Editing Abbasid Caliphate (section)

=== Treatment of Jews and Christians ===
[[File:Hunayn ibn-Ishaq al-'Ibadi Isagoge.jpg|left|thumb|[[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]] was an influential translator, scholar, physician, and scientist.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Osman |first=Ghada |date=2012-12-31 |title="The sheikh of the translators": The translation methodology of Hunayn ibn Ishaq |url=http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/tis.7.2.04osm |journal=Translation and Interpreting Studies |language=en |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=161–175 |doi=10.1075/tis.7.2.04osm |issn=1932-2798}}</ref>]]
The status and treatment of Jews, Christians, and non-Muslims in the Abbasid Caliphate was a complex and continually changing issue. Non-Muslims were called [[dhimmi]]s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East|last=Sharkey|first=Heather|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0521186872|location=Cambridge|pages=27–30}}</ref> Dhimmis faced some level of discrimination in Abbasid society: they did not have all the privileges of Muslims and had to pay [[jizya]], a tax on non-Muslims. However, as [[people of the book]] (non-Muslim monotheists), Jews and Christians were allowed to practice their religion and were not required to convert.

One of the common aspects of the treatment of the dhimmis is that their treatment depended on who the caliph was at the time. Some Abbasid rulers, like [[Al-Mutawakkil]] (822–861 CE) imposed strict restrictions on what dhimmis could wear in public, often yellow garments that distinguished them from Muslims.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire|last=Levy-Rubin|first=Milka|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1108449618|location=Cambridge|pages=102–103|doi = 10.1017/cbo9780511977435}}</ref> Other restrictions al-Mutawakkil imposed included limiting the role of the dhimmis in government, seizing dhimmi housing and making it harder for dhimmis to become educated.<ref name=":1" /> Most other Abbasid caliphs were not as strict as al-Mutawakkil. During the reign of [[Al-Mansur]] (754–775 CE), it was common for Jews and Christians to influence the overall culture in the [[caliphate]], specifically in [[Baghdad]]. Jews and Christians did this by participating in scholarly work.

It was common that laws that were imposed against dhimmis during one caliph's rule were either discarded or not practiced during future caliphs' reigns. Al-Mansur and al-Mutawakkil both instituted laws that forbade non-Muslims from participating in public office.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire|last=Levy-Rubin|first=Milka|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1108449618|location=Cambridge|pages=108–110|doi = 10.1017/cbo9780511977435}}</ref> Al-Mansur did not follow his own law very closely, bringing dhimmis back to the caliphate's treasury due to the needed expertise of dhimmis in the area of finance.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Sirry|first=Mun'im|date=2011|title=The public role of Dhimmīs during ʿAbbāsid times|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=74|issue=2|pages=187–204|jstor=41287947|doi=10.1017/S0041977X11000024|s2cid=146324749 |doi-access=}}</ref> Al-Mutawakkil followed the law banning dhimmis from public office more seriously, although, soon after his reign, many of the laws concerning dhimmis participating in government were completely unobserved or at least less strictly observed.<ref name=":1" /> Even [[Al-Muqtadir]] ({{r.|908|932|era=CE}}), who held a similar stance as al-Mutawakkil on barring non-Muslims from public office, himself had multiple Christian secretaries, indicating that non-Muslims still had access to many of the most important figures within the caliphate.<ref name=":2" /> Past having a casual association or just being a secretary to high-ranking Islamic officials, some of them achieved the second highest office after the caliph: the [[Vizier (Abbasid Caliphate)|vizier]].<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Church of the East mural, 837-839 CE, Palace of al-Mukhtar, Samarra, Iraq.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Church of the East]] cleric. Mural from the Palace of [[al-Mukhtar]], dated 837–839 CE, [[Samarra]], Iraq.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |title=The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity |date= 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83860-934-4 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA-166 |language=en}}</ref>]]
Jews and Christians may have had a lower overall status compared to Muslims in the Abbasid Caliphate, but dhimmis were often allowed to hold respectable and even prestigious occupations in some cases, such as doctors and public officeholders. Jews and Christians were also allowed to be rich even if they were taxed for being a dhimmi.<ref name=":0" /> Dhimmis were capable of moving up and down the social ladder, though this largely depended on the particular caliph. An indication as to the social standing of Jews and Christians at the time was their ability to live next to Muslim people. While al-Mansur was ruling the caliphate, for instance, it was not uncommon for dhimmis to live in the same neighborhoods as Muslims.<ref name=":0" /> One of the biggest reasons why dhimmis were allowed to hold prestigious jobs and positions in government is that they were generally important to the well-being of the state and were proficient to excellent with the work at hand.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East|last=Sharkey|first=Heather|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0521186872|location=Cambridge|pages=52–54}}</ref> Some Muslims in the caliphate took offense to the idea that there were dhimmis in public offices who were in a way ruling over them although it was an Islamic state, while other Muslims were at time jealous of some dhimmis for having a level of wealth or prestige greater than other Muslims, even if Muslims were still the majority of the ruling class.<ref name=":2" /> In general, Muslims, Jews, and Christians had close relations that could be considered positive at times, especially for Jews, in contrast to how Jews were being treated in Europe.<ref name=":0" />

Many of the laws and restrictions that were imposed on dhimmis often resembled other laws that previous states had used to discriminate against a minority religion, specifically Jewish people. Romans in the fourth century banned Jewish people from holding public offices, banned Roman citizens from converting to Judaism, and often demoted Jews who were serving in the Roman military.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate|last=Nicholls|first=William|publisher=Haddon Craftsmen|year=1993|isbn=978-0876683989|location=Scranton|pages=196–197}}</ref> In direct contrast, there was an event in which two viziers, Ibn al-Furat and [[Ali ibn Isa ibn al-Jarrah]], argued about Ibn al-Furat's decision to make a Christian the head of the military. A previous vizier, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Bazuri, had done so. These laws predated al-Mansur's laws against dhimmis and often had similar restrictions, although Roman emperors were often much more strict on enforcing these laws than many Abbasid caliphs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Anti-Semitism Before the Holocaust|last=Lindemann|first=Albert|publisher=Pearson Educated Limited|year=2000|isbn=978-0582369641|location=Harlow|page=38}}</ref>

Most of [[History of the Jews in Baghdad|Baghdad's Jews]] were incorporated into the Arab community and considered [[Arabic]] their native language.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} Some Jews studied Hebrew in their schools and Jewish religious education flourished. The united Muslim empire allowed Jews to reconstruct links between their dispersed communities throughout the Middle East. The city's Talmudic institute helped spread the rabbinical tradition to Europe, and the Jewish community in Baghdad went on to establish ten rabbinical schools and twenty-three synagogues. Baghdad not only contained the tombs of Muslim saints and martyrs, but also the tomb of [[Joshua in Islam|Yusha]], whose corpse had been brought to Iraq during the first migration of the Jews out of the Levant.{{sfn|Bobrick|2012|p=68}}