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slamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims
Prometheus Books
November 2005
759 pages ISBN: 1591023076 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
Writing in 1991, the late French theologian and philosopher
Jacques Ellul observed, "In a major encyclopedia, one reads phrases such as: ‘Islam
expanded in the eighth or ninth centuries…’; ‘This or that
country passed into Muslim hands …’ But care is taken not to
say how Islam expanded …. Regarding this expansion, little
is said about jihad. And yet it all happened through war!" The Legacy of Jihad provides a comprehensive, meticulously
documented corrective to the genre of ahistorical
assessments decried by Ellul. This unique, extensive
compilation includes Muslim theological and juridical texts,
eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim
chroniclers, and essays by preeminent scholars analyzing
jihad war and the ruling conditions imposed upon the
non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns. The Legacy
of Jihad reveals how, for well over a millennium, across
three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—non-Muslims who
were vanquished by jihad wars, became forced tributaries
(called dhimmi in Arabic), in lieu of being slain. Under the
dhimmi religious caste system, non-Muslims were subjected to
legal and financial oppression, as well as social isolation.
Extensive primary and secondary source materials, many
translated here for the first time into English, are
presented, making clear that jihad conquests were brutal,
imperialist advances, which spurred waves of Muslims to
expropriate a vast expanse of lands and subdue millions of
indigenous peoples. Finally, the book examines how jihad
war, as a permanent and uniquely Islamic institution,
ultimately regulates the relations of Muslims with
non-Muslims to this day. Scholars, educators, and interested
lay readers will find this collection an invaluable resource.
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