104 Makīn, p. 12. J. Labourt: Le Christianisme sous la dynastie sassanide, p. 139 sq. (Paris, 1904.) ↑
106 Von Kremer well remarks: “Wir verdanken dem unermüdlichen Sammelfleiss der arabischen Chronisten unsere Kenntniss der politischen und militärischen Geschichte jener Zeiten, welche so genau ist als dies nur immer auf eine Entfernung von zwölf Jahrhunderten der Fall sein kann; allein gerade die innere Geschichte jener denkwürdigen Epoche, die Geschichte des Kampfes einer neuen, rohen Religion gegen die alten hochgebildeten, zum Theile überbildeten Culte ist kaum in ihren allgemeinsten Umrissen bekannt.” (Von Kremer (2), pp. 1–2.) ↑
109 Cf. in addition to the passages quoted below, MʻClintoch & Strong’s Cyclopædia, sub art. Mohammedanism, vol. vi. p. 420. James Freeman Clarke: Ten Great Religions, Part ii. p. 75. (London, 1883.) ↑
110 Thus the Emperor Heraclius is represented by the Muhammadan historian as saying, “Their religion is a new religion which gives them new zeal.” (Ṭabarī, p. 2103.) ↑
114 For the oppressive fiscal system under the Byzantine empire, see Gfrörer: Byzantinische Geschichten, vol. ii. pp. 337–9, 389–91, 450. ↑
115 “Der Islam war ein Rückstoss gegen den Missbrauch, welchen Justinian mit der Menschheit, besonders aber mit der christlichen Religion trieb, deren oberstes geistliches und weltliches Haupt er zu sein behauptete. Dass der Araber Mahomed, welcher 571 der christlichen Zeitrechnung, sechs Jahre nach dem Tode Justinians, das Licht der Welt erblickte, mit seiner Lehre unerhörtes Glück machte, verdankte er grossentheils dem Abscheu, welchen die im Umkreise des byzantinischen Reiches angesessenen Völker, wie die benachbarten Nationen, über die von dem Basileus begangenen Greuel empfanden.” (Gfrörer: Byzantinische Geschichten, vol. ii. p. 437.) ↑
122 Among the Muʻtazilite philosophers, Muḥammad b. al-Huzayl, the teacher of al-Maʼmūn, is said to have converted more than three thousand persons to Islam. (Aḥmad b. Yaḥyạ̄ b. al-Murtaḍạ̄, p. 26, l. 7.) ↑
123 Von Kremer (2), pp. 3, 7–8. C. H. Becker: Christliche Polemik und islamische Dogmenbildung (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xxvi. 1912). ↑
126 Michael the Elder, vol. ii. pp. 412–13. Caetani, vol. v. p. 508. (“Le vittorie sui Greci e sui Persiani non solamente erano il trionfo della razza araba sulle popolazioni delle provincie conquistate, ma nella mente orientale che vede in tutto la mano di Dio, costituivano un trionfo del principio islamico su quello cristiano e mazdeista, ma sovrattutto sul cristiano.”) ↑
128 The last of these was prompted by the discovery of an attempt on the part of the Christians to burn the city of Cairo. (De Guignes, vol. iv. pp. 204–5.) Gottheil, p. 359, Journal Asiatique, IVme série, tome xviii. (1851), pp. 454, 455, 463, 484, 491. ↑
136 This tradition appears in several forms, e.g. “Whoever wrongs one with whom a compact has been made (i.e. a d͟himmī) and lays on him a burden beyond his strength, I will be his accuser.” (Balād͟hurī, p. 162, fin.) (Yaḥyā b. Ādam, p. 54 (fin.), adds the words, “till the day of judgment.”) “Whoever does violence to a d͟himmī who has paid his jizyah and evidenced his submission—his enemy am I.” (Usd al-G͟hāba, quoted by Goldziher, in the Jewish Encyclopædia, vol. vi. p. 655.) The Christian historian al-Makīn (p. 11) gives, “Whoever torments the d͟himmīs, torments me.” ↑
137 Journal Asiatique, IVme série, tome xix. p. 109. (Paris, 1852.) See also R. Gottheil: A Fetwa on the appointment of D͟himmīs to office. (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, vol. xxvi. p. 203 sqq.) ↑
141 Mārī b. Sulaymān (p. 115, ll. 1–2) offers this explanation of the defections that followed the persecution towards the close of the tenth century: واسلم خلق كثير وكان اصل ذلك تجوّز الناس في اديانہم وقبح سيرة الكہنة في المذبح والبيع ونيوت المقدس ↑
142 The Caliph of Egypt, al-Ḥākim (A.D. 996–1020), did in fact order all the Jews and Christians to leave Egypt and emigrate into the Byzantine territory, but yielded to their entreaties to revoke his orders. (Maqrīzī (1), p. 91.) It would have been quite possible, however, for him to have enforced its execution as it would have been for the ferocious Salīm I (1512–1520), who with the design of putting an end to all religious differences in his dominions caused 40,000 Shīʻahs to be massacred, to have completed this politic scheme by the extermination of the Christians also. But in allowing himself to be dissuaded from this design, he most certainly acted in accordance with the general policy adopted by Muhammadan rulers towards their Christian subjects. (Finlay, vol. v. pp. 29–30.) ↑
150 The sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 may be taken as a type of the treatment that the Eastern Christians met with at the hands of the Latins. Barhebræus complains that the monastery of Harran was sacked and plundered by Count Goscelin, Lord of Emessa, in 1184, just as though he had been a Saracen or a Turk. (Barhebræus (1), vol. ii. pp. 506–8.) ↑
164 Risālah ʻAbd Allāh b. Ismāʻīl al-Hāshimī ilạ̄ ʻAbd al-Masīḥ b. Isḥāq al-Kindī, pp. 1–37. (London, 1885.) ↑
168 It is very probable that the occasion of this visit of Yazdānbak͟ht to Bag͟hdād was the summoning of a great assembly of the leaders of all the religious bodies of the period, by al-Maʼmūn, when it had come to his ears that the enemies of Islam declared that it owed its success to the sword and not to the power of argument: in this meeting, the Muslim doctors defended their religion against this imputation, and the unbelievers are said to have acknowledged that the Muslims had satisfactorily proved their point. (Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. al-Murtaḍạ̄: Al-munyah wa’l-amal fī sharḥ kitāb al-milal wa’l-niḥal. British Museum, Or. 3937, fol. 53 (b), ll. 9–11.) ↑
174 All the Jacobite Patriarchs assumed the name of Ignatius; before his consecration he was called Mark bar Qīqī. ↑
175 Barhebræus (1), vol. iii. pp. 288–90. Elias of Nisibis, pp. 153–4. He returned to the Christian faith, however, before his death, which took place about twenty years later. Two similar cases are recorded in the annals of the Jacobite Patriarchs of Antioch in the sixteenth century: of these one, named Joshua, became a Muhammadan in 1517, but afterwards recanting fled to Cyprus (at that time in the hands of the Venetians), where prostrate at the door of a church in penitential humility he suffered all who went in or out to tread over his body; the other, Niʻmat Allāh (flor. 1560), having abjured Christianity for Islam, sought absolution of Pope Gregory XIII in Rome. (Barhebræus (1), vol. ii. pp. 847–8.) ↑
176 In fact Elias of Nisibis, the contemporary chronicler of the conversion of the Jacobite Patriarch, makes no mention of such a failing, nor does Mārī b. Sulaymān (pp. 115–16), the historian of the rival Nestorian Church, [87]though he accuses him of plundering the sacred vessels and ornaments of the churches. As Wright (Syriac Literature, p. 192) says of Joseph of Merv, “We need not believe all the evil that Barhebræus tells us of this unhappy man.” ↑
181 Odo de Diogilo. (De Ludovici vii. Itinere. Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. cxcv. p. 1243.) “Vitantes igitur sibi crudeles socios fidei, inter infideles sibi compatientes ibant securi, et sicut audivimus plusquam tria millia iuvenum sunt illis recedentibus sociati. O pietas omni proditione crudelior! Dantes panem fidem tollebant, quamvis certum sit quia, contenti servitio, neminem negare cogebant.” ↑
185 Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois. (Recueil des historiens des Croisades, Assises de Jérusalem, tome ii. p. 325.) ↑