According to The Cambridge History of Judaism, during the Byzantine period (starting in the 4th century AD) “guards were sent to synagogues to prevent recitations that were thought to impugn, if only implicitly, the Christian notion of the Trinity.”
Ironically, the Christian banning of the Shema lasted until Muslim armies from Saudi Arabia liberated most of the Middle East and Persia in the 7th to 8th centuries. Talmudic tradition and other writings from the time astonishingly record that under Islamic rule the Jews were once again allowed to practice their religion without hindrance.
One 8th century Talmudic scholar recorded how “God had destroyed the kingdom of Edom [Rome] and its decrees were annulled, the Ishmaelites [Arabs] came and permitted [Jews] to study the Torah and recite the Shema and to pray.” (Gil, Jews, Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages, 2004, p 50)
Ironically, the Christian banning of the Shema lasted until Muslim armies from Saudi Arabia liberated most of the Middle East and Persia in the 7th to 8th centuries. Talmudic tradition and other writings from the time astonishingly record that under Islamic rule the Jews were once again allowed to practice their religion without hindrance.
One 8th century Talmudic scholar recorded how “God had destroyed the kingdom of Edom [Rome] and its decrees were annulled, the Ishmaelites [Arabs] came and permitted [Jews] to study the Torah and recite the Shema and to pray.” (Gil, Jews, Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages, 2004, p 50)
