Contents

Chapter III

Coexistence with Followers of all Religions in the Economic Sphere

God and His Prophet have commanded Muslims, as we have seen, to coexist peacefully with people from all religions, divine or otherwise, in their lands. This meant that people from other religious communities had to be treated with dignity, looked after, assured protection for their possessions and churches and allowed the right to appeal for their own chosen courts and tribunals to resolve their disputes. A clear indication of the fact that non-Muslims have enjoyed living among the Muslims is the fact that none of them has, throughout the centuries, been driven out from their homes. They were known as Ahl al-Dhimma (People of the Covenant), a reference to the fact that they were within the sanctuary of the pledge or covenant (dhimma) of Islam. A quick look at the huge numbers of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Sabians in the lands of Islam will compel us to believe that Muslims continued to treat them all very well. It is said that Baghdad counted tens of thousands of Christians among its population, while the majority of the population of the towns of Takrit and al-Ruha in Iraq were Christians. Christians in Syria were -and still are- very numerous, and so were the number of Christian Copts in Egypt. When the governor of Ifriqiyya (North Africa) Hassan ibn al-Nu’man embarked on establishing a port in Tunisia in the first hijri century to replace Carthage, and resolved to build a large navy to protect the North African coast from the raids of the Romans, he brought a thousand Coptic families to help him set up a great industrial centre and to build the navy. Many Christians from among the Romans who were left behind after the Muslim conquest continued to live in all areas in the Maghreb. It was said that al-Mansour, the caliph of the Muwahhidun state the Maghreb in the 6th century (12th century AD) built a palace for his exclusively Christian guards corps, which were around five hundred strong, and used to ride in front of his procession. Muslim Spain also teemed with Christians.

Mitz writes that Jews were numerous in Iraq. Their number had been estimated by the traveller Petachia to run into the hundreds of thousands. He mentions that there were many of them in the towns and villages by the Tigris and Euphrates and also in cities like Mosul. There were two towns, one near Isfahan and another east of Marw, each named al-Yahudiyya (The Jewish town). Ten thousand Jews lived in Damascus and five thousand in Halab. Petachia said that only one Jew lived in Jerusalem, while his contemporary, Benjamin, says there were four of them there. Seven thousand Jews lived in Cairo and three thousand in Alexandria, while comparable numbers could be found in the various towns of the Delta. In Muslim Spain, Jews prospered and enjoyed life under Arab rule, and when they were driven out of Spain and Portugal in the sixteenth century AD, the Maghreb became their main place of refuge.

Zoroastrians were quite numerous in Iraq and in their original home, Iran, in the first two hijri centuries. They were concentrated especially in the city of Shiraz and in the areas of southern Persia, while the city of al-Qarinayn in eastern Persia was exclusively Magian. Sabians lived in Harran and Raqqah, and they witnessed a period of prosperity towards the end of the second hijri century. An indication of this could be found in the report of a festival they held in Harran one year during that period, when fires burned in every street, and a huge procession featuring oxen adorned with expensive costumes and garlanded with flowers and sweet basil, with bells hanging from their horns. Behind the oxen marched men playing various wind instruments. The Sabians continued to live in prosperity, and in the middle of the fourth/tenth century, an edict was issued by the caliph ordering their protection, indicating that their numbers were beginning to dwindle because of the large numbers embracing Islam from among them. By the middle of the fifth century, Ibn Hazm of al-Andalus writes that “they number scarcely forty individuals in the whole world.”

All avenues of employment and economic activity were open to the covenanted minorities in the past. Al-Jahiz writes that the masses in Iraq trusted the Christians in particulars, preferring them over the Zoroastrians and judging them to be more open and straightforward than Jews. He says they used to engage in important professions, such as perfumeries and money-changing, while the doctors of the caliphs, viziers and upper classes, as well as hospital doctors, were from among them. So much so that people began to believe that a good doctor can only be a Christian. And we add that Christians were prominent among the senior translators of Greek writings, for which the Syrian translators were generously remunerated by the caliphs. Al-Jahiz also writes that Jews were only found working as dyers, tanners, butchers, potters or shoemakers. Al-Maqdisi writes in the fourth century that they included tailors, dyers, shoemakers and jewellers. Benjamin, writing in the sixth hijri century, mentions that he had found in Bethlehem twelve Jews engaged in the dyeing trade. Brookleman says in his book The History of Muslim Peoples that Europe had known in the tenth century AD a great boom in the slave trade, which was controlled by Jews from Muslim Spain.

