It's not like it's strange for a people, especially tribal nomads to convert for political reasons. The Timurids for example, a former steppe tribe that settled in the middle east, converted to Islam for political reasons.
Edit: We can also look at the conversions of European barbarians too the Aryan sect of Christianity for political gain.
Edit#2: This is why I think the european jews connection to the holy land is an argument with little evidence to back it up. Outside of the religion
The implied argument here is that Jewish claims of birthright are illegitimate. (The greater problem, to me, is that claims of bloodlines and birthright are bullshit -- whether you're the House of Saud or Han Chinese or whatever.) It seems likely to be true, but some zionists deny it with a passion.
In a lot of ways, Islam bought it's empire by promising lower taxes for converts from Eastern Christianities. There's another tale of mass conversion attempted by Shabtai Zvi. When he was proclaimed the Messiah, he immediately converted from Judaism to Islam, expecting his followers to join him.
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Nordlingpeasant ago
It's not like it's strange for a people, especially tribal nomads to convert for political reasons. The Timurids for example, a former steppe tribe that settled in the middle east, converted to Islam for political reasons.
Edit: We can also look at the conversions of European barbarians too the Aryan sect of Christianity for political gain.
Edit#2: This is why I think the european jews connection to the holy land is an argument with little evidence to back it up. Outside of the religion
pitenius ago
The implied argument here is that Jewish claims of birthright are illegitimate. (The greater problem, to me, is that claims of bloodlines and birthright are bullshit -- whether you're the House of Saud or Han Chinese or whatever.) It seems likely to be true, but some zionists deny it with a passion.
In a lot of ways, Islam bought it's empire by promising lower taxes for converts from Eastern Christianities. There's another tale of mass conversion attempted by Shabtai Zvi. When he was proclaimed the Messiah, he immediately converted from Judaism to Islam, expecting his followers to join him.