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A '''Dhimmi''', or '''Zimmi''' (Arabic ذمي), as defined in classical [[Islam]]ic legal and political [[literature]], is a person living in a [[Muslim]] 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.
==Background==
The [[Arabic
Traditional Arab historiography traces the origin of the dhimma to the [[Pact of Umar]] [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html], allegedly drawn up by the second [[caliph]], [[Umar ibn al-Khattab]]. Modern historian Hugh Goddard [[Pact_of_Umar#Historicity|disputes]] 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 mediaeval Quranic commentator [[Ibn Kathir]] justified the dhimma in terms of [[Sura]] 9:29 of the Qur'an, which calls Muslims to fight against the People of the Book until they pay the [[jizya]] head tax and are humbled.[http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20980]. In his classic [[tafsir|commentary]] on the [[Qur'an]], he comments as follows on Sura 9:29:
:"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."[http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20986]
<!--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 [[Caliph of Córdoba|Cordoba]] in Southern Spain. [[Maimonides]], considered by some the greatest Jewish philosopher and [[Talmud]]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 [[Almohad]] dynasty from the [[Almoravids]], and then fled from North Africa as well, before eventually finding refuge in [[Egypt]]. 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 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 [[society|societies]]. Few if any countries <!-- please cite sources before including individual countries here— such as [[Iran]], [[Malaysia]] and [[Saudi Arabia]]-->currently have a separate, legally-defined status for dhimmis. Certain [[Islamist]] organizations such as [[Al Qaeda]], [[Taliban]], [[Hamas]], and [[Hizb ut-Tahrir]] seek to make Islamic law, including dhimma status, applicable in Muslim-majority states.
Some Muslim authors present the dhimmi as being equal to Muslims. For example:
:"Islam does not permit [[discrimination]] 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).''
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.''
In the Hizb ut-Tahrir's draft constitution, direct election of a [[Caliph]] 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:
''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 [non-Muslim citizen] 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 [non-Muslim citizens] 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."'' [http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.info/english/about.htm]-->
Others present the dhimmi as being second-class citizens.:
:"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}}
Sayyed Al-Qimni has criticized books used in the curriculum at [[Al-Azhar University]] in [[Cairo]] 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...'" [http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP79004 2]
[[Bernard Lewis]] comments:
<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>
<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>
<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>
== Status of Dhimmis ==
<!---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 [[mujahideen]] are laboring through violence to restore everywhere in the growing Islamic world. [http://www.investigateislam.com/jizyah_tax.htm] needs better source and the source doesn't even talk about
"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-->
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 ([[patriarch]]s for Christians, [[exilarch]]s and [[geonim]] 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 [[bribe]]{{ref|rleaders}}
** In Saudi Arabia, where no religion apart from Islam is officially recognized, this right is [[Mootness|moot]]
* Right to work and trade
* Right not to be enslaved
** Not always respected, as the application of the ''[[devshirmeh]]'' under the Ottomans demonstrates
** Void, should the dhimmi rebel
Exemptions:
* Exemption from paying ''[[zakat]]'' "alms to the poor"
* Exemption from military service
* Exemptions from religious duties and laws specific to Muslims
Obligations:
* Paying ''[[jizyah]]'' (a poll tax applied to non-muslims)
* Paying ''[[kharaj]]'' (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}}
===Restrictions===
* A dhimmi male is prohibited from marrying a Muslim woman.
* 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 [[proselytization]])
* 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>
Other points:
Later legislation in the [[Sharia]] codified the rule that Jews and Christians were forbidden to [[blasphemy|blaspheme]] with respect to the [[Qur'an]], the religion of [[Islam]], or [[Muhammad]]. 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 [[proselytization]]). Violation of these rules could invoke the death sentence.<br>
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 [[Samuel ha-Nagid]] in [[Spain]], as well as others in [[Egypt]], [[Iraq]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]]
* Bearing weapons
* Riding camels or horses (also rarely enforced)
* Building houses of worship higher than mosques
* Mourning loudly
* Dressing in the same way that [[Muslim]]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 [[Qur'an]] or [[hadith]]
===
Schools of [[fiqh|Islamic jurisprudence]]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.
The following are different ahadeeth & traditions that support these views:
:"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)'."
As does this text from Sunan of Abu-Dawood (Hadith 2745; Narrated by Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As), which states:
:"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."
