Muslim Treatment of Dhimmis Prior to the First Crusade: A Reality Check
Marina Rustow [email protected]
The Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict
The Second International Symposium on Crusade Studies, Saint Louis University, 17-20 February 2010
1.
Hugh of Flavigny (d. after 1114), Chronicon, 2:21, Monumenta Germaniae Historia 8:396:
After having celebrated the remaining feast days, the most mild-mannered man [Richard of
Saint-Vannes] began to think about returning [from Jerusalem]. Nor was he returning without a gift,
because the tabernacle of his heart was filled with good devotion. What was his gift?
The heathens who were running around the well protected parts of the temple, in that very same
Holy Week, were throwing stones at those who were celebrating the rites. By chance, a flying stone fell
into the Sepulcher. A man of the Lord took for himself this stone as a great gift, and during the days
when the passion and resurrection of Jesus is celebrated, he dedicated it to the Lord while it was lying in
the Sepulcher attended by vigil and prayers (et totis illis diebus, quibus celebratur passio vel resurrectio Iesu, intra
sepulchrum iacentem vigiliis et orationibus Domino dedicavit).
When he was about to return here (to Saint-Vannes), he lifted it with great devotion, and after
kissing the sacred place as if he were to take the entire thing with him, he deposited it among the sacred
objects and, wishing the patriarch farewell, after praying for his welfare, he set out to leave.
2.
History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church, Known as the History of the Holy Church, this translation
adapted from A. S. Atiya, Y. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, and O. H. E. Burmester, 4 vols. (Cairo: Publications
de la Société d’Archaéologie Copte, 1948), 2:92–93:
In Fustat (Old Cairo) there was a man, a Syrian merchant, whose name was Abraham ibn Zar‘a.
… He was in great favor with the caliph al-Muʿizz (953–75) and the men of his state…. [Once he was
appointed patriarch] al-Muʿizz would send for him constantly to hear his opinion on what concerned
him and to receive his blessing, and he asked him to live in Fustat.
… The vizier of the caliph al-Muʿizz was a Jewish man whose name was Abū Yaʿqūb ibn Killis,
who had come with al-Muʿizz from the Maghrib and had embraced Islam at his hands. The vizier had a
Jewish friend whose name was Mūsā who was accorded great fortune by al-Muʿizz on account of his
friendship with his vizier. When he saw the caliph’s love for the patriarch and the patriarch’s access to
the caliph, he envied the patriarch and conspired against him. He said to al-Muʿizz: “I would like you to
send for the patriarch of the Christians so that I may dispute him before you and he may expose to you
his religion.” Al-Muʿizz did not approach the patriarch with this or expose him to a disputation with the
Jew, but said to him: “If you see (fit) to summon one of your sons, the bishops, to dispute with the Jew,
do so.”
They arranged their meeting for a certain day, and among the bishops there was present a saintly,
virtuous bishop of al-ʿAshmunayn called Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ. He had been a bureaucrat before
becoming bishop, and the Lord had bestowed upon him grace and power in the Arabic language; he had
written many books and tracts. Anyone who read his books recognized his excellence and the soundness
of his knowledge. Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ disputed many times with the qāḍīs of the Muslim elders by the order
of the caliph al-Muʿizz, and he bested them through the power of God and His grace.
It happened that when Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ was sitting with the chief qāḍī, a dog passed by
them. It was a Friday and there were a number of witnesses. The chief qāḍī said to him: “What do you
say, Severus, concerning this dog? Is it Christian or Muslim?” He said: “Ask it, and it will answer you
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itself.” The qāḍī said to him: “Does a dog speak? We wish you to tell us.” Ibn Muqaffaʿ said: “Agreed. We
must test this dog. Today is Friday, when the Christians fast and do not eat meat, and when they break
fast in the evening, they drink wine. The Muslims do not fast and do not drink wine, but eat meat. Put
meat and wine before it, and if it eats the meat, it is Muslim, and if it drinks wine, then it is Christian.”
When they heard his words, they marveled at his wisdom and at the strength of his answer.
