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Dhimma: Difference between revisions
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→Fiqh Around the Institution of the Dhimma
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==Fiqh Around the Institution of the Dhimma== | ==Fiqh Around the Institution of the Dhimma== | ||
The Dhimma revolved around the payment of the [[Jizya]], which was both a source of income for the Muslims of the Islamic state and a source of humiliation and subjection for the conquered dhimmi people. Islamic scholar Abu Yusuf outlines the reason for this: | |||
{{Quote|Abu Yusuf, quoted in Bat Ye'or From Jihad to Dhimmitude:The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam| The wali [governor of a province] is not allowed to exempt any Christian, Jew, | |||
Magian [Zoroastrian], Sabean, or Samaritan from paying the tax, and no one can obtain a partial reduction. It is illegal for one to be exempted and another not, because their lives and possessions art: spared only on | |||
account of the payment of the poll tax, which serves in lieu of the kharaj related to their possessions. [p. 189] }} | |||
The "protection" afforded to the dhimmis was conditional upon the payment of the jizya. As such the dhimmi was required to carry the receipt of his jizya on his person at all times, lest a Muslim demand to see proof of his "protection." Abu Yusuf outlines how this was to be accomplished | |||
{{Quote|Abu Yusuf, quoted in Bat Ye'or From Jihad to Dhimmitude:The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam| Concerning the Costume and Appearance of the Tributaries | |||
Furthermore, you must set a seal upon their necks when the poll tax is collected and until all have been passed in review, though these seals may later be broken at their request, as did Uthman b. Hunayf.} | |||
At other periods in Islamic history, the Dhimmi was also allowed to carry the receipt in paper form on their person. | |||
Abu Yusuf further outlines the strictures of the pact of the dhimma: | |||
{{Quote|Abu Yusuf, quoted in Bat Ye'or From Jihad to Dhimmitude:The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam| You have succeeded in ordering that none of them should have the freedom | |||
to resemble a Muslim by his dress, his mount, or his appearance; that all should wear a belt <zunnar> at the waist similar to a coarse string, which each must knot in the middle; that their bonnets be quilted; that their saddles carry, instead of a pommel, a piece of wood like a pomegranate; that their footwear be furnished with double straps. That they avoid coming face to face with Muslims; that their womenfolk do not ride on padded saddles; that they do not build new synagogues or churches within the town and restrict themselves to using, as places of worship, those which existed at the time of the treaty that transformed them into tributaries, and which were left to them without having been demolished; the same applies to the funeral pyres [of the Zoroastrians]. It is tolerated for them to live in the main towns, to buy and sell in Muslim markets, but selling neither wine nor pigs, and without displaying crosses in the main towns; but their headgear should be long and coarse. Consequently, command your representatives to oblige the tributaries to respect these requirements in their appearance, as Umar}} | |||
==Legal Theory and Framework== | ==Legal Theory and Framework== | ||