How did the ottoman empire treat the non Muslims?

Answer 1

Pro-Ottoman Answer

Ottomans showed mercy and tolerant against non-Muslims. In Ottoman territories, Muslim, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. also, Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Bulgarians, Greeks, Macedonians, Serbians, Bosnians, Hungarians, etc.. existed together. Europeans have accused of the Ottomans of issues against this logic. Ottomans have never done a Holocaust and or forced assimilation against other nations.

Pro-Dhimmi Answer

Non-Muslims who lived in the Ottoman Empire were called Dhimmi, or second-class citizens. They lacked a number of fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of settlement, access to all occupations, and additional taxation because they were Non-Muslim. Each Dhimmi group, like the Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and so forth were organized into Millets which were community representative groups. Each Millet would report to a centralized Millet representative in Istanbul who would have direct dealing with the Imperial Palace. This would allow the Millets to air their grievances, but was more often used as a method to control the Millets and make them less resistive to Ottoman Occupation.

Admittedly, life under the Ottomans was far superior to most contemporaneous Empires. Spain was by far a more religiously and culturally intolerant place during this period as were France and England.

As for the Ottomans not committing a genocide, this is blatantly incorrect. The transition between the Ottoman Empire and Turkey resulted in the Armenian Genocide (around 1.8 million killed) and the Greco-Turkish Population Swaps. Many Greeks in the Aegean cities like Smyrna (now Turkish Izmir) died en route to modern Greece and many Turks from the Peloponnesus (southern Greece) died en route to Turkey.

Finally, the Ottomans' most egregious crime was the policy of devşirme, where Christian families in the Balkans region had to submit to Ottoman soldiers stealing their children to bring to them to Istanbul where they would have no contact with their parents for years and be trained to be the elite Janissary Core and be converted to Islam. No Muslim was even allowed to join the Janissaries because the devşirme system was so effective in producing recruits loyal only to the Emperor because they feared him.

Another Answer

They enjoyed a great deal of religious tolerance but were forced to pay higher taxes.

Answer 2

Islam who gave non-believers an option to accept Islam or pay Jizia (charity like Muslims pay zakkat) and live happily with them and they will be safe from harms way. And it was also Muslims who fought wars with non-believers but never killed their women, kids and old persons and never destroyed their homes, farms, trees and animals.

Answer 3

Answer 1 - Muslim Answer

All humans are the off-spring of a single couple-Hazrat Adam (AS) and Hazrat Eve (AS). In tis regards, all humans are brothers and sisters. The Muslims must treat non-Muslims kindly.

Answer 2 - Non-Muslim Answer

In the Middle Ages, Muslims treated non-Muslims in a way that was superior to contemporaneous civilizations and introduced the concept of religious tolerance (as opposed to Europe which was practicing the exact opposite at the time). However, it is nothing close to equality or Rights. An important thing to note is that the concept of Rights comes out the Enlightenment. Prior to this point, there was a system of privilege wherein the Ruler would provide privileges (out of the kindness of his heart) to a certain group of people to do acts. A person did not have the "right" to anything and this was the mentality worldwide.

The Pact of Omar was a document of submission signed by the Caliph Omar and defeated Christians and Jews during one of Omar's Wars. While the factual accuracy of that story may be doubted, there is no doubt that the Pact of Omar formed the basis for the treatment of non-Muslims in the conquered territories. The Pact of Omar set out a number of regulations that will be described in this answer.

The Dhimmi, or non-Muslim under Muslim occupation was required by the Pact of Omar to pay a number of taxes that were connected with his Dhimmi status. The most famous was the jizya, which was a tax that Dhimmi had to pay for Muslims for the right to not be killed where they stood for not acknowledging Mohammed's Prophecy; it was a form of humiliation. Additional taxes included the kharaj, which was a tax on non-Muslim* land-holdings in the Muslim World. The kharaj was so untenable that most Dhimmi were forced to live in the cities where the tax would not be applicable. There was also inequality concerning the justice system. On paper, a Christian or Jew could testify against a Muslim, but in reality, such testimony was not acceptable and the attempt to defame a Muslim would receive retribution. Christians and Jews were not allowed to build new houses of worship, restore old houses of worship, proselytize in any way (this included religious debate or dialogue), or allow wine or pigs to be shown in public.

