(See also the previous article which is on this same subject.)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html
Medieval Sourcebook: Pact of Umar, 7th Century ?
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The Status of Non-Muslims Under Muslim Rule
After the rapid expansion of the Muslim dominion in the 7th century, Muslims leaders were required to work out a way of dealing with Non-Muslims, who remained in the majority in many areas for centuries. The solution was to develop the notion of the "dhimma", or "protected person". The Dhimmi were required to pay an extra tax, but usually they were unmolested. [Not according to the information in this very article!] This compares well with the treatment meted out to non-Christians in Christian Europe. The Pact of Umar is supposed to have been the peace accord offered by the Caliph Umar to the Christians of Syria, a "pact" which formed the patter of later interaction.

We heard from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 78/697] as follows: When Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the Christians of Syria, we wrote to him as follows:

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In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a letter to the servant of God Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from the Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked you for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations toward you:

• We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.
  
• We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days. [Muslims get to travel free because Christians had to feed and house them for three days!]
  
• We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy, nor bide him from the Muslims.
  
• We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children.
  
• We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it. [Those who converted someone to Islam were to be given the death penalty.]
  
• We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit. [Christians had to give up their seats to Muslims, they must think they are royalty compared to Christians.]
  
• We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas.
  
• We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of arms nor carry them on our- persons.
  
• We shall not engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals.



• We shall not sell fermented drinks.



• We shall clip the fronts of our heads.
  
• We shall always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall bind the zunar round our waists
  
• We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims. We shall use only clappers in our churches very softly. We shall not raise our voices when following our dead. We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets. We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims. [Interesting that Muslims have a cemetery on top of Galgotha!! the place where Jesus was crucified, as well as in front of the Eastern Gate of the Jewish Temple! This is intentional desecration of important Christian sites.]
  
• We shall not take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims.
  
• We shall not build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims. [Here is significant evidence that Christians were not allowed to prosper above the Muslims, even their houses had to be smaller.]
  
• (When I brought the letter to Umar, may God be pleased with him, he added, "We shall not strike a Muslim.") [Nowhere does it say that Muslims cannot strike Christians or Jews.]
  
• We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.
  
• If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition.

Umar ibn al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add two clauses and impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken. They are: "They shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims," and "Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact."

from Al-Turtushi, Siraj al-Muluk, pp. 229-230.

[This was a from hand out at an Islamic History Class at the University of Edinburgh in 1979. Source of translation not given.]
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[The above information shows significantly how the Muslims were able to grow in numbers until they became the dominate religion in the nations conquered by the armies of Islam. The taxes on the Christians were frequently very heavy, so heavy that it forced many to convert to Islam because they could not pay the tax. Even for Christians and Jews, they either paid the tax, converted to Islam, or were put to death. But there is much more that it does not show, such as Islam's policy toward pagans; pagans had it even worse, they were forcibly converted at the point of a sword. If they refused they were murdered.]

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(c)Paul Halsall Jan 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu