ISBN: 0838639437
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Summary: Does this society sound tolerant? I didn't think so.
Among the good ways to morally judge a society is in how it treats those without power. This can include, depending on the time and place, women, racial or ethnic minorities, religious minorities, children, prisoners, etc. How do a people behave towards those who actually have no means of resisting or issuing retribution for wrongdoing? In Islam and Dhimmitude, Bat Ye'or takes a lingering look at how Muslim societies (Arab in particular) have treated their religious minorities living under Muslim rules. Such unfortunate people are described by the word 'dhimmis', which means non-Muslims living under Muslim rule. Religious minorities, in other words (though in the early days dhimmis could easily be a numerical majority of the population). The results of such a set-up were usually appalling beyond compare.
From the start, such dhimmis had to follow a set of formal rules. The rules varied from place to place and time to time, but where they existed they were horrid. It was and remains a part of Islamic society that all, all, non-Muslims are in revolt against Islam, and are being deliberately offensive towards Muslims. The superiority is absolutely built into the system. Thus, though the specifics could vary, it was considered criminally unacceptable for a non-Muslim to hold a position of strength over a Muslim. And that means any strength. A Muslim could outright attack a non-Muslim in the streets, and even fighting back could get that unfortunate dhimmi a death sentence. A Muslim could accuse a dhimmi of blaspheming the Koran, and the death sentence would generally follow unless a Muslim could be found to refute the original testimony. A dhimmi's word was automatically invalid in court against a Muslim. Even an elderly dhimmi (Jewish in this case) couple that hired a Muslim cleaning woman could be punished for their temerity. The idea that a non-Muslim could employ and thus control a Muslim was and remains outrageous in the Islamic world.
The other major topic is how the various minorities have dealt with each other, and this probably takes up even more of the book than the straightforward account of Muslim atrocities. Jews and Christians made up most of the dhimmi populations covered here. Ye'or shows that in most cases, the Christian populations (often with the aid of Western churches) would attempt to side with the Muslims and against the Jews in the hope that they could win some concessions for themselves by making common cause. It was a cynical game, and one with no winners, but it happened. Thus, the Jewish populations found themselves at the hands of a smug Muslim society, and just as fiercely attacked by a rabid anti-Semitic Christian population. Sad history indeed.
Structurally, Ye'or's work is roughly chronological. The writing is awkward, and was translated from the original French (though Ye'or is Egyptian by birth). Though detailed, the aim did wander a bit, and the book lacks some overall focus. Trying to cover fourteen centuries of material over such a large geographical area is fraught with peril. The work is a professional level historical book, so expect some dry passages. It is not a work for first-time readers by any means. But it does begin to show how a people with a common history, the dhimmi's lived and suffered in some of the most barbaric circumstances imaginable. Read it and prepare to learn something.
Summary: An eyopening account dispels myths
It is a dominant theme of the literature on the Jewish Diaspora that Jews in Muslim lands were treated better than Jews among Christians. It is repeated like a mantra, every student of Jewish history or of Islamic studies must learn it and repeat it, until it becomes myth. This excellent study is one of the few to challenge this dominat view. Today academics encourage the propoganda that Islam is 'more tolerant' than Christianity. However here we are given a small taste of that 'tolerance'. Dhimmi is a word meaning 'protected'. However just as the Nazis created concentration camps to 'protect' the Jews the word itself can be used in many ways. This book analyzes the experience of Jews in Muslim lands. Some have accused this work of 'only' concentrating on the negative aspects of Muslim-Jewish relations, however this is just the point, a litany of works have focused on this subject in Europe, it time that the dust be taken from the truth about Islamic nations.
Partly the problem rests on lack of sources and literature, this book begins to fill this essential gap.
A second way to analyze the question of which Jews were 'better off' is to see the end result. If Muslim lands were 'better' to the Jews then why did the Jews of Europe become free and wealthy? Why were there more Jews in Europe than muslim lands despite persecution, endless forced conversion and murder due to claims that Jews created the black death? Jews numbered 12 million in Christian lands while they numbered only a million in Muslim ones in 1930. By 1945 the numbers were 6 million and 1 million. By 1967 the numbers were 8 million and 50,000.
Seth J. Frantzman
Summary: Dispelling a myth
One of the great myths in regard to Islamic civilization is that it was egalitarian and respected fully the rights of Christians and Jews. In this work Bat- Yeor describes the status of 'dhimmitude' by which in Islamic society major minorities, as Christians and Jews were subject to legal and non- legal forms of discrimination. Bat-Yeor reveals that there is something in the historical attitude of Islam that makes it so difficult for it to recognize the real humanity of others, and give them an equal place in society.
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