Dhimmi: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
AWB assisted migrate {{book reference}} to {{cite book}} |
Farhansher (talk | contribs) (rv hatemongering) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
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. |
|||
{{disputed}} |
|||
A '''dhimmi''' (also '''zimmi''', [[Arabic Language|Arabic]]''' ذمي''', usually translated as "protected") is a non-Muslim subject of a state where [[sharia|Islamic law]] is implemented. Dhimmis were officially allowed to practice their religion in return for accepting multiple legal disabilities as well as paying special taxes. |
|||
==Background== |
==Background== |
||
The [[Arabic |
The [[Arabic language|Arabic]] 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 "[[People of the Book]]" living in lands under Muslim rule, namely [[Jew]]s and [[Christian|Christians]]. Over time Muslims extended this category to [[Zoroastrian]]s, [[Mandean]]s, and [[Sikh]]s. Many, but not all, extend this to [[Hindus]]. |
||
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. |
|||
==Sources== |
|||
The mediaeval Quranic commentator [[Ibn Kathir]] justified the ''dhimma'' in terms of [[Sura]] 9:29 of the [[Qur'an]] [http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20980]. The verse calls Muslims to fight against the People of the Book until they pay the [[jizya]] head tax and are humbled:<blockquote>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.</blockquote> |
|||
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: |
|||
A classic precedent of ''dhimma'' was an agreement between [[Muhammad]] and the Jews of [[Battle of Khaybar|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 month and a half of siege; Muhammad allowed them to remain in Khaybar in return for handing over to 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|Umar I]] subsequently expelled the Jews from the oasis.{{ref|khayblewis}} |
|||
:"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] |
|||
[[Pact of Umar]] [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html], allegedly concluded between Umar I and the conquered Christians, was another source of regulations pertaining to dhimmis. However, modern historians, like Arthur S. Tritton, [[Bernard Lewis]], or Hugh Goddard, dispute the authenticity of the Pact of Umar, 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. |
|||
<!--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.--> |
|||
Discriminatory legislation enacted against Jews and non-[[Melkite]] Christians in the [[Byzantine Empire]], as well as laws regarding Jews and Christians in the [[Sassanid dynasty|Sassanid]] [[Persian Empire]] was yet another source of dhimmi regulations, though Islamic jurists never mentioned it explicitly as such. Numerous provisions of the [[Codex Theodosianus|Theodosian Code]] of 438 and the [[Corpus Juris Civilis|Justinian's Code]] of 529 migrated into the Islamic law virtually unchanged. Under the Byzantine rule, Jews were obliged not to pray loudly so that their prayers could not be heard in the nearby church. Building new synagogues and repairing exisitng 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 critizing Christianity, marrying a Christian, or owning a Christian slave. On top of that, Jews paid special taxes, possibly the precursors of jizya. Amplified and expanded, these regulations were applied to Christians too after Byzatian lands fell under the Muslim rule.{{ref|byzsource}} |
|||
== |
== Modern vs. customary practice == |
||
<!--The attitude towards dhimmis varies from Muslim to 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|inf}} The overarching principle in the treatment of dhimmis is encapsulated in the statement: "Islam is exalted, and nothing is exalted above it"{{ref|exalted}}. In the words of the British historian [[Bernard Lewis]]: |
|||
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. |
|||
<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}}</blockquote> |
|||
Some Muslim authors present the dhimmi as being equal to Muslims. For example: |
|||
