres & riots
The Istanbul pogrom
On September 6–7, 1955, mobs in Istanbul, and also in Izmir, attacked the property of non-Muslims. The main targets were Greeks, but Jewish and Armenian homes, shops and places of worship were also damaged.
- 1956–1957
EgyptExpulsion & exile
Expulsions after Suez
After the Suez war, a proclamation declared that “all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state.” About 25,000 Jews were expelled and their property confiscated, and about 1,000 more were held in prisons and camps.
The Jews of Egypt →Source: Jews of Egypt, Jewish Virtual Library#
- 1956
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Kfar Chabad synagogue attack
On April 11, 1956, Palestinian fedayeen infiltrating from Gaza opened fire inside the synagogue of the agricultural school at Kfar Chabad during evening prayers, killing six.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 1960
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Great Synagogue of Algiers ransacked
On December 11, 1960, during riots in Algiers, the Great Synagogue was ransacked: memorial plaques were torn down and Torah scrolls and prayer books set on fire.
The Jews of Algeria →Source: Samuel Gruber, Jewish Art & Monuments#
- 1961
North AfricaTerrorism
The murder of Cheikh Raymond
Raymond Leyris, the master of Andalusian music in Constantine, was shot dead in the market on June 22, 1961. His killing helped convince Algeria's Jews to leave; about 130,000 left for France around independence in 1962.
- 1967
North AfricaMassacres & riots
The Six-Day War and its aftermath
As war broke out in June 1967, rioters in Tripoli killed 18 Jews; nine members of the Luzon family were kidnapped and murdered while being moved to safety, and some 4,000 Jews were evacuated to Italy. In Tunis, Jewish shops were looted and the Great Synagogue was attacked. In Egypt, about 500 prominent Jews were arrested and held for months without trial.
The Jews of Libya →Source: 1967 Tripoli pogrom; Human rights abuses of Jews in Arab countries after the Six-Day War#
- 1969
Iraq & IranState persecution
The Baghdad hangings
On January 27, 1969, fourteen men convicted in show trials as Israeli spies were hanged in a public square in Baghdad; nine of them were Jews.
- 1969–1970
North AfricaExpulsion & exile
The end of Libyan Jewry
After Qaddafi seized power in 1969, a campaign of persecution drove out the last hundred or so Jews of Libya, and Jewish property was confiscated.
- 1979
Iraq & IranState persecution
The Iranian revolution
In May 1979 the new regime executed Habib Elghanian, leader of Iran's Jewish community. Of the 60,000 to 80,000 Jews in Iran at the revolution, most left in the years that followed.
1970–today
Terrorism against Jews and Israelis
From the 1970s, violence increasingly came from armed groups rather than mobs or governments: Palestinian factions, some secular and some Islamist, Iran-backed Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and Hamas, and individuals inspired by them, striking Israelis and Jewish communities around the world. Thousands of Israelis have been killed in attacks; this list records the deadliest and most significant.
- 1970
WorldwideTerrorism
Swissair Flight 330
A bomb planted by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command brought down a Swissair flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv on February 21, 1970, killing all 47 people aboard.
Source: Swissair Flight 330#
- 1970
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Avivim school bus attack
On May 8, 1970, the PFLP–General Command ambushed a school bus near Avivim, on the Lebanese border, killing 12 people, nine of them children.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 1972
WorldwideTerrorism
The Munich Olympics massacre
On September 5–6, 1972, eight Black September gunmen, linked to the PLO, broke into the Israeli team's quarters at the Munich Olympics. Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered.
- 1974
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Kiryat Shmona massacre
On April 11, 1974, PFLP–General Command gunmen entered an apartment building in Kiryat Shmona and killed 18 people, many of them children.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 1974
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonState persecution
Four Jewish girls murdered in Syria
Syria forbade its Jews to emigrate. In March 1974 the bodies of four young Jewish women of Damascus, who had tried to flee with the help of smugglers, were found in a cave near Zabadani, raped, mutilated and burned; the remains of two Jewish boys were found with them. The Syrian authorities blamed smugglers and put four men on trial, two of them Syrian Jews charged with helping people escape.
