Jewish history (or the
history of the Jewish people) is the
history of the
Jews, and their
religion and
culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the
Hellenistic period and the earliest mention of
Israel is inscribed on the
Merneptah Stele dated 1213–1203 BCE, religious literature tells the story of
Israelites going back at least as far as c. 1500 BCE. The
Jewish diaspora began with the Assyrian conquest and continued on a much larger scale with the Babylonian conquest. Jews were also widespread throughout the Roman Empire, and this carried on to a lesser extent in the period of Byzantine rule in the central and eastern Mediterranean. In 638 CE the Byzantine Empire lost control of the Levant. The Arab
Islamic Empire under
Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of
Mesopotamia,
Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain coincided with the
Middle Ages in Europe, a period of
Muslim rule throughout much of the
Iberian Peninsula. During that time, Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed.