Dhimmitude and Marcionism - about sharia - 2002 by Bat Ye'or
The Law says:
Bold by Weapon of Musical Defense in support of our article on Sharia
Dhimmitude is the type of existence developed by non-Muslim populations and civilizations subject to a special status under Islamic law—shari’a—when their lands were conquered by jihad. The uniformity of status for Jews and Christians alike gives the civilization of dhimmitude a structured homogeneous typology determined by specific features. Territories Islamized by jihad stretched from Spain to the Indus and from the Sudan to Hungary. We will limit ourselves here to the dhimmitude of Jews and Christians, defined as the People of the Book (ahl al-khitab), the Bible.
The laws enacted by shari’a for these populations are numerous and touch on all spheres of existence. As we saw, the dhimmi was formerly a harbi, an inhabitant of a country of war and consequently deprived of all rights. It is the Islamic authority that confers religious and civil rights and security when the harbi becomes a dhimmi.
Thus, it is Islamic law alone that defines and guarantees the rights conceded to non- Muslims solely in virtue of the protection inherent to dhimmitude. These rights and responsibilities meticulously consigned by Muslim jurists and theologians define the status of the dhimmi; we will limit ourselves to a brief summary here. This status is governed by both military and religious considerations: military because the dhimmi is defeated in war, religious because this war is of divine order. These two axes totally determine the dhimmi’s condition. […] The economic and social spheres that apply to vanquished non-Muslim populations (dhimmis) integrate modified forms of pre-Islamic laws of conquered lands. The laws are thereafter transposed in an innovative system of differentiation between Muslims and non-Muslims, the obligatory basic principle of Islamic government. Jurists justify this differentiation, which applies to all spheres, by Qur’anic verses and hadiths. For example, the taxation imposed on infidels by the dhimmitude system is governed by Qur’anic verse IX, 29:
- “Fight against those who do not believe in Allah nor in the Last Day, and do not make forbidden what Allah and His messenger have made forbidden, and do not practice the religion of truth, of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the jizya off-hand, being subdued.”
The tribute, originally collective, became a capitation imposed on dhimmis in exchange for limited religious and civil rights, security, and immunity against enslavement or death as prescribed by jihad.
Moreover, the dhimmi community had to pay other taxes in money or goods and perform duties to provide for the needs of the Muslim occupants, initially limited to members of the military contingent. Despite modifications in the demographic ratio between Muslims and non-Muslims that arose in the course of history these charges were maintained in certain regions up to the 20th century.