… The patriarch took Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ on the appointed day for his visit to the caliph alMuʿizz, and he went with him to the palace. Mūsā the Jew and the vizier Ibn Killis were present…. [After
Ibn Killis realized Ibn Muqaffāʿ’s wisdom,] enmity became great between the two parties. Ibn Killis said
to al-Muʿizz: “It is written in the Gospel of the Christians: ‘If one has faith as a grain of mustard-seed,
and he says to the mountain: Be you removed and be you cast into the sea, it shall be done’ (Matthew
17:20). Let the Commander of the Faithful find a way to ask the Christians to prove the truth of this
saying, so that he may know that they are frauds and are liars. If they do not, may there be done to them
what they deserve on account of their lie.” … The caliph al-Muʿizz summoned the patriarch Abraham
and said to him: “What do you have to say concerning this? Is it in your Gospel or not?” The patriarch
said: “Yes, it is.” Al-Mu‘izz said to him: “You Christians are thousands and tens of thousands in this
land, and I should like there to be brought before me someone at whose hands this miracle may be
manifest. Since you are their chief, this deed must be performed by you, or I shall destroy all of you with
the sword.”
The patriarch was astounded, and great fear came upon him and he did not know what to
answer to al-Muʿizz. But God the Exalted inspired him to reply: “Grant me a delay of three days, so that
I may seek and beseech the Lord—may His name be magnified—to render the heart of the Commander
of the Faithful favorable to his slaves.” He granted to him the delay.
The patriarch returned home to Fustat and sent for the priests and the archons of Fustat and all
the right believers, and he made known the matter to them while weeping. There were a number of
monks of Wādī Ḥabīb in Fustat, and the patriarch imposed upon all of them the penance not to go
home for three days but to assemble and pray in the church continuously, night and day. They did this
for three days and nights. As for the patriarch, he did not break his fast even once during those three
days. …
On the morning of the third day, the saintly patriarch fell prostrate from grief, fasting, and
weariness and slept a bit, when he saw the Virgin Mary, and she said to him with a joyful face: “What has
befallen you?” He said to her: “Do you not know, my lady, that the caliph of this land has said to me, ‘If
you do not show to me a miracle this day in the mountain, I shall kill all the Christian inhabitants of
Egypt, and I shall destroy them from my kingdom by the sword’?” She said to him: “Do not fear, for I
will not overlook the tears you have shed in this church of mine. Rise now, descend and go out by the
gate of the Ḍarb al-Ḥadīd, which leads to the great market. As you go out you will find a man with a jar
full of water on his shoulder. His mark is that he is one-eyed. Seize him, for it is he at whose hands this
miracle shall be manifest.”
The patriarch awoke at once and felt afraid. It was still dark, and he arose in haste …. He called
the door-keeper, who opened for him. The first who entered by the door was the man about whom he
was told. He seized him and said to him with an obeisance for the Lord’s sake: “Have pity upon this
people.” Then he informed him of the reason for their meeting. The man said to him: “Forgive me, for I
am a sinner, and I have not reached this degree.”
The patriarch then told him what the Virgin had said when she appeared to him, and asked him:
“What is your business?” The man wished to hide his affairs from him. The patriarch solemnly charged
him and bound him under (pain of) anathema not to hide anything from him. Then he said to him: “O
my father, I will inform you of my affairs. I am a man, a tanner, and this eye that you see, I plucked it out
because of the commandment of the Lord, when I beheld what was not mine with lust, and saw that I
was going to hell on account of it. I considered and said: ‘It is better for me to go through life with one
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eye, as the Lord Christ says: Better (this) than to go to hell with two eyes.’ I am a hired worker here for
tanner. From what [I earn] from my work each day I have nothing left over except some bread to eat,
and the remainder is for the shame-faced poor, women and men. I give them this water to drink every
day before I go to work. I take it to the poor people among them who do not have the money to buy it
from the water-carrier. All day I work in the tannery and at night I stand praying. This is the state of my
affairs, and I ask you, my father, not to make it known to anyone, for I do not have the power to endure
the praise of men. But do what I will tell you. Go out with your priests and all your people to the
mountain that the caliph mentioned to you, and bring with you gospels, crosses, censers and large
candles. Let the caliph stand with his soldiers and his troops on one side, and you and your people on
the other side. I will stand behind you among the people, so that no one will recognize me. Then you
and your priests should read and cry aloud for a long time: ‘Kyrie eleison.’ Then command them to be
silent, and you shall prostrate yourself and all who are with you shall prostrate themselves, and I will
prostrate myself with you so that no one will recognize me. Do this three times, and every time you
prostrate yourself and stand up (again) make the sign of the cross over the mountain, and you shall see
the glory of God.”
When the man had spoken thus, the patriarch’s heart was reassured by what he heard from him.
Then the patriarch rose up and all the people with him, and they went up to the caliph and said to him:
“Go out to the mountain.”
Al-Muʿizz commanded his entire army and those who were attached to him and the notables of
his state to go out, with trumpets sounding. The caliph went out and his vizier with him, and he ordered
Mūsā the unbeliever to go out also. The patriarch did as that saint had said to him. … The patriarch
commanded them to be silent and he prostrated himself upon the ground, and all in attendance
prostrated themselves three times. Every time he lifted up his face and made (the sign of) the cross, the
mountain was lifted up from the ground. When they prostrated themselves, the mountain came down to
its base.
The caliph al-Muʿizz was greatly afraid and the caliph and the Muslims cried out: “God is great.
There is no God besides You!” After the third time, al-Muʿizz said to the patriarch: “Enough, patriarch! I
have indeed recognized the correctness of your faith.” When the people had become calm, the patriarch
turned to look for the saintly man, but he did not find him.
Then the caliph said to the patriarch: “Whatever you desire of me, I will do it for you.”
3a.
ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī l-tārīkh, vol. 9, ed. Carl Johan Tornberg
(Leiden, 1863), 116–17:
It is said that he [al-‘Azīz, 975–96] appointed the Christian ‘Īsā ibn Nasṭūrus as his clerk and
designated as his governor in Syria a Jew by the name of Menashshe [ibn al-Qazzāz]. The Christians and
the Jews waxed proud because of these two and caused injury to the Muslims.
Then the [Muslim] people of Fustat strengthened their resolve and wrote a petition that they put
into the hand of a doll that they made of paper. It read: “By Him who has strengthened the Jews through
Menashshe and the Christians through ʿĪsā b. Nasṭūrus, and who has humbled the Muslims through you
[the caliph], will you not expose the wrong that has been done to me?”
They placed this doll with the petition in its hand in al-ʿAzīz’s path. When he saw it, he ordered it
brought to him. After reading its contents and seeing the paper doll, he understood what was intended
by this. So he arrested both of them. He confiscated 300,000 dinārs from ʿĪsā and took a great sum from
the Jew.
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3b.
ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad al-Hamadhānī, Tathbīt dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, ed. ʿAbd al-Karīm ʿUthmān, 2
vols. (Beirut, 1966), 1:191:
Rulers in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Jazira, Persia, and the surrounding lands rely upon Christians in
matters of officialdom, the central administration, and the handling of funds. It is the Christians who
manage the Muslims’ affairs, collect money from them, imposing taxes on them for everything —
something that is contrary to law and a deed that God has not permitted according to the Qur’an.
4.
Tāj al-Riʾāsa Amīn al-Dīn Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Munjib ibn Sulaymān Ibn al-Ṣayrafī (d. 1147), alQānūn fī dīwān al-rasāʾil wa-l-ishāra ilā man nāla al-wizāra. Ed. ʿAli Bahjāt (Cairo, 1905), 151:
One grants a [favorable] decision only in the case of releasing dhimmīs from the jizya [head-tax
payable by non-Muslims] or building churches and the like, since one sometimes allows Christians to
decide.
5.
Fragment of a petition to a twelfth-century Fatimid caliph from a Jew unable to pay the jizya, TS Ar. 42.177, in Geoffrey Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents from the Cambridge
Genizah Collections (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), doc. 86:
… He pays the jizya for which he is liable, the annual amount of which is one dīnār, a third, a
quarter, and one dirham. Most times it is difficult for him to pay the full amount unless Jews of his
congregation (ṭāʾifa) charitably help him to do so. Recently the slave was afflicted with an eye disease and
he lost his sight. He is no longer able to look after his worldly affairs or execute his profession. He and
his family are dying of hunger, but the collectors of the poll tax in Fusṭāṭ are pressing him for payment.
This has caused suffering to the slave and led to his imprisonment and his wasting away and that of his
family through hunger and isolation, through fear of being asked to pay what he cannot afford. Far be it
from these glorious days that a poor blind man should be required to pay the poll tax and be treated with
contempt by the tax collectors. The slave kisses the ground again and humbly asks for the writing of an
exalted rescript, may God increase its efficacy, ...