The treatment of dhimmis varied over time and space, mostly depending on a goodwill of the ruler. Arthur S. Tritton describes dhimmis living under the rule of caliphs as vulnerable to whims of rulers and violence of mobs.{{ref|tritton}} Dhimmis were allowed to live, and even prosper, according to historian Clifford Bosworth, largely because they practiced valuable trades such as doctors or performed functions such as [[usury]] that Muslims could not perform for religious reasons.{{ref|bosw|}} Stil, in the late [[Middle Ages]] some Jews preferred living as dhimmis in Muslim lands to living under Christian rule. In the 15th century, Isaac Zarfati, who fled from [[Germany]] to the [[Ottoman Empire]], wrote ''"I proclaim to you that Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking, and where, if you will, all shall yet be well with you . . . Here every man may dwell at peace under his own vine and fig tree. Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments. In Christendom, on the contrary, you dare not even venture to clothe your children in red or in blue, according to our taste, without exposing them to the insult of beaten black and blue, or kicked green and red"''{{ref|zarfati}} and in the 16th century Samuel Usque, a Portuguese refugee, wrote ''"here [in Turkey] the gates of liberty are always open for the observance of Judaism"''. |
|||
:"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}} |
|||
===Religious aspects=== |
|||
<!-- |
|||
====Freedom of religion and forced conversions==== |
|||
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).'' |
|||
[[Image:Rambam.jpg|frame|Maimonides]] |
|||
The pledge of protection granted dhimmis freedom to practice their religion and spared them from forced conversions. Indeed, in the early centuries of Islamic conquests, forcible conversions were rare, and it is possible that as late as at the time of [[Crusades]] non-Muslims still consituted a majority of population.{{ref|lewismaj}} In in some cases overeeger rulers broke the pledge and dhimmis were occasionally forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death. In 12th century, rulers of the [[Almohad]] dynasty killed or forcibly converted many Jews and Christians in [[Andalusia]] and [[Maghreb]], possibly putting an end to the existence of Christian communities in North Africa outside [[Egypt]].{{ref|almohad}} During the [[Cordoba]] massacre of 1148, the Jewish philospher, theologian, and physician [[Maimonides]] spared his life only through conversion to Islam; after Maimonides moved to Egypt, this conversion was ruled void by a [[qadi|Muslim judge]] who was a friend and patient of Maimonides.{{ref|maimon}} Sporadic waves of forced conversions occurred at different times and places, for example, in [[Lybia]] in 1558-89, in [[Tabriz]] in 1291 and 1338, or in [[Baghdad]] 1333 and 1344.{{ref|conv}} In 1839, Jews were massacred in [[Meshed]] and survivors were forcibly converted.{{ref|meshed}} |
|||
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.'' |
|||
Dhimmis had the right to choose their own religious leaders, [[patriarchs]] for Christians, [[exilarch]]s 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{{ref|rleaders}}. |
|||
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: |
|||
Dhimmis were prohibited from [[Proselytism|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. |
|||
''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]--> |
|||
====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, as well as on clothing (unless mandated as part of ''[[Dhimmi#Distinctive clothing|distinctive clothing]]''). Loud prayers were forbidden, as were ringing bells or trumpeting [[shofar]]s. According to one [[hadith]], [[Muhammad]] said: “The bell is the devil’s pipe.”{{ref|transl}} ([[Sahih Muslim]], book 24, #5279). Furthermore, dhimmis had to bury their dead without loud lamentations and prayers. |
|||
Others present the dhimmi as being second-class citizens.: |
|||
====Places of worship==== |
|||
According to the 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. Islamic law does not allow dhimmis to build new churches and synagogues, expanding, or repairing existing ones, even if they fell in ruin, as well as in towns founded after the conquest or where inhabitants voluntarily converted to Islam. 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 destruction of all churches and synagogues built after the Islamic conquest. In the 11th century, the [[Fatimids|Fatimid]] caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah|al-Hakim]] oversaw over the demolition of all churches and synagogues in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, including [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] in Jerusalem. However, al-Hakim subsequently allowed to rebuild the destroyed buildings. Nevertheless, dhimmis sometimes managed to expand churches and synagogues and even build new ones, albeit at a price of bribing to local officials in order to get permissions.{{ref|plworsh}} |
|||
:"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}} |
|||
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”[http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20986]. 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. |
|||
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] |
|||
===Taxation=== |
|||
{{main|Jizya}} |
|||
{{main|Kharaj}} |