The Jews of Syria →Source: Jewish Refugees blog (Point of No Return); JTA, 1974#
- 1974
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Ma’alot massacre
On May 14–15, 1974, three gunmen of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took over a school in Ma'alot. Thirty-one Israelis were killed, 22 of them high-school students on a school trip.
Source: Ma’alot massacre#
- 1975
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Zion Square bombing
On July 4, 1975, a bomb hidden in a refrigerator exploded in Jerusalem's Zion Square, killing 15 people. The PLO was responsible.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 1976
WorldwideTerrorism
The Entebbe hijacking
Two PFLP members and two German militants hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv and took it to Uganda, where Idi Amin sheltered them. Israeli and other Jewish passengers were held hostage until Israel's rescue raid; Dora Bloch, a 74-year-old hostage taken to hospital, was murdered on Amin's orders.
Source: Murder of Dora Bloch#
- 1978
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Coastal Road massacre
On March 11, 1978, Fatah gunmen landed from the sea north of Tel Aviv and hijacked a bus on the coastal highway. Thirty-eight civilians were killed, 13 of them children.
Source: Coastal Road massacre#
- 1980
WorldwideTerrorism
The rue Copernic synagogue bombing
On October 3, 1980, a bomb exploded outside the synagogue on rue Copernic in Paris during Shabbat prayers, killing four and injuring 46. French investigators attributed it to a faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; in 2023 a court convicted Hassan Diab in his absence.
Source: 1980 Paris synagogue bombing#
- 1981
WorldwideTerrorism
The Vienna synagogue attack
On August 29, 1981, two Palestinian gunmen attacked worshipers leaving a bar mitzvah at Vienna's Stadttempel, killing two and wounding 18.
Source: 1981 Vienna synagogue attack#
- 1982
WorldwideTerrorism
The rue des Rosiers attack
On August 9, 1982, gunmen threw a grenade into Jo Goldenberg's restaurant in the old Jewish quarter of Paris and fired on diners and passers-by, killing six and injuring more than 20. The attack is attributed to Abu Nidal's Fatah–Revolutionary Council.
Source: Times of Israel#
- 1982
WorldwideTerrorism
The Great Synagogue of Rome attack
On October 9, 1982, Palestinian gunmen attacked families leaving the Great Synagogue of Rome after Shemini Atzeret. Two-year-old Stefano Gaj Taché was killed and 37 people were injured.
Source: Great Synagogue of Rome attack#
- 1984–1986
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonState persecution
The kidnapping of Lebanon’s Jewish leaders
During the civil war, a Hezbollah-linked group calling itself the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth kidnapped eleven Lebanese Jews in west Beirut, among them Isaac Sasson and Elie Hallak, the community's president and vice-president. The kidnappers announced that they had executed most of them; only four bodies were ever found.
The Jews of Lebanon →Source: Naharnet; Organization of the Oppressed on Earth#
- 1985
WorldwideTerrorism
The Achille Lauro hijacking
Palestine Liberation Front gunmen hijacked an Italian cruise ship and murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish American passenger in a wheelchair, throwing his body overboard.
Source: Achille Lauro hijacking#
- 1985
WorldwideTerrorism
Rome and Vienna airports
On December 27, 1985, Abu Nidal gunmen attacked the El Al counters at the Rome and Vienna airports, killing 19 people.
Source: Rome and Vienna airport attacks#
- 1986
TurkeyTerrorism
The Neve Shalom massacre
On Shabbat, September 6, 1986, gunmen believed to belong to the Abu Nidal Organization killed 22 worshipers in Istanbul's Neve Shalom synagogue.
- 1992
WorldwideTerrorism
The Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires
A suicide car bomb destroyed Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires on March 17, 1992, killing 29 and injuring 242. Argentine investigators blamed Hezbollah and Iran.
Source: 1992 Israeli embassy attack#
- 1994
WorldwideTerrorism
The AMIA bombing
A truck bomb at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, killed 85 people and injured hundreds, the deadliest attack on Jews outside Israel since the Holocaust. Argentina's courts have attributed it to Iran and Hezbollah.
