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A '''Dhimmi''', or '''Zimmi''' (Arabic ذمي), as defined in classical ]ic legal and political ], is a person living in a ] state who is a member of an officially tolerated non-Islamic religion. The term literally means person of the ''dhimma'', the security treaty signed with the Muslim state. | |||
A '''dhimmi''' (also '''zimmi''', ]''' ذمي''', usually translated as "protected", plural: ''ahl al-dhimma'') is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with ] — Islamic law. The word ''dhimmi'' is an adjective derived from the noun "''dhimma''", which means "tutelage" and denotes the legal relationship between a dhimmi and the Islamic state. It applied mostly to non-polytheists who were conquered by a Muslim state and allowed to retain their religion. | |||
==Background== | |||
The ] word "dhimmi" is an adjective derived from the noun "dhimma", which means "being in the care of" or <!--"Protected/Guilty"source?-->. The term initially applied to "]" living in lands under Muslim rule, namely ]s and ]. Over time Muslims extended this category to ]s, ]s, and ]s. Many, but not all, extend this to ]. | |||
Dhimmis were guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying a special capitation tax known as the '']'' and accepting various restrictions and legal disabilities. These provisions of sharia limited the ability of dhimmis to visibly practice their rituals, expand and repair places of worship. Dhimmis were not allowed to testify in cases involving a Muslim; dhimmi men were prohibited from marrying Muslim women. Some restrictions imposed on dhimmis from time to time were largely symbolic in nature and were designed to highlight the inferiority of dhimmis compared to Muslims. These regulations included, among others, requirements to wear distinctive clothing and prohibitions on riding horses and camels. | |||
Traditional Arab historiography traces the origin of the dhimma to the ] , allegedly drawn up by the second ], ]. Modern historian Hugh Goddard ] the authenticity of the Pact of Umar, claiming it to be the product of later jurists who attributed it to the caliph Umar in order to lend greater authority to their own opinions. | |||
The conditions of ''dhimma'' resulted in a gradual acceptance of Islam by most Middle Eastern Christians and Zoroastrians living under the Muslim rule. | |||
The mediaeval Quranic commentator ] justified the dhimma in terms of ] 9:29 of the Qur'an, which calls Muslims to fight against the People of the Book until they pay the ] head tax and are humbled.. In his classic ] on the ], he comments as follows on Sura 9:29: | |||
==Background== | |||
:"Allah said 'until they pay the jizyah' - if they do not choose to embrace Islam; 'with willing submission' - in defeat and subservience; 'and feel themselves subdued' - disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of the dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated." | |||
The status of dhimmis was initially given to "]" living in lands under Muslim rule, namely ]s and ]s, as well as ]s and ]. Over time Muslims extended this category to ]s, and many, but not all, Muslim scholars extend this to ]. | |||
==Sources of ''dhimma''== | |||
<!--In the Middle Ages, the dhimmi concept was tolerant by the standards of other monotheistic religions. Christians and Jews were allowed to live in peace within Muslim societies, on the condition (also required of Muslim subjects) of submission to their rulers. Many Christian and Jewish scientists prospered under Muslim rule, an example being the Muslim state of ] in Southern Spain. ], considered by some the greatest Jewish philosopher and ]ic sage, lived in Muslim Spain, North Africa and Egypt. However, he and his family fled Spain to escape religious persecution after Cordoba was conquered by the less tolerant ] dynasty from the ], and then fled from North Africa as well, before eventually finding refuge in ]. Some of his more famous works were his ''Iggereth Teiman'', a letter written to raise the spirits of the severely oppressed Jews of Yemen, and ''Iggereth HaShmad'', an essay on the legal implications of forced conversion to Islam.--> | |||
The medieval Quranic commentator ] justified the ''dhimma'' in terms of ] 9:29 of the ] . The verse calls upon Muslims to fight against the People of the Book until they pay the ] head tax and are humbled:<blockquote>Fight those who believe not in ] nor the Last Day, nor hold forbidden that which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.</blockquote> | |||
A classic precedent of ''dhimma'' was an agreement between ] and the Jews of ], an oasis about 95 miles from ]. Khaybar was the first territory attacked, conquered, and subjugated by the Muslim state ruled by Muhammad himself. The Jews of Khaybar surrendered to Muhammad after a siege lasting a month and a half; Muhammad allowed them to remain in Khaybar in return for handing over to the Muslims one half of 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 ] ] subsequently expelled the Jews from the oasis.<ref>Lewis (1984), pp. 10–11</ref> | |||
== Modern vs. customary practice == | |||
<!--The attitude towards dhimmis varies from Muslim to Muslim.--> | |||
The religious and legal views on the status of dhimmis have historically been a practical issue, but today have become a purely theoretical or theological issue for many Muslim ]. Few if any countries <!-- please cite sources before including individual countries here— such as ], ] and ]-->currently have a separate, legally-defined status for dhimmis. Certain ] organizations such as ], ], ], and ] seek to make Islamic law, including dhimma status, applicable in Muslim-majority states. | |||
The ] , allegedly concluded between Umar I and the conquered Christians, was another source of regulations pertaining to dhimmis. The document meticulously lists the obligations and restrictions that the Christians purportedly proposed to the Muslim conquerors as conditions of surrender. However, modern historians, such as ], ], or ], dispute the authenticity of the Pact, describing it as a product of later jurists who attributed it to the caliph Umar in order to lend greater authority to their own opinions. These historians argue that it is usually the victors, not the vanquished, who propose, or rather impose, the terms of peace, and that it is highly unlikely that such a document could be drafted by the people who spoke no Arabic and knew nothing of Islam.<ref>Tritton (1970); Lewis (1984), pp. 24–25; Goddard (2000), p. 46</ref> | |||
Some Muslim authors present the dhimmi as being equal to Muslims. For example: | |||
Modern historians also agree that discriminatory legislation enacted against Jews and non-] Christians in the ], as well as laws applying to Jews and Christians in the ] ], were other sources of dhimmi regulations, though Islamic jurists never explicitly acknowledge these sources. Numerous provisions of the ] of 438 and the ] of 529 migrated into the Islamic law virtually unchanged. Under the Byzantine rule, Jews were obliged not to pray loudly; their prayers were not to be audible in the nearby church. Building new synagogues (and repairing existing ones) was likewise prohibited, unless the buildings threatened to collapse and a special permission was obtained. Jews were banned from all public offices and the army; they were prohibited from criticizing Christianity, marrying a Christian, or owning a Christian slave. Furthermore, Jews paid special taxes, possibly the precursors of jizya. Amplified and expanded, these regulations were applied to Christians also, after Byzantine lands fell under Muslim rule.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 111–113; see also Lewis (1984), p. 19; Stillman (1979), p. 26; Goddard (2000), p. 47</ref> | |||
:"Islam does not permit ] in the treatment of other human beings on the basis of religion or any other criteria... it emphasises neighborliness and respect for the ties of relationship with non-Muslims ...within this human family, Jews and Christians, who share many beliefs and values with Muslims, constitute what Islam terms Ahl al-Kitab, that is, People of the Scripture, and hence Muslim have a special relationship to them as fellow 'Scriptuaries'."{{ref|equality}} | |||
<!-- | |||
Under a section called ‘Head of state’ Hizb ut-Tahrir in one of their tracts claim: ''The Khaleef is the head of state. He has the general leadership of the state. The citizens of the Khilafah state have the sole right to appoint the Khaleef. He can be appointed by a direct general election ...or through the elected members of the ‘Peoples Assembly’ (Majlis al Ummah).'' | |||
== Status of dhimmis == | |||
Under the section ‘Membership of the Council of the Ummah’ their Draft Constitution provides: ''Any person that holds citizenship of the state, if mature and sane, has the right to be a member of the council of the Ummah, and he has the right to elect the members of the council, whether the person is a man or a woman, a Muslim or non-Muslim.'' | |||
