# Is Ukraine the first country in the world with a Jewish president and a Muslim defense minister?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ukraine-the-first-country-in-the-world-with-a-jewish-president-and-a-muslim-defense-minister/989570>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2023, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ukraine-the-first-country-in-the-world-with-a-jewish-president-and-a-muslim-defense-minister/989570 "2023-09-04T03:13:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2023, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ukraine-the-first-country-in-the-world-with-a-jewish-president-and-a-muslim-defense-minister/989570/1 "2023-09-04T03:13:30Z")

</div>

As seen on Twitter:

> <https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1698459846650085687>
>
> Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof

Zelinsky just appointed a defense minister who is a Muslim Crimean Tartar. Does that make Ukraine the only country in history to have a Jewish president and a Muslim defense minister?

Seems like a reasonable claim to me. Even if you are a bit wishy-washy and take president to mean “head of state” and defense minister to mean “chief advisor roughly equivalent to a defense minister”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ukraine-the-first-country-in-the-world-with-a-jewish-president-and-a-muslim-defense-minister/989570/2 "2023-09-04T04:04:53Z")

</div>

The Islamic Kingdom of Granada had Jewish Grand Viziers (roughly, chief ministers) from 1027 until 1066. It’s likely that most of the officials who served under them or alongside them were Muslims, though whether there was an official corresponding to a modern Minister of Defence is open to question.

Also, the Grand Vizier was head of government, but not head of state.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2023, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ukraine-the-first-country-in-the-world-with-a-jewish-president-and-a-muslim-defense-minister/989570/3 "2023-09-04T23:17:50Z")

</div>

> [@UDS1](#):
>
> though whether there was an official corresponding to a modern Minister of Defence is open to question.

Functionally it was those same viziers - Samuel ibn Naghrillah/Samuel ha’Nagid was fairly famous for leading the armies of Granada to battlefield success. He was in the field at some point during almost every year of his office.