Source: AMIA bombing#
- 1994
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Dizengoff Street bus bombing
On October 19, 1994, a Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, killing 22 people.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 1997
WorldwideTerrorism
The Empire State Building shooting
A Palestinian gunman opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six.
- 2000–2005
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Second Intifada
Years of suicide bombings and shootings against buses, restaurants and homes killed about 1,000 Israelis; more than 3,000 Palestinians were also killed in the fighting.
Source: Second Intifada#
- 2001
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Dolphinarium bombing
On June 1, 2001, a suicide bomber blew himself up among teenagers waiting outside a Tel Aviv discotheque. Twenty-one people were killed, most of them teenagers.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 2001
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Sbarro restaurant bombing
On August 9, 2001, a Hamas suicide bomber attacked a crowded pizzeria in central Jerusalem, killing 15 people, seven of them children.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 2002
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Passover massacre
A Hamas suicide bomber attacked the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya on March 27, 2002, killing 30 people and injuring 140.
Source: Passover massacre#
- 2002
North AfricaTerrorism
The Ghriba synagogue bombing
An al-Qaeda truck bomb exploded outside the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba on April 11, 2002, killing 21 people, most of them German tourists.
- 2002
WorldwideTerrorism
The Mombasa attacks
On November 28, 2002, a suicide car bomb destroyed the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, killing three Israelis and ten Kenyans. The same morning, two missiles were fired at an Israeli Arkia airliner taking off from Mombasa, and missed. Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks.
Source: 2002 Mombasa attacks#
- 2003
TurkeyTerrorism
Istanbul synagogue bombings
On Shabbat, November 15, 2003, truck bombs linked to al-Qaeda exploded outside the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues in Istanbul, killing more than 20 people.
- 2003
North AfricaTerrorism
The Casablanca bombings
On May 16, 2003, jihadist suicide bombers struck five sites in Casablanca, among them the Jewish community center, a Jewish-owned restaurant and the old Jewish cemetery. Forty-five people were killed, twelve of them attackers; none of the victims was Jewish, because the sites were nearly empty on a Friday night.
- 2003
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
Haifa and Jerusalem bombings
On August 19, 2003, a Hamas suicide bomber attacked a Jerusalem bus full of families returning from the Western Wall, killing 23, many of them children. On October 4, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad bomber killed 21 people at Maxim restaurant in Haifa, owned jointly by Jews and Arabs.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 2004
EgyptTerrorism
The Sinai bombings
Bombs at the Taba Hilton and two campsites in Sinai, popular with Israeli vacationers, killed 34 people, 12 of them Israelis, on October 7, 2004.
Source: 2004 Sinai bombings#
- 2006
WorldwideState persecution
The murder of Ilan Halimi
Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish phone salesman of Moroccan family, was kidnapped in Paris by the self-styled Gang of Barbarians, who targeted him because they believed Jews were rich. He was held and tortured for three weeks and died in February 2006. The gang's leader, Youssouf Fofana, was sentenced to life in prison.
- 2008
WorldwideTerrorism
The Mumbai attacks
During the Lashkar-e-Taiba attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, gunmen seized the Chabad House and killed six people, among them Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg.
Source: 2008 Mumbai attacks#
- 2008
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Mercaz HaRav massacre
On March 6, 2008, a gunman from East Jerusalem opened fire in the library of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, killing eight students, four of them minors.
Source: 2008 Jerusalem yeshiva attack#
- 2011
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Itamar massacre
On March 11, 2011, two young men from a nearby Palestinian village broke into the Fogel family's home in Itamar on a Friday night and stabbed to death the parents, Udi and Ruth, and three of their children, the youngest three months old.
Source: 2011 Itamar attack#
- 2012
WorldwideTerrorism
Toulouse and Montauban
A gunman inspired by al-Qaeda killed three French soldiers and then, at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, a rabbi and three children.