Under Muslim rule, dhimmis were allowed to observe the commandments of their religions, albeit with restrictions attached. In exchange, they had to pay taxes for the benefit of the Muslim community and faced additional regulations, some of them intentionally humiliating and serving to remind dhimmis of their inferiority vis-a-vis Muslims.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 16</ref> The overarching principle in the treatment of dhimmis is encapsulated in the statement: "Islam is exalted, and nothing is exalted above it".<ref>Friedmann (2003), p. 35</ref> In the words of the British historian ]:<blockquote>It is only very recently that some defenders of Islam began to assert that their society in the past accorded equal status to non-Muslims. No such claim is made by spokesman for resurgent Islam, and historically there is no doubt that they are right. Traditional Islamic societies neither accorded such equality nor pretended that they were so doing. Indeed, in the old order, this would have been regarded not as a merit but as a dereliction of duty. How could one accord the same treatment to those who follow the true faith and those who willfully reject it? This would be a theological as well as a logical absurdity.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 4</ref></blockquote> | |||
The treatment of dhimmis varied over time and space, mostly depending on the goodwill of the ruler. Arthur Tritton describes dhimmis living under the rule of caliphs as being vulnerable to the whims of rulers and the violence of mobs.<ref>Tritton (1970), p. 49</ref> Dhimmis were allowed to live, and even prosper, according to historian ], largely because they practiced trades that Muslims valued, such as medicine, or because they performed functions that Muslims either could not perform for religious reasons, such as money-lending with interest, or viewed with disdain, such as money-changing.<ref>Bosworth (1982), p. 232</ref> Still, in the late ], some Jews preferred living as dhimmis in the Ottoman lands to living under Christian rule; those immigrants were possibly lured by stories of greater religious freedom and opportunities for social advancement.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 121</ref> | |||
In the Hizb ut-Tahrir's draft constitution, direct election of a ] is reserved for Muslims. However Hizb ut-Tahrir has argued that Muslims have a special responsibility to respect rights of non-Muslims. In Hizb ut-Tahrir's article "How will non-Muslim minorities be treated in the Caliphate?" the party stresses the charitable and social obligations which Muslims owe to non-Muslims: | |||
===Religious aspects=== | |||
''Many non-Muslims used to live with Muslims under the banner of Islam for almost thirteen centuries. Throughout those periods non-Muslims used to have the same high standard of living as the Muslims did. They enjoyed equal rights, prosperity, happiness, tranquillity and security. The Jews and Christians used to be called Ahl al-Dhimma, People of the Covenant. The Prophet said, '''"He who abuses a dhimmi then I will be his rival and dispute him on the Day of Judgment."''' An Islamic classical scholar, Imam Qarafi, says, "It is the responsibility of the Muslims to the People of the Dhimma to take care of their weak, fulfilling the needs of the poor, feeding the hungry, providing clothes, addressing them politely and even tolerating their harm even if it was from a neighbour, even though the Muslim may have an upper hand. The Muslims must also advise them sincerely on their affairs and protect them against anyone who tries to hurt them or their family, steal their wealth or violates their rights."'' --> | |||
====Freedom of religion and forced conversions==== | |||
] | |||
The pledge of protection granted dhimmis the freedom to practice their religion and spared them forced conversions. Indeed, in the first several centuries after the Islamic conquest and subsequently in the ], forcible conversions were rare. Subsequnetly, rulers occasionally broke the pledge and dhimmis were forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death. In the 12th century, rulers of the ] dynasty killed or forcibly converted many Jews and Christians in ] and ], possibly putting an end to the existence of Christian communities in North Africa outside ].<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 52</ref> According to Bernard Lewis, during the ] massacre of 1148, the Jewish philosopher, theologian, and physician ] saved his own life only by converting to Islam; after Maimonides moved to Egypt, this conversion was ruled void by a ] who was a friend and patient of Maimonides.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 100</ref> Other sources say that Maimonides, then 13, accepted exile with his family (and with most other Jews of the city) over conversion or death.<ref>Kantor (1989), p. 150; Husik (1946), p. 238</ref> Sporadic waves of forced conversion occurred at different times and places: for example, in ] in 1558-89, in ] in 1291 and 1338, and in ] 1333 and 1344.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 88</ref> In 1839, Jews were massacred in ] and survivors were forcibly converted.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 168</ref> | |||
Dhimmis had the right to choose their own religious leaders: ] for Christians, ]s and ] for Jews. However, the choice of the community was subject to the approval of the Muslim authorities, who sometimes blocked candidates or took the side of the party that offered the larger bribe.<ref>Stillman (1979), pp. 37–39</ref> | |||
Others present the dhimmi as being second-class citizens.: | |||
Dhimmis were prohibited from ] on pain of death. They were also not allowed to obstruct the spread of Islam in any manner. Other restrictions included a prohibition on publishing or sale of non-Muslim religious literature and a ban on teaching the Qur’an. | |||
:"In a country ruled by Muslim authorities, a non-Muslim is guaranteed his freedom of faith... Muslims are forbidden from obliging a non-Muslim to embrace Islam, but he should pay the tribute to Muslims readily and submissively, surrender to Islamic laws, and should not practise his polytheistic rituals openly."{{ref|second-class}} | |||
====Rituals==== | |||
Sayyed Al-Qimni has criticized books used in the curriculum at ] in ] and other Islamic universities for teaching that dhimmis should be degraded. For example: "If a ''dhimmi'' invites a Muslim to a wedding celebration, he must not go, 'because one must degrade dhimmis...'" | |||
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 '']''). Loud prayers were forbidden, as was the ringing of bells or the trumpeting of ]s. According to one ], ] said: “The bell is the devil’s pipe.”<ref>], book 24, #5279.An alternative translation of this phrase is “The bell is the musical instrument of the Satan.”</ref> Furthermore, dhimmis had to bury their dead without loud lamentations and prayers. | |||
====Places of worship==== | |||
] comments: | |||
According to Islamic law, the permission for dhimmis to retain their places of worship and build new ones depended upon the circumstances in which the land fell under the Muslim rule. According to an Islamic jurist ], dhimmis could not use churches and synagogues if their land was conquered by attack. In such lands, as well as in towns founded after the conquest, or where inhabitants voluntarily converted wholesale to Islam, Islamic law does not allow dhimmis to build new churches and synagogues, or expand or repair existing ones, even if they fall into ruin. If the country submitted by capitulation, al-Nawawi wrote, dhimmis were permitted to build new houses of worship only if the capitulation treaty stated that dhimmis remained owners of their land. In observance of this prohibition, Abbasid caliphs ], ] and ] ordered the destruction, in their realms, of all churches and synagogues built after the Islamic conquest. In the 11th century, the ] caliph ] oversaw over the demolition of all churches and synagogues in Egypt, Syria and Palestine, including the ] in Jerusalem. However, al-Hakim subsequently allowed the rebuilding of the destroyed buildings. Nevertheless, dhimmis sometimes managed to expand churches and synagogues and even build new ones, albeit at the price of bribing local officials in order to get permissions.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 83–85</ref> | |||
There was no consensus in Islamic jurisprudence as to whether it was permissible for dhimmis to repair churches and synagogues. The pact of Umar, as cited by ibn Kathir, puts an obligation on dhimmis not to “restore any place of worship that needs restoration” . At the same time, ] wrote in the 11th century that dhimmis “can restore ancient synagogues and churches that have fallen into ruin”. As in the case of building new houses of worship, the ability of dhimmi communities to repair churches and synagogues usually depended upon its relationship with local Muslim authorities and its ability to pay bribes. | |||
