Communal Boundaries Reconsidered: Jews and Christians Appealing to Muslim Authorities in the Medieval Near East

Abstract

Modern scholarship has produced an abundance of works on the history of Jews and Christians in Muslim realms. Quite often these works focus on the status of these communities as religious minorities. 1 With regard to this theme, scholars have been divided as to whether Islam showed tolerance or oppression towards non-Muslims. Yet the question of status, interesting as it is, may in fact be misleading. This is primarily due to its underlying assumptions and the perspectives it compels us to adopt. It assumes a relationship of rulers and subjects based upon communal distinction, i. e. a Muslim is a ruler and a non-Muslim is hence a subject. Furthermore, it assumes a centralist ruling agenda derived from one center that essentially must be enforced upon an entire region in an equal manner. These assumptions do not take into account the possibility of a society that could have been structured under different terms and that adhered to different principles of governance. It does not take into account different sets of relations between different social layers. 2 It

Migraciones, religiones y derecho: la tradición de la Iglesia siria oriental «nestoriana» (siglos V-XXI)

“…7. Las distintas versiones de la colección contienen leyes abrogadas por Teodosio y Justiniano, no incluidas en los códigos oficiales romanos (Codex Theodosianus, promulgado en el año 438, 51 Sobre este punto, consúltese Simonsohn (2007), en particular la página 361. 52 Sobre este punto, ver Nallino (1930, p. 218).…”

“…El acceso a la justicia en el dar al Islam, de Siria y Egipto hasta el Indo, del Mar Caspio al Golfo de Adén, era abierto debido, en primer lugar, al especial tratamiento reservado a las «gentes del Libro», ahl al-Kitâb. Los responsos de los gaones judíos y de los jueces cristianos eran tenidos por válidos y susceptibles de ejecución por parte de los tribunales del islam, puesto que se los consideraba como provenientes de personas dignas de respeto (Simonsohn, 2007(Simonsohn, , 2009Tillier, 2017, pp. 455-533).…”

“…65 Simonsohn (2007) describe el califato como «a highly integrated society in which one would maintain his communal affiliation, but at the same time possess membership within a wider social circle» (p. 360), y concluye que las instituciones extraconfesionales se deben interpretar como representaciones de agrupaciones sociales extraconfesionales (2011, p. 214). Oulddali (2017), a su vez, resalta un sentimiento de pertenencia de los dhimmis a la colectividad y colige de la tratadística islámica la idea de una solidaridad entre los dhimmis y los musulmanes (p. 143).…”