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92-764: In the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the Muslim dhimmi system, Greek Christians were guaranteed limited freedoms (such as the right to worship), but were treated as second-class citizens . Christians and Jews were not considered equals to Muslims : testimony against Muslims by Christians and Jews was inadmissible in courts of law. They were forbidden to carry weapons or ride atop horses , their houses could not overlook those of Muslims, and their religious practices would have to defer to those of Muslims, in addition to various other legal limitations. Violation of these statutes could result in punishments ranging from

184-859: A Jew could not marry a Christian woman under pain of death". Lewis states Orthodoxy#Christianity Orthodoxy (from Greek : ὀρθοδοξία , orthodoxía , 'righteous/correct opinion') is adherence to correct or accepted creeds , especially in religion . Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity , but different Churches accept different creeds and councils. Such differences of opinion have developed for numerous reasons, including language and cultural barriers. Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy are sometimes referred to simply as "Orthodoxy". In some English-speaking countries, Jews who adhere to all

276-543: A Jewish or Christian dhimmī woman, who may keep her own religion (though her children were automatically considered Muslims and had to be raised as such), but a Muslim woman cannot marry a dhimmī man unless he converts to Islam. Dhimmīs are prohibited from converting Muslims under severe penalties, while Muslims are encouraged to convert dhimmīs. Payment of the jizya obligated Muslim authorities to protect dhimmis in civil and military matters. Sura 9 ( At-Tawba ), verse 29 stipulates that jizya be exacted from non-Muslims as

368-547: A certain lordly tolerance so long as they keep their place. Any sign of pretension to equality is promptly repressed." Jews and Christians living under early Muslim rule were considered dhimmis, a status that was later also extended to other non-Muslims like Hindus and Buddhists. They were allowed to "freely practice their religion, and to enjoy a large measure of communal autonomy" and guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying tribute and acknowledging Muslim rule. Islamic law and custom prohibited

460-484: A condition required for jihad to cease. Islamic jurists required adult, free, healthy males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya, while exempting women, children, the elderly, slaves, those affected by mental or physical handicaps, and travelers who did not settle in Muslim lands. According to Abu Yusuf dhimmi should be imprisoned until they pay the jizya in full. Other jurists specified that dhimmis who don't pay jizya should have their heads shaved and made to wear

552-418: A critical factor that drove many dhimmis to leave their religion and accept Islam. However, in some regions the jizya on populations was significantly lower than the zakat, meaning dhimmi populations maintained an economic advantage. According to Cohen, taxation, from the perspective of dhimmis who came under Muslim rule, was "a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes". Lewis observes that

644-402: A dress distinctive from those dhimmis who paid the jizya and Muslims. Lewis states there are varying opinions among scholars as to how much of a burden jizya was. According to Norman Stillman : " jizya and kharaj were a "crushing burden for the non-Muslim peasantry who eked out a bare living in a subsistence economy." Both agree that ultimately, the additional taxation on non-Muslims was

736-634: A manner not conspicuous to Muslims. Loud prayers were forbidden, as were the ringing of church bells and the blowing of the shofar . They were also not allowed to build or repair churches and synagogues without Muslim consent. Moreover, dhimmis were not allowed to seek converts among Muslims. In the Mamluk Egypt, where non-Mamluk Muslims were not allowed to ride horses and camels, dhimmis were prohibited even from riding donkeys inside cities. Sometimes, Muslim rulers issued regulations requiring dhimmis to attach distinctive signs to their houses. Most of

828-432: A period of several centuries to try to formalize these doctrines. The most significant of these early decisions was that between the homoousian doctrine of Athanasius and Eustathius (which became Trinitarianism ) and the heteroousian doctrine of Arius and Eusebius of Nicomedia ( Arianism ). The homoousian doctrine, which defined Jesus as both God and man with the canons of the 431 Council of Ephesus , won out in

920-455: A poll tax". "Muslim governments appointed Christian and Jewish professionals to their bureaucracies", and thus, Christians and Jews "contributed to the making of the Islamic civilization". However, dhimmis faced social and symbolic restrictions, and a pattern of stricter, then more lax, enforcement developed over time. Marshall Hodgson , a historian of Islam, writes that during the era of

1012-758: A primary importance and occupied this key role among the Christians of the Ottoman Empire because the Ottomans did not legally distinguish between nationality and religion, and thus regarded all the Orthodox Christians of the Empire as a single entity. The position of the Patriarchate in the Ottoman state encouraged projects of Greek renaissance, centered on the resurrection and revitalization of

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1104-549: A problem could be referred to as unorthodox , while a common and 'normal' mainstream way of solving a problem might be referred to as orthodox . The concept of orthodoxy pre-supposes some degree of agreed cultural standardisation - a system of social norms - whereby opinion can distinguish "correct" belief or doctrine from their "incorrect" equivalents. Where world-views or religious sentiment have not developed standardised, generally accepted systems of thought, orthodoxy cannot take root. The development of writing facilitated

1196-532: A result of the ensuing drives for independence and modernity in the Muslim world. Muslim states, sects, schools of thought and individuals differ as to exactly what sharia law entails. In addition, Muslim states today utilize a spectrum of legal systems. Most states have a mixed system that implements certain aspects of sharia while acknowledging the supremacy of a constitution. A few, such as Turkey, have declared themselves secular. Local and customary laws may take precedence in certain matters, as well. Islamic law

1288-536: A source of revenue for the Rashidun Caliphate is illustrated in a letter ascribed to Umar I and cited by Abu Yusuf: "if we take dhimmis and share them out, what will be left for the Muslims who come after us? By God, Muslims would not find a man to talk to and profit from his labors." The early Islamic scholars took a relatively humane and practical attitude towards the collection of jizya , compared to

1380-680: A treaty was drafted between Muhammad and his Jewish subjects, known as kitāb ḏimmat al-nabi , written in the 17th year of the Hijra (638 CE), which gave express liberty to the Jews living in Arabia to observe the Sabbath and to grow-out their side-locks, but required them to pay the jizya (poll-tax) annually for their protection. Muslim governments in the Indus basin readily extended the dhimmi status to

1472-406: Is Sanatana Dharma , but which at best can be translated to mean "ageless traditions", hence denoting that they are accepted not through doctrine and force but through multi-generational tests of adoption and retention based on circumstantial attrition through millennia. Still, the concepts of āstika and nāstika of Indian philosophy are quite similar to orthodoxy and heterodoxy respectively,

1564-587: Is also used to cover both full heresies and minor errors. Doctrine or practices not regarded as essential to faith, with which Christians can legitimately disagree, are known as adiaphora . The concept of orthodoxy is prevalent in many forms of organized monotheism . However, orthodox belief is not usually overly emphasized in polytheistic or animist religions, in which there is often little or no concept of dogma , and varied interpretations of doctrine and theology are tolerated and sometimes even encouraged within certain contexts. Syncretism , for example, plays

1656-431: Is an integral part of traditional Islamic law. From the 9th century AD, the power to interpret and refine law in traditional Islamic societies was in the hands of the scholars ( ulama ). This separation of powers served to limit the range of actions available to the ruler, who could not easily decree or reinterpret law independently and expect the continued support of the community. Through succeeding centuries and empires,

1748-456: Is not a centralized denomination. Relations between its different subgroups are sometimes strained and the exact limits of Orthodoxy are subject to intense debate. Very roughly, it may be divided between Haredi Judaism , which is more conservative and reclusive, and Modern Orthodox Judaism , which is relatively open to outer society. Each of those is itself formed of independent streams. They are almost uniformly exclusionist, regarding Orthodoxy as

1840-442: Is said that the dhimmi are 'excluded from the specifically Muslim privileges, but on the other hand they are excluded from the specifically Muslim duties' while (and here there are clear parallels with western public and private law treatment of aliens—Fremdenrecht, la condition de estrangers), '[f]or the rest, the Muslim and the dhimmi are equal in practically the whole of the law of property and of contracts and obligations'." Quoting

1932-411: Is therefore polynormative, and despite several cases of regression in recent years, the trend is towards liberalization. Questions of human rights and the status of minorities cannot be generalized with regards to the Muslim world. They must instead be examined on a case-by-case basis, within specific political and cultural contexts, using perspectives drawn from the historical framework. The status of

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2024-600: Is to be sought…only among those who are called Catholic or orthodox Christians, that is, guardians of truth and followers of right." Over time, the Western Church gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of Western Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label with the Eastern Church (in some languages the "Catholic" label is not necessarily identified with the Western Church). This