<blockquote>Two stereotypes dominate most of what has been written on tolerance and intolerance in the Islamic world. The first depicts a fanatical warrior, an Arab horseman riding out of the desert with a sword in one hand and the Qur'an in the other, offering his victims the choice between the two. This picture is not only false but impossible . The other image, almost equally preposterous, is that of an interfaith, interracial utopia, in which men and women belonging to different races, professing different creeds, lived side by side in a golden age of unbroken harmony, enjoying equality of rights and of opportunities, and toiling together for the advancement of civilization. Both images are of course wildly distorted; yet both contain, as stereotypes often do, some elements of truth. Two features they have in common are that they are relatively recent, and that they are of Western and not Islamic origin.{{ref|lewis}}</blockquote> | |||
===Taxation=== | |||
<blockquote>It is only very recently that some defenders of Islam began to assert that their society in the past accorded equal status to non-Muslims. No such claim is made by spokesman for resurgent Islam, and historically there is no doubt that they are right. Traditional Islamic societies neither accorded such equality nor pretended that they were so doing. Indeed, in the old order, this would have been regarded not as a merit but as a dereliction of duty. How could one accord the same treatment to those who follow the true faith and those who willfully reject it? This would be a theological as well as a logical absurdity.</blockquote> | |||
{{main|Jizya}} | |||
{{main|Kharaj}} | |||
Dhimmi communities were subjected to taxes known as ''jizya'' – a ] – and ''kharaj'' – a land tax. Early chronicles use these terms indiscriminately; only later did the ''kharaj'' emerge as a tax payable by a farmer regardless of his religion.<ref>Lewis (2002), p. 81</ref> The resulting tax burden on dhimmis was higher than that on Muslims who paid '']'' — mandatory alms.<ref>Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15</ref> 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.”<ref>Stillman (1979), p. 28</ref> Most Islamic scholars agree that ''jizya'' must be levied only upon adult males, and the 8th-century scholar ] advises that dhimmis must not be burdened above their capacity or caused to suffer.<ref>Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15</ref> The ] school however dissents, demanding “the poll tax to be paid by dying people, the old, … the blind, monks, workers, and the poor, incapable of practicing a trade.” The latter view was often applied in practice, as contemporary non-Muslim sources give witness of taxation even of dead persons, widows, and orphans. All taxes paid by Muslims were usually doubled for dhimmis.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71</ref> | |||
Sura 9:29 demands 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 a choice between conversion and death (or imprisonment, as advocated by ], the chief '']'' — religious judge — of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid)<ref name="abuyusuf">Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15</ref>. Al-Nawawi however advocates that the unpaid amount of poll tax remain a debt to the dhimmi’s account until he becomes solvent.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71</ref> In the Ottoman Empire, dhimmis had to carry a receipt certifying their payment of jizya at all times, upon pain of imprisonment. | |||
<blockquote>The rank of a full member of society was restricted to free male Muslims. Those who lacked any of these three essential qualifications -- that is, the slave, the woman or the unbeliever -- were not equal. The three basic inequalities of master and slave, man and woman, believer and unbeliever, were not merely admitted; they were established and regulated by holy law.</blockquote> | |||
===Legal aspects === | |||
== Status of Dhimmis == | |||
====Prohibition on testimony==== | |||
The testimony of dhimmis was not admissible in cases involving a Muslim; on the other hand, Muslims could testify against dhimmis.<ref>Friedmann (2003), pp. 35–36</ref> This legal disability put dhimmis in a precarious position where they could not defend themselves against false accusations leveled by Muslims, except by hiring Muslim witnesses and bribing ''qadis''. Apart from breeding corruption, the prohibition on non-Muslim testimony deepened the rift between communities, as dhimmis sought to reduce the possibility of conflict by limiting contact with Muslims.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 74</ref> | |||
====Punishment for murder of a dhimmi==== | |||
<!---Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, “protected” or “guilty” people, are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, are part of the legal superstructure that global ] are laboring through violence to restore everywhere in the growing Islamic world. needs better source and the source doesn't even talk about | |||
In all schools of ], except the ], 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. For ] and ] 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. The Hanafi school, however, believes that the murder of a dhimmi must be punishable by death, citing a hadith according to which ] ordered the execution of a Muslim who killed a dhimmi.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 75</ref> | |||
"dhimmitude"--> | |||
<!-- | |||
If dhimmis complained about their inferior status, institutionalized humiliation, or poverty, their masters voided their contract and regarded them as enemies of Islam, fair game as objects of violence. Consequently, dhimmis were generally cowed into silence and worse. It was almost unheard-of to find dhimmis speaking out against their oppressors; to do so would have been suicide. For centuries dhimmi communities in the Islamic world learned to live in peace with their Muslim overlords by acquiescing to their subservience. Some even actively identified with the dominant class, and became strenuous advocates for it. source--> | |||
A peculiar practice developed in ], where Arab tribes collected jizya from Jews, offering them protection. If a Muslim from one tribe killed a Jew protected by another tribe, then the other tribe could retaliate ''by killing a Jew protected by the tribe of the murderer.'' As a result, two Jews were murdered, while no direct sanctions were imposed on the Muslims.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 79</ref> | |||
Rights: | |||
* Protection of life, wealth and honor by the Muslim state (even against other co-religionist states) | |||
* Right to reside in Muslim lands | |||
* Right of worship according to their own religion | |||
* Right to choose their own religious leaders (]s for Christians, ]s and ] for Jews) | |||
** Subject to the approval of the Muslim authorities, who sometimes blocked candidates or took the side of the party that offered the larger ]{{ref|rleaders}} | |||
** In Saudi Arabia, where no religion apart from Islam is officially recognized, this right is ] | |||
* Right to work and trade | |||
* Right not to be enslaved | |||
** Not always respected, as the application of the '']'' under the Ottomans demonstrates | |||
** Void, should the dhimmi rebel | |||
===Social and psychological aspects=== | |||
Exemptions: | |||
====Humiliation of dhimmis==== | |||
* Exemption from paying '']'' "alms to the poor" | |||
Islamic law stipulates that dhimmis must be belittled for their rejection of Islam; humiliating them was an act of piety, a fulfillment of divine will. Bernard Lewis comments that<blockquote> The Qur'an and tradition often use the word ''dhull'' or ''dhilla'' (humiliation or abasement) to indicate the status God has assigned to those who reject Mohammad, and in which they should be kept for so long as they persist in that rejection.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 14</ref></blockquote>Ibn Kathir wrote that dhimmis must feel “disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of the ''dhimma'' or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced, and humiliated." Echoing a saying attributed to Muhammad (Sahih Muslim, book 26, #5389), Hasan al-Kafrawi, an 18th century scholar, advises that “if you encounter one of them on the road, push him into the narrowest and tightest spot”. European travelers to the Middle East describe humiliations and insults of Christians and Jews on the streets until the mid-19th century. | |||
* Exemption from military service | |||
* Exemptions from religious duties and laws specific to Muslims | |||
As recommended by many Muslim scholars, most notably ] and al-Nawawi, jizya was often collected in a humiliating procedure:<blockquote>he collector remains seated and the infidel remains standing..., his head bowed and his back bent. The infidel must place money on the scales, while the collector holds him by his beard and strikes him on both cheeks.<ref>Al-Nawawi, ''Minhadj'', quoted in Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 70</ref></blockquote>This ritual stemmed from the traditional interpretation of Sura 9:29, being that jizya was not merely a tax, but also an expression of submission.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 14</ref> Abu Yusuf, however, advises against the mistreatment of dhimmis during jizya collection, saying that "they should be treated with leniency".<ref name="abuyusuf" /> The procedure was not followed in the ], where jizya was collected by representatives of the dhimmi communities themselves.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71</ref> | |||