Coptic Christians in Egypt relied for their livelihood -mostly- on agriculture, especially gardening, which made them extremely prosperous. They were also entrusted with financial supervision of taxes on land and produce, a task on which they had a monopoly until the thirties of this century. This shows clearly how complete the harmony has been between the Muslims and Copts in Egypt throughout the Islamic era.

God has described Egypt as “gardens and springs ... and cornfields and noble buildings” (Al-Dukhan: 25-26), while the Arabs called it “the earthly paradise.” A story related by Maqrizi about the visit undertaken by Al-Mamoun to Egypt in the year 217H indicates clearly how the Copts in Egypt lived in prosperity, enjoying excellent treatment under the just Arab rule. He writes that Al-Mamoun, on his way to al-Fustat (Cairo) passed through a village in the Delta called Ta’ al-Naml, in which a Coptic lady named Maria had a large estate. The lady intercepted the party of the caliph and asked him to be her guest with all his entourage and accompanying soldiers. He accepted, and was then surprised at the amount and variety of foods she offered them. The next morning the lady visited him with ten of her maidservants, each carrying a plate. Al-Mamoun thought that they were bringing presents from local produce, but when the plates were placed in front of him, he discovered that each had a bag full of gold. He thanked the lady and asked for the money to be returned to her. But she would have nothing of it. Al-Mamoun then examined the gold, and found that it was all from the mint of one year, indicating that it had come from her profits during a single year. He exclaimed: “This is even more remarkable!” She insisted on him accepting the gift, but he declined, saying: “Take your money back, may God bless it for you!” She then took a piece of mud and said to him: “O Commander of the Faithful! This bounty is from this piece of clay which I had taken, and from your just rule, O Commander of the Faithful! And I have plenty of this gold.” Al-Mamoun then accepted her gift for the treasury, and awarded her a number of estates. This was an expression of the opinion (quite justified in this case) that it was not right to accept money from her without a reward.

I have related this story in full to show the great wealth the Egyptian Copts enjoyed, which was due to the fertility of the land and to the fact that Muslim rulers did not burden them with excessive taxes and that justice prevailed as was testified to by the assertions of the Coptic lady Maria in front of Al-Mamoun. Al-Mamoun did not accept the gold as a personal gift, but passed it instead to the state treasury. Copts and Muslims thus lived in peace and harmony throughout the Muslim era. Nothing happened to disturb this peace and harmony, and if some conflict arose between individuals on any occasion, peace and harmony were quickly restored due to the shared feeling that the two communities belonged to one national family in the great blessed land of Egypt.

An indication of the willingness of Muslims and their rulers to carry the social and economic coexistence with minorities to its utmost limit is found in the opening up of opportunities for the covenanted communities to engage in managing the estates and finances of Muslims, employing them in the state bureaucracy or engaging them as advisers in their businesses. Mu’awiya, the founder of the Umayyad Dynasty, was known to have engaged Sargoun the Christian as his financial adviser, while Yuhanna of Damascus was financial manager under his son Yazid and he also served a number of other Umayyad caliphs. The numbers of non-Muslim individuals in the state bureaucracy expanded during the third hijri century (ninth AD) to the extent that Muslims complained to the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil about their control over their financial affairs, prompting the caliph to issue an edict in the year 235H -according to al-Kindi in his book al-Wulat (Governors)- barring minority community members from jobs in the bureaucracy and positions of authority in which they might enjoy power over Muslims. However, this edict appeared to have been quickly relaxed, since we soon find al-Mutawakkil himself entrusting the financial management for the construction of his palace “al-Ja’afari” to Dulayl ibn Yaaqoub, a Christian. The employment of the covenanted minorities in the bureaucracy soon resumed. Muhammad ibn Tahir, the governor of Baghdad, engaged a Christian steward as treasurer and a private agent charged with controlling his income and expenses.

