Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude
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The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude is a book by historian and expert on Islamic culture Bat Ye'or. In the book the author describes her interpretation of the waning of the Eastern Christendom under the Islamic empire's conquests.[1]
Bat Yeor described her book as "In this study, I tried to analyze the numerous processes that had transformed rich, powerful Christian civilizations into Islamic lands and their long-term effects, which had reduced native Christian majorities into scattered small religious minorities, now slowly disappearing. This complex Islamization process of Christian lands and civilizations on both shores of the Mediterannean - and in Irak and Armenia - I have called: the process of "dhimmitude" and the civilization of those peoples who underwent such transformation, I have named the civilization of "dhimmitude". [2]
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[edit] Quotes
- After the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, they came under the dhimma, a treaty of submission for each people conquered by jihad.
- The infidels who submit to Islamic rulers are given a pledge of security to protect them from the rules of jihad, so long as they accept a condition of humiliation and of total inferiority to Muslims.
- Islam does not emancipate the dhimmis (religious minorities) nor recognize that jihad and dhimmitude are evil institutions. In fact, they say those are good institutions. They do not recognize the evil in their own history.
- Islam presents an idealistic version of itself that is not reality.
- Islam started in 622 and in 640, the Jews and Christians were expelled from Arabia.
- What the Islamists call Islamic territory today was all Christian territory from Portugal to Armenia before 632 A.D., when the conquest began.
- They say Jesus was a Muslim and that the true Bible teaches Islam. It's a replacement theology they have toward Jews and Christians.
[edit] Reviews
Sidney H. Griffith writes that:
- They [the documents used as sources] are presented out of context with no analysis or explanation.
- The trouble with The Decline of Eastern Christianity is that in spite of the gathering of an enormous amount of historical material, and in spite of the fact that she has raised an issue that well deserves study, Bat Ye'or has written a polemical tract, not responsible historical analysis.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Griffith, Sidney H. The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, Seventh-Twentieth Century International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4. (Nov., 1998), pp. 619-621.
