Islamic Terms of Peace (633–643)
Despite facing some resistance, Muhammad’s revelations soon gained widespread adherence across the Arabian peninsula. Together his converts formed a community united by the worship of God, expressed not only in individual prayer but also in the collective duty to “strive” (jihad) against unbelievers, often in war. War was thus a central component of Islam, and by the eighth century Islamic warriors had conquered all of Persia and much of the Byzantine Empire. These letters dictate the terms of peace to conquered communities and illuminate the Muslims’ method of conquest and rule in the decade following Muhammad’s death. In exchange for the payment of a special tax (jizya), non-Muslim subjects were allowed to live much as they had before. Consequently, Islam became not the destroyer of Hellenistic and Roman traditions, but rather their heir.
Jihad and Jizya: Islamic Terms of Peace, 633–643. From Islam: From the Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of Constantinople, Volume 1, Politics and War (pp. 234–36, 238–40), edited and translated by Bernard Lewis. Copyright © 1974. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
Bānqiyā and Basmā (633)
In the name of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate.
This is a letter from Khālid ibn al-Walīd to Ṣalūba ibn Nasṭūnā and his people.
I have made a pact with you for jizya and defense for every fit man, for both Bānqiyā and Basmā, for 10,000 dinars, excluding coins with holes punched in them, the wealthy according to the measure of his wealth, the poor according to the measure of his poverty, payable annually. You have been made head of your people and your people are content with you. I, therefore, and the Muslims who are with me, accept you, and I [? you] and your people are content. You have protection [dhimma] and defense. If we defend you, the jizya is due to us; if we do not, it is not, until we do defend you.
Witnessed by Hishām ibn al-Walīd, al-Qa ’qā ’ibn ’Amr, Jarīr ibn ’Abdallāh al-Ḥimyarī and Ḥanẓala ibn al-Rabī’.
Written in the year 12, in Safar [April–May 633].
Jerusalem (636)
In the name of God the Merciful and the Compassionate.
This is the safe-conduct accorded by the servant of God ‘Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, to the people of Aelia [Jerusalem].
He accords them safe-conduct for their persons, their property, their churches, their crosses, their sound and their sick, and the rest of their worship.
Their churches shall neither be used as dwellings nor destroyed. They shall not suffer any impairment, nor shall their dependencies, their crosses, nor any of their property.
No constraint shall be exercised against them in religion nor shall any harm be done to any among them.
No Jew shall live with them in Aelia.
The people of Aelia must pay the jizya in the same way as the people of other cities.
They must expel the Romans and the brigands [?] from the city. Those who leave shall have safe-conduct for their persons and property until they reach safety. Those who stay shall have safe-conduct and must pay the jizya like the people of Aelia.
Those of the people of Aelia who wish to remove their persons and effects and depart with the Romans and abandon their churches and their crosses shall have safe-conduct for their persons, their churches, and their crosses, until they reach safety.
The country people who were already in the city before the killing of so-and-so may, as they wish, remain and pay the jizya the same way as the people of Aelia or leave with the Romans or return to their families. Nothing shall be taken from them until they have gathered their harvest.
This document is placed under the surety of God and the protection [dhimma] of the Prophet, the Caliphs and the believers, on condition that the inhabitants of Aelia pay the jizya that is due from them.
Witnessed by Khālid ibn al-Walīd, ‘Amr ibn al-’Aṣ, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ‘Awf, Mu’āwiya ibn Abī Sufyān, the last of whom wrote this document in the year 15 [636].
Jurjãn (639)
In the name of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate.
This is a letter from Suwayd ibn Muqarrin to Ruzbān Ṣūl ibn Ruzbān, the inhabitants of Dihistān, and the rest of the inhabitants of Jurjān.
You have protection and we must enforce it on the condition that you pay the jizya every year, according to your capacity, for every adult male. If we seek help from any of you, the help counts as his jizya in place of the payment. They have safe-conduct for themselves, their property, their religions, and their laws. There will be no change in what is due to them as long as they pay and guide the wayfarer and show good will and lodge the Muslims and do not spy or betray. Whoever stays with them shall have the same terms as they have, and whoever goes forth has safe-conduct until he reaches a place of safety, provided that if anyone insults a Muslim he is severely punished, and if he strikes a Muslim, his blood is lawful.
Witnessed by Sawād ibn Quṭba, Hind ibn ‘Amr, Simāk ibn Makhrama, and ‘Utayba ibn al-Naḥḥās.
Written in the year 18 [639].
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