User:SeulCassiopeia/sandbox

Treatment of Jews and Christians
The status and treatment of Jews, Christians, and non-Muslims in the Abbasid Caliphate was a complex and continually changing issue. Non-Muslims in the Abbasid Caliphate had their own distinction and were called dhimmi s. Dhimmis did not have all of the privileges that Muslims had inside the Abbasid Caliphate and were commonly had to pay a tax for not being a Muslim called a Jizya. One of the common aspects of the treatment of the dhimmis is that their treatment in the Abbasid Caliphate varied depending on who the Caliph was at the given time. Some Abbasid rulers like Al-Mutawakkil (822 AD - 861 AD) imposed strict restrictions on what dhimmi's could wear in public, often yellow garments that distinguished them from Muslims. Other restrictions al-Mutawakkil imposed included limiting the role of the dhimmis inside of government, seizing dhimmi housing and making it harder for dhimmis to become educated. Most other Caliphs of the Abbasid Caliphate were not as strict as al-Mutawakkil though. During the reign of Al-Mansur (714 AD - 775 AD), it was common for Jews and Christians to influence the overall culture in the Caliphate, specifically in Baghdad. Jews and Christians did this by participating in scholarly work and Christians even influenced Islamic funeral service traditions.

It was common that laws that were imposed against dhimmis during one caliph's rules were either discarded or not practiced during future Caliph's reigns. Al-Mansur and al-Mutawakkil both instituted laws that forbid non-Muslims from participating in public office in the Abbasid Caliphate. Although al-Mansur did not follow his own law very closely, bringing dhimmis back to the Caliphate's treasury due to the needed expertise of dhimmis in the area of finance. Al-Mutawakkil followed the law banning dhimmis from public office more seriously though, although soon after al-Mutawakkil's reign many of the laws concerning dhimmi's participating in government positions were completely unobserved or at least less strictly observed in the Abbasid Caliphate. Even Al-Muqtadir (r. 908 AD - 932 AD) who held a similar stance as former Caliph al-Mutawakkil on removing non-Muslims from holding public office himself had multiple Christian secretaries, indicating that non-Muslims even through de jure circumstance still had access to many of the most important figures within the Abbasid Caliphate. Past having a casual association or just being a secretary to high ranking Islamic members of the Abbasid Caliphate many Caliphs like Al-Mansur would personally appoint dhimmis to important positions of power like being a collector of revenue.

Jews and Christians may have had a lower overall status compared to Muslims in the Abbasid Caliphate, but dhimmis were often allowed to hold respectable and even prestigious occupations in some cases. Examples of these occupations would be doctors and public officeholders. Jews and Christians were also allowed to be rich even if they were taxed for being a dhimmi. Dhimmis were capable of moving across the social ladder, although this largely depended on the caliph in charge at the time. An indication as to the social standing of Jews and Christians at the time was their ability to live next to Muslim people. While al-Mansur was ruling the Abbasid Caliphate it was not uncommon for dhimmis to live in the same neighborhoods that Muslims lived in. One of the biggest reasons why dhimmis were allowed to hold prestigious jobs and positions in government is that they were generally important to the well being of the state and were proficient to excellent with the work at hand. Some Muslims in the Caliphate took offense to the idea that there were dhimmis in public offices who were in a way ruling over them although it was an Islamicate state, while other Muslims were at time jealous at some dhimmis for having a level of wealth or prestige greater than other Muslims, even if Muslims were still the majority of the ruling class. In genera, Muslims, Jews, and Christians had close interconnections and relations for the time period that could be at times considered positive at times, especially for Jews in context to how Jews were being treated in Europe.

Many of the laws and restrictions that were imposed on dhimmis oftentimes resembled other laws that previous states had used to discriminate against a minority religion, specifically Jewish people. Romans in the fourth century banned Jewish people from holding public offices banned Roman citizens from converting to Judaism, and often times demoted Jews who were serving in the Roman military. In direct contrast, there was an event in which two vizier's, Ibn al-Furat and Ali ibn Isa ibn al-Jarrah, argued about Ibn al-Furat's decision to make a Christian the head of the military, a decision that a previous vizier Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Bazuri had already implemented a similar decision in the past. These laws predated al-Mansur's laws against dhimmi's and often had similar restrictions, although Roman emperors were often much more strict on imposing these laws unlike many Caliphs in the Abbasid Caliphate.