Towards the end of the third hijri century, the number of secretaries and clerks working in the bureaucracy from among the minorities far exceeded the number of Muslims working there, leading the caliph al-Muqtadir (295-320H) to follow the example of al-Mutawakkil and order them removed from the bureaucracy. He also commanded that Jews and Christians were only to be employed in the fields of medicine and money-changing. But this order was, in turn, soon relaxed, and we find al-Muqtadir’s vizier, ibn al-Furat, employing four Christian secretaries in his office. He used to invite them to share his meals every day as well. When al-Muqtadir resolved to appoint al-Hussayn ibn al-Qasim as vizier in 319H (931AD), he ordered him to patch up his relations with his enemies from among the prominent courtiers and army commanders. To achieve this, ibn al-Qasim resorted to the Christian secretaries and clerks employed by these prominent individuals, saying to one of these (Istafan ibn Yaaqoub): “If I get the post of vizier, it would be thanks to you.” Istfan then became the overseer of the private treasury in the state bureaucracy. The Buwayhid state in Iran and Iraq expanded employment in the bureaucracy for minorities. The Buwayhid ruler, Imad al-Dawlah, employed a Christian as Chief Secretary overseeing state affairs. Izz al-Dawlah the Buwayhid appointed as his deputy in Baghdad, when he left it for Basrah, a Christian: Sa’id ibn Thabit. His cousin, Adud al-Dawlah, the chief Buwayhid ruler in Iran and Iraq, employed a Christian vizier, Nasr ibn Haroun. Maskuwayh writes in his History that this vizier took care to support churches and monasteries, and asked permission from Adud al-Dawlah to extend state assistance to poor Christians, which was granted.

All this is a clear indication that no avenue of livelihood had been closed before the minorities, and not only in agriculture, trade and industry, but also in the state bureaucracy and the official financial institutions. Employees were given good salaries from the state which assured them a comfortable living, while the senior employees, like viziers, lived a life of luxury. Work in the bureaucracy was not restricted to Christian scribes and clerks, but was shared also by members from other minority communities. Ibn Ishaq the Sabian, for example, was in charge of the postal diwan in Baghdad from middle of the fourth century until his death in 384H.

In Egypt, on the other hand, the governor Khamarawayh (270-282H) appointed a Coptic vizier to oversee the administrative and financial affairs of the state. Copts had remained -as we have mentioned- from the beginning of the Islamic conquest and until the fourth decade of the present century, in sole charge of the affairs of land taxation in Egypt, a clear indication of the extent of the harmony and peaceful coexistence between them and the Muslims in the economic sphere throughout the Islamic era. The Fatimid state employed the covenanted minorities widely in its affairs. Their first caliph in Egypt, Al-Mu’iz, employed Yaaqoub ibn Kallas, a Jew who embraced Islam, as vizier. He had been accused of bias towards his former co-religionists, and it had been said that nothing could be decided in the court of Al-Mu’iz without his cooperation and that of the Jewish community. Al-Aziz, who succeeded his father Al-Mu’iz, married a Coptic lady, and during his reign the influence of the Copts rose considerably, especially after the appointment of one of their number, Isa ibn Nestorus, as vizier. Al-Aziz also appointed a Jew, Mansha, as his representative in Damascus, greatly increasing the influence of Jews there. Both men remained in their posts for three years. Al-Hakim, who succeeded his father Al-Aziz, used to appoint mostly Christians as his personal physicians and as clerks and secretaries in the first part of his reign. He also appointed a Christian, Mansour ibn Saadoun, as vizier. Another Fatimid ruler, al-Mustansir, appointed a former Jew who became a Muslim, Sadaq ibn Yusuf al-Filahi, as vizier for three years. His assistant, Abu Sa’ad al-Tasturi, was also a Jew.