Obligations: | |||
<!-- | |||
* Paying '']'' (a poll tax applied to non-muslims) | |||
The prohibition on forming friendship with them goes back to Sura 5:64:”O Believers, do not take as your friends the infidels or those who received the Scriptures before you”, i.e. Jews and Christians.--> | |||
* Paying '']'' (a land tax applied initially to dhimmis but extended in the early 8th century to cover certain classes of land regardless of the cultivator's religion){{ref|kharaj}} | |||
=== |
====Distinctive clothing==== | ||
:''See also ]'' | |||
* A dhimmi male is prohibited from marrying a Muslim woman. | |||
For dhimmis to be clearly distinguishable from Muslims in public, Muslim rulers often prohibited dhimmis from wearing certain types of clothing, while forcing them to put on highly distinctive garments, usually of a bright color. To increase the debasement of non-Muslims, the clothes usually had to be made of rough fabrics and were often incongruous. Although ] for non-Muslims was not spelled out in Islamic holy texts, Muslim scholars still agreed that dhimmis must not wear the same clothing as Muslims do; frequently, these scholars cited the Pact of Umar in which Christians supposedly took an obligation to "always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and ... bind the zunar round our waists". Al-Nawawi required dhimmis to wear a piece of yellow cloth and a belt, as well as a metallic ring, inside public baths.<ref>Al-Nawawi, ''Minhadj'', quoted in Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 91</ref> | |||
* A dhimmi woman may marry a Muslim, yet their children are automatically Muslim and as such under penalty of death prohibited from taking their mother's religion. | |||
* No building new non-Muslim houses of worship, expanding, or repairing existing locations, even if they fall in ruin | |||
* No displaying non-Muslim symbols on the outside of their existing houses of worship | |||
* No praying non-Muslim prayers loudly | |||
* No performing non-Muslim rituals in a manner visible to Muslims | |||
* No wearing symbols of non-Muslim faith on clothing | |||
* No preaching non-Muslim faiths in public | |||
* No publishing or sale of non-Muslim religious literature | |||
* No asking Muslims to join them in worship (see ]) | |||
* Inequality in legal matters: | |||
** Dhimmi testimony not accepted in courts | |||
** Death penalty for dhimmis who kill Muslims, but fines for Muslims who kill dhimmis (but see '''Death Penalty''' below)<br> | |||
Regulations on dhimmi clothing varied frequently to please the whims of the ruler. Although the initiation of such regulations is usually attributed to Umar I, historical evidence suggests that it was the Abbasid caliphs who pioneered this practice. In 807, ] ordered that Jews should wear high cone caps and yellow belts, the first prototypes of the ]; Christians had to wear blue belts. These distinction marks became obsolete in 849 when ] ordered dhimmis to put a yellow veil on their heads and shoulders and wear a wide belt. He also required them to wear small bells in public baths. In the 11th century, the ] caliph ] ordered Christians to put on half-meter wooden crosses and Jews to wear wooden ] around their necks. In the late 12th century, Almohad ruler ] ordered the Jews of the Maghreb to wear dark blue garments with long sleeves and saddle-like caps. His grandson ] made a concession after appeals from the Jews, relaxing the required clothing to yellow garments and turbans. In the 16th century, Jews of the Maghreb could only wear sandals made of rushes and black turbans or caps with a red piece of garment on it.<ref name="cloth">Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 91–96</ref> | |||
Other points: | |||
Later legislation in the ] codified the rule that Jews and Christians were forbidden to ] with respect to the ], the religion of ], or ]. Jews and Christians were also forbidden to ask Muslims to join their faith, but Muslims were allowed to ask Jews and Christians to convert to Islam (see ]). Violation of these rules could invoke the death sentence.<br> | |||
] sultans were similarly diligent and inventive in regulating the clothings of their non-Muslim subjects. In 1577, ] issued a ] forbidding Jews and Christians from wearing dresses, turbans, and sandals. In 1580, he changed his mind, restricting the previous prohibition to turbans and requiring dhimmis to wear black shoes; Jews and Christians also had to wear red and black hats, respectively. Observing in 1730 that some Muslims took to the habit of wearing caps similar to those of the Jews, ] ordered the hanging of the perpetrators. ] personally helped to enforce his decrees regarding clothes. In 1758, he was walking incognito in ] and ordered to beheading of a Jew and an ] seen dressed in forbidden attire. The last Ottoman decree affirming the distinctive clothing for dhimmis was issued in 1837 by ]. Discriminatory clothing did not exist only in those Ottoman provinces where Christians were in majority, e.g. in Greece and the Balkans.<ref name="cloth" /><!--In Persia, Zoroastrians were obliged to wear torn caps.--> | |||
Dhimmis were sometimes subject to other restrictions. Each of the following were forbidden to dhimmis at some point somewhere in the world: | |||
* Holding public office | |||
** In reality, many non-Muslims held high positions in Muslim states, including ] in ], as well as others in ], ], and the ] | |||
* Bearing weapons | |||
* Riding camels or horses (also rarely enforced) | |||
* Building houses of worship higher than mosques | |||
* Mourning loudly | |||
* Dressing in the same way that ]s dressed | |||
** Dress codes, such as requiring all members of a given religion to wear a particular colour turban or other distinguishing clothing, were sometimes—but not always—enforced, so that dhimmis would be visibly distinct from Muslims; the practice is not found in the ] or ] | |||
=== |
====Riding==== | ||
Dhimmis were forbidden to ride horses or camels; they were only allowed to ride donkeys and only on packsaddles. The initiation of this prohibition is attributed alternatively to caliph Umar II or ]. In the 18th century, Damanhuri, rector of ], summed up the consensus of Islamic jurists: “Neither Jew nor Christian should ride a horse, with or without saddle. They may ride asses with a packsaddle.” European travelers passing through the Middle East in the 18th and 19th centuries left ample evidence of the careful enforcement of prohibitions on horseback riding. Danish traveller ] wrote in 1761 that in Egypt, Jews and Christians were forced to alight while passing the houses of notable Muslims and when meeting such notables in the street.<ref>Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 97–98</ref> | |||
Schools of ]have varied rulings for a Jew or Christian who convicted of killing a Muslim, & a Muslim who is convicted of killing a Jew or Christian. | |||
====Marriage==== | |||
The following are different ahadeeth & traditions that support these views: | |||
Islamic jurists reject the possibility that a dhimmi man may marry a Muslim woman. As some scholars put it, marriage is like enslavement, with the husband being the master and the wife being the slave. Even as dhimmis are prohibited from having Muslim slaves, so are dhimmi men not allowed to have Muslim wives. Following the same logic, Muslim men were allowed to marry dhimmi women because the enslavement of non-Muslims by Muslims is allowed.<ref>Friedmann (2003), pp. 161–163</ref> | |||
:"I asked 'Ali 'Do you have anything Divine literature besides what is in the Qur'an?' Or, as Uyaina once said, 'Apart from what the people have?' 'Ali said, 'By Him Who made the grain split (germinate) and created the soul, we have nothing except what is in the Qur'an and the ability (gift) of understanding Allah's Book which He may endow a man with, and what is written in this sheet of paper.' I asked, 'What is on this paper?' He replied, 'The legal regulations of Diya (Blood-money) and the (ransom for) releasing of the captives, and the judgment that no Muslim should be killed in Qisas (equality in punishment) for killing a Kafir (disbeliever)'." | |||
===Personal freedom === | |||
As does this text from Sunan of Abu-Dawood (Hadith 2745; Narrated by Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As), which states: | |||
An exception to the right of personal freedom guaranteed by the ''dhimma'' was the practice of enslavement of young non-Muslim boys for the ruler’s slave army. The practice goes back to the Abbasids, who recruited such slave warriors mainly from non-Muslim ] populations; descendants of those slaves later formed the ] dynasties.<ref>Lewis (2002), p. 90</ref> The Ottoman Empire practiced a similar system, known as ], by annually enslaving young boys from the Christian population of its ] provinces, to muster ] troops. | |||