|||
Dhimmi 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 kharaj emerge as a tax payable by a farmer regardless of his religion.{{ref|kharaj}} The resulting tax burden on dhimmis was higher than that on Muslims who paid [[zakat]] – mandatory alms{{ref|jizyazakat}}, and 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|burden}} 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.{{ref|jizyazakat}} 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.{{ref|tax}} |
|||
[[Bernard Lewis]] comments: |
|||
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 to become void with the dhimmi facing a choice between conversion and death or be imprisoned as advocated by [[Abu Yusuf]], the chief [[kadi|religious judge]] of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid{{ref|abuyusuf}}. Al-Nawawi, however, argues that the unpaid amount of a poll tax remain as debt to a dhimmi’s account until he becomes solvent{{ref|tax}}. In the Ottoman Empire, dhimmis had to carry a receipt certifying their payment of jizya at all times, upon pain of imprisonment. If they joined the Muslim forces against an outside agressor they did not have to pay the jizya.<ref>''Islamic Political Ethics'' |
|||
by Sohail H. Hashmi (editor), page 166 ISBN 0691113106</ref> |
|||
<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> |
|||
===Legal aspects === |
|||
====Prohibition on testimony==== |
|||
Testimony of dhimmis was not admissible in cases involving a Muslim; on the other hand, Muslims could testify against dhimmis.{{ref|test}} This legal disability put dhimmis in a precarious position in which they could not defend themselves against false accusations by Muslims except by hiring Muslim witnesses and bribing [[kadi|Muslim religious judges]]. Apart from breeding corruption, prohibition on non-Muslim testimony deepened the rift between communities, as dhimmis sought to reduce the possibility of conflict by limiting contacts with Muslims.{{ref|court}} |
|||
<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> |
|||
====Punishment for murder of a dhimmi==== |
|||
In all schools of [[fiqh|Islamic jurisprudence]], except [[Hanafi]], the murder of a dhimmi, if perpetrated by a Muslim, was punishable by payment of blood money only and no death penalty was possible. For all schools of jusrisprudence, except Shafi'i, the value of a dhimmi's life was one-half of the value of a Muslim's life; for Shafi'is, Jews and Christians were worth one-third of a Muslim and Zoroastrians just one-fifteenth. Hanafi school, however, believes that murder of a dhimmi must be punishable by death, citing a hadith according to which [[Muhammad]] ordered execution of a Muslim who killed a dhimmi.{{ref|dsent}} |
|||
<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> |
|||
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 Muslims.{{ref|yemen}} |
|||
== Status of Dhimmis == |
|||
===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<blockquote> The Qur'an and tradition often use the word ''dhull'' or ''dhilla'' (humiliation or abasment) 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|humillewis}}</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."[http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20986] Echoing a saying attributed to Muhammad (Sahih Muslim, book 26, #5389), Hasan al-Kafrawi, an 18th century scholar, comments that “if you (Muslims) encounter one of them (dhimmis) on the road, push him into the narrowest and tightest spot”.[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1772-jewsinislam.html] European travelers to the Middle East describe humiliations and insults of Christians and Jews on the streets until the mid-19th century. |
|||
<!---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 |
|||
As recommended by many Muslim scholars, most notably [[Zamakhshari|al-Zamakhshari]] and al-Nawawi, jizya was often collected in a humiliating procedure:<blockquote>[T]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.</blockquote>The ritual stemmed from the traditional interpretation of Sura 9:29 that jizya was not merely a tax, but also an expression of submission.{{ref|humillewis}} Abu Yusuf, however, argues against mistreatment of dhimmis during jizya collection, saying that "they should be treated with leniency".{{ref|abuyusuf}} The procedure was not followed in the [[Ottoman Empire]], where jizya was collected by representatives of dhimmi communities themselves.{{ref|tax}} |
|||
"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--> |
|||
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.--> |
|||
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]] |
|||
=== |
=== Death penalty === |
||
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. |
|||
