The Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries expanded Muslim political power from its early seventh-century base in Arabia to an empire that included the heart of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, and eventually penetrated into Central Asia and India in the east and modern-day France in the west. Only a little is known about the immediate effects of these momentous historical developments on Jewish communities, but it is to be assumed that Jews had much the same experiences, both positive and negative, as the other conque…