2116-399: The zakat , or obligatory alms, paid by the Muslim subjects. Dhimmi were exempt from military service and other duties assigned specifically to Muslims if they paid the poll tax ( jizya ) but were otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation. Historically, dhimmi status was originally applied to Jews , Christians , and Sabians , who are considered " People of

2208-753: The Byzantine Empire . The Patriarch and those church dignitaries around him constituted the first centre of power for the Greeks inside the Ottoman state, one which succeeded in infiltrating the structures of the Ottoman Empire , while attracting the former Byzantine nobility. The Greeks were a self-conscious group within the larger Christian Orthodox religious community established by the Ottoman Empire. They distinguished themselves from their Orthodox co-religionists by retaining their Greek culture, customs, language, and tradition of education. Throughout

2300-691: The Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856 ( Ottoman Turkish : خط همايونى , romanized :  Hatt-i Humayan ) was issued, building upon the 1839 edict. It came about partly as a result of pressure from and the efforts of the ambassadors of France , Austria and the United Kingdom , whose respective countries were needed as allies in the Crimean War . It again proclaimed the principle of equality between Muslims and non-Muslims, and produced many specific reforms to this end. For example,

2392-819: The Pact of Umar . Under Sharia , the dhimmi communities were usually governed by their own laws in place of some of the laws applicable to the Muslim community . For example, the Jewish community of Medina was allowed to have its own Halakhic courts , and the Ottoman millet system allowed its various dhimmi communities to rule themselves under separate legal courts . These courts did not cover cases that involved religious groups outside of their own communities, or capital offences. Dhimmi communities were also allowed to engage in certain practices that were usually forbidden for

2484-737: The Tanzimat reforms to improve the situation of non-Muslims, although these would prove largely ineffective. In 1856, the Hatt-ı Hümayun promised equality for all Ottoman citizens irrespective of their ethnicity and confession, widening the scope of the 1839 Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane . The reformist period peaked with the Constitution, (or Kanûn-ı Esâsî in Ottoman Turkish), which was promulgated on November 23, 1876. It established freedom of belief and equality of all citizens before

2576-561: The dhimmi "was for long accepted with resignation by the Christians and with gratitude by the Jews" but the rising power of Christendom and the radical ideas of the French Revolution caused a wave of discontent among Christian dhimmis. The continuing and growing pressure from the European powers combined with pressure from Muslim reformers gradually relaxed the inequalities between Muslims and non-Muslims. On 18 February 1856,

2668-684: The dhimmi communities living in Islamic states usually had their own laws independent from the sharia law, as with the Jews who would have their own rabbinical courts . These courts did not cover cases that involved other religious groups, or capital offences or threats to public order. By the 18th century, however, dhimmi frequently attended the Ottoman Muslim courts, where cases were taken against them by Muslims, or they took cases against Muslims or other dhimmi . Oaths sworn by dhimmi in these courts were tailored to their beliefs. Non-Muslims were allowed to engage in certain practices (such as

2760-605: The jizya tax was abolished and non-Muslims were allowed to join the army. According to some scholars, discrimination against dhimmis did not end with the Edict of 1856, and they remained second-class citizens at least until the end of World War I. H.E.W. Young, the British Council in Mosul, wrote in 1909, "The attitude of the Muslims toward the Christians and the Jews is that of a master towards slaves, whom he treats with

2852-565: The medieval Islamic world and medieval Christian Europe , Mark R. Cohen notes that, in contrast to Jews in Christian Europe, the "Jews in Islam were well integrated into the economic life of the larger society", and that they were allowed to practice their religion more freely than they could do in Christian Europe. According to the scholar Mordechai Zaken, tribal chieftains (also known as aghas) in tribal Muslim societies such as

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2944-626: The orthodox designation as a symbol of their theological traditions. Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism , which began in 1580 from the writing of the Book of Concord and ended at the Age of Enlightenment . Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation . Lutheran scholasticism

3036-488: The 11th century commentators writing when Islam was under threat both at home and abroad. The jurist Abu Yusuf, the chief judge of the caliph Harun al-Rashid , rules as follows regarding the manner of collecting the jizya No one of the people of the dhimma should be beaten in order to exact payment of the jizya, nor made to stand in the hot sun, nor should hateful things be inflicted upon their bodies, or anything of that sort. Rather they should be treated with leniency. In