:"The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: ... A believer shall not be killed for an unbeliever, nor a confederate within the term of confederation with him." | |||
===Shi'a ritual purity=== | |||
While this point of view is indeed present in Islamic jurisprudence, it is not the only interpretation, nor has it been the practice over most of Muslim history. There is a hadith (narrated in ] and ]) which states that ] ordered the execution of a Muslim because he killed a dhimmi. This ]'s authenticity is disputed<!--specifics needed: sahih, hasan, or da'if?-->. ] would have ordered an execution in a similar case had the dhimmi victim's brother not asked that the Muslim not be executed. Ali said: "Those who have our dhimma have their blood equal to ours ... ] so that their life and our lives are equal]". Moreover, ] ordered his regional governors to execute those who kill any dhimmis. | |||
] devotes much attention to the issues of ritual purity — ]. Shi'a jurists have traditionally deemed non-Muslims to be ritually impure — ] — so that physical contact with them or things they touched would require Shi'as to wash themselves before doing regular prayers.<ref>Some modern Shi'a jurists, for example, ] consider Jews and Christians to be ritually pure</ref> In Persia, where Shi'ism is dominant, these beliefs brought about restrictions that aimed at limiting physical contact between Muslims and dhimmis. Dhimmis were not allowed to attend public baths with Muslims; they were also not allowed to go outside in rain or snow, ostensibly because some impurity could be washed from them upon a Muslim.<ref>Lewis (1984), pp. 33–34; Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 103</ref> | |||
==Consequences of ''dhimma''== | |||
This view <!--the former or the latter? needs clarification-->is adopted by the ] and ] schools, as well as many other jurists, such as Al Laith Ibn Saad, Al Sha'bi, Ibn Abi Laila, and Al Nakh'i. | |||
Over the course of many centuries, ''dhimma'' gradually led to the conversion of most Zoroastrians and Christians to Islam, but had only a limited impact on the Jews. Zoroastrianism was the first to crumble after the Muslim conquest of ]. Closely associated with the power structures of the Persian Empire, Zoroastrian clergy quickly declined after it was deprived of the state support.<ref name="conseq">Lewis (1984), p. 17–18; Stillman (1979), p. 27</ref> | |||
For Christians, the process of conversion was slower — it is possible that as late as at the time of the ] Christians still constituted a majority of the population — but no less inexorable. The switch from a dominant to an inferior position proved too difficult for many Christians and they converted to Islam in large numbers to avoid oppression. Christianity disappeared altogether in ], ], and ], where it was subjected to persecution by the Almohads. In ], ], and ], Christians fared better, but their numbers were still reduced from being the overwhelming majority to being a tiny minority. Bernard Lewis argues that the relative resiliency of Christians in those countries stemmed from their subordinated position in the Byzantine Empire, which made them more amenable to accepting Muslim supremacy; he suggests that many of them felt better under the early Muslim rule than under the Byzantines.<ref name="conseq" /> | |||
Some Islamic states followed the latter interpretation, as during Ali's and Umar II's reigns, and in the ] until its end in 1924. | |||
Jews, on the other hand, were the least affected. Accustomed to survival in adverse circumstances after many centuries of Roman and Byzantine persecutions, Jews saw the Islamic conquests as a just another change of rulers; this time, not necessarily for the worse. Voluntary conversion among the Jews was rare, and they managed to preserve their religion all over the Muslim lands.<ref name="conseq" /> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
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==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
<references /> | |||
#{{note|equality}} Haneef, Suzanne. ''What everyone should know about Islam and Muslims'', Kazi Publications, ], ], p. 173 | |||
#{{note|second-class}} Abdul Rahman Ben Hammad Al-Omar, ''The Religion of Truth'', ], General Presidency of Islamic Researches, ], p. 86.<!--is this a translation?--> | |||
#{{note|lewis}} Lewis, 1984, p. 3 | |||
#{{note|rleaders}} Stillman, 1979, pp. 37–39 | |||
#{{note|kharaj}} Lewis, 1950, pp. 77–78 | |||
== References == | == References == | ||
* {{cite book | author=Bat Ye'or | title=The Dhimmi | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | location=Madison/Teaneck, NJ | year=1985 | id=ISBN 0838632629}} | |||
* Choksy, Jamsheed. ''Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society'' (New York, 1997) | |||
* {{cite book | author=Bat Ye'or | title=Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses | location=Madison/Teaneck, NJ | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0838639437}} | |||
* Duran, Khalid; Hechiche, Abdelwahab. ''Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews'' (Ktav, 2001) | |||
* {{cite book | author=Bat Ye'or | title=The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. From Jihad to Dhimmitude. Seventh-Twentieth Century | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses | location=Madison/Teaneck, NJ | year=1996 | id=ISBN 0838636888}} | |||
* Gardet, Louis. ''La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique'' (Paris: Etudes musulmanes, 1954), p. 348. | |||
* {{cite book | first=Andrew | last=Bostom | title=The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims | publisher=Prometeus Books | year=2005 | id=ISBN 1591023076}} | |||
* Lewis, Bernard. ''The Jews of Islam'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) | |||
* 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 0841905207 | |||
* Lewis, Bernard. ''The Arabs in History'' (London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1950) | |||
* {{cite book | first=Jamsheed | last=Choksy | title=Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society | location=New York | year=1997}} | |||
* Stillman, Norman. ''The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book'' (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979) | |||
* {{cite book | first=Yohanan | last=Friedmann | title=Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0521827035}} | |||
* Ye'or, Bat. ''The Dhimmi'' (NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985), pp. 43-44. <!--Bat Yeor, pp. 30, 56-57---from the same book? original formatting did not make it clear--> | |||
* {{cite book | first=Louis | last=Gardet | title=La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique | publisher= Etudes musulmanes | location=Paris | year= 1954}} | |||
* Ye'or, Bat. ''Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide'' (Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses, 2003) | |||
* {{cite book | first=Hugh | last=Goddard | title=A History of Christian-Muslim Relations | location=Chicago | publisher=New Amsterdam Books | year=2000 | id=ISBN 1566633400}} | |||
* Ye'or, Bat. ''The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. From Jihad to Dhimmitude. Seventh-Twentieth Century'' (Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses, 1996) | |||
* {{cite book | first=Isaac | last=Husik | title=A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy | publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America | location=Philadelphia | year=1946 | id=ASIN B0007DFH4E}} | |||
* <!--article?-->''Encyclopedia Judaica'', Keter Publishing | |||
* {{cite book | first=Mattis | last=Kantor | title=The Jewish Timeline Encyclopedia | publisher=Aronson | location=Northvale, NJ | year=1989 | id=ISBN 0-87668-229-8}} | |||
* {{cite book | first=Bernard | last=Lewis | title=The Jews of Islam | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton | year=1984 | id=ISBN 0691008078}} | |||
* {{cite book | first=Bernard | last=Lewis | title=The Arabs in History | publisher=Oxford University Press| location=Oxford | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0192803107}} | |||
* {{cite book | first=Norman | last=Stillman | title=The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book | publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America | location=Philadelphia | year=1979 | id=ISBN 082760198}} | |||
* {{cite book | first=Arthur S. | last=Tritton | title=The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects: a Critical Study of the Covenant of Umar | publisher=Frank Cass Publisher | location=London | year=1970 | id=ISBN 0714619965}} | |||
* ''Encyclopedia Judaica'', Keter Publishing | |||
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Revision as of 09:39, 31 March 2006
A dhimmi (also zimmi, Arabic ذمي, usually translated as "protected", plural: ahl al-dhimma) is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia — Islamic law. The word dhimmi is an adjective derived from the noun "dhimma", which means "tutelage" and denotes the legal relationship between a dhimmi and the Islamic state. It applied mostly to non-polytheists who were conquered by a Muslim state and allowed to retain their religion.