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 [[Abdul Razzaq]] and [[Al Baihaqi]]) which states that [[Muhammad]] ordered the execution of a Muslim because he killed a dhimmi. This [[hadith]]'s authenticity is disputed<!--specifics needed: sahih, hasan, or da'if?-->. [[Ali ibn Abi Talib|Ali]] 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 ... [they paid the [[jizyah]] so that their life and our lives are equal]". Moreover, [[Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz|Umar II]] ordered his regional governors to execute those who kill any dhimmis.
This view <!--the former or the latter? needs clarification-->is adopted by the [[Maliki]] and [[Hanafi]] schools, as well as many other jurists, such as Al Laith Ibn Saad, Al Sha'bi, Ibn Abi Laila, and Al Nakh'i.
Some Islamic states followed the latter interpretation, as during Ali's and Umar II's reigns, and in the [[Ottoman Empire]] until its end in 1924.
==See also==
Line 84 ⟶ 117:
*[[Blood money]] laws
*[[Devshirme]]
*[[
*[[Islamism]]
*[[Jizyah]]
Line 94 ⟶ 124:
*[[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Ottoman Millet system]]
*[[Minority religion]]
*[[
*[[People of the Book]]
*[[Sharia]]
*[[Yellow badge]]
==Notes==
#{{note|equality}} Haneef, Suzanne. ''What everyone should know about Islam and Muslims'', Kazi Publications, [[Lahore]], [[1979]], p. 173
#{{note|second-class}} Abdul Rahman Ben Hammad Al-Omar, ''The Religion of Truth'', [[Riyadh]], General Presidency of Islamic Researches, [[1991]], p. 86.<!--is this a translation?-->
#{{note|
#{{note|
#{{note|
== References ==
* Choksy, Jamsheed. ''Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society'' (New York, 1997)
* Duran, Khalid; Hechiche, Abdelwahab. ''Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews'' (Ktav, 2001)
* Gardet, Louis. ''La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique'' (Paris: Etudes musulmanes, 1954), p. 348.
* Lewis, Bernard. ''The Jews of Islam'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984)
* Lewis, Bernard. ''The Arabs in History'' (London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1950)
* Stillman, Norman. ''The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book'' (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979)
* 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-->
* Ye'or, Bat. ''Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide'' (Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses, 2003)
* 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)
* <!--article?-->''Encyclopedia Judaica'', Keter Publishing
== External links ==
* [http://www.qaradawi.net/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=439&version=1&template_id=93&parent_id=12 Yusuf al-Qaradawi "Non Muslims in Islamic societies" (Arabic)]
* [http://libro.uca.edu/ics/ics5.htm Islamic and Christian Spain in the early Middle Ages. Thomas F. Glick: Chapter 5: Ethnic relations]
* [http://www.iis.ac.uk/research/academic_papers/pluralism_egypt/pluralism_egypt.htm The Ahl al-Kitab in Early Fatimid Times]
Line 158 ⟶ 160:
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html Bernard Lewis, ''Race and Slavery in the Middle East'']
* [http://www.secularislam.org/jihad/subjects.htm Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects]
* <!--[http://nationalhistoryday.org/03_educators/2003curbook/12-umar/umar.html The Pact of Umar: The Rights of Non-Muslims in the Islamic Empire] The link no longer workd - please check-->
*[http://www.icssa.org/dhimmi.html Gentile or Dhimmi - A comparasion]
*[http://world.mediamonitors.net/headlines/gentiletude_and_dhimmitude Gentiletude and Dhimmitude - A comparation]
[[Category:Islamic law]]
|
Revision as of 04:43, 22 February 2006
A Dhimmi, or Zimmi (Arabic ذمي), as defined in classical Islamic legal and political literature, is a person living in a Muslim 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.
Background
The Arabic word "dhimmi" is an adjective derived from the noun "dhimma", which means "being in the care of" or . The term initially applied to "People of the Book" living in lands under Muslim rule, namely Jews and Christians. Over time Muslims extended this category to Zoroastrians, Mandeans, and Sikhs. Many, but not all, extend this to Hindus.
Traditional Arab historiography traces the origin of the dhimma to the Pact of Umar [1], allegedly drawn up by the second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab. Modern historian Hugh Goddard disputes 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 mediaeval Quranic commentator Ibn Kathir justified the dhimma in terms of Sura 9:29 of the Qur'an, which calls Muslims to fight against the People of the Book until they pay the jizya head tax and are humbled.[2]. In his classic commentary on the Qur'an, he comments as follows on Sura 9:29:
- "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."[3]
Modern vs. customary practice
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 societies. Few if any countries currently have a separate, legally-defined status for dhimmis. Certain Islamist organizations such as Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hamas, and Hizb ut-Tahrir seek to make Islamic law, including dhimma status, applicable in Muslim-majority states.
