the Mahdi will come and supplant Islam too.[1] Meanwhile it is the last and at present the true revelation. The People of the Book then are those who still follow one of the older revelations given before Islam, that is Jews and Christians, each of whom have a book to show for their belief.[2] And these Kitabis are not to be persecuted. "Fight those who do not believe in God and in the day of judgement (the Kafirs) … and those who have received the book shall pay you a poll-tax and be subject to you " (Sura ix. 29). The Kitabis were originally called Dhimmis ("protected ones") by the Arabs; the Turks call them Rayahs (Ra‘iyyah, Flock). They have to pay a poll-tax and a land-tax, they may not serve in the army. To convert a Moslem to their faith or seduce a Moslem woman, to speak openly against Islam, to make any treaty or alliance with people outside the Moslem Empire, is punished with death. The Rayahs must also dress differently from Moslems, may not have as high houses as their masters, nor expose any sign of their faith (crosses) outside their churches, nor ring church bells, nor bear arms, nor ride a saddled horse. A Rayah's evidence cannot be accepted in a court of law against a Moslem. If they obey these laws they are not to be in any way annoyed or molested; they may keep all their other customs and social arrangements, and are quite free with regard to their religion.[3] Of course any Rayah may always accept Islam and thus enter the governing race; if he does so it is death to go back. These, then, were the conditions imposed upon all Christians and Jews by the Turks.[4]
- ↑ Or rather perfect Islam. The Sunni view of the Mahdi's office is ahnost exactly the same as the Christian view of our Lord's attitude towards the old law. The Shiah (Persian and heretical) Mahdi is to be simply the long-lost 12th Imam come out of hiding at last. See J. Darmesteter: Le Mahdi (Paris, 1885). Every Moslem pretender, usurper, rebel or reformer at once says he is the Mahdi.
- ↑ Afterwards the Persian Zoroastrians (Parsis) were recognized as Kitabis too, and their founder was added to the list of true prophets before Mohammed.
- ↑ Their clergy were even exempt from the poll-tax. In Turkey the inevitable influence of Western ideas during the last century modified many of these rules.
- ↑ For Moslem law on all these points see e.gr. H. Grimme: Mohammed, II Einleitung in den Koran (Münster, 1895), passim, also E. V. Mulinen: Die latein. Kirche im Türk. Reich, pp. 1–4.