:''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 [[sumptuary law|distinctive clothing]] for non-Muslims was not spelled out in Islamic holy texts, Islamic scholars still issued rulings regarding clothing of dhimmis, citing 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 [wide belt] 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|baths}} |
|||
The following are different ahadeeth & traditions that support these views: |
|||
Regulations on dhimmi clothings varied frequently to please the whims of the ruler. Although the initiation of such regulations are usually attributed to Umar I, historical evidence suggests that those were Abbasid caliphs who pioneered this practice. In 807, [[Harun al-Rashid]] ruled 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, [[Fatimid]] caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah|Al-Hakim]] ordered Christians to put on half-meter wooden crosses and Jews to wear wooden [[golden calf|calves]] around their necks. In the late 12th century, Almohad ruler [[Yaqub, Almohad Caliph|Abu Yusuf]] ordered Jews of Maghreb to wear dark blue garments with long sleeves and saddle-like caps. His grandson, [[Abdallah, Almohad Caliph|Abdallah]], made a concession after appeals from the Jews, relaxing the required clothing to yellow garments and turbans. In the 16th century, Jews of Maghreb could only wear sandals made of rushes and black turbans or caps with a red piece of garment on it. |
|||
:"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: |
|||
[[Ottoman Empire|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 to wear dress, 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 a habit of wearing caps similar to those of the Jews, [[Mahmud I]] ordered to hang the perpetrators. [[Mustafa III]] personally helped to enforce his decrees regarding clothes. In 1758, he was walking incognito in [[Istanbul]] and ordered to behead a Jew and an [[Armenians|Armenian]] seen 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. {{ref|cloth}}<!--In Persia, Zoroastrians were obliged to wear torn caps.--> |
|||
:"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. |
|||
====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 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 18th and 19th centuries left ample evidence of careful enforcement of prohibitions on horseback riding. [[Carsten Niebuhr]] wrote in 1761 that in Egypt Jews and Christians were forced to alight before the houses of notable Muslims and when meeting such notables in the street.{{ref|ride}} |
|||
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. |
|||
====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 a husband being the master and a wife being the slave. As dhimmis are prohibited from having Muslim slaves, so dhimmi men are not allowed to have Muslim wives. Following the same logic, Muslim men were allowed to marry dhimmi women because enslavement of non-Muslims by Muslims is allowed.{{ref|marry}} |
|||
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. |
|||
===Personal freedom === |
|||
An exception to the right for personal freedom guaranteed by ''dhimma'' was the practice of enslavement of young non-Muslim boys for the ruler’s slave army. The practice goes back to 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. |
|||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
| Line 84: | Line 117: | ||
*[[Blood money]] laws |
*[[Blood money]] laws |
||
*[[Devshirme]] |
*[[Devshirme]] |
||
*[[ |
*[[Gentile]] |
||
*[[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain]] |
|||
*[[History of Christianity]] |
|||
*[[Jewish history ]] |
|||
*[[Islamism]] |
*[[Islamism]] |
||
*[[Jizyah]] |
*[[Jizyah]] |
||
| Line 94: | Line 124: | ||
*[[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Ottoman Millet system]] |
*[[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Ottoman Millet system]] |
||
*[[Minority religion]] |
*[[Minority religion]] |
||
*[[ |
*[[Mudejar]] |
||
*[[People of the Book]] |
*[[People of the Book]] |
||
*[[Second-class citizen]] |
|||
*[[Sharia]] |
*[[Sharia]] |
||
*[[Yellow badge]] |
*[[Yellow badge]] |
||
==Notes== |
==Notes== |
||
#{{note|equality}} Haneef, Suzanne. ''What everyone should know about Islam and Muslims'', Kazi Publications, [[Lahore]], [[1979]], p. 173 |
|||
#{{note|khayblewis}} Lewis (1984), pp. 10–11 |
|||
#{{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|byzsource}} Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 111–113 |
|||
#{{note| |
#{{note|lewis}} Lewis, 1984, p. 3 |
||
#{{note| |
#{{note|rleaders}} Stillman, 1979, pp. 37–39 |
||
#{{note| |
#{{note|kharaj}} Lewis, 1950, pp. 77–78 |
||
#{{note|bosw}} Bosworth (1982), p. 232 |
|||
#{{note|tritton}} Tritton (1970), p. 49 |