3128-509: The 16th century, India came under the influence of the Mughals . Babur , the first ruler of the Mughal empire, established a foothold in the north which paved the way for further expansion by his successors. Although the Mughal emperor Akbar has been described as a universalist, most Mughal emperors were oppressive of native Hindu, Buddhist and later Sikh populations. Aurangzeb specifically

3220-760: The Book " in Islamic theology . Later, this status was also applied to Zoroastrians , Sikhs , Hindus , Jains , and Buddhists . Jews, Christians and others were required to pay the jizyah , and forced conversions were forbidden. During the rule of al-Mutawakkil , the tenth Abbasid Caliph , numerous restrictions reinforced the second-class citizen status of dhimmīs and forced their communities into ghettos. For instance, they were required to distinguish themselves from their Muslim neighbors by their dress. They were not permitted to build new churches or synagogues or repair old churches without Muslim consent according to

3312-474: The Book ", and afforded a special legal status known as dhimmi derived from a theoretical contract—"dhimma" or "residence in return for taxes". Islamic legal systems based on sharia law incorporated the religious laws and courts of Christians , Jews , and Hindus , as seen in the early caliphate , al-Andalus , Indian subcontinent , and the Ottoman Millet system. In Yemenite Jewish sources,

3404-622: The Byzantine Greeks." In some places, for example Egypt, the jizya was a tax incentive for Christians to convert to Islam. Some scholars have tried compute the relative taxation on Muslims vs non-Muslims in the early Abbasid period. According to one estimate, Muslims had an average tax rate of 17–20 dirhams per person, which rose to 30 dirhams per person when in kind levies are included. Non-Muslims paid either 12, 24 or 48 dirhams per person, depending on their taxation category, though most probably paid 12. The importance of dhimmis as

3496-474: The Christians among them, were not considered equals to Muslims and several prohibitions were placed on them. Their testimony against Muslims was inadmissible in courts of law wherein a Muslim could be punished; this meant that their testimony could only be considered in commercial cases. They were forbidden to carry weapons or ride atop horses and camels. Their houses could not overlook those of Muslims; and their religious practices were severely circumscribed (e.g.,

3588-748: The Church and was referred to as orthodoxy in most Christian contexts, since this was the viewpoint of previous Christian Church Fathers and was reaffirmed at these councils. (The minority of nontrinitarian Christians object to this terminology.) Following the 1054 Great Schism , both the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church continued to consider themselves uniquely orthodox and catholic . Augustine wrote in On True Religion : "Religion

3680-640: The Crusaders than had been expected. When the Arab East came under Ottoman rule in the 16th century, Christian populations and fortunes rebounded significantly. The Ottomans had long experience dealing with Christian and Jewish minorities, and were more tolerant towards religious minorities than the former Muslim rulers, the Mamluks of Egypt . However, Christians living under Islamic rule have suffered certain legal disadvantages and at times persecution . In

3772-734: The High Caliphate (7th–13th Centuries), zealous Shariah-minded Muslims gladly elaborated their code of symbolic restrictions on the dhimmis. From an Islamic legal perspective, the pledge of protection granted dhimmis the freedom to practice their religion and spared them forced conversions . The dhimmis also served a variety of useful purposes, mostly economic, which was another point of concern to jurists. Religious minorities were free to do whatever they wished in their own homes, but could not "publicly engage in illicit sex in ways that threaten public morals". In some cases, religious practices that Muslims found repugnant were allowed. One example

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3864-467: The Hindus and Buddhists of India. Eventually, the largest school of Islamic jurisprudence applied this term to all Non-Muslims living in Muslim lands outside the sacred area surrounding Mecca , Arabia . In medieval Islamic societies, the qadi (Islamic judge) usually could not interfere in the matters of non-Muslims unless the parties voluntarily chose to be judged according to Islamic law, thus

3956-545: The India. It is a record of the accepted teachings of each of thousands of gurus , who others equate to prophets, and has no founder, no authority or command, but recommendations. The term most equivalent to orthodoxy at best has the meaning of "commonly accepted" traditions rather than the usual meaning of "conforming to a doctrine", for example, what people of middle eastern faiths attempt to equate as doctrine in Hindu philosophies