Some Muslim authors present the dhimmi as being equal to Muslims. For example:
- "Islam does not permit discrimination 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'."[4]
Others present the dhimmi as being second-class citizens.:
- "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."[5]
Sayyed Al-Qimni has criticized books used in the curriculum at Al-Azhar University in Cairo 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...'" 2
Bernard Lewis comments:
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.[6]
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 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.
Status of Dhimmis
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 (patriarchs for Christians, exilarchs and geonim for Jews)
- Right to work and trade
- Right not to be enslaved
- Not always respected, as the application of the devshirmeh under the Ottomans demonstrates
- Void, should the dhimmi rebel
Exemptions:
- Exemption from paying zakat "alms to the poor"
- Exemption from military service
- Exemptions from religious duties and laws specific to Muslims
Obligations:
- Paying jizyah (a poll tax applied to non-muslims)
- Paying kharaj (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)[8]
Restrictions
- A dhimmi male is prohibited from marrying a Muslim woman.
- 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 proselytization)
- 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)
Other points:
Later legislation in the Sharia codified the rule that Jews and Christians were forbidden to blaspheme with respect to the Qur'an, the religion of Islam, or Muhammad. 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 proselytization). Violation of these rules could invoke the death sentence.
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 Samuel ha-Nagid in Spain, as well as others in Egypt, Iraq, and the Ottoman Empire
- Bearing weapons
- Riding camels or horses (also rarely enforced)
- Building houses of worship higher than mosques
- Mourning loudly
- Dressing in the same way that Muslims dressed
Death penalty
Schools of Islamic jurisprudencehave varied rulings for a Jew or Christian who convicted of killing a Muslim, & a Muslim who is convicted of killing a Jew or Christian.
The following are different ahadeeth & traditions that support these views:
- "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)'."
As does this text from Sunan of Abu-Dawood (Hadith 2745; Narrated by Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As), which states:
- "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."
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 Abdul Razzaq and Al Baihaqi) which states that Muhammad ordered the execution of a Muslim because he killed a dhimmi. This hadith's authenticity is disputed. Ali 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 ... [they paid the jizyah so that their life and our lives are equal]". Moreover, Umar II ordered his regional governors to execute those who kill any dhimmis.
This view is adopted by the Maliki and Hanafi schools, as well as many other jurists, such as Al Laith Ibn Saad, Al Sha'bi, Ibn Abi Laila, and Al Nakh'i.
Some Islamic states followed the latter interpretation, as during Ali's and Umar II's reigns, and in the Ottoman Empire until its end in 1924.
See also
- Bat Ye'or
- Blood money laws
- Devshirme
- Gentile
- Islamism
- Jizyah
- Kafir
- Kharaj
- Ottoman Millet system
- Minority religion
- Mudejar
- People of the Book
- Sharia
- Yellow badge
Notes
- ^ Haneef, Suzanne. What everyone should know about Islam and Muslims, Kazi Publications, Lahore, 1979, p. 173
- ^ Abdul Rahman Ben Hammad Al-Omar, The Religion of Truth, Riyadh, General Presidency of Islamic Researches, 1991, p. 86.
- ^ Lewis, 1984, p. 3
- ^ Stillman, 1979, pp. 37–39
- ^ Lewis, 1950, pp. 77–78
References
- Choksy, Jamsheed. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society (New York, 1997)
- Duran, Khalid; Hechiche, Abdelwahab. Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews (Ktav, 2001)
- Gardet, Louis. La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique (Paris: Etudes musulmanes, 1954), p. 348.
- Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984)
- Lewis, Bernard. The Arabs in History (London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1950)
- Stillman, Norman. The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979)
- Ye'or, Bat. The Dhimmi (NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985), pp. 43-44.
- Ye'or, Bat. Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide (Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses, 2003)
- 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)
- Encyclopedia Judaica, Keter Publishing
External links
- Yusuf al-Qaradawi "Non Muslims in Islamic societies" (Arabic)
- 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
- Gentile or Dhimmi - A comparasion
- Gentiletude and Dhimmitude - A comparation