Laws fixing the status of Jews and other religious minorities in Muslim lands. In principle, Jews and Christians were accorded the status of "protected" people (i.e. dhimmi), being recognized as People of the Book (ahl al-kitab). As such, they were permitted to practice their religion, own property, and carry on trade and were exempted from military service. In return they were obliged to acknowledge the superiority of Islam and subjected to numerous and often humiliating disabilities, including special taxes, dress codes, restrictions on riding animals, etc., the upshot of which was to relegate the Jews and other minorities to the status of second-class citizens.
The Dhimmi Laws were formalized by Omar II (717-720 CE) and in different periods and different parts of the Muslim world were applied with greater or lesser severity. Under the Ummayad caliphs (661-750) the Jews enjoyed relative tolerance but under the Abbasids (750-1258) the situation deteriorated. With the rise of the fanatical Almohads to power in North Africa and Spain (1146-1269), Jews were subjected to forced conversion and could no longer practice their religion openly. The dhimmi status of the Jews lasted into the 20th century in certain countries, but on the whole the Dhimmi Laws did not attain the severity of anti-Jewish measures in the Christian world.
