Editing Dhimmi (section)

===Christians===
According to historians Lewis and Stillman, local Christians in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt were [[Non-Chalcedonianism|non-Chalcedonians]] and many may have felt better off under early Muslim rule than under that of the [[Greek Orthodox Church|Byzantine Orthodox]] of [[Constantinople]].<ref name="conseq" >Lewis (1984), pp. 17–18; Stillman (1979), p. 27.</ref> In 1095, [[Pope Urban II]] urged western European Christians to [[First Crusade|come to the aid]] of the Christians of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. The subsequent [[Crusades]] brought [[Catholic Church|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 the Crusaders than had been expected.<ref name=autogenerated2>Courbage and Fargues (1995), pp. 44–46.</ref> 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 [[Mamluk]]s of [[Egypt in the Middle Ages|Egypt]].<ref name=autogenerated5>Courbage and Fargues (1995), pp. 57–58.</ref>

However, Christians living under Islamic rule have suffered certain legal disadvantages and at times [[Persecution of Christians|persecution]]. In the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the ''dhimmi'' system implemented in [[Islam|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 citizen]]s in the empire and referred to in Turkish as ''[[Giaour|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.<ref name="́gostonMasters2010">{{cite book|last1=A ́goston|first1=Ga ́bor|last2=Alan Masters|first2=Bruce|title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA185|access-date=15 April 2016|year=2010|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-1-4381-1025-7|pages=185–186}}</ref><ref name="Balakian">{{Cite book | author-link = Peter Balakian | last = Balakian | first = Peter | title = The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response | place = New York | publisher = [[HarperCollins]] | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-0-06-019840-4 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/burningtigrisarm00bala/page/25 25, 445] | url = https://archive.org/details/burningtigrisarm00bala/page/25 }}</ref>

In addition to other legal limitations, dhimmis, including 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., the ringing of church bells was strictly forbidden).<ref name="́gostonMasters2010"/><ref name = "Akçam">{{Cite book | first = Taner | last = Akçam | author-link = Taner Akçam | title = A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility | place = New York | publisher = Metropolitan Books | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-8050-7932-6| title-link = A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility }}</ref>