Dhimmi

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Dhimmī (Arabic: ذمي ḏimmī, IPA: [ˈðimmiː], collectively أهل الذمة ʾahl aḏ-ḏimmah/dhimmah "the people of the covenant") or muʿāhid (معاهد) is a historical[1] term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection.[1][2]: 470  The word literally means "protected person",[3] referring to the state's obligation under sharia to protect the individual's life, property, as well as freedom of religion, in exchange for loyalty to the state and payment of the jizya tax, in contrast to the zakat, or obligatory alms, paid by the Muslim subjects.[4] Dhimmi were exempt from military service and other duties assigned specifically to Muslims if they paid the poll tax (jizya) but were otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation.[5][6][7]

Historically, dhimmi status was originally applied to Jews, Christians, and Sabians, who are considered "People of the Book" in Islamic theology. Later, this status was also applied to Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists.[8][9][10]

Jews, Christians and others were required to pay the jizyah, and forced conversions were forbidden.[11][12][13][14]

During the rule of al-Mutawakkil, the tenth Abbasid Caliph, numerous restrictions reinforced the second-class citizen status of dhimmīs and forced their communities into ghettos.[15] For instance, they were required to distinguish themselves from their Muslim neighbors by their dress.[16] They were not permitted to build new churches or synagogues or repair old churches without Muslim consent according to the Pact of Umar.[17][18]

Under Sharia, the dhimmi communities were usually governed by their own laws in place of some of the laws applicable to the Muslim community. For example, the Jewish community of Medina was allowed to have its own Halakhic courts,[19] and the Ottoman millet system allowed its various dhimmi communities to rule themselves under separate legal courts. These courts did not cover cases that involved religious groups outside of their own communities, or capital offences. Dhimmi communities were also allowed to engage in certain practices that were usually forbidden for the Muslim community, such as the consumption of alcohol and pork.[20][21][22]

Some Muslims reject the dhimma system by arguing that it is a system which is inappropriate in the age of nation-states and democracies.[23] There is a range of opinions among 20th-century and contemporary Islamic theologians about whether the notion of dhimma is appropriate for modern times, and, if so, what form it should take in an Islamic state.

There are differences among the Islamic Madhhabs regarding which non-Muslims can pay jizya and have dhimmi status. The Hanafi and Maliki Madhabs generally allow non-Muslims to have dhimmi status. In contrast, the Shafi'i and Hanbali Madhabs only allow Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians to have dhimmi status, and they maintain that all other non-Muslims must either convert to Islam or be fought.[dubious – discuss]