4048-788: The Islamic Madhhabs regarding which non-Muslims can pay jizya and have dhimmi status. The Hanafi and Maliki Madhabs generally allow non-Muslims to have dhimmi status. In contrast, the Shafi'i and Hanbali Madhabs only allow Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians to have dhimmi status, and they maintain that all other non-Muslims must either convert to Islam or be fought. Based on Quranic verses and Islamic traditions, sharia law distinguishes between Muslims, followers of other Abrahamic religions , and Pagans or people belonging to other polytheistic religions. As monotheists , Jews and Christians have traditionally been considered " People of

4140-522: The Jewish dhimmis living under the caliphate, while allowed fewer rights than Muslims, were still better off than in the Christian parts of Europe. Jews from other parts of Europe made their way to al-Andalus , where in parallel to Christian sects regarded as heretical by Catholic Europe, they were not just tolerated, but where opportunities to practice faith and trade were open without restriction save for

4232-473: The Jews who had their own Halakhic courts . The dhimmi communities had their own leaders, courts, personal and religious laws, and "generally speaking, Muslim tolerance of unbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom, until the rise of secularism in the 17th century". "Muslims guaranteed freedom of worship and livelihood, provided that they remained loyal to the Muslim state and paid

4324-695: The Kurdish society in Kurdistan would tax their Jewish subjects. The Jews were in fact civilians protected by their chieftains in and around their communities; in return they paid part of their harvest as dues, and contributed their skills and services to their patron chieftain. By the 10th century, the Turks of Central Asia had invaded the Indic plains , and spread Islam in Northwestern parts of India. At

4416-456: The Muslim community, such as the consumption of alcohol and pork . Some Muslims reject the dhimma system by arguing that it is a system which is inappropriate in the age of nation-states and democracies. There is a range of opinions among 20th-century and contemporary Islamic theologians about whether the notion of dhimma is appropriate for modern times, and, if so, what form it should take in an Islamic state. There are differences among

4508-414: The Muslim courts in order to record property and business transactions within their own communities. Cases were taken out against Muslims, against other dhimmis and even against members of the dhimmi's own family. Dhimmis often took cases relating to marriage, divorce or inheritance to the Muslim courts so these cases would be decided under sharia law. Oaths sworn by dhimmis in the Muslim courts were sometimes

4600-472: The Muslim regime, and because the rapidity and the territorial scope of the Muslim conquests imposed upon them a reduction in persecution and a granting of better possibility for the survival of members of other faiths in their lands. According to the French historian Claude Cahen , Islam has "shown more toleration than Europe towards the Jews who remained in Muslim lands." Comparing the treatment of Jews in

4692-529: The Ottoman Empire in Asia Minor had 2,300 community schools, 200,000 students, 5,000 teachers, 2,000 Greek Orthodox churches, and 3,000 Greek Orthodox priests. From 1914 until 1923, Greeks in Thrace and Asia Minor were subject to a campaign including massacres and internal deportations involving death marches. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) recognizes it as genocide and refers to

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4784-589: The Ottoman Empire's Orthodox subjects. The three major European powers, the United Kingdom, France and Russia (known as the Great Powers), took issue with the Ottoman Empire's treatment of its Christian population and increasingly pressured the Ottoman government (also known as the Sublime Porte ) to extend equal rights to all its citizens. Beginning in 1839, the Ottoman government implemented

4876-425: The Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the dhimmi system implemented in Muslim countries, they, like all other Christians and also Jews, were accorded certain freedoms. The dhimmi system in the Ottoman Empire was largely based upon the Pact of Umar . The client status established the rights of the non-Muslims to property, livelihood and freedom of worship but they were in essence treated as second-class citizens in

4968-517: The Qur'anic statement, "Let Christians judge according to what We have revealed in the Gospel", Muhammad Hamidullah writes that Islam decentralized and "communalized" law and justice. However, the classical dhimma contract is no longer enforced. Western influence over the Muslim world has been instrumental in eliminating the restrictions and protections of the dhimma contract. The dhimma contract

5060-518: The Sultan and replaced him with the ineffective Sultan Mehmed V (r. 1908–1918). Before World War I, there were an estimated 1.8 million Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire . Some prominent Ottoman Greeks served as parliamentary deputies. In the 1908 Parliament, there were twenty-six (26) Ottoman Greek deputies but their number dropped to eighteen (18) by 1914. It is estimated that the Greek population of

