Dhimmi

A dhimmī (Arabic: ذمي‎ ḏimmī IPA: [ˈðɪmmiː]), (collectively أهل الذمة ahl al-ḏimmah/dhimmah, "the people of the dhimma") is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law. Linguistically, the word means "one whose responsibility has been taken". This has to be understood in the context of the definition of state in Islam. Dhimma allows rights of residence in return for taxes. According to scholars, Dhimmi's have the same social responsibilities and rights as Muslims. They are excused or excluded from specific duties assigned to Muslims, and otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract and obligation.

Under sharia law, dhimmi status was originally afforded to Jews, Christians, and Sabians. The protected religions later came to include Zoroastrians, Mandaeans, Hindus and Buddhists. Eventually, the largest school of Islamic legal thought applied this term to all non-Muslims living in Islamic lands outside the sacred area surrounding Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

As an example of the distinctions between Muslims, dhimmis, and others, sharia law permits the consumption of pork and alcohol by non-Muslims living in Islamic countries, although they may not be openly displayed. These same commodities are expressly forbidden to Muslims. The largest school of legal thought in Islam i.e. the Hanafi school does not make any distinction between a non-Muslim dhimmi and a Muslim citizen.

Treatment of dhimmis

The question of how tolerant Islam was towards other religions requires a definition of terms. If a lack of discrimination is the criterion for tolerance, one answer will emerge. If a lack of persecution, defined as active and violent repression, is the criterion, the question gets a different answer. Restrictions against dhimmis was institutionalized in traditional Islamic societies. Persecution, on the other hand, was rare and atypical. The dhimmi communities had their own chiefs and judges, with their own family, personal and religious laws.

Many of the dhimmi restrictions seem to go back to the early days of the Arab conquest, and to have been instituted as security precautions in order to protect occupying military and administrative personnel. Most of the restrictions were social and symbolic in nature. Various restrictions, such as dress codes, building codes, and limits on openness of worship, were enforced unevenly on the dhimmi populations. A pattern of stricter, then more lax, enforcement developed over time. In times of external threat, or under a more pious ruler, the restrictions would be rigorously enforced for a while – then more lax enforcement would again return. The major financial disabilities of the dhimmi were the jizya poll tax and the fact dhimmis and Muslims could not inherit each from other. The jurists and scholars of Islamic sharia law called for humane treatment of the dhimmis, however the commentators were more severe. Unlike the Jews and Muslims of Spain after its reconquest by Catholic Christians the dhimmis did not have to choose between apostasy, exile and death, except under the Almohad dynasty.

The dhimma contract in the modern world

The dhimma contract and sharia law

Main article: Sharia

The dhimma contract is an integral part of traditional Islamic sharia law. From the 9th century AD, the power to interpret and refine law in traditional Islamic societies was in the hands of the scholars (ulema). This separation of powers served to limit the range of actions available to the ruler, who could not easily decree or reinterpret law independently and expect the continued support of the community. Through succeeding centuries and empires, the balance between the ulema and the rulers shifted and reformed, but the balance of power was never decisively changed. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution introduced an era of European world hegemony that included the domination of most of the lands of Islam. At the end of the Second World War, the European powers found themselves too weakened to maintain their empires. The wide variety of forms of government, systems of law, attitudes toward modernity and interpretations of sharia are a result of the ensuing drives for independence and modernity in the Muslim world.

Muslim states, sects, schools of thought and individuals differ as to exactly what sharia law entails. In addition, Muslim states today utilize a spectrum of legal systems. Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states enforce their interpretations of classical sharia law. Most states have a mixed system implementing certain aspects of sharia while acknowledging constitutional supremacy. A few, such as Turkey, have declared themselves secular. Local and customary laws may take precedence in certain matters, as well. Islamic law is therefore polynormative, and despite several cases of regression in recent years, the trend is towards modernization and liberalization. Questions of human rights and the status of minorities cannot be generalized with regards to Islam and the Muslim world. They must instead be examined on a case-by-case basis, within specific political and cultural contexts, using perspectives drawn from the historical framework.

The end of the dhimma contract in Ottoman North Africa and the Middle East

The status of the dhimmi "was for long accepted with resignation by the Christians and with gratitude by the Jews" but ceased to be so after the rising power of Christendom and the radical ideas of the French revolution caused a wave of discontent among Christian dhimmis. The continuing and growing pressure from the European powers combined with pressure from Muslim reformers gradually relaxed the inequalities between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The collection of the jizya tax from non-Muslims was widespread throughout the history of Islam. In the mid-19th century, the Ottoman empire significantly relaxed the restrictions and taxes placed on its non-Muslim residents under Ottomanism. These relaxations occurred gradually as part of the Tanzimat reform movement, which began in 1839 with the accession of the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid I.

On November 3, 1839, the Hatt-i Sharif of Gulhane edict was put forth by the Sultan, in part proclaiming the principle of equality among all subjects regardless of religion. Part of the motivation for this was a desire to gain support from the British Empire, whose help was needed in a conflict with Egypt.

On February 18, 1856, the Hatt-i Humayan edict was issued, building upon the 1839 edict. It came about partly as a result of pressure from and the efforts of the ambassadors of England, France, and Austria, whose respective countries were needed as allies in the Crimean War. It again proclaimed the principle of equality between Muslims and non-Muslims, and produced many specific reforms to this end. For example, the jizya tax was abolished and non-Muslims were allowed to join the army.

Views of contemporary Islamic scholars on the status of dhimmis in an Islamic society

• Allameh Tabatabaei, a prominent 20th century Shia scholar, commenting on a hadith that claims that the verse 9:29 has "abrogated" other verses asking for good behaviour toward dhimmis, states that "abrogation" could be understood either in its terminological sense or its literal sense. If "abrogation" is understood in its terminological sense, Muslims should deal with dhimmis strictly in a good and decent manner.

• The Shia jurist Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi states in the selection of the Tafsir Nemooneh that the main philosophy of jizya is that it is only a financial aid to those Muslims who are in the charge of safeguarding the security of the state and Dhimmis' lives and properties on their behalf

• Legal scholar L. Ali Khan points to the Constitution of Medina as a way forward for Islamic states in his 2006 paper titled The Medina Constitution. He suggests this ancient document, which governed the status of religions and races in the first Islamic state, can serve as a basis for the protection of minority rights, equality, and religious freedom in the modern Islamic state.

• Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University, advocates the inclusion of academic disciplines and Islamic society, along with traditional Islamic scholars, in an effort to reform Islamic law and address modern conditions. He speaks of remaining faithful to the higher objectives of sharia law. He posits universal rights of dignity, welfare, freedom, equality and justice in a religiously and culturally pluralistic Islamic (or other) society, and proposes a dialog regarding the modern term "citizenship," although it has no clear precedent in classical fiqh. He further includes the terms "non-citizen", "foreigner", "resident" and "immigrant" in this dialog, and challenges not only Islam, but modern civilization as a whole, to come to terms with these concepts in a meaningful way with regards to problems of racism, discrimination and oppression.

Conversions

Over the course of many centuries, most Zoroastrians and Christians in Islamic countries converted to Islam, but the Muslim conquest had a limited impact on the Jews.

The spread of the Muslim faith in the first centuries of the Islamic rule was mainly by persuasion and inducement. Many Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians converted to Islam, however there were significant differences among the conversion rates and scales of these three religions. Judaism, on the whole, survived throughout the Islamic lands. Lewis explains the reason for the rapid conversion of Zoroastrians was the close association of the Zoroastrian priesthood and the structure of power in ancient Iran, and neither possessing "stimulation of powerful friends abroad by the Christians, nor the bitter skill in survival possessed by the Jews." For the Christians, the process of Arab settlement, of conversion to Islam and assimilation into the dominant culture caused their gradual conversion. In some places, like the Maghreb, Central Asia, and southern Arabia, Christianity died out completely. Jews in contrast were more accustomed to such adversity. For them, the Islamic conquest was just a change of master.

Jewish Encyclopedia reports a high rate of conversion to Islam of informed Jews in the 12th century. Jewish Encyclopedia also reports outward conversions of Jews to Islam at around the year 1142 in southwestern Europe due to the rise of the Almohades.

Christianity

For Christians, the process of conversion was slower, but no less inexorable. It is possible that as late as the time of the Crusades Christians still constituted a majority of the population. Christians continued to live in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. The relative resiliency of local Christians in those countries may have stemmed from the fact that their position as non-Chalcedonians had made them a minority among the predominantly orthodox Chalcedonian Christians of the Eastern Roman Empire, which may have made them more amenable to accepting Muslim supremacy; many may have felt better off under early Muslim rule than under that of the orthodox Greeks of Constantinople.

In 1095 AD, Pope Urban II urged western European Christians to come to the aid of the Christians of Palestine. The subsequent Crusades brought Roman Catholic Christians into contact with Orthodox Christians whose beliefs they discovered to differ from their own perhaps more than they had realised, and whose position under the rule of the Muslim Fatimid dynasty was less uncomfortable than had been supposed. Consequently, the Eastern Christians provided perhaps less support to the Crusaders than had been expected. When the Arab East came under Ottoman rule in the 16th century AD, Christian populations and fortunes rebounded significantly. The Ottomans had long experience dealing with Christian and Jewish minorities, and were more tolerant towards religious minorities than the former Muslim rulers, the Mamluks of Egypt. By the 19th century AD European pressure had removed all dhimma restrictions on Ottoman religious minorities. The ensuing modernizations and improvements in economic positions of the Arab Christians would eventually lead to a reduction in their relative numbers through a lowered birth rate among their population. The increase in wealth and freedom enjoyed by the former dhimmis would in turn lead to friction with the Muslim community.

Judaism

Accustomed to survival in adverse circumstances after many centuries of discrimination and persecution within the Roman Empire, both pre-Christian and Christian, Jews saw the Islamic conquests as just another change of rulers, this time for the better. Voluntary conversion among the Jews was rare, and they managed to preserve their religion all over the Muslim lands.

María Rosa Menocal, argues that the Jewish dhimmis living under the Caliphate, while allowed fewer rights than Muslims, were still better off than in the Christian parts of Europe. Jews from other parts of Europe made their way to al-Andalus, where in parallel to Christian sects regarded as heretical by Catholic Europe, they were not just tolerated, but where opportunities to practise faith and trade were open without restriction save for the prohibitions on proselytisation.

Bernard Lewis states:

Generally, the Jewish people were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community. Furthermore, the restrictions to which they were subject were social and symbolic rather than tangible and practical in character. That is to say, these regulations served to define the relationship between the two communities, and not to oppress the Jewish population.

According to the scholar Mordechai Zaken, tribal chieftains (also known as aghas) in tribal Muslim societies such as the Kurdish society in Kurdistan would tax their Jewish subjects. The Jews were in fact civilians protected by their chieftains in and around their communities; in return they paid part of their harvest as dues, and contributed their skills and services to their patron chieftain.

South Asia

By the 10th century, the Turks of Central Asia had brought Islam to the mountains north of the Indic plains. It was not long before they swept south across the Punjab. The Indus basin held a substantial Buddhist population in addition to the ruling Hindu castes, and most converted to Islam over the next two centuries. At the end of the 12th century, the Muslims advanced quickly into the Ganges plain. In one decade, a Muslim army led by Turkic slaves consolidated resistance around Lahore and brought northern India, as far as west Bengal, under Muslim rule. From these Turkic slaves would come sultans, including the founder of the sultanate of Delhi. Muslims and dhimmis alike participated in urbanization and urban prosperity.

By the 15th century, Islamic and Hindu civilization had evolved in a complementary manner, with the Muslims taking the role of a ruling caste in Hindu society. Nevertheless, the Muslims retained their Islamic identities, and were in some ways regarded by Hindus in much the same light as their own lowest castes. By this time, most of the Indian subcontinent was under the influence of Islamic rulers, although resistance in the south continued. Bengal had a high rate of conversions to Islam. Across India, certain castes and trades converted to Islam en masse to attain equality and higher status. Areas where Buddhism was strong became strongly Muslim. There was a notable atrocity perpetrated upon Buddhist monks in a monastery in Bengal. Forced conversions were not the source of conversions among the Buddhists, although the Muslims did not hold them in high regard. The main source of conversions was among Buddhist peasants coming to the cities.

In the 16th century AD, India came under the influence of the Mughals (Mongols). Babar, a ruler of the Mongol Timuri empire, established a foothold in the North which paved the way for further expansion by his successors. Until it was eclipsed by European hegemony in the 18th century, the Timuri Moghul emperors oversaw a period of coexistence and tolerance between Hindus and Muslims. The emperor Akbar has been described as a universalist. He sought to establish tolerance and equality between all communities and religions, and instituted far reaching social and religious reforms. Not all the Mughal emperors endorsed the ideals espoused by Akbar, indeed Aurangzeb was inclined towards a more traditional, communal approach.

The entire subcontinent fell under European colonial rule during the 18th century. Independence from their former European colonial rulers, and the subsequent struggles for political power, have brought ethnic and religious strife to this area of the world in modern times.

The Far East

The most populous Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, with a population of over 200 million people. The officially recognized religions in Indonesia are Islam (87% of the population), Protestant (6%), Catholic (3.5%), Hindu (1.8%) and other religious and spiritual groups (1.3%). There are 525 languages and dialects spoken. Islam came to Indonesia with traders from India among other places, in the 13th and 14th centuries. These Muslim traders cemented their positions in port cities through intermarriage with local inhabitants. Christianity came later, with Dutch control of those ports in the 18th century. Nowhere is cultural pluralism more pronounced than in Indonesia and the other countries of the Malaysian archipelago: Singapore and Malaysia.

As is the case in India, independence from their former European colonial rulers and the subsequent struggles for political power have brought ethnic and religious strife to this area.

Development of the dhimma in the early Islamic period

Peace terms

A precedent for the dhimma contract was established with the agreement between the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Jews of Khaybar, an oasis near Medina. Khaybar was the first territory attacked and conquered by Muslims. When the Jews of Khaybar surrendered to Muhammad after a siege, Muhammad allowed them to remain in Khaybar in return for handing over to the Muslims one half their annual produce. The Khaybar case served as a precedent for later Islamic scholars in their discussions on the issue of dhimma, even though the second caliph, Umar I, subsequently expelled the Jews from the oasis.

As the early Muslims expanded their territory through conquest, they imposed terms of surrender upon some of the defeated peoples. Courbage and Fargues write:

Before launching an attack the ruler would offer them three choices – conversion, payment of a tribute, or to fight by the sword. If they did not choose conversion a treaty was concluded, either instead of battle or after it, which established the conditions of surrender for the Christians and Jews – the only non-Muslims allowed to retain their religion at this time. The terms of these treaties were similar and imposed on the dhimmi, the people ‘protected’ by Islam, certain obligations.

After Mecca was brought under Islamic rule, deputations from tribes across Arabia came to make terms with Muhammad and the Muslims. Some tribes converted and became Muslim, other Jewish and Christian tribes agreed to pay the poll tax in order to keep their religion and stay in their homes. Most of the Bedouin pagans were given no other choice but conversion to Islam.

One hundred years from its beginnings, the Islamic Arabian empire had expanded to include the lands of the Persians and the eastern Roman Empire. Sharia law was still in its infancy, and tribal law was more influential. The Arab conquerors included Christian as well as Muslim tribes. The Christian Arabs were regarded as fellow Arabs rather than dhimmis. The Arabs generally established garrisons outside towns in the conquered territories, and had little interaction with the local dhimmi populations for purposes other than the collection of taxes. The conquered Christian, Jewish, Mazdean and Buddhist communities were otherwise left to lead their lives as before.

Roman and Persian contexts

As small minorities in the newly conquered territories of the Eastern Roman and Persian empires, the Muslim ruling class needed administrative personnel and expertise. In addition, the Islamic tradition carried the principles for governing these new subjects, but lacked the procedures. The existing personnel, procedures and traditions for ruling religious minorities were adapted to conform to Islamic principles, and used to govern these new dhimmi subjects.

Relevant texts

Qur'anic verses as a basis for Islamic policies toward dhimmis

Lewis states

• The phrase "…there is no compulsion in religion…", from ^{[Quran 2:256]}, has usually been interpreted in the Islamic legal and theological traditions to mean followers of other religions should not be forced to adopt Islam.

• The phrase "…To you your religion, to me my religion…", from ^{[Quran 109:6]}, has been used as a "proof-text for pluralism and coexistence".

• Verse ^{[Quran 2:62]} has served to justify the tolerated position accorded to the followers of Christianity, Judaism, and Sabianism under Muslim rule.

Hadith

See also: Jizya#Hadith sources

A hadith by Muhammad, "Whoever killed a Mu'ahid (a person who is granted the pledge of protection by the Muslims) shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise though its fragrance can be smelt at a distance of forty years (of traveling)", is considered to be a foundation for the protection of the People of the Book in Muslim ruled countries.

Majid Khadduri cites a similar hadith in regard to the status of the dhimmis: "Whoever wrongs one with whom a compact(treaty) has been made [i.e., a dhimmi] and lays on him a burden beyond his strength, I will be his accuser."

Constitution of Medina

The Constitution of Medina, a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families of Medina (including Muslims, Jews and pagans), declared that non-Muslims in the Ummah had the following rights:

1. The security (dhimma) of God is equal for all groups,
2. Non-Muslim members have equal political and cultural rights as Muslims. They will have autonomy and freedom of religion.
3. Non-Muslims will take up arms against the enemy of the Ummah and share the cost of war. There is to be no treachery between the two.
4. Non-Muslims will not be obliged to take part in religious wars of the Muslims.

Pact of Umar

The Pact of Umar, believed by many Muslims to be between caliph Umar I and the conquered Christians of Jerusalem, was another source of regulations pertaining to dhimmis. However, Western orientalists doubt the authenticity of the Pact, arguing it is usually the victors and not the vanquished who impose rather than propose, the terms of peace, and that it is highly unlikely that the people who spoke no Arabic and knew nothing of Islam could draft such a document. Academic historians believe the Pact of Umar in the form it is known today was a product of later jurists who attributed it to the venerated caliph Umar I in order to lend greater authority to their own opinions. The similarities between the Pact of Umar and the Theodosian and Justinian Codes of the Eastern Roman Empire suggest that perhaps much of the Pact of Umar was borrowed from these earlier codes by later Islamic jurists. At least some of the clauses of the pact mirror the measures first introduced by the Umayyad caliph Umar II or by the early Abbasid caliphs.

Historical status of dhimmis

Jews and Christians living under early Muslim rule were considered dhimmis, a status that was later also extended to other non-Muslims like Hindus. They were allowed to "practice their religion, subject to certain conditions, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy" and guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying tribute and acknowledging Muslim rule. Taxation from the perspective of dhimmis who came under the Muslim rule, was "a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes" (but lower under the Muslim rule). They were also exempted from the zakaat tax paid by Muslims. However, there were a number of restrictions on dhimmis.

Religious aspects

From an Islamic legal perspective, the pledge of protection granted dhimmis the freedom to practice their religion and spared them forced conversions. The dhimmis were also serving a variety of useful purposes, mostly economic, which was another point of concern to jurists. Religious minorities were free to do whatever they wished in their own homes, provided they did not engage in illicit sexual activity in ways that could threaten public morals. In some cases, religious practices that Muslims found repugnant were allowed. One example was the Zoroastrian practice of incestuous "self-marriage" where a man could marry his mother, sister or daughter. According to the famous Islamic legal scholar Ibn Qayyim (1292–1350), non-Muslims had the right to engage in such religious practices even if it offended Muslims, under the conditions that such cases not be presented to Islamic Sharia courts and that these religious minorities believed that the practice in question is permissible according to their religion. This ruling was based on the precedent that the prophet Muhammad did not forbid such self-marriages among Zoroastrians despite coming in contact with them and having knowledge of their practices.

Restrictions on practice

Although dhimmis were allowed to perform their religious rituals, they were obliged to do so in a manner not conspicuous to Muslims. Display of non-Muslim religious symbols, such as crosses or icons, was prohibited on buildings and on clothing (unless mandated as part of distinctive clothing). Loud prayers were forbidden, as were the ringing of church bells or the trumpeting of shofars.

Dhimmis had the right to choose their own religious leaders: patriarchs for Christians, exilarchs and geonim for Jews. However, the choice of the community was sometimes subject to the approval of the Muslim authorities, who might block candidates more likely to instigate political instability.

Dhimmis were prohibited from proselytizing on pain of death. Neither were they allowed to obstruct the spread of Islam in any manner.

Places of worship

The Pact of Umar puts an obligation on dhimmis not to "restore, by night or by day, any [places of worship] that have fallen into ruin", and Ibn Kathir adhered to this view. At the same time, al-Mawardi wrote that dhimmis may "rebuild dilapidated old temples and churches".

Islamic doctrine prohibited the construction of new churches and synagogues. Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil ordered the destruction of all churches and synagogues built after the Islamic conquest.

When non-Muslim houses of worship were built in cities founded after the Islamic conquests, Muslim jurists usually justified such evasions of Islamic law by claiming that those churches and synagogues had existed in the pre-existing non-Muslim settlements. This reasoning was applied in Baghdad, which was built on the grounds of an eponymous Persian village, as well as in some other cities.

The jizya tax

Main article: Jizya

Payment of the jizya obligated Muslim authorities to protect dhimmis in civil and military matters. Sura 9:29 stipulates that jizya be exacted from non-Muslims as a condition required for jihad to cease. Failure to pay the jizya could result in the pledge of protection of a dhimmi's life and property becoming void, with the dhimmi facing the alternatives of conversion, enslavement or death (or imprisonment, as advocated by Abu Yusuf, the chief qadi — religious judge — of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid).

Taxation, from the perspective of dhimmis who came under Muslim rule, was "a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes". Lewis observes that the change from Byzantine to Arab rule was welcomed by many among the Dhimmis who found the new yoke far lighter than the old, both in taxation and in other matters, and that some even among the Christians of Syria and Egypt preferred the rule of Islam to that of Byzantines.

The importance of dhimmis as a source of revenue for the Muslim community is illuminated in a letter ascribed to Umar I and cited by Abu Yusuf: "if we take dhimmis and share them out, what will be left for the Muslims who come after us? By God, Muslims would not find a man to talk to and profit from his labors."

Most Islamic scholars agree that jizya must be levied only upon adult males. In an important early account, Malik's Muwatta reports that the jizya was collected from non-Muslim men only, and additional taxes were to be levied against dhimmis who travelled on business:

"The Sunnah is that there is no jizya due from women or children of people of the Book, and that jizya is only taken from men who have reached puberty. The people of dhimma ... do not have to pay any zakat ... This is because zakat is imposed on the Muslims to purify them and to be given back to their poor, whereas jizya is imposed on the people of the Book to humble them...If in any one year they frequently come and go in Muslim countries then they have to pay a tenth every time they do so, since that is outside what they have agreed upon, and not one of the conditions stipulated for them. This is what I have seen the people of knowledge of our city doing." (Al-Muwatta, 17 24.46)

Although in general dhimmis had to pay higher taxes (despite not having to pay Zakat), Lewis notes there are varying opinions among scholars as to how much of an additional burden this was. According to Norman Stillman: "Jizya and kharaj were a crushing burden for the non-Muslim peasantry who eked out a bare living in a subsistence economy." Both agree that ultimately, the additional taxation on non-Muslims was a critical factor that drove many dhimmis to leave their religion and accept Islam. However, in some regions the jizya on populations was significantly lower than the zakat, meaning dhimmi populations maintained an economic advantage.

The early Islamic scholars took a relatively humane and practical attitude towards the collection of jizya, compared to the 11th century commentators writing when Islam was under threat both at home and abroad.

• In his commentary on Sura 9:29, Ibn Kathir writes that dhimmis must be:

disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of the dhimma or elevate them above Muslims, for they [dhimmis] are miserable, disgraced, and humiliated.

• The jurist Abu Yusuf, the chief judge of the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid, rules as follows regarding the manner of collecting the jizya

No one of the people of the dhimma should be beaten in order to exact payment of the jizya, nor made to stand in the hot sun, nor should hateful things be inflicted upon their bodies, or anything of that sort. Rather they should be treated with leniency.

Legal aspects

Use of Muslim and dhimmi courts

Religious pluralism existed in medieval Islamic law and ethics. The religious laws and courts of other religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, were usually accommodated within the Islamic legal framework, as exemplified in the Caliphate, Al-Andalus, Ottoman Empire and Indian subcontinent. In medieval Islamic societies, the qadi (Islamic judges) usually could not interfere in the matters of non-Muslims unless the parties voluntarily chose to be judged according to Islamic law. The dhimmi communities living in Islamic states usually had their own laws independent from the Sharia law, such as the Jews who had their own Halakha courts.

Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems in cases that did not involve other religious groups, capital offences, or threats to public order. However, in the Ottoman Empire of the 18th and 19th centuries, dhimmis frequently attended the Muslim courts. This was not only when their appearance was compulsory (for example in cases brought against them by Muslims) but also in order to record property and business transactions within their own communities. Cases were taken out against Muslims, against other dhimmis and even against members of the dhimmi’s own family. Dhimmis often took cases relating to marriage, divorce or inheritance to the Muslim courts so these cases would be decided under sharia law. Oaths sworn by dhimmis in the Muslim courts were sometimes the same as the oaths taken by Muslims, sometimes tailored to the dhimmis’ beliefs.

When a case pitched a Muslim against a dhimmi, the word of a Muslim witness nearly always carried more weight than that of a dhimmi. According to Hanafi jurists, dhimmi testimony and oaths were not valid against Muslims. On the other hand, Muslims could testify against dhimmis.

Punishment for murder of a dhimmi

See also: Qisas and Diyya

The Hanafi school, which represents the vast majority of Muslims, believes that the murder of a dhimmi must be punishable by death, citing a hadith according to which Muhammad ordered the execution of a Muslim who killed a dhimmi. In other schools of Islamic jurisprudence the maximum punishment for the murder of a dhimmi, if perpetrated by a Muslim, was the payment of blood money; no death penalty was possible. According to the Maliki and Hanbali schools of jurisprudence, the value of a dhimmi's life was one-half the value of a Muslim's life; in the Shafi'i school, Jews and Christians were worth one-third of a Muslim and Zoroastrians were worth just one-fifteenth.

Inheritance

The general rule in Islamic law is that a difference in religion is an obstacle to inheritance, so dhimmis could not inherit from Muslims, nor could Muslims inherit from dhimmis. However, some Muslim jurists maintained that a Muslim could inherit from a dhimmi, while a dhimmi could not inherit from a Muslim. Shi'a scholars went so far as to argue that if a dhimmi died leaving even one Muslim heir, all the estate belonged to the Muslim heir at the expense of any dhimmi heirs. This provision was a subject of frequent complaints from Persian Jews.

Personal safety

Despite a common prohibition on carrying weapons, Muslim jurists allowed dhimmis to serve as auxiliary soldiers. In the border provinces, dhimmis were sometimes recruited for military operations. In such cases, they were exempted from jizya for the year of service; however, they were not entitled to a share in the booty, receiving only a fixed stipend.

Being forbidden to bear arms, non-Muslims relied on the Muslim authorities for personal safety. Usually these authorities managed to protect dhimmis from violence, but such protection was likely to fail at times of public disorder.

Prohibition on enslavement

Main article: Islam and slavery

Islamic law and custom prohibit the enslavement of free dhimmis within lands under Islamic rule.

In some Islamic societies, non-Muslim boys were pressed into service in the slave armies of Muslim rulers. These slaves were ordinarily purchased or captured in military actions along the frontier, in accordance with sharia law, as dhimmi status was not available to non-Muslims beyond the borders of the Islamic state. The practice goes back to the Abbasids, who recruited such slave warriors, mainly from non-Muslim Turkic populations. Descendants of those slaves later formed the Mamluk dynasties.

An exception to the right of personal freedom guaranteed by the dhimma is seen in the Ottoman system known as devshirmeh: the enslavement of boys from the Christian population of the Ottoman Balkan provinces in order to muster Janissary troops and administrative personnel. These boys were often taken first to the households of local Muslim rulers and gentry, where they learned the Turkic language and converted to Islam. Refusal of conversion was rare, and some families were happy to have their sons receive this opportunity. This claim is unlikely to have reflected the complete picture, in a situation of a militarily subjected population. Later, they would travel to Istanbul, the Ottoman capital, for training in their occupations. They were considered personal slaves of the monarch. Most were destined to serve in the infantry, but some would receive an advanced education and go on to serve in the highest military and administrative leadership positions in the empire.

Social and psychological aspects

Riding

Dhimmis were forbidden to ride horses or camels; they were only allowed to ride donkeys and only on packsaddles, a prohibition that has its roots in the Pact of Umar.{cn}An additional requirement for dhimmis was to not ride astride, but only sidesaddle, like a woman. In the Mamluk Egypt, where non-Mamluk Muslims were not allowed to ride horses and camels, dhimmis were prohibited even from riding donkeys inside cities.

