Medieval Islamic world divided humanity into dar al-Islam and dar al-harb

Evidence

This Sûra is from the Medinese period, when Muslims were fighting to dominate Christian tribes in the northern Arabian peninsula. It is be used to justify war against Christian states (in particular the Byzantine empire). Muslims came to see the world as divided in two: the dâr al-Islam, the world of Islam, and dar al-harb, the domain of war. 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

• DEFINE: Defines dar al-Islam, dar al-harb, jizya, dhimmi jihad — the core medieval juristic vocabulary of the Islamic-Christian frontier.