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Definition: dhimmi from The Chambers Dictionary

a non-Muslim subject of a state ruled by Islamic law. [Ar]

■ dhimm'itude
n.

Dhimmi and Minority Religions

From Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa
Dhimmi is a legal qualification of Christians and Jews living under Muslim rule in medieval Islam. The contract of “protection” dhimma , under which an individual becomes dhimmi , ensures the preservation of persons, property, an autonomous community life, and private law. In exchange, dhimmis should pay taxes, accept subordination to the Muslim rule, and maintain several restrictions on religious practice and visibility. Historically, the status of dhimmis varied considerably between rulers and empires. In the formative period of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad contracted the first dhimma agreement with the Christians of Najran, where the terms used were more tolerant, speaking of the protection of property, persons and religion, and a commitment to justice toward the Christians. Subsequently, the dhimma policy of the Umayyad caliphate (661-750) was inconsistent, unsystematic, or even loose. The Umayyads were acting as confident conquerors of the Christian lands in the Levant, ruling over…
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Full text Article dhimmî

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
Arabic, from dhimmah , a covenant: one who has been granted protection under covenant; specifically an adherent of one of the faiths tolerated within the dar al-Islam (the ‘House of Submission’). On Koranic authority both Christianity and Judaism are beneficiaries of the covenant; in Persia the…
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Full text Article dhimmi

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Islam
Also known as: people of the treaty Dhimmi s are the non-Muslims who live within Islamdom and have a regulated and protected status. The term as such does not appear in the Quran but is found in hadith related to Muhammad's treatment of Jews and Christians within the territories controlled by the…
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In Islamic ruled territories, Dhimmis were those religious minorities, or People of the Book ( ahl al-kitab ), who were protected under Islamic law. People of the Book included Jews, Christians (of all denominations), and sometimes Zoroastrians. As polytheists Hindus were not usually granted…
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Full text Article Islamic law

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
Sharî‘ah , divine law. An important example of a system of law which is religious in meaning, and which applies not by virtue of citizenship or allegiance to a state, but by virtue of religious affiliation, and which therefore generally depends upon an Islamic ruler to enforce it. It is applicable…
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Full text Article Islam

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
Arabic: submission. Like any religion Islam has had a profound influence on the political institutions of those peoples who have adopted it, and has produced its own legacy of political thought. This has taken three distinct forms: Islamic jurisprudence or fiqh ; the study of philosophy; and the…
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Full text Article Islam

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Islam
Also known as: Muslim religion The name for the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, Islam is a word formed from the Arabic consonants s-l-m. It is related to the Arabic word for “peace,” salam , which is one of the 99 most beautiful names of God and also a cognate of the Hebrew…
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Full text Article Abodes (of Islam, War, and Treaty)

From Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
The classical Islamic theory of world order divided the world into different spheres, or abodes, with considerable variation in the number and names of such abodes. The three that received the most attention among jurists were the abode of Islam ( dar al-islam ), the abode of war ( dar al-harb ), …
| 1,195 words
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Full text Article Islam

From Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices
Islam
FOUNDED: 622 CE RELIGION RELIGION A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 23 percent The religion of Islam was revealed to Muhammad ibn Abdullah (c. 570–632), who became known as the Prophet Muhammad, in central Arabia between 610 and 632 CE. In addition to the belief in a single, all-powerful God, Islam…
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Full text Article citizenship and Islam

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Islam
The idea that identity is inextricably linked with a given territory or land develops with the appearance of the modern nation-state of 17th-century Europe. Being French or Spanish, for example, began to reflect not only a certain lineage or a set of cultural habits, but most importantly the simple…
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Full text Article Judaism and Islam

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Islam
As Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam bear significant similarities that testify to a lengthy and complex history of dynamic interactions. Although it is widely perceived today that the relationship between these two religions is essentially one of conflict and opposition, closer examination…
| 2,817 words
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