Dhimmis were guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying a special capitation tax known as the jizya and accepting various restrictions and legal disabilities. These provisions of sharia limited the ability of dhimmis to visibly practice their rituals, expand and repair places of worship. Dhimmis were not allowed to testify in cases involving a Muslim; dhimmi men were prohibited from marrying Muslim women. Some restrictions imposed on dhimmis from time to time were largely symbolic in nature and were designed to highlight the inferiority of dhimmis compared to Muslims. These regulations included, among others, requirements to wear distinctive clothing and prohibitions on riding horses and camels.
The conditions of dhimma resulted in a gradual acceptance of Islam by most Middle Eastern Christians and Zoroastrians living under the Muslim rule.
Background
The status of dhimmis was initially given to "People of the Book" living in lands under Muslim rule, namely Jews and Christians, as well as Zoroastrians and Mandean. Over time Muslims extended this category to Sikhs, and many, but not all, Muslim scholars extend this to Hindus.
Sources of dhimma
The medieval Quranic commentator Ibn Kathir justified the dhimma in terms of Sura 9:29 of the Qur'an . The verse calls upon Muslims to fight against the People of the Book until they pay the jizya head tax and are humbled:
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold forbidden that which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
A classic precedent of dhimma was an agreement between Muhammad and the Jews of Khaybar, an oasis about 95 miles from Medina. Khaybar was the first territory attacked, conquered, and subjugated by the Muslim state ruled by Muhammad himself. The Jews of Khaybar surrendered to Muhammad after a siege lasting a month and a half; Muhammad allowed them to remain in Khaybar in return for handing over to the Muslims one half of 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.
The Pact of Umar , allegedly concluded between Umar I and the conquered Christians, was another source of regulations pertaining to dhimmis. The document meticulously lists the obligations and restrictions that the Christians purportedly proposed to the Muslim conquerors as conditions of surrender. However, modern historians, such as Arthur Tritton, Bernard Lewis, or Hugh Goddard, dispute the authenticity of the Pact, describing it as a product of later jurists who attributed it to the caliph Umar in order to lend greater authority to their own opinions. These historians argue that it is usually the victors, not the vanquished, who propose, or rather impose, the terms of peace, and that it is highly unlikely that such a document could be drafted by the people who spoke no Arabic and knew nothing of Islam.
Modern historians also agree that discriminatory legislation enacted against Jews and non-Melkite Christians in the Byzantine Empire, as well as laws applying to Jews and Christians in the Sassanid Persian Empire, were other sources of dhimmi regulations, though Islamic jurists never explicitly acknowledge these sources. Numerous provisions of the Theodosian Code of 438 and the Justinian's Code of 529 migrated into the Islamic law virtually unchanged. Under the Byzantine rule, Jews were obliged not to pray loudly; their prayers were not to be audible in the nearby church. Building new synagogues (and repairing existing ones) was likewise prohibited, unless the buildings threatened to collapse and a special permission was obtained. Jews were banned from all public offices and the army; they were prohibited from criticizing Christianity, marrying a Christian, or owning a Christian slave. Furthermore, Jews paid special taxes, possibly the precursors of jizya. Amplified and expanded, these regulations were applied to Christians also, after Byzantine lands fell under Muslim rule.
Status of dhimmis
Under Muslim rule, dhimmis were allowed to observe the commandments of their religions, albeit with restrictions attached. In exchange, they had to pay taxes for the benefit of the Muslim community and faced additional regulations, some of them intentionally humiliating and serving to remind dhimmis of their inferiority vis-a-vis Muslims. The overarching principle in the treatment of dhimmis is encapsulated in the statement: "Islam is exalted, and nothing is exalted above it". In the words of the British historian Bernard Lewis:
It is only very recently that some defenders of Islam began to assert that their society in the past accorded equal status to non-Muslims. No such claim is made by spokesman for resurgent Islam, and historically there is no doubt that they are right. Traditional Islamic societies neither accorded such equality nor pretended that they were so doing. Indeed, in the old order, this would have been regarded not as a merit but as a dereliction of duty. How could one accord the same treatment to those who follow the true faith and those who willfully reject it? This would be a theological as well as a logical absurdity.
The treatment of dhimmis varied over time and space, mostly depending on the goodwill of the ruler. Arthur Tritton describes dhimmis living under the rule of caliphs as being vulnerable to the whims of rulers and the violence of mobs. Dhimmis were allowed to live, and even prosper, according to historian Clifford Bosworth, largely because they practiced trades that Muslims valued, such as medicine, or because they performed functions that Muslims either could not perform for religious reasons, such as money-lending with interest, or viewed with disdain, such as money-changing. Still, in the late Middle Ages, some Jews preferred living as dhimmis in the Ottoman lands to living under Christian rule; those immigrants were possibly lured by stories of greater religious freedom and opportunities for social advancement.
Religious aspects
Freedom of religion and forced conversions
The pledge of protection granted dhimmis the freedom to practice their religion and spared them forced conversions. Indeed, in the first several centuries after the Islamic conquest and subsequently in the Ottoman Empire, forcible conversions were rare. Subsequnetly, rulers occasionally broke the pledge and dhimmis were forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death. In the 12th century, rulers of the Almohad dynasty killed or forcibly converted many Jews and Christians in Andalusia and the Maghreb, possibly putting an end to the existence of Christian communities in North Africa outside Egypt. According to Bernard Lewis, during the Cordoba massacre of 1148, the Jewish philosopher, theologian, and physician Maimonides saved his own life only by converting to Islam; after Maimonides moved to Egypt, this conversion was ruled void by a Muslim judge who was a friend and patient of Maimonides. Other sources say that Maimonides, then 13, accepted exile with his family (and with most other Jews of the city) over conversion or death. Sporadic waves of forced conversion occurred at different times and places: for example, in Lybia in 1558-89, in Tabriz in 1291 and 1338, and in Baghdad 1333 and 1344. In 1839, Jews were massacred in Mashhad and survivors were forcibly converted.
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 subject to the approval of the Muslim authorities, who sometimes blocked candidates or took the side of the party that offered the larger bribe.
Dhimmis were prohibited from proselytizing on pain of death. They were also not allowed to obstruct the spread of Islam in any manner. Other restrictions included a prohibition on publishing or sale of non-Muslim religious literature and a ban on teaching the Qur’an.
Rituals
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 was the ringing of bells or the trumpeting of shofars. According to one hadith, Muhammad said: “The bell is the devil’s pipe.” Furthermore, dhimmis had to bury their dead without loud lamentations and prayers.