- 2012
WorldwideTerrorism
The Burgas bus bombing
On July 18, 2012, a bomb on a bus carrying Israeli tourists at the airport of Burgas, Bulgaria, killed five Israelis and the Bulgarian driver. Bulgarian authorities blamed Hezbollah.
Source: World Jewish Congress#
- 2014
WorldwideTerrorism
The Jewish Museum of Belgium
A gunman who had fought with jihadists in Syria killed four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels on May 24, 2014.
- 2014
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
The Har Nof synagogue massacre
On November 18, 2014, two Palestinian cousins armed with axes, knives and a gun attacked worshipers at morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. Four worshipers and a Druze police officer were killed.
Source: List of massacres in Israel#
- 2015
WorldwideTerrorism
Charlie Hebdo and the Hypercacher
In three days of attacks in Paris in January 2015, jihadists killed 17 people. At the Hypercacher kosher supermarket, four Jewish hostages were murdered on the eve of Shabbat.
- 2015
WorldwideTerrorism
The Copenhagen synagogue shooting
On February 15, 2015, a gunman who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State shot dead Dan Uzan, a volunteer guarding a bat mitzvah at Copenhagen's Great Synagogue, hours after killing a film director at a free-speech event.
Source: 2015 Copenhagen shootings#
- 2017–2018
WorldwideMassacres & riots
Sarah Halimi and Mireille Knoll
In Paris, Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish doctor, was beaten and thrown from her balcony by a neighbor in April 2017; the courts found the killing antisemitic but ruled him not criminally responsible. In March 2018, Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, was stabbed eleven times and her apartment set on fire; Yacine Mihoub was sentenced to life.
- 2023
Land of Israel, Syria & LebanonTerrorism
October 7
Hamas-led gunmen broke through the Gaza border fence and attacked Israeli towns, kibbutzim, army posts and the Nova music festival. About 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians, and 251 were taken hostage to Gaza; a UN report found reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence took place. The attack set off the Israel–Hamas war.
Source: October 7 attacks#
- 2023
North AfricaTerrorism
The Ghriba pilgrimage shooting
On May 9, 2023, at the end of the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue on Djerba, a Tunisian security guard opened fire, killing two Jewish pilgrims, the cousins Aviel Hadad and Benjamin Haddad, and three security officers.
The Jews of Tunisia →Source: JTA#
- 2025
WorldwideTerrorism
The Boulder firebombing
On June 1, 2025, an Egyptian man shouting “Free Palestine” threw Molotov cocktails at a peaceful walk in Boulder, Colorado, calling for the release of the hostages held in Gaza. Thirteen people were injured, and Karen Diamond, 82, died of her burns.
Source: 2025 Boulder fire attack#
- 2025
WorldwideTerrorism
The Manchester Yom Kippur attack
On Yom Kippur, October 2, 2025, a man who swore loyalty to the Islamic State rammed and stabbed worshipers at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester. Melvin Cravitz was killed by the attacker, and Adrian Daulby, who was holding the synagogue doors shut, was shot by police by mistake.
- 2025
WorldwideTerrorism
The Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre
On December 14, 2025, the first night of Hanukkah, a father and son opened fire on a Chabad celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing 15 people, among them Rabbi Eli Schlanger. Police said the attack was inspired by the Islamic State.
Source: The National#
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Sources and further reading
- Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book (Jewish Publication Society, 1979) and The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (1991).
- Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 1994).
- Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton University Press, 1984).
- Georges Bensoussan, Jews in Arab Countries: The Great Uprooting (Indiana University Press, 2019).
- Martin Gilbert, In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands (Yale University Press, 2010).
- Jewish exodus from the Muslim world, Wikipedia, and the source linked under each entry.
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About this page
Revised November 2026. An earlier version of this page reproduced a list compiled by J.P. Grumberg. We checked every one of its 294 entries: many were corrected, merged or removed because they were duplicated, misdated, wrongly attributed or could not be confirmed, and a few well-documented events were added. Every entry now links to its source. If you know of a documented event we have missed, or a source that corrects one of ours, please write to us.