Historian Baer, author of The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs (2021), reminds readers that Islam arose in 7th century Arabia, which was home to many Jewish tribes that sometimes cooperated in Muhammed’s struggles. Both believers were strict monotheists who claimed descent from Abraham, practiced circumcision, honored Moses and Jesus, and shared dietary restrictions. Muhammad’s relations with Jews were mixed, but, by the appearance of the great medieval Islamic empires, there was official “toleration,” if not equality. Baer emphasizes that Judaism was considered a false religion, but, as children of Abraham, Jews were considered a protected people. They remained socially inferior, paid a special tax, and were subject to restrictions, such as a ban on interfaith marriages, but participated in all professions, practiced their religion openly, and often rose high in Islamic bureaucracy. The author stresses that this was not, despite the myth, an interfaith utopia. In those far-off days, religion was a matter of life and death, so average Muslims had no doubt that God loathed false religions, and they often acted accordingly; but “Jews and Muslims were almost always closer and had better relations with each other than with Christians until modern times.” The 19th century changed everything. Modern antisemitism appeared, based on pseudoscience that placed Semitic races below Aryans (traditional antisemitism was based on theology). Zionism, born in that century, considered Palestine the Jewish homeland. After Hitler took office, no Western power, the U.S. included, welcomed Jews fleeing Germany. Victory in World War II did not change matters, and Zionists ran the most efficient refugee escape route. Israel’s 1948 formation was a disaster for Jews in Islamic nations. Within a decade, almost all had left, including many who didn’t want to go. With admirable objectivity, Baer describes events down to the present day, in which the news routinely features murder, atrocities, and war between supporters of two ancient faiths.