Khaybar
Extract from Historical Outline of The Dhimmi by Bat Ye'or:
Shrewd in political matters, Muhammad then endeavored to win over the powerful tribes of Mecca. In 628, taking advantage of a treaty of non-belligerency (Hudaybiya) with the Meccans, [1] he attacked the oasis of Khaybar, one hundred and forty kilometers northwest of Medina, cultivated by another Jewish tribe. The assailants came to the oasis at night and in the morning attacked the peasants as they were coming out to work in the fields, carrying spades and baskets. [2] Their palm groves were burned down. After a siege lasting a month and a half, the inhabitants surrendered under the terms of a treaty known as the dhimma. According to this agreement Muhammad allowed the Jews to continue cultivating their oasis, on condition that they ceded to him half of their produce; he also reserved the right to break the agreement and expel them whenever he wished [3] Subsequently, all the Jewish and Christian communities of Arabia submitted to the Muslims under the terms of a dhimma similar to that granted at Khaybar. The peasantry were expected to provide assistance and provisions to the Muslim forces and pay a tribute in money or kind known as the jizya, to be distributed among the Prophet and his followers according to the circumstances of the conquest. In addition, they were to make available an area within their synagogues and churches, if required by the Muslims. On his side, Muhammad undertook to respect their religious observances and to defend them. Thus, newly converted Bedouin permitted sedentary cultivators to continue tilling their own soil as share-croppers in exchange for a tribute.
The dhimma of Khaybar, which fixed the relationship between the Muslim victors and the vanquished local inhabitants, was thereafter to serve as a model for the treaties granted by the Arab conquerors to the conquered peoples in territories beyond Arabia. Henceforth, the term dhimma will be used in the sense of the unequal agreements that regulated the relationship between the Muslim conquerors and the vanquished populations.
- ↑ Gaudefroy-Demombynes, p. 154; Bukhari, vol. 2, title 54, chap. 15.
- ↑ Ibn 'shag, p. 511; Bukhari, vol. 2, title 56, chaps. 102: 5,130.
- ↑ Ibn Ishaq, pp. 524-25; Bukhari, vol. 2, title 41, chaps. 8,9, 11,17, and tide 57, chap. 19: 10. For an example of the treaties between Muhammad and the Jews living in Makna (near Eilat), see al-Baladhuri (d. 892), vol. 1, The Origins of the Islamic State (Kitab Fun-di al-Buld4n), trans. P. K. Hitti (New York, 1916), pp. 93-94.