Places of worship
According to Islamic law, the permission for dhimmis to retain their places of worship and build new ones depended upon the circumstances in which the land fell under the Muslim rule. According to an Islamic jurist al-Nawawi, dhimmis could not use churches and synagogues if their land was conquered by attack. In such lands, as well as in towns founded after the conquest, or where inhabitants voluntarily converted wholesale to Islam, Islamic law does not allow dhimmis to build new churches and synagogues, or expand or repair existing ones, even if they fall into ruin. If the country submitted by capitulation, al-Nawawi wrote, dhimmis were permitted to build new houses of worship only if the capitulation treaty stated that dhimmis remained owners of their land. In observance of this prohibition, Abbasid caliphs al-Mutawakkil, al-Mahdi and Harun al-Rashid ordered the destruction, in their realms, of all churches and synagogues built after the Islamic conquest. In the 11th century, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim oversaw over the demolition of all churches and synagogues in Egypt, Syria and Palestine, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. However, al-Hakim subsequently allowed the rebuilding of the destroyed buildings. Nevertheless, dhimmis sometimes managed to expand churches and synagogues and even build new ones, albeit at the price of bribing local officials in order to get permissions.
There was no consensus in Islamic jurisprudence as to whether it was permissible for dhimmis to repair churches and synagogues. The pact of Umar, as cited by ibn Kathir, puts an obligation on dhimmis not to “restore any place of worship that needs restoration” . At the same time, al-Mawardi wrote in the 11th century that dhimmis “can restore ancient synagogues and churches that have fallen into ruin”. As in the case of building new houses of worship, the ability of dhimmi communities to repair churches and synagogues usually depended upon its relationship with local Muslim authorities and its ability to pay bribes.
Taxation
Main article: Jizya Main article: KharajDhimmi communities were subjected to taxes known as jizya – a poll tax – and kharaj – a land tax. Early chronicles use these terms indiscriminately; only later did the kharaj emerge as a tax payable by a farmer regardless of his religion. The resulting tax burden on dhimmis was higher than that on Muslims who paid zakat — mandatory alms. 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.” Most Islamic scholars agree that jizya must be levied only upon adult males, and the 8th-century scholar Abu Ubayd advises that dhimmis must not be burdened above their capacity or caused to suffer. The Shafi'i school however dissents, demanding “the poll tax to be paid by dying people, the old, … the blind, monks, workers, and the poor, incapable of practicing a trade.” The latter view was often applied in practice, as contemporary non-Muslim sources give witness of taxation even of dead persons, widows, and orphans. All taxes paid by Muslims were usually doubled for dhimmis.
Sura 9:29 demands 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 a choice between conversion and death (or imprisonment, as advocated by Abu Yusuf, the chief qadi — religious judge — of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid). Al-Nawawi however advocates that the unpaid amount of poll tax remain a debt to the dhimmi’s account until he becomes solvent. In the Ottoman Empire, dhimmis had to carry a receipt certifying their payment of jizya at all times, upon pain of imprisonment.
Legal aspects
Prohibition on testimony
The testimony of dhimmis was not admissible in cases involving a Muslim; on the other hand, Muslims could testify against dhimmis. This legal disability put dhimmis in a precarious position where they could not defend themselves against false accusations leveled by Muslims, except by hiring Muslim witnesses and bribing qadis. Apart from breeding corruption, the prohibition on non-Muslim testimony deepened the rift between communities, as dhimmis sought to reduce the possibility of conflict by limiting contact with Muslims.
Punishment for murder of a dhimmi
In all schools of Islamic jurisprudence, except the Hanafi, 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. For 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. The Hanafi school, however, 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.
A peculiar practice developed in Yemen, where Arab tribes collected jizya from Jews, offering them protection. If a Muslim from one tribe killed a Jew protected by another tribe, then the other tribe could retaliate by killing a Jew protected by the tribe of the murderer. As a result, two Jews were murdered, while no direct sanctions were imposed on the Muslims.
Social and psychological aspects
Humiliation of dhimmis
Islamic law stipulates that dhimmis must be belittled for their rejection of Islam; humiliating them was an act of piety, a fulfillment of divine will. Bernard Lewis comments that
The Qur'an and tradition often use the word dhull or dhilla (humiliation or abasement) to indicate the status God has assigned to those who reject Mohammad, and in which they should be kept for so long as they persist in that rejection.
Ibn Kathir wrote that dhimmis must feel “disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of the dhimma or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced, and humiliated." Echoing a saying attributed to Muhammad (Sahih Muslim, book 26, #5389), Hasan al-Kafrawi, an 18th century scholar, advises that “if you encounter one of them on the road, push him into the narrowest and tightest spot”. European travelers to the Middle East describe humiliations and insults of Christians and Jews on the streets until the mid-19th century. As recommended by many Muslim scholars, most notably al-Zamakhshari and al-Nawawi, jizya was often collected in a humiliating procedure:
he collector remains seated and the infidel remains standing..., his head bowed and his back bent. The infidel must place money on the scales, while the collector holds him by his beard and strikes him on both cheeks.
This ritual stemmed from the traditional interpretation of Sura 9:29, being that jizya was not merely a tax, but also an expression of submission. Abu Yusuf, however, advises against the mistreatment of dhimmis during jizya collection, saying that "they should be treated with leniency". The procedure was not followed in the Ottoman Empire, where jizya was collected by representatives of the dhimmi communities themselves.
Distinctive clothing
- See also Yellow badge
For dhimmis to be clearly distinguishable from Muslims in public, Muslim rulers often prohibited dhimmis from wearing certain types of clothing, while forcing them to put on highly distinctive garments, usually of a bright color. To increase the debasement of non-Muslims, the clothes usually had to be made of rough fabrics and were often incongruous. Although distinctive clothing for non-Muslims was not spelled out in Islamic holy texts, Muslim scholars still agreed that dhimmis must not wear the same clothing as Muslims do; frequently, these scholars cited the Pact of Umar in which Christians supposedly took an obligation to "always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and ... bind the zunar round our waists". Al-Nawawi required dhimmis to wear a piece of yellow cloth and a belt, as well as a metallic ring, inside public baths.
Regulations on dhimmi clothing varied frequently to please the whims of the ruler. Although the initiation of such regulations is usually attributed to Umar I, historical evidence suggests that it was the Abbasid caliphs who pioneered this practice. In 807, Harun al-Rashid ordered that Jews should wear high cone caps and yellow belts, the first prototypes of the yellow badge; Christians had to wear blue belts. These distinction marks became obsolete in 849 when al-Mutawakkil ordered dhimmis to put a yellow veil on their heads and shoulders and wear a wide belt. He also required them to wear small bells in public baths. In the 11th century, the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim ordered Christians to put on half-meter wooden crosses and Jews to wear wooden calves around their necks. In the late 12th century, Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf ordered the Jews of the Maghreb to wear dark blue garments with long sleeves and saddle-like caps. His grandson Abdallah made a concession after appeals from the Jews, relaxing the required clothing to yellow garments and turbans. In the 16th century, Jews of the Maghreb could only wear sandals made of rushes and black turbans or caps with a red piece of garment on it.
Ottoman sultans were similarly diligent and inventive in regulating the clothings of their non-Muslim subjects. In 1577, Murad III issued a firman forbidding Jews and Christians from wearing dresses, turbans, and sandals. In 1580, he changed his mind, restricting the previous prohibition to turbans and requiring dhimmis to wear black shoes; Jews and Christians also had to wear red and black hats, respectively. Observing in 1730 that some Muslims took to the habit of wearing caps similar to those of the Jews, Mahmud I ordered the hanging of the perpetrators. Mustafa III personally helped to enforce his decrees regarding clothes. In 1758, he was walking incognito in Istanbul and ordered to beheading of a Jew and an Armenian seen dressed in forbidden attire. The last Ottoman decree affirming the distinctive clothing for dhimmis was issued in 1837 by Mahmud II. Discriminatory clothing did not exist only in those Ottoman provinces where Christians were in majority, e.g. in Greece and the Balkans.
