ABSTRACT
Anti-Jewish literature persists irrespective of crises, so that even during that of the seventh century not every text had Christian defeat as its real subject. Herban's insistent demand throughout the debate that each community should be allowed to remain faithful to its customs shows well that this is what is at stake. Yet this context of forced conversion to Christianity is difficult to imagine in Islamic territory. G. Stroumsa well noted that the difficulty that Islam experienced in defining itself created a space for dialogue, but he is probably overly optimistic in supposing that this dialogue was accompanied by a high degree of tolerance: on the contrary, the instability of the situation cannot but have exacerbated competition. On the other hand, when Islam became religiously and institutionally stable towards the end of the eighth century, the polemic would lose some of its intensity–just as with the messianic movements and apocalyptic literature some time before.