6.
Decree from the Fatimid caliph al-Ẓāhir (1021–36) to the monks of the monastery of St.
Catherine in Sinai, 1024, from the archive of St. Catherine, published in S. M. Stern, Fāṭimid
Decrees: Original Documents from the Fāṭimid Chancery (London: Faber and Faber, 1964), doc. 1:
… your land for cultivation, and there should be exacted from you no ... assistance in war, or
going out ... ; that those of your monks who go out to your estates in order to earn their livelihood and
transact the business of those whom they have left behind, be dealt with honorably; that you should not
be obliged to pay customs and fees, small or great, for supplies carried by Christians and other similar
things; that you enjoy your fields, crops, and beasts of burden safely; that if a monk of yours dies outside
your monasteries while he is travelling in the Rīf or elsewhere on business, none of the property he
leaves behind be interfered with, but revert to his brethren in monastic life, with the exclusion of
relatives and blood-relations; and that the caliph-imāms al-Muʿizz, al-ʿAzīz, and al-Ḥākim, may God
sanctify their souls, ordered decrees to be drawn up confirming all this for you.
You then asked for a decree to be drawn up renewing everything that the caliph-imāms granted
to you, to confirm the protection that they extended to you all, and to observe these bonds and
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covenants (adhimma) due to you. The Commander of the Faithful has therefore ordered that a decree be
drawn up [ordering all] to deal with you according to that (earlier) text and in conformity with the
explanation that you have written, and [ordered] that it remain in your hands as a proof throughout the
passing of days and epochs, so that no one dare interfere with you through measures impairing the
efficacy of this benefaction, or invent an interpretation for it to pervert it from its intention.
Let all our colleagues, governors, financial and taxation officials and every other servant and
employee of the state, according to their different levels and various ranks, who reads this or to whom
this is read take cognizance of this order and command of the Commander of the Faithful and act
accordingly and in conformity with it, if God wills.
7.
Decree from the Fatimid regent ʿAbd al-Majīd (ruled as al-Ḥāfiẓ, 1131–49) and the commander
of the armies (amīr al-juyūsh) Kutayfāt b. al-Afḍal protecting the monks of St. Catherine from a
rapacious local official, 1130. Published in S. M. Stern, Fāṭimid Decrees: Original Documents from the
Fāṭimid Chancery (London: Faber and Faber, 1964), doc. 3.
A petition was submitted to (the vizier) in the name of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, agent of the property
endowed upon Mount Sinai, and containing the following:
Treacherous administrators have laid hands upon the aforementioned property and stolen the
rents that he used to collect and spend on the support of the monks who live there, the travelers who
take refuge there, and passers-by who frequent it, whether members of their religion or not.
He also possesses earlier decrees and definitive admonishments that attest to the protection
granted to this endowment.
He ordered that the old established customs and habits should be followed concerning it; that
[the recent embezzlements] have caused them heavy damage and deprived them of the support that had
previously come to them in a regular fashion.
He also presented the documents that bore witness to the truth of their statement and
demonstrated that this endowment had been theirs continuously for a long time.
All this made it necessary for an order to be issued by the caliph and the vizier to the chancery,
may it flourish, to write this decree releasing this endowment in all financial departments of the empire
from the beginning of Dhū l-Qaʿda 525 [1130], … [further freeing them] of all imposts and other dues
that they pay and that are imposed upon them and have been taken from them in the past—this being a
benefaction on the part of the one who receives homage from the Muslims and his servant and
companion, commander of the armies, one that has as its aim the execution of justice in a publicly
known fashion.
8.
Document of appointment for Christian leader in Syria, early 1100s, Cambridge University
Library, T-S Ar. 39.453 + T-S Ar. 39.452, ed. Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents,
doc. 120:
… over all the Christians dwelling in his dominion and living [in] the provinces of his kingdom,
in order that he may execute their inheritances as required by his statements and pronouncements, both
in their general principles and in their specific stipulations.
The commander of the faithful is the most worthy person to execute the instructions of his
ancestor and to act upon his noble and glorious deeds, which are found in his noble and glorious sunna,
to water what he has planted and to elevate what he has built and founded. He has executed in a glorious
and magnificent manner the instructions of this gracious decree. He has made these Christians conform
to his mighty judgments and strengthened his sacred and established principles.
5
He assumes the responsibility for the welfare of the members of minority groups and of dhimmīs.
He offers consideration and justice to the weak that he may be equal to the strong.
He has delegated the present authority to them on the basis of the precedent set by his ancestors
and with the sanction of the instructions that they issued in their time to follow (this precedent) and to
continue to act as is customary, in the knowledge that they are the representatives of God on earth. He,
praise him, has granted them the power to extend or restrain. Those who are close to them [the
caliphs?**] are clothed in their justice and they have concern and care for all their subjects irrespective of
rank.
9.
Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī (d. 1066), Kitāb al-Dhayl, ed. Louis Cheikho et al. (Beirut, 1905-9), 194;
203-4:
Many became Muslims, each following the other’s example, one after another, [until] only a
handful of them remained Christian. For many days on end, not a Christian was to be seen in the
street….
A group of them became Muslims and were released; the rest were exempted from having to
convert, and the demand against them was lifted when Manṣūr ibn ʿAbdūn played an important part in
their release, although he had not become a Muslim.
10.
Coptic Synaxarion, s.v. Baramūda 19:
When al-Ḥākim completed the purge of the people close to him and the leaders of the army, he
turned to the notables and chief bureaucrats. He called ten of them and proposed that they adopt Islam.
Yūḥannā, who was their head, was called first. Al-Ḥākim told him: “I wish you to leave your faith and
adopt mine, Islam. I will make you my minister in charge of the affairs of my kingdom.” Yūḥannā
replied: “Give me until tomorrow to consider the matter.”
Yūḥannā went to his house, called his friends, told them what had happened, and said to them:
“I am ready to die in the name of the Lord Christ. My reason for asking for the delay was not to consider
the matter but to see you and my family, to bid you and my family farewell, and to commend you and
them. Now my brothers, do not ask for this vain glory, for you will lose the eternal glory of the Lord
Christ who satisfied us with the richness of the world, and now with His mercy. He called us to the
Kingdom of Heaven, so strengthen your hearts.”
His golden words, which were full of wisdom, influenced those who heard them, strengthened
their hearts, and they, too, decided to die in the Name of the Lord Christ. He made a great feast for
them, and then they went to their homes. The next morning, Yūḥannā went to al-Ḥakim, who asked
him: “Have you decided, Abū Najāḥ?” Yūḥannā replied: “Yes.” The caliph asked: “Which way have you
decided?” Yūḥannā answered steadfastly and with courage: “Remaining in my faith.”
The caliph attempted with all manner of persuasion and threats to make him forsake
Christianity. Yūḥannā was steadfast as a rock; nothing shook him from the Christian faith, and the caliph
could not with all his powers make him renounce the faith of his fathers.
When the caliph failed with Yūḥannā, he ordered him to remove his clothes, be tied to wheels,
and be beaten. They beat him five hundred lashes on his delicate body, and his flesh was torn and his
blood flowed like water. The whips that were used were made of cow hides; even the mighty ones could
not bear a single lash from it on their bodies, much less this gentle branch.
Then the caliph ordered to beat him with one thousand lashes. After he received three hundred
more lashes, he said: “I am thirsty.” They stopped beating him and informed the caliph, who told them:
6
“Water him after you tell him to forsake his faith.” When they came to him with water and told him
what the caliph had ordered, Yūḥannā replied with pride and dignity: “Take the water back to him, for I
do not need it, because my master Jesus Christ watered me and quenched my thirst.” The people who
were standing by testified that they saw at this moment water dripping from his beard. When he said
that, he delivered up his soul.
When they told the tyrant caliph about his death, he ordered them to beat the dead body to
complete the one thousand lashes, and thus he was martyred, and received the crown of martyrdom that
had been prepared for him by the great king Jesus Christ….
The church also commemorates the other ten chief ministers whom the caliph asked to
apostatize. When they refused and disobeyed him, he ordered them to be tortured. They were beaten
with whips, and when the beating became cruel, four of them became Muslim, one of them died the
same night, and the other three returned to their Christian faith when the persecutions ended. The rest
departed while they were being tortured, received the crown of martyrdom, and acquired eternal life.
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