Riding
Dhimmis were forbidden to ride horses or camels; they were only allowed to ride donkeys and only on packsaddles. The initiation of this prohibition is attributed alternatively to caliph Umar II or Umar ibn al-Khattab. In the 18th century, Damanhuri, rector of Al-Azhar University, summed up the consensus of Islamic jurists: “Neither Jew nor Christian should ride a horse, with or without saddle. They may ride asses with a packsaddle.” European travelers passing through the Middle East in the 18th and 19th centuries left ample evidence of the careful enforcement of prohibitions on horseback riding. Danish traveller Carsten Niebuhr wrote in 1761 that in Egypt, Jews and Christians were forced to alight while passing the houses of notable Muslims and when meeting such notables in the street.
Marriage
Islamic jurists reject the possibility that a dhimmi man may marry a Muslim woman. As some scholars put it, marriage is like enslavement, with the husband being the master and the wife being the slave. Even as dhimmis are prohibited from having Muslim slaves, so are dhimmi men not allowed to have Muslim wives. Following the same logic, Muslim men were allowed to marry dhimmi women because the enslavement of non-Muslims by Muslims is allowed.
Personal freedom
An exception to the right of personal freedom guaranteed by the dhimma was the practice of enslavement of young non-Muslim boys for the ruler’s slave army. 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. The Ottoman Empire practiced a similar system, known as devshirmeh, by annually enslaving young boys from the Christian population of its Balkan provinces, to muster Janissary troops.
Shi'a ritual purity
Shi'a Islam devotes much attention to the issues of ritual purity — tahara. Shi'a jurists have traditionally deemed non-Muslims to be ritually impure — najis — so that physical contact with them or things they touched would require Shi'as to wash themselves before doing regular prayers. In Persia, where Shi'ism is dominant, these beliefs brought about restrictions that aimed at limiting physical contact between Muslims and dhimmis. Dhimmis were not allowed to attend public baths with Muslims; they were also not allowed to go outside in rain or snow, ostensibly because some impurity could be washed from them upon a Muslim.
Consequences of dhimma
Over the course of many centuries, dhimma gradually led to the conversion of most Zoroastrians and Christians to Islam, but had only a limited impact on the Jews. Zoroastrianism was the first to crumble after the Muslim conquest of Persia. Closely associated with the power structures of the Persian Empire, Zoroastrian clergy quickly declined after it was deprived of the state support.
For Christians, the process of conversion was slower — it is possible that as late as at the time of the Crusades Christians still constituted a majority of the population — but no less inexorable. The switch from a dominant to an inferior position proved too difficult for many Christians and they converted to Islam in large numbers to avoid oppression. Christianity disappeared altogether in Central Asia, Yemen, and the Maghreb, where it was subjected to persecution by the Almohads. In Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, Christians fared better, but their numbers were still reduced from being the overwhelming majority to being a tiny minority. Bernard Lewis argues that the relative resiliency of Christians in those countries stemmed from their subordinated position in the Byzantine Empire, which made them more amenable to accepting Muslim supremacy; he suggests that many of them felt better under the early Muslim rule than under the Byzantines.
Jews, on the other hand, were the least affected. Accustomed to survival in adverse circumstances after many centuries of Roman and Byzantine persecutions, Jews saw the Islamic conquests as a just another change of rulers; this time, not necessarily for the worse. Voluntary conversion among the Jews was rare, and they managed to preserve their religion all over the Muslim lands.
See also
- Bat Ye'or
- Blood money laws
- Devshirme
- Dhimmi Watch
- Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
- History of Christianity
- Jewish history
- Islamism
- Jizyah
- Kafir
- Kharaj
- Ottoman Millet system
- Minority religion
- Mutaween
- People of the Book
- Second-class citizen
- Sharia
- Yellow badge
Notes
- Lewis (1984), pp. 10–11
- Tritton (1970); Lewis (1984), pp. 24–25; Goddard (2000), p. 46
- Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 111–113; see also Lewis (1984), p. 19; Stillman (1979), p. 26; Goddard (2000), p. 47
- Lewis (1984), p. 16
- Friedmann (2003), p. 35
- Lewis (1984), p. 4
- Tritton (1970), p. 49
- Bosworth (1982), p. 232
- Lewis (1984), p. 121
- Lewis (1984), p. 52
- Lewis (1984), p. 100
- Kantor (1989), p. 150; Husik (1946), p. 238
- Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 88
- Lewis (1984), p. 168
- Stillman (1979), pp. 37–39
- Sahih Muslim, book 24, #5279.An alternative translation of this phrase is “The bell is the musical instrument of the Satan.”
- Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 83–85
- Lewis (2002), p. 81
- Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15
- Stillman (1979), p. 28
- Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15
- Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71
- ^ Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15
- Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71
- Friedmann (2003), pp. 35–36
- Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 74
- Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 75
- Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 79
- Lewis (1984), p. 14
- Al-Nawawi, Minhadj, quoted in Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 70
- Lewis (1984), p. 14
- Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71
- Al-Nawawi, Minhadj, quoted in Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 91
- ^ Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 91–96
- Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 97–98
- Friedmann (2003), pp. 161–163
- Lewis (2002), p. 90
- Some modern Shi'a jurists, for example, Fazel Lankarani consider Jews and Christians to be ritually pure
- Lewis (1984), pp. 33–34; Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 103
- ^ Lewis (1984), p. 17–18; Stillman (1979), p. 27
References
- Bat Ye'or (1985). The Dhimmi. Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 0838632629.
- Bat Ye'or (2003). Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide. Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses. ISBN 0838639437.
- Bat Ye'or (1996). The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. From Jihad to Dhimmitude. Seventh-Twentieth Century. Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses. ISBN 0838636888.
- Bostom, Andrew (2005). The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. Prometeus Books. ISBN 1591023076.
- 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 0841905207
- Choksy, Jamsheed (1997). Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Friedmann, Yohanan (2003). Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521827035.
- Gardet, Louis (1954). La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique. Paris: Etudes musulmanes.
- Goddard, Hugh (2000). A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Chicago: New Amsterdam Books. ISBN 1566633400.
- Husik, Isaac (1946). A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. ASIN B0007DFH4E.
- Kantor, Mattis (1989). The Jewish Timeline Encyclopedia. Northvale, NJ: Aronson. ISBN 0-87668-229-8.
- Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691008078.
- Lewis, Bernard (2002). The Arabs in History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192803107.
- Stillman, Norman (1979). The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 082760198.
- Tritton, Arthur S. (1970). The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects: a Critical Study of the Covenant of Umar. London: Frank Cass Publisher. ISBN 0714619965.
- Encyclopedia Judaica, Keter Publishing
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
- Dhimmi: The Victims of Muslim Religious Apartheid
- The status of the Dhimmi: A critical perspective
- The status of the Dhimmi: An Islamic perspective
- The Status of Non-Muslim Minorities Under Islamic Rule
- Dhimmi Watch
- Islam and its tolerance level (dhimmis also covered)
- Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East
- Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects
- Template:Ar iconYusuf al-Qaradawi "Non Muslims in Islamic societies"
- Religious Freedom in the Eyes of Shari`ah
- On Religious Tolerance, by Khalid Baig