|||
#{{note|zarfati}} Lewis (1984), p. 136 |
|||
#{{note|rleaders}} Stillman (1979), pp. 37–39 |
|||
#{{note|lewismaj}} Lewis (1984), p. 17 |
|||
#{{note|almohad}} Lewis (1984), p. 52 |
|||
#{{note|maimon}} Lewis (1984), p. 100 |
|||
#{{note|conv}} Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 88 |
|||
#{{note|meshed}} Lewis (1984), p. 168 |
|||
#{{note|transl}} An alternative translation of this phrase is “The bell is the musical instrument of the Satan.”[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/024.smt.html#024.5279] |
|||
#{{note|plworsh}} Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 83–85 |
|||
#{{note|kharaj}} Lewis (2002), p. 81 |
|||
#{{note|jizyazakat}} Lewis (1984), pp. 14–15 |
|||
#{{note|burden}} Stillman (1979), p. 26 |
|||
#{{note|tax}} Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 69–71 |
|||
#{{note|abuyusuf}} Abu Yusuf, ''Kitab al-Kharaj'', quoted in Lewis (1984), p. 15 |
|||
#{{note|test}} Friedmann (2003), pp. 35–36 |
|||
#{{note|court}} Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 74 |
|||
#{{note|humillewis}} Lewis (1984), p. 14 |
|||
#{{note|dsent}} Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 75 |
|||
#{{note|yemen}} Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 79 |
|||
#{{note|bath}} Al-Nawawi, ''Minhadj'', quoted in Bat Ye’or (2003), p. 91 |
|||
#{{note|cloth}} Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 91–96 |
|||
#{{note|ride}} Bat Ye’or (2003), pp. 97–98 |
|||
#{{note|marry}} Friedmann (2003), pp. 161–163 |
|||
== References == |
== References == |
||
* Choksy, Jamsheed. ''Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society'' (New York, 1997) |
|||
* {{cite book | author=Bat Ye'or | title=The Dhimmi | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | location=Madison/Teaneck, NJ | year=1985 | id=ISBN 0838632629}} |
|||
* Duran, Khalid; Hechiche, Abdelwahab. ''Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews'' (Ktav, 2001) |
|||
* {{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}} |
|||
* Gardet, Louis. ''La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique'' (Paris: Etudes musulmanes, 1954), p. 348. |
|||
* {{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}} |
|||
* Lewis, Bernard. ''The Jews of Islam'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) |
|||
* {{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 Arabs in History'' (London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1950) |
|||
* 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 |
|||
* Stillman, Norman. ''The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book'' (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979) |
|||
* {{cite book | first=Jamsheed | last=Choksy | title=Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society | location=New York | year=1997}} |
|||
* 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=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. ''Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide'' (Madison/Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated University Presses, 2003) |
|||
* {{cite book | first=Louis | last=Gardet | title=La Cite Musulmane: Vie sociale et politique | publisher= Etudes musulmanes | location=Paris | year= 1954}} |
|||
* 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=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}} |
|||
* {{cite book | author=Tritton, A. S. | 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}} |
|||
* <!--article?-->''Encyclopedia Judaica'', Keter Publishing |
* <!--article?-->''Encyclopedia Judaica'', Keter Publishing |
||
== External links == |
== 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://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] |
* [http://www.iis.ac.uk/research/academic_papers/pluralism_egypt/pluralism_egypt.htm The Ahl al-Kitab in Early Fatimid Times] |
||
| Line 158: | Line 160: | ||
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html Bernard Lewis, ''Race and Slavery in the Middle East''] |
* [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://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--> |
|||
* {{ar icon}}[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"] |
|||
*[http://www.icssa.org/dhimmi.html Gentile or Dhimmi - A comparasion] |
|||
* [http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503545930 Religious Freedom in the Eyes of Shari`ah] |
|||
*[http://world.mediamonitors.net/headlines/gentiletude_and_dhimmitude Gentiletude and Dhimmitude - A comparation] |
|||
* [http://www.youngmuslims.ca/articles/display.asp?ID=43 On Religious Tolerance, by Khalid Baig] |
|||
[[Category:Islamic law]] |
[[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