Historical Outline - Chapter 1 - The Dhimmi by Bat Ye'or

Chapter 1 - Historical Outline - The Dhimmi by Bat Ye'or

Book:The Dhimmi by Bat Ye'or

Publisher:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Rev Exp edition, April 1985

ISBN:0838632629 Buy on Amazon

Pages:p43 - p50

Extract:In the year 622, on the invitation of the Ansar—a group of pagans converted to Islam—Muhammad and his small band of followers left Mecca for Yathrib (Medina). The population then consisted of numerous polytheistic clans, of Jewish tribes that had long been estab-lished in Arabia, and of Arabs converted to Judaism. The Jews prac- tised agriculture and various specialized handicrafts, while paying dues in money or in kind to pagan Arab tribes allied with them.

The arrival of Muhammad and his followers in Medina provoked no opposition from the Jews. The Prophet organized the Muslim immigrants into a community—the umma. He preached to them an egalitarian moral system founded on the principles of solidarity, charity, and mutual confidence and respect that ought to prevail among Muslims. These principles, revolutionary for a heathen Arab society, were applicable only within the umma . Relations with non-Muslims were elaborated progressively, on the basis of a strategy of hostilities and truces pursued in accordance with the requirements needed to assure the Muslim victory. Razzias in the cause of Allah, during which war and religion were inextricably mingled, inspired many verses of the Koran regarding the jihad (Holy War) and its twofold reward: booty in this life and paradise in the hereafter.

The doctrine preached by Muhammad was a simple one. The Koran is a book of divine origin revealed progressively to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. Islam is the only true and eternal religion (Koran 3:17). The prophets of Israel and Jesus had already preached it and foretold the coming of Muhammad, but the Jews and Christians, jealous of the perfection of the new religion, had rejected him and falsified their own sacred Scriptures. The Muslim faith stresses the divine character of the Koran and of Muhammad's preaching: "Whosoever obeys the Messenger obeys God." Muhammad, being the last of the messengers sent by God to instruct humanity, is the seal of the prophets.


In 624 Muhammad, joined by more followers, called upon the Qaynuqa, one of the Jewish tribes of Medina, to recognize his prophetic mission. When they refused, he besieged and overcame them. On the intercession of one of their protectors — a recent convert to Islam — their lives were spared, but they were expelled from the city, their lands and a part of their possessions being confiscated by the Muslims. The following year the Jewish Nadir tribe suffered a similar fate: Muhammad burned down their palm groves and divided all their fields and houses among the community of the Believers.

In 627 the Meccans sent a united force to lay siege to the Muslims in Medina, but they withdrew suddenly on a stormy night without fighting. However, guided by the angel Gabriel, Muhammad then turned his host against the Jewish tribe of the Qurayza, who had been neutral during the siege. Because the Jews refused conversion, Muhammad attacked and overwhelmed them. Trenches were then dug in the marketplace of Medina, and the Jews—six to nine hundred of them, according to traditional Muslim sources—were led forth in batches and decapitated. All the menfolk perished in this way, with the exception of one convert to Islam. The Prophet then divided the women, children, houses, and chattels among the Muslims.

Shrewd in political matters, Muhammad then endeavored to win over the powerful tribes of Mecca. In 628, taking advantage of a treaty of non-belligerency (Hudaybiya) with the Meccans, he attacked the oasis of Khaybar, one hundred and forty kilometers northwest of Medina, cultivated by another Jewish tribe. The assailants came to the oasis at night and in the morning attacked the peasants as they were coming out to work in the fields, carrying spades and baskets. Their palm groves were burned down. After a siege lasting a month and a half, the inhabitants surrendered under the terms of a treaty known as the dhimma. According to this agreement Muhammad allowed the Jews to continue cultivating their oasis, on condition that they ceded to him half of their produce; he also reserved the right to break the agreement and expel them whenever he wished Subsequently, all the Jewish and Christian communities of Arabia submitted to the Muslims under the terms of a dhimma similar to that granted at Khaybar. The peasantry were expected to provide assistance and provisions to the Muslim forces and pay a tribute in money or kind known as the jizya, to be distributed among the Prophet and his followers according to the circumstances of the conquest. In addition, they were to make available an area within their synagogues and churches, if required by the Muslims. On his side, Muhammad undertook to respect their religious observances and to defend them. Thus, newly converted Bedouin permitted sedentary cultivators to continue tilling their own soil as share-croppers in exchange for a tribute.

The dhimma of Khaybar, which fixed the relationship between the Muslim victors and the vanquished local inhabitants, was thereafter to

Notes to Chapter 1 1. The ordinance allegedly granted by Muhammad on his arrival at Medina and known as the Constitution of Medina, included both Jews and pagan Arabs within the Islamic community, but it proved ephemeral. See 1bn Ishaq (d. 767), Sirat Rasul Allah (The Life of Muhammad), trans. A. Guillaume (Oxford, 1955), pp. 231-33; Stillman, pp. 115-18; M. Gil, "The Constitution of Medina: A Reconsideration," in /OS 4 (1974): 44-65. 2. The perfection of the Koran, the duty of Muslims to engage in jihad, and the inferiority of infidels are recurrent themes in the Koran and the Traditions (Surma). To avoid repetition, no further references to the Koran have been made on these themes. All Koranic quotations are taken from A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Oxford: World Classics, 1964). 3. Koran 4:82, 106, 135; 5:22; 6: 114, 126; 11:17, 20; 12:2, 104. See n. 2 above. 4. al-Bukhari (d. 869), Les Traditions Islamiques (Al-Sahih), trans.-P. -Hondas and W. Marcais (Paris, 1903-1914), vol. 2, title 41, chap. 6; title 56, chapi:80;. 3, chap. 154: 2. This compilation of the acts and sayings attributed to Muhammad, completed in the ninth century, constitutes one of the two pillars of Islamic jurisprudence, the other being the contemporary compilation made by his younger disciple, Muslim (d. 875). 5. Ibn 'shag, pp. 461-69; M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Mahomet (Paris, 1969), pp. 142-46; W. Montgomery Watt, "Muhammad", in the Cambridge History of Islam (Cambridge, 1970), 1; 39-49. 6. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, p. 154; Bukhari, vol. 2, title 54, chap. 15. 7. Ibn 'shag, p. 511; Bukhari, vol. 2, title 56, chaps. 102: 5,130. 8. Ibn Ishaq, pp. 524-25; Bukhari, vol. 2, title 41, chaps. 8,9, 11,17, and tide 57, chap. 19: 10. For an example of the treaties between Muhammad and the Jews living in Makna (near Eilat), see al-Baladhuri (d. 892), vol. 1, The Origins of the Islamic State (Kitab Fun-di al-Buld4n), trans. P. K. Hitti (New York, 1916), pp. 93-94. 9. Muslim, Traditions (Al-Sahih), trans. A. H. Siddigi (Lahore, 1976), vol. 3, chap. 723 (4363); Bukhari, vol. 2, title 57, chap. 1: 3, and title 58, chap. 6: 1. 10. Koran 8: 40; 9: 124; 24: 56. See n. 2 above. On the aim and rules of jihad, see below, documents 1,2,3. Also Bukhari, vol. 2, chaps. De la Guerre Sainte (t. 56), De la Prescription du Quint (t. 57), La Capitation (t. 58). Muslim, vol. 3, chaps. 704-53 (The Book of Jihad and Expedition); Fattal, pp. 14-18,372-73. The code concerning jihad or Holy War has been studied and described by all Muslim jurisconsults. 11. See El', "Djihad" (D. B. Mac Donald) 1: 1141-42; EP, "Djihad" (E. Tyan) 2: 538— 40; EP, "Ahl al-Kitab" (G. Vajda) 1: 264-66; EP, "Dhimma" (C. Cahen) 2: 227-31; M. du Caurroy, "Legislation musulmane sunnite, rite Hanefi", in J.A., 4th set-. 17,18 (1851), and 19 (1852); Tabari (d. 923), Kitab al-Jihad (Book of Holy War), ed. Schacht (Leiden, 1933); Shaybani (d. 805), Siyar (The Islamic law of nations), trans. M. Khadduri (Baltimore, Md., 1966); M. Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore, Md., 1955). For the modern period, A l Azhar University, ed., The Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research (1968) (Cairo: Government Printing Offices, 1970), pp. 23— 250 and D. F. Green, ed., Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel: Extracts from the Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of theAcademy of Islamic Research (1968), 3d ed. (Geneva, 1976), pp. 61-68; Abd al-Qadir, as-Sufi, jihad, a Groundplan (London, 1978); Peters,fifiad...; idem, Islam and Colonialism: The Doctrine oflihad in Modern History (The Hague, 1979), contains a comprehensive bibliography (pp. 201-25). 12. Gaudefroy-Demonbynes, p. 521. 13. Ibn Ishaq, p. 525; Bukhari, vol. 2, t. 41, chap. 17; t. 54, chap. 14; vol. 4, t. 89, chap. 2; Muslim, vol. 3, chap. 723 (4366); Fattal, p. 85. 14. Oasis cultivated by Jewish tribes. 15. al-Wagidi (d. 823), Kitab al-Maghazi, ed. M. Jones (London, 1966), 2:713; see also 1. Ben Zvi, The Exiled and the Redeemed (London. 1958), p. 172. 16. Koran, 3 :105; 1. Goldziher, Le Dogmeet la loi de l'Islam (Paris, 1973), pp. 44-45.

17. See Theophanes (758-817), in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinaea (Bonn, 1892), §334; Ibn Abd ar-Rabbih (864-940), al-lad al Fond (Cairo, 1884), 2:339-40.

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