5152-565: The aid of the Christians of Palestine . The subsequent Crusades brought Roman Catholic Christians into contact with Orthodox Christians whose beliefs they discovered to differ from their own perhaps more than they had realized, and whose position under the rule of the Muslim Fatimid Caliphate was less uncomfortable than had been supposed. Consequently, the Eastern Christians provided perhaps less support to

5244-762: The balance between the ulema and the rulers shifted and reformed, but the balance of power was never decisively changed. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution introduced an era of European world hegemony that included the domination of most of the Muslim lands. At the end of the Second World War , the European powers found themselves too weakened to maintain their empires. The wide variety in forms of government, systems of law, attitudes toward modernity and interpretations of sharia are

5336-556: The border provinces, dhimmis were sometimes recruited for military operations. In such cases, they were exempted from jizya for the year of service. Religious pluralism existed in medieval Islamic law and ethics . The religious laws and courts of other religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, were usually accommodated within the Islamic legal framework, as exemplified in the Caliphate , Al-Andalus , Ottoman Empire and Indian subcontinent. In medieval Islamic societies,

5428-728: The campaign as the Greek Genocide . After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the Sultan virtually replaced the Byzantine emperor among subjugated Christians, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was recognized by the Sultan as the religious and national leader ( ethnarch ) of Greeks and the other ethnicities that were included in the Greek Orthodox Millet . The Patriarchate earned

5520-406: The change from Byzantine to Arab rule was welcomed by many among the dhimmis who found the new yoke far lighter than the old, both in taxation and in other matters, and that some, even among the Christians of Syria and Egypt, preferred the rule of Islam to that of Byzantines. Montgomery Watt states, "the Christians were probably better off as dhimmis under Muslim-Arab rulers than they had been under

5612-571: The collection of taxes. The conquered Christian, Jewish, Mazdean and Buddhist communities were otherwise left to lead their lives as before. According to historians Lewis and Stillman, local Christians in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt were non-Chalcedonians and many may have felt better off under early Muslim rule than under that of the Byzantine Orthodox of Constantinople . In 1095, Pope Urban II urged western European Christians to come to

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5704-591: The commentaries such as the Visuddhimagga . Hence, the Theravada school came to be considered the most orthodox of all Buddhist schools, as it is known to be highly conservative especially within the discipline and practice of the Vinaya . In classical Christian use, the term orthodox refers to the set of doctrines which were believed by the early Christians . A series of ecumenical councils were held over

5796-525: The consumption of alcohol and pork) that were usually forbidden by Islamic law, in point of fact, any Muslim who pours away their wine or forcibly appropriates it is liable to pay compensation. Some Islamic theologians held that Zoroastrian " self-marriages ", considered incestuous under sharia , should also be tolerated. Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) opined that most scholars of the Hanbali school held that non-Muslims were entitled to such practices, as long as they were not presented to sharia courts and

5888-558: The context of religion, the term orthodoxy is often used to refer to any commonly held belief or set of beliefs in some field, in particular when these tenets - possibly referred to as " dogmas " - are being challenged. In this sense, the term "orthodox" can have a mildly pejorative connotation. Among various "orthodoxies" in distinctive fields, the most commonly used terms include: The terms orthodox and orthodoxy are also used more broadly by English-speakers to refer to things other than ideas and beliefs. A new and unusual way of solving

5980-399: The covenant") or muʿāhid ( معاهد ) is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligation under sharia to protect the individual's life, property, as well as freedom of religion, in exchange for loyalty to the state and payment of the jizya tax, in contrast to

6072-547: The empire and referred to in Turkish as gavours , a pejorative word meaning " infidel " or " unbeliever ". The clause of the Pact of Umar which prohibited non-Muslims from building new places of worship was historically imposed on some communities of the Ottoman Empire and ignored in other cases, at discretion of the local authorities. Although there were no laws mandating religious ghettos, this led to non-Muslim communities being clustered around existing houses of worship. In addition to other legal limitations, dhimmis, including

6164-451: The end of the 12th century, the Muslims advanced quickly into the Ganges Plain . In one decade, a Muslim army led by Turkic slaves consolidated resistance around Lahore and brought northern India, as far as Bengal , under Muslim rule. From these Turkic slaves would come sultans, including the founder of the sultanate of Delhi . By the 15th century, major parts of Northern India was ruled by Muslim rulers, mostly descended from invaders. In