Dwelling places

Sometimes, Muslim rulers issued regulations requiring dhimmis to attach distinctive signs to their houses. In the 9th century, Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil ordered dhimmis to nail wooden images of devils to the doors of their homes.

Dhimmis were seldom prohibited from living in certain places, but there were some exceptions. In Morocco, beginning from the 15th century, and especially since the early 19th century, Jews were confined to mellahs (walled quarters similar to European ghettos). Jews were also forced to live in separate quarters in Persia. Neither Jews nor Christians were allowed to live in Hejaz after Umar I had expelled them.

Marriage between Muslims and dhimmis

Muslim men may generally marry dhimmi women who are considered "People of the Book," however Islamic jurists reject the possibility any non-Muslim man might marry a Muslim woman. Islamic law regarding mixed marriages developed primarily out of three Quranic verses – ^{[Quran 2:221]}, ^{[Quran 60:10]}, and ^[Quran 5:5].

Traditionally, the prohibition of marriage between Muslim women and dhimmi men was enforced with the utmost rigor. All schools of Islamic jurisprudence, with the exception of the Hanafi, treated dhimmi men who married Muslim women as adulterers, for whom the punishment was death by stoning. In cases where a non-Muslim wife converts to Islam, while her non-Muslim husband does not, their marriage is annulled.

According to some early Muslim scholars, marriage between a dhimmi and a Muslim woman would lead to an incompatibility between the superiority of the woman, by virtue of her being a Muslim, and her unavoidable subservience to a non-Muslim husband. Some traditionalists compared marriage to enslavement; as dhimmis were prohibited from having Muslim slaves, so dhimmi men were not allowed to have Muslim wives. Conversely, Muslim men were allowed to marry dhimmi women because the enslavement of non-Muslims by Muslims was allowed. The feminist professor Azizah Y. al-Hibri interprets that the relevant hadith regarding marriage and slavery draw an analogy between the status of women and slaves in Muhammad's society in order to beseech the male audience to treat them kindly. She quotes "Be good to women; for they are powerless captives (awan) in your households. You took them in God’s trust, and legitimated your sexual relations with the Word of God, so come to your senses people, and hear my words..."

Cultural interactions and cultural differences

During the Middle Ages, local associations known as futuwwa clubs developed across the Islamic lands. There were usually several futuwwah in each town. These clubs catered to varying interests, primarily sports, and might involve distinctive manners of dress and custom. They were known for their hospitality, idealism and loyalty. They often had a militaristic aspect, purportedly for the mutual protection of the membership. These clubs commonly crossed social strata, including among their membership local notables, dhimmi and slaves – to the exclusion of those associated with the local ruler, or amir.

Muslims and Jews were sometimes partners in trade, with the Muslim taking days off on Fridays and the Jew taking off on the Sabbath.

Andrew Wheatcroft describes how some social customs such as different conceptions of dirt and cleanliness made it difficult for the religious communities to live close to each other, either under Muslim or under Christian rule.

For Muslims and Christians alike the experience of living in close proximity to unbelievers was disquieting. The social customs of each group invariably sought to minimize contact with the people of other faiths. Each often spoke of the other in terms of fear and sometimes disgust.

Shi'a Islam devotes much attention to the issues of ritual purity – tahara. Strict Shi'as consider Non-Muslims ritually unclean – najis – so that certain physical contact with them or things they touched with wet hands would require purification before undertaking religious or ritual duties. In Persia, where Shi'ism is dominant, these beliefs brought about restrictions that aimed at limiting physical contact between Muslims and dhimmis.

See also

• Itmaam-i-hujjat

Related concepts in Islam:

• Aljama

Related historical events:

• History of Christianity
• Jewish history
• Banu Qurayza
• Hijra

Related to Islamic law:

• Jihad
• Sharia
• Islamism
• Itmam al-hujjah
• Jizya
• Mutaween (religious police)

Terms used for people of other faiths:

• Kafir in Islam
• People of the Book in Islam
• Gentile in Judaism
  • Goy in Hebrew
• Heathen in Christianity

Terms used for partial believers

• God-fearer in Judaism
• Proselyte in Judaism and Christianity

Related to restrictions:

• Ottoman Millet system
• Minority religion
• Second-class citizen
• Yellow badge
• Giaour
• Rayah
• Recusancy
• Najis

