Al-Mutawakkil's Edict on Christianity and Its Relation to Christian-Muslim Encounters: A Historical Analysis
Article Sidebar
Published:
Mar 1, 2022
Keywords:
Al-Mutawakkil's edict, ahl al-dhimmah, Christian-Muslim relation
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article examines the Christian-Muslim relations in the third/ninth century through the al-Mutawakkil’s edict on Christianity issued in 235/850. Historically, al-Mutawakkil’s rule in 232-247/847-861 was marked by three significant events: the ending of the Inquisition in 234/849, the declaration of an edict against Christianity in 235/850, and the lifting of the tomb of Imam Ḥusayn b. Abī Ṭālib in 236/851. Particularly, the second event highlighted the complex relations between Christians and Muslims in early Islam, and accordingly raised such a question as why the Caliph al-Mutawakkil only targeted Christians in his edict even though Muslims had encountered many religious groups (ahl al-dhimmah). Examining the classical and modern resources of Islamic history on this account, this article traces theological, social, and political factors in the Christian-Muslim encounters surrounding al-Mutawakkil’s edict. Even though al-Mutawakkil failed to fully implement the edict on Christians, he demonstrated that he was a tactician ruler who could win over his Muslim subjects and control non-Muslim citizens, bureaucrats, and soldiers.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Article Details
How to Cite
Afdillah, Muhammad. “Al-Mutawakkil’s Edict on Christianity and Its Relation to Christian-Muslim Encounters: A Historical Analysis”. Islamica: Jurnal Studi Keislaman 16, no. 2 (March 1, 2022): 222-245. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://islamica.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/islamica/article/view/916.
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
ʿAskarī (al), Abū Hilāl. Kitāb al-Awāʾil. Edited by Muḥammad al-Miṣrī and Walīd Qaṣṣāb. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Riyāḍ: Dār al-ʿUlūm, 1975.
Beaumont, I. Mark. “Early Christian Attitudes towards Islam.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 107-114. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Cheikhu, Louis. Wuzarāʾ al-Naṣrānīyah wa Kuttābuhā fī al-Islām. Edited by Kamīl Hashīmah al-Yasūʿī. Zawq Mikael, Lebanon: al-Turāth al-ʿArabī al-Masīḥī, 1987.
Crone, Patricia. “The ‘Abbāsid Abnā’ and Sāsānid Cavalrymen.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 8, no. 1 (1998): 1–19.
Dhahabī (al), Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿUthmān. Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ. Edited by Shuʿayb al-Arnuʾuṭ. 11th ed. Vol. 11. 25 vols. Beirut: Muʾassasah al-Risālah, 1996.
-----. Tārīkh al-Islām wa Wafayāt al-Mashāhīr wa al-Aʿlām. Edited by ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Salām Tadmurī. Vol. 17. 53 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, 1991.
Friedmann, Yohanan. “Minorities.” In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, edited by Gerhard Bowering, Patricia Crone, Wadad Kadi, Devin J. Stewart, Muhammad Qasim Zaman, and Mahan Mirza, 340–346. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.
Goddard, Hugh. A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Second Edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020.
Griffith, Sidney H. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Hitti, Philip K. History of the Arabs: From the Earliest Times to the Present. Tenth Edition. London: MacMillan Publisher Ltd., 1970.
Hughes, Aaron W. From Seminary to University: An Institutional History of the Study of Religion in Canada. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487531263.
Ibn Athīr, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Abī al-Karam Muhammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karim b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Shaybānī. al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh. Edited by Muḥammad Yūsuf al-Daqāq. Vol. 6. 11 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah, 1987.
Ibn Kathīr, Abū Fidāʾ al-Ḥāfiẓ. al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah. Vol. 10. 15 vols. Beirut: Maktabah al-Maʿārif, 1990.
Jāḥiẓ (al), Abū ʿUthmān b. ʿAmr b. Baḥr. Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Vol. 1. 4 vols. Cairo: Maktabah al-Khanjī, 1964.
-----. Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Vol. 3. 4 vols. Cairo: Maktabah al-Khanjī, 1964.