6256-418: The enslavement of free dhimmis within lands under Islamic rule. Taxation from the perspective of dhimmis who came under the Muslim rule, was "a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes" (but much lower under the Muslim rule ). They were also exempted from the zakat tax paid by Muslims. The dhimmi communities living in Islamic states had their own laws independent from the Sharia law, such as

6348-409: The gradual canonisation of written scriptures and supra-national philosophies in the increasingly monotheistic Abrahamic Near East, but literacy traditions in South Asia and in East Asia did not prevent the growth of religious and political pluralism . Medieval Europe and the post-colonial West saw a turn - subsequently spreading elsewhere - to coercive interest in the belief -systems of

6440-446: The individual ( McCarthyism exemplifies a peak in this trend) and in their regulation or "correction" via social control - in the interests of ideological purity and state homogeneity. Orthodoxy is opposed to heterodoxy ('other teaching') or heresy . People who deviate from orthodoxy by professing a doctrine considered to be false are called heretics, while those who, perhaps without professing heretical beliefs, break from

6532-445: The law. On July 24, 1908, Greeks' hopes for equality in the Ottoman Empire brightened with the removal of Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II (r. 1876–1909) from power and restored the country back to a constitutional monarchy. The Committee of Union and Progress (more commonly called the Young Turks), a political party opposed to the absolute rule of Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II, had led a rebellion against their ruler. The pro-reform Young Turks deposed

6624-453: The levying of fines to execution . The Ecumenical Patriarch was recognized as the highest religious and political leader (millet-bashi, or ethnarch) of all Orthodox Christian subjects of the Sultan, though in certain periods some major powers, such as Russia (under the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774) or Great Britain , later the United Kingdom , claimed the rights of protection over

6716-505: The only authentic form of Judaism and rejecting all non-Orthodox interpretations as illegitimate. Kemetic Orthodoxy is a denomination of Kemetism , a reform reconstruction of Egyptian polytheism for modern followers. It claims to derive a spiritual lineage from the Ancient Egyptian religion . There are organizations of Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery) which characterize the religion as Orthodoxy and by other terms. Outside

6808-451: The perceived main body of believers are called schismatics . The term employed sometimes depends on the aspect most in view: if one is addressing corporate unity, the emphasis may be on schism; if one is addressing doctrinal coherence, the emphasis may be on heresy. A deviation lighter than heresy is commonly called error, in the sense of not being grave enough to cause total estrangement, while yet seriously affecting communion. Sometimes error

6900-425: The poll tax seems to have been regular, but other obligations were inconsistently enforced and did not prevent many non-Muslims from being important political, business, and scholarly figures. In the late ninth and early tenth centuries, Jewish bankers and financiers were important at the 'Abbasid court." The jurists and scholars of Islamic sharia law called for humane treatment of the dhimmis. A Muslim man may marry

6992-482: The post-Byzantine and Ottoman periods, Greeks, as members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, declared themselves as Graikoi (Greek: Γραικοί, "Greeks") and Romaioi or Romioi (Greek: Ρωμαίοι/Ρωμηιοί, "Romans"). Dhimmi Dhimmī ( Arabic : ذمي ḏimmī , IPA: [ˈðimmiː] , collectively أهل الذمة ʾahl aḏ-ḏimmah / dhimmah "the people of

7084-426: The practice in question is permissible according to their religion. This ruling was based on the precedent that Muhammad did not forbid such self-marriages among Zoroastrians despite coming in contact with them and having knowledge of their practices. The Arabs generally established garrisons outside towns in the conquered territories, and had little interaction with the local dhimmi populations for purposes other than

7176-407: The prohibitions on proselytization. Bernard Lewis states: Generally, the Jewish people were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community. Furthermore, the restrictions to which they were subject were social and symbolic rather than tangible and practical in character. That is to say, these regulations served to define the relationship between

7268-494: The qadi (Islamic judge) usually could not interfere in the matters of non-Muslims unless the parties voluntarily chose to be judged according to Islamic law. The dhimmi communities living in Islamic states usually had their own laws independent from the Sharia law, such as the Jews who had their own Halakha courts. Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems. However, dhimmis frequently attended

7360-678: The religious minorities in question held them to be permissible. This ruling was based on the precedent that there were no records of the Islamic prophet Muhammad forbidding such self-marriages among Zoroastrians, despite coming into contact with Zoroastrians and knowing about this practice. Religious minorities were also free to do as they wished in their own homes, provided they did not publicly engage in illicit sexual activity in ways that could threaten public morals. There are parallels for this in Roman and Jewish law . According to law professor H. Patrick Glenn of McGill University , "[t]oday it

7452-407: The restrictions were social and symbolic in nature, and a pattern of stricter, then more lax, enforcement developed over time. The major financial disabilities of the dhimmi were the jizya poll tax and the fact dhimmis and Muslims could not inherit from each other. That would create an incentive to convert if someone from the family had already converted. Ira M. Lapidus states that the "payment of

7544-467: The ringing of church bells was strictly forbidden). Because the early Islamic conquests initially preserved much of the existing administrative machinery and culture, in many territories they amounted to little more than a change of rulers for the subject populations, which "brought peace to peoples demoralized and disaffected by the casualties and heavy taxation that resulted from the years of Byzantine-Persian warfare". María Rosa Menocal , argues that

7636-418: The same as the oaths taken by Muslims, sometimes tailored to the dhimmis' beliefs. Muslim men could generally marry dhimmi women who are considered People of the Book, however Islamic jurists rejected the possibility any non-Muslim man might marry a Muslim woman. Bernard Lewis notes that "similar position existed under the laws of Byzantine Empire, according to which a Christian could marry a Jewish woman, but

7728-631: The traditions and commandments as legislated in the Torah are often called Orthodox Jews . Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "Orthodox Islam". The historical Buddha was known to denounce mere attachment to scriptures or dogmatic principles, as it was mentioned in the Kalama Sutta . Moreover, the Theravada school of Buddhism follows strict adherence to the Pāli Canon ( tripiṭaka ) and

7820-423: The two communities, and not to oppress the Jewish population. Professor of Jewish medieval history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Hayim Hillel Ben-Sasson , notes: The legal and security situation of the Jews in the Muslim world was generally better than in Christendom, because in the former, Jews were not the sole "infidels", because in comparison to the Christians, Jews were less dangerous and more loyal to

7912-593: The various challenges of modernity and secularization . Theologically , it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah , both Written and Oral , as literally revealed by God on biblical Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since. The movement advocates a strict observance of halakha (Jewish Law), which is to be interpreted only according to received methods due to its divine character. Orthodoxy considers halakha as eternal and beyond historical influence, being applied differently to changing circumstances but basically unchangeable in itself. Orthodox Judaism

8004-494: The ātiska being those who accept the epistemic authority of the Vedas . Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "Orthodox Islam". Other scholars of Islam, such as John Burton believe that there is no such thing as "Orthodox Islam". Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of Judaism , which seek to fully maintain the received Jewish beliefs and observances and which coalesced in opposition to

8096-494: Was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Lutheran orthodoxy. Theologians used the neo-Aristotelian form of presentation, already popular in academia, in their writings and lectures. They defined the Lutheran faith and defended it against the polemics of opposing parties. Reformed orthodoxy or Calvinist orthodoxy was an era in the history of Calvinism in the 16th to 18th centuries. Calvinist orthodoxy

8188-457: Was in note of the fact that both Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as early as the 2nd and 4th centuries respectively. Much earlier, the earliest Oriental Orthodox Churches and Chalcedonian Christianity separated in two after the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), because of several Christological differences. Since then, Oriental Orthodox Churches are maintaining

8280-555: Was inclined towards a highly fundamentalist approach. There were a number of restrictions on dhimmis. In a modern sense the dhimmis would be described as second-class citizens. According to historian Marshall Hodgson , from very early times Muslim rulers would very often humiliate and punish dhimmis (usually Christians or Jews that refused to convert to Islam). It was official policy that dhimmis should “feel inferior and to know ‘their place". Although dhimmis were allowed to perform their religious rituals, they were obliged to do so in

8372-600: Was paralleled by similar eras in Lutheranism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation . Calvinist scholasticism or Reformed scholasticism was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Calvinist Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy does not exist in Hinduism , as the word Hindu itself collectively refers to the various beliefs of people who lived beyond the Sindhu river (Indus river) of

8464-480: Was the Zoroastrian practice of incestuous "self-marriage" where a man could marry his mother, sister or daughter. According to the famous Islamic legal scholar Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), non-Muslims had the right to engage in such religious practices even if it offended Muslims, under the conditions that such cases not be presented to Islamic Sharia courts and that these religious minorities believed that

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