Introduction

Judah Halevi: We choose some things about ourselves, others are thrust upon us. Although most religious believers were raised in their faith, it's obviously possible to convert. People certainly did convert from one religion to another in the classical period of Islam and did so voluntarily. There was also conversion under varying degrees of duress, as we've seen with Jews being pressured to become Muslims under the Anwahads in medieval Spain. The Khuzari shows that Halavi too lived within a multicultural and multi-religious society.