Kātib (al), Aḥmad b. Abī Yaʿqūb b. Jaʿfar b. Wahab. Tārikh al-Yaʿqūbī. Edited by Muḥammad Ṣādiq Baḥr al-ʿUlūm. Vol. 3. 3 vols. Najf: al-Maktabah al-Ḥaydurīyah, 1964.
Keating, Sandra Toenies. Defending the “People of Truth” in the Early Islamic Period: The Christian Apologies of Abū Rāʾiṭah. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
-----. “The First Arabic-Speaking Christian Theologians.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 90–97. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
-----. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Lassner, Jacob. The Shaping of ’Abbasid Rule. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Levy-Rubin, Milka. Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
-----. “The Pact of ʿUmar.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 80–89. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Lewis, Bernard. Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople: Religion and Society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1987.
-----. The Jews of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Luke Yarbrough. “Origins of the Ghiyār.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 134, No. 1 (2014), 113-121.
Marsham, Andrew. Rituals of Islamic Monarchy. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. “Christians in the Qurʾān and Tafsīr.” In Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions: A Historical Survey, edited by Jacques Waardenburg, 105–121. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Melchert, Christopher. “Religious Policies of the Caliphs from Al-Mutawakkil to al-Muqtadir, A.H. 232-295/A.D. 847-908.” Islamic Law and Society, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1996), 316–342.
Miskawayh, Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb. Tajārub al-Umam wa Taʿāqub al-Himam. Edited by Sayyid Kasrūwī Ḥasān. Vol. 4. 7 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah, 2003.
Pellat, Charles. “Al-Jahiz: The Peculiarities of the Turks.” In Islamic Central Asia, edited by Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela, 55–59. An Anthology of Historical Sources. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.
Sahas, Daniel J. “The Face to Face Encounter between Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem and the Caliph ʿUmar Ibn Al-Khaṭṭāb.” In The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, edited by Emmanouela Grypeou, Mark Swanson, and David Thomas, 33–44. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Sirry, Mun’im. “The Public Role of Dhimmīs during ʿAbbāsid Times.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 74, No. 2 (2011), 187–204.
Ṭabarī (al), Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr. Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk. Edited by Muḥammad Abū Faḍl Ibrāhīm. Secon Edition. Vol. 9. 11 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Maʿārif, 1967.
-----. The History of Al-Ṭabarī. Edited by Ihsan Abbas, C.E. Bosworth, Jacob Lassner, Franz Rosenthal, and Ehsan Yar-Shater. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Vol. I: General Introduction and from the Creation to the Flood. XV vols. New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Thomas, David. “Christians under Muslim Rule, 650-1200: Christians in the Muslim Arab World.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 69-74. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Tritton, A. S. “Islam and the Protected Religions.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1931), 311-338.
Turner, John P. “The End of the Miḥna.” Oriens, Vol. 38 (2010), 89-106.
Yarbrough, Luke. “Origins of the Ghiyār.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 134, No. 1 (2014), 113-121.
Beaumont, I. Mark. “Early Christian Attitudes towards Islam.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 107-114. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Cheikhu, Louis. Wuzarāʾ al-Naṣrānīyah wa Kuttābuhā fī al-Islām. Edited by Kamīl Hashīmah al-Yasūʿī. Zawq Mikael, Lebanon: al-Turāth al-ʿArabī al-Masīḥī, 1987.
Crone, Patricia. “The ‘Abbāsid Abnā’ and Sāsānid Cavalrymen.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 8, no. 1 (1998): 1–19.
Dhahabī (al), Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿUthmān. Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ. Edited by Shuʿayb al-Arnuʾuṭ. 11th ed. Vol. 11. 25 vols. Beirut: Muʾassasah al-Risālah, 1996.
-----. Tārīkh al-Islām wa Wafayāt al-Mashāhīr wa al-Aʿlām. Edited by ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Salām Tadmurī. Vol. 17. 53 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, 1991.
Friedmann, Yohanan. “Minorities.” In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, edited by Gerhard Bowering, Patricia Crone, Wadad Kadi, Devin J. Stewart, Muhammad Qasim Zaman, and Mahan Mirza, 340–346. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.
Goddard, Hugh. A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Second Edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020.
Griffith, Sidney H. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Hitti, Philip K. