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THE DECLINE OF EASTERN CHRISTIANITY UNDER ISLAM, FROM JIHAD TO DHIMMITUDE. By BAT YE`ox. London, Associated University Presses, 1996. 522 pp., illustrations.
No one in recent years has examined the position of non-Muslims under the rule of Islam more fully than the author of this book. Her earlier study, The Dhimmi, Jews and Christians under Islam, published in 1985 (based on the original French of 1980), gave a clear indication of her uncompromising attitude towards the institution of the `protected peoples' within the Muslim empire. This work, which is more extensive in both its discussions and the translated texts it presents, though focusing more on the position of Christians than Jews, leaves no doubt that she condemns the institution in all its aspects. Like its precursor, the book was originally published in French in 1991, and is here made available in English translation.
The work falls into two more or less equal parts. The first comprises a survey of the dhimmis under the rule of the Umayyads. `Abbasids and Ottomans, with brief references to Spain and Persia, from the beginnings of Islam to the present century. And the second comprises a generous selection of Muslim and Christian extracts in English translation, intended to illustrate the treatment of mainly Christians by their Muslim masters. In both of these parts it aims at some degree of comprehensiveness in attempting to show how the institution came into being in fact and theory, and in showing at first hand how dhimmis and Muslims regarded and engaged with one another. The first part, the...