Economic self-interest, not theology alone, drove Muslim rulers toward religious tolerance.

Evidence

It is a licit—indeed holy—part of the Muslim’s spiritual struggle (jihad) to expand the domain of Islam by war. The Christian and Jew may be forced to submit to the paying of a poll tax (jizya) from which Muslims are exempt: thus they acceded to the status of dhimmi, protected minorities This would help encourage Muslim rulers to be tolerant, for it was more lucrative for them to have dhimmi subjects than Muslim ones. Yet the dhimmi was a second-class subject, meant to “pay tribute” and be “utterly subdued.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 258

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the reader’s interest in how material incentives shape seemingly ideological regimes — similar to the silk/cotton trade incentives discussed in the dress moral panics context.
• SHARE: The point that dhimmi taxation made tolerance lucrative is a sharp, counterintuitive tidbit for a friend interested in medieval economics or interfaith relations.