It can thus be said that there had been no avenue of employment or livelihood available for Muslims, in which they did not permit the covenanted communities to participate, as the teachings of Islam had enjoined. They shared with them government employment in the bureaucracy and elsewhere, and raised them to the highest office, the viziership, which earned its occupants huge sums of money*. The Muslims, in addition, contributed to the upkeep of their temples, churches and monasteries. Public funds were also made available to the poor from these communities, as we have seen done by Nasr ibn Haroun with encouragement from the Buwayhid ruler Adud al-Dawlah. Was it, then, ever the case in human history for rulers other than Muslim rulers to care so much for their subjects who did not follow their religion in the same wonderful and kind manner?

A further aspect of this coexistence was that Muslims used to celebrate the religious festivals of minorities in the same way in which they celebrated their own festivals such as the New Hijri Year, Ashura’, the Prophet’s birthday, the 27th day of the month of Rajab, the night of Sha’aban 14th, the start of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha. They celebrated, for example, the Persian Magian festival of Sadhaq, the festival of fire (which was worshipped by Magians or Zoroastrians). In this festival, they used to light fires and sing and dance around them all night. Another festival was that of Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Deity and principle of goodness and light in Zoroastrianism. But the most important festival was that of Noruz, at the beginning of Spring, coinciding with the zodiac sign of Libra, when they used to hold boisterous celebrations. All Muslim lands used to celebrate this festival with them. Muslims also participated in numerous Christian festivals, including Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, which used to be an ancient tree festival, dedicated in particular olive trees. Christian maids used to celebrate this festivals even inside the palaces of Abbasid caliphs. The singer Ahmad ibn Sadaqa reports that he had been admitted into the presence of Al-Mamoun on one occasion which coincided with Palm Sunday, and found in his company twenty European maids performing a [ritual] dance. They were dressed in silk, wore golden crosses and belts and held palm fronds and olive branches as they danced. Muslims in Egypt used to celebrate with their Coptic brethren their religious festival -and they still do. These included Christmas and Epiphany in Winter; and Covenant Thursday, which arrives three days before Easter, and the Olive Festival (Palm Sunday). Churches used to be decorated with olive branches and palm fronds on this latter festival. Some of these festivals would turn into large carnivals in which Muslims and Christians joined together in fun and games. Al-Maqrizi writes: “People in Egypt would go out during some festivals and parade the streets with puppets, statues and clowns.”*

We need to stop here briefly to discuss the question of jizyah, or poll tax, which was levied from the covenanted communities. Some people regarded this as a “religious tax.” However, this levy has nothing to do with religion, and was really a defence tax, levied only from able-bodied men fit for military service from among the protected minorities. For these men did not join the Islamic army of the state which defended them and defended the country. This levy was thus only exacted from the covenanted individuals who were able to bear arms. Women and children were exempted, as were monks, the disabled, the elderly and the poor. It was also a puny sum, not exceeding one dinar a year, which used to be collected without any resort to cruelty or hardship, as the Shari’a has commanded. No one was tortured or burdened with what he could not pay. Payment by instalment was accepted. The ruler of Egypt during the early third hijri century agreed to take only half a dinar from Copts. The traveller Benjamin says that Jews in all Islamic lands paid only one dinar. The amount of jizyah levied from all covenanted minorities, whether Jews, Christians, Sabians or Zoroastrians, never exceeded one dinar a year, so as not to burden them unduly.

ـــــــــــــــ

* It is true that this happened in some Muslim countries, but to appoint non-Muslims viziers and governors in Islamic countries is forbidden, according to some scholars.

** The author mentioned that Muslims used to participate in the festivals of the Christians, Magians, and Zoroastrians. If this was true (in some Islamic countries), it was out of ignorance and negligence of the Islamic commands, for the participation of the Muslims in these festivals is forbidden according to the Four Imams.

Publications of the Islamic Educational‭, ‬Scientific and Cultural Organization