References

• Ahmad, Barakat (1979). Muhammad and the Jews. Vikas Publishing House. 
• Al-Hibri, Azizah Y. (2003). "An Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence". 27 Fordham International Law Journal 195. 
• Bravmann, Meïr M. (1966). "The ancient background of the Qur’ānic Concept Al-Ğizyatu ‘an Yadin". Arabica 13 (3): 307. doi:10.1163/157005866X00525. 
• Bostom, Andrew, ed. (2005). The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. Prometeus Books. ISBN 1-59102-307-6. 
• Bosworth, C. E. (1982). The Concept of Dhimma in Early Islam In Benjamin Braude and B. Lewis, eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society 2 vols., New York: Holmes & Meier Publishing. ISBN 0-8419-0520-7
• Cahen, Claude. "Djizya (i)". In P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912. 
• Klorman, Bat-Zion Eraqi (Fall 2007). Muslim Society as an Alternative: Jews Converting to Islam. 14. 
• Cohen, Mark (1995). Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01082-X. 
• Courbage, Youssef and Fargues, Philippe (1995). Christians and Jews under Islam. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-285-3. 
• Friedmann, Yohanan (2003). Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82703-5. 
• Goddard, Hugh (2000). A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Chicago: New Amsterdam Books. ISBN 1-56663-340-0. 
• Eraqi-Klorman, Bat-Zion; Reeva Spector Simon (Ed.), Michael Menachem Laskier (Ed.), Sara Reguer (Ed.) (2003). The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times. Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10796-X. 
• Karsh, Ephraim (2006). Islamic Imperialism: A History. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10603-3. 
• Lapidus, Ira M. (2002). A History of Islamic Societies (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77933-2. 
• Lewis, Bernard (2002). The Arabs in History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280310-7. 
• Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00807-8. 
• Littman, David (1979). "Jews Under Muslim Rule: The Case Of Persia". The Wiener Library Bulletin XXXII (New series 49/50). 
• Al-Mawardi (2000). The Ordnances of Government (Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya w’al-Wilayat al-Diniyya). Lebanon: Garnet Publishing. ISBN 1-85964-140-7. 
• Parfitt, Tudor (2000). Israel and Ishmael : Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-22228-9. 
• Power, Samantha (2002). A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-054164-4. 
• al-Qattan, Najwa (1999). "Dhimmis in the Muslim Court: Legal Autonomy and Religious Discrimination". International Journal of Middle East Studies (University of Cambridge) 31 (3): 429–444. doi:10.1017/S0020743800055501. ISSN 00207438. 
• Stillman, Norman (1979). The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 1-82760-198-1. 
• Tritton, Arthur S. (1930). The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects: a Critical Study of the Covenant of Umar. London: Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press. 
• Viré, F. "Kird". In P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912. 
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• Wehr, Hans (1976). J. Milton Cowan, ed.. ed. A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Ithaca, New York: Spoken Language Services, Inc.. ISBN 0-87950-001-8. 
• Wheatcroft, Andrew (2003). Infidels: A History of the Conflict between Christendom and Islam. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-025738-1. 

Further reading

• Choksy, Jamsheed (1997). Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York. 
• Fattal, Antoine (1958). Le statut légal des non-musulmans en pays d’Islam (in French). Beirut. 
• Goitein, S. D. (1967–71). The Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (4 vols.). Berkeley and Los Angeles. 
• Karl Binswanger: Untersuchungen zum Status der Nichtmuslime im Osmanischen Reich des 16. Jahrhunderts. Diss. phil. München 1977, ISBN 3-87828-108-0
• Mark. R. Cohen: Unter Kreuz und Halbmond. Die Juden im Mittelalter. München 2005, ISBN 3-406-52904-6
• Nabil Luka Babawi: Les droits et les devoirs des chrétiens dans l'état islamique et leurs conséquences sur la sécurité nationale, thèse de doctorat.
• Nicola Melis, “Il concetto di ğihād”, in P. Manduchi (a cura di), Dalla penna al mouse. Gli strumenti di diffusione del concetto di ğihād, Angeli, Milano 2006, pp. 23–54.
• Nicola Melis, “Lo statuto giuridico degli ebrei dell’Impero Ottomano”, in M. Contu – N. Melis – G. Pinna (a cura di), Ebraismo e rapporti con le culture del Mediterraneo nei secoli XVIII-XX, Giuntina, Firenze 2003.
• Nicola Melis, Trattato sulla guerra. Il Kitāb al-ğihād di Molla Hüsrev, Aipsa, Cagliari 2002.
• Yohanan Friedmann: Classification of Unbelievers in Sunnī Muslim Law and Tradition. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 22 (1998), pp. 163–195
• Mohammad Amin Al-Midani: La question des minorités et le statut des non-musulmans en Islam. In: La religion est-elle un obstacle à l'application des droits de l'homme?. colloque tenu les 10–11 décembre 2004 à Lyon.
• Pessah Shinar: Some remarks regarding the colours of male Jewish dress in North Africa and their Arabic-Islamic context. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 24/2000, pp. 380–395
• M. Levy-Rubin: Shurut `Umar and its alternatives: the legal debate on the status of the dhimmis. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 30/2005

External links

• Islamic and Christian Spain in the early Middle Ages. Thomas F. Glick: Chapter 5: Ethnic relations
• The Ahl al-Kitab in Early Fatimid Times
• The status of the Dhimmi: A critical perspective
• The status of the Dhimmi: An Islamic perspective
• Islam and its tolerance level
• Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East
• Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects
• Yusuf al-Qaradawi "Non Muslims in Islamic societies" (Arabic)
• On Religious Tolerance, by Khalid Baig