Polytheists were forced to convert to Islam with some rare exceptions (such as the Hindus in India). Zoroastrianism was the majority faith in Iran until Islam almost completely extinguished it, both by sword, economic inequality, and brutal repression of Zoroastrian customs (unless they could be Islamicized like Nourouz).

This system of inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims persisted up to the colonial period, when it reversed. As a result of colonization, the segregated Dhimmi System gave way to a new, modern bureaucratic system where Europeans were the dominant class and natives, regardless of their religion were second-class, unless they became part of the bureaucracy. To do this, a person would require an education in order to become literate and be able to successfully perform functions in the Arab World. As Jews and Christians sought education, they were able to ascend the hierarchy and become relatively powerful compared to the Muslim majority. When the Islamic World became independent, only the Lebanese Christians were able to maintain this dominant position (and only until the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1991). In other countries, the end of colonization saw a brief rise in Anti-Semitism followed by a mass exodus of Jews from majority-Muslim countries for Israel, UK, France, the United States and Canada. Those Jews and Christians who remained garnered a more equal status than anything that they had previously had under Muslim leadership, but still are unequal in terms of their inability to proselytize, the unofficial "requirement" to avoid offending Islam in public, and the need to seek the authority of high government officials to build new houses of worship or to repair existing ones.

*Although Muslims also had to pay the kharaj in theory, in practice the tax rate for kharaj on Muslims was slight compared to the amount required by the Dhimmi peoples.

Answer 4

Pro-Ottoman Answer

Ottomans showed mercy and tolerant against non-Muslims. In Ottoman territories, Muslim, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. also, Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Bulgarians, Greeks, Macedonians, Serbians, Bosnians, Hungarians, etc.. existed together. Europeans have accused of the Ottomans of issues against this logic. Ottomans have never done a Holocaust and or forced assimilation against other nations.

Pro-Dhimmi Answer

Non-Muslims who lived in the Ottoman Empire were called Dhimmi, or second-class citizens. They lacked a number of fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of settlement, access to all occupations, and additional taxation because they were Non-Muslim. Each Dhimmi group, like the Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and so forth were organized into Millets which were community representative groups. Each Millet would report to a centralized Millet representative in Istanbul who would have direct dealing with the Imperial Palace. This would allow the Millets to air their grievances, but was more often used as a method to control the Millets and make them less resistive to Ottoman Occupation.

Admittedly, life under the Ottomans was far superior to most contemporaneous Empires. Spain was by far a more religiously and culturally intolerant place during this period as were France and England.

As for the Ottomans not committing a genocide, this is blatantly incorrect. The transition between the Ottoman Empire and Turkey resulted in the Armenian Genocide (around 1.8 million killed) and the Greco-Turkish Population Swaps. Many Greeks in the Aegean cities like Smyrna (now Turkish Izmir) died en route to modern Greece and many Turks from the Peloponnesus (southern Greece) died en route to Turkey.

Finally, the Ottomans' most egregious crime was the policy of devşirme, where Christian families in the Balkans region had to submit to Ottoman soldiers stealing their children to bring to them to Istanbul where they would have no contact with their parents for years and be trained to be the elite Janissary Core and be converted to Islam. No Muslim was even allowed to join the Janissaries because the devşirme system was so effective in producing recruits loyal only to the Emperor because they feared him.

Another Answer

They enjoyed a great deal of religious tolerance but were forced to pay higher taxes.

Answer 5

Non-Muslims who lived in the Ottoman Empire were called Dhimmi, or second-class citizens. They lacked a number of fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of settlement, access to all occupations, and additional taxation because they were Non-Muslim. Each Dhimmi group, like the Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and so forth were organized into Millets which were community representative groups. Each Millet would report to a centralized Millet representative in Istanbul who would have direct dealing with the Imperial Palace. This would allow the Millets to air their grievances, but was more often used as a method to control the Millets and make them less resistive to Ottoman Occupation.

Admittedly, life under the Ottomans was far superior to most contemporaneous Empires. Spain was by far a more religiously and culturally intolerant place during this period as were France and England.

Finally, the Ottomans' most egregious crime was the policy of devşirme, where Christian families in the Balkans region had to submit to Ottoman soldiers stealing their children to bring to them to Istanbul where they would have no contact with their parents for years and be trained to be the elite Janissary Core and be converted to Islam. No Muslim was even allowed to join the Janissaries, because the devşirme system was so effective in producing recruits loyal only to the Emperor because they feared him.