  1. ^ a b Juan Eduardo Campo, ed. (2010). "dhimmi". Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. pp. 194–195. ISBN 978-1-4381-2696-8. Dhimmis are non-Muslims who live within Islamdom and have a regulated and protected status. ... In the modern period, this term has generally has occasionally been resuscitated, but it is generally obsolete.
  2. ^ Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi (2016). The Laws of Islam (PDF). Enlight Press. ISBN 978-0994240989. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  3. ^ "Definition of DHIMMI". www.merriam-webster.com.
  4. ^ Glenn, H. Patrick (2007). Legal Traditions of the World. Oxford University Press. pp. 218–219. A Dhimmi is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance to sharia law. The term connotes an obligation of the state to protect the individual, including the individual's life, property, and freedom of religion and worship, and required loyalty to the empire, and a poll tax known as the jizya, which complemented the Islamic tax paid by the Muslim subjects, called Zakat.
  5. ^ H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World. Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 219.
  6. ^ The French scholar Gustave Le Bon (the author of La civilisation des Arabes) writes "that despite the fact that the incidence of taxation fell more heavily on a Muslim than a non-Muslim, the non-Muslim was free to enjoy equally well with every Muslim all the privileges afforded to the citizens of the state. The only privilege that was reserved for the Muslims was the seat of the caliphate, and this, because of certain religious functions attached to it, which could not naturally be discharged by a non-Muslim." Mun'im Sirry (2014), Scriptural Polemics: The Qur'an and Other Religions, p. 179. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199359363.
  7. ^ Abou El Fadl, Khaled (2007). The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. HarperOne. p. 204. ISBN 978-0061189036. According to the dhimma status system, non-Muslims must pay a poll tax in return for Muslim protection and the privilege of living in Muslim territory. Per this system, non-Muslims are exempt from military service, but they are excluded from occupying high positions that involve dealing with high state interests, like being the president or prime minister of the country. In Islamic history, non-Muslims did occupy high positions, especially in matters that related to fiscal policies or tax collection.
  8. ^ Annemarie Schimmel (2004). The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture. University of Chicago Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-1861891853. The conqueror Muhammad Ibn Al Qasem gave both Hindus and Buddhists the same status as the Christians, Jews and Sabaeans of the Middle East. They were all "dhimmi" ('protected people')
  9. ^ Michael Bonner (2008). Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice. Princeton University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0691138381. JSTOR j.ctt7sg8f.
  10. ^ Wael B. Hallaq (2009). Sharī'a: Theory, Practice, Transformations. Cambridge University Press. p. 327. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511815300. ISBN 978-0511815300.
  11. ^ Michael Bonner (2008). Jihad in Islamic History. Princeton University Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-1400827381. To begin with, there was no forced conversion, no choice between "Islam and the Sword". Islamic law, following a clear Quranic principle (2:256), prohibited any such things [...] although there have been instances of forced conversion in Islamic history, these have been exceptional.
  12. ^ Waines (2003) "An Introduction to Islam" Cambridge University Press. p. 53
  13. ^ Winter, T. J., & Williams, J. A. (2002). Understanding Islam and the Muslims: The Muslim Family Islam and World Peace. Louisville, Kentucky: Fons Vitae. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-887752-47-3. Quote: The laws of Muslim warfare forbid any forced conversions, and regard them as invalid if they occur.
  14. ^ Ira M. Lapidus. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. p. 345.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Majid was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ The Torah itself set forth rules for dress that set Jews apart from the communities in which they lived.Eric Silverman, A Cultural History of Jewish Dress, A&C Black, 2013 ISBN 978-0-857-85209-0 pp. 47, xv, 24:'At 2 Maccabees 4:12 it is recorded that the Maccabees slaughtered Jewish youths guilty of Hellenizing in wearing caps typical of Greek youths. The first of the other Abrahamic religions to impose a distinctive mode of dress on Jews was Islam, beginning with decrees set forth by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil obliging non-Muslims (dhimmis) to wear distinctive marks, – buttons on their caps, patches on their sleeves, and generally honey-coloured garbs, – on their clothing in order to mark them off from members of the Muslim communities.'; ‘a twelfth century [Christian] synod decreed the first of many edicts which required Jews to don peculiar garb. These outfits marked Jews as Otherly-to be shunned, despised, …and sometimes murdered… . But Jews also dressed differently in premodern Europe because their rabbis understood any emulation of non-Jews as a violation of the divine law as revealed by God to Moses atop Mount Sinai. The Five Books of Moses, after all, together called the Torah, clearly specify that Jews must adhere to a particular dress code-modesty, for example, and fringes. The very structure of the cosmos demanded nothing less. Clothing, too, served as a "fence" that protected Jews from the profanities and pollutions of the non-Jewish societies in which they dwelled. From this angle, Jews dressed distinctively as God's elect.'
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference World was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ "Pact of Umar".
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cohen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveler (edited and translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller), p. 608. Amana Publications, 1994.
  21. ^ Al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveler (ed. and trans. Nuh Ha Mim Keller), pp. 977, 986. Amana Publications, 1994.
  22. ^ Ghazi, Kalin & Kamali 2013, pp. 240–241.
  23. ^ "[…] the overwhelming majority of moderate Muslims reject the dhimma system as ahistorical, in the sense that it is inappropriate for the age of nation-states and democracies." Abou El Fadl, Khaled (2007). The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. HarperOne. p. 214. ISBN 978-0061189036.