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Jews and Moslems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2024

Leon Poliakov
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Extract

The tolerance which the Islamic tradition showed—not in theory alone but in practice as well—toward the infidels, the “protected” (dhimmi) Jews and Christians, is well known. In several places in the Koran, Mohammed proclaimed the inalienable right of these two “Peoples of Scripture” to worship the common God of Abraham in their very imperfect fashion. The passages in question ordinarily mentioned Christians and fetus, and the imprecations which in another context (in the “Sura of the Cow,” for example) the Prophet hurled against the Jews of Medina who would not recognize him, in no way altered the cardinal principle developed later by the commentators in the hadith (“tradition”). The two categories of dhimmi were placed under the same legal and political control. In conformity with the “pact” of Caliph Omar (the second successor to Mohammed) the dhimmis had to recognize Moslem supremacy, lavish many signs of subordination and respect upon the true believers, behave as loyal subjects, and above all, pay tribute. By this means the free exercise of their cult under the protection of Islam was assured.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 8 , Issue 32 , December 1960 , pp. 75 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © 1960 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1. M. Belin, "Fetwa relatif à la condition des dhimmis," Journal asiatique, I85I, pp. 428 ff.

2. This and the following quotations from Joshua Finkel, "A Risala of al-Jahiz," Journal of the American Oriental Society, XLVII (I927), 3II-34.

3. Cf. Sir William Muir, The Apology of al Kindy (London: Smith, Elder & Co., I882), p. xii.

4. Abu Abd el Rahman, see Description de l'Afrique septentrionale d'El-Bekri, ed. Slane (Paris, I859), p. I58; Ibn-Hazm, see I. Goldziher, "Proben muhammedanischer Polemik gegen den Talmud," Jeschurun, IX (I873), 44; Abu ‘l-'Alá al-Ma'aarí, see R. A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Poetry (Cambridge University Press, I92I), p. I75.

5. Louis Massignon has explained as follows the meaning which this kinship has for the development of religious thought: "… the general grammatical conditions (vocabu lary, morphology, syntax) of our Indo-European languages determine a presentation of the idea which is quite different from that which it must assume in the Semitic languages. The Aryan presentation of the idea … is periphrastic, and is made by means of words with unstable, shaded contours, with modifiable endings adapted to appositions and com binations; here the verb tenses soon became relative to the agent, ‘egocentric,' ‘polythe istic.' Finally, the word order is didactic, established in a hierarchy of broad periods, by graduated conjunctions. The Semitic presentation of the idea is gnomic and uses rigid words, with unchangeable, always perceptible roots, admitting only a few modalizations, all of them internal and abstract interpolated consonants, for the meaning, vocalic nuances, for the acceptation…. The verb tenses, even today, are ‘absolute,' and concern only the action; they are ‘theocentric,' asserting the transcendency and the immanence of the sole Agent. Finally, the word order is ‘lyrical,' broken up into jerky, condensed, autonomous formulae. This is the cause of misunderstanding for those who, not knowing how to en joy the powerful and explosive concision of the Semitic tongues, say they are unsuited to mysticism whereas they are the tongues of the revelation of the transcendent God, of the Prophets and of the Psalms" (Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la mystique musulmane [Paris, I954], p. 48).

6. S. D. Goitein, "Congregation versus Community …," Jewish Quarterly Review, XLIV (I953-54), 304; B. Lewis, "La Légende sur l'origine juive des califes fatimides" (in Hebrew), Mellilah, III-IV (I950).

7. L. M. Simmons, "The Letter of Consolation of Maimun ben Joseph," Jewish Quarterly Review, II (I889-90), 65.

8. M. Steinschneider, "Polemische und apologetische Literatur in arabischer Sprache," Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, VI (I877).

9. Georges Vajda, "Un chapitre de l'histoire du conflit entre la kabbale et la philoso phie," Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age, I956, p. I35.

10. I. Goldziher, "Usages juifs d'après la littérature des Musulmans," Revue des études juives, XXVIII (I894), 9I.

11. Based on W. J. Fischel, Jews in the Economic and Political Life of Mediaeval Islam (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, I937), and on L. Massignon, "L'Influence de l'Islam au Moyen Age sur la fondation et l'essor des banques juives," Bulletin des études orien tales, I (I93I).

12. W. Fischel, op. cit., p. 2I.

13. Ibid., pp. 68 ff., "The Banu Sahl of Tustar." spices, aromatics, dyeing and varnishing plants and medicinal herbs; iron and steel … brass vessels. This group may be a special case. I have the impression that North African Jews, especially one, of whom we have many documents, developed this industry in an Indian town with the help of Yemenite Jewish

14. S. D. Goitein, "The Cairo Geniza as a Source for the History of Muslim Civilisa tion," Studia Islamica, III (I955), 8I-83.

15. Mawerdi, Les statuts gouvernementaux, ed. Fagnan (Algiers, I9I5), p. 208.

16. Ahmad al-Absihi, "De la prohibition du vin," Al-Monstratraf ("Recueil de mor ceaux choisis çà et là …"), ed. G. Rat (Paris, I899).

17. Abu Yusuf Ya'kub, Le Livre de l'impôt foncier, ed. Fagnan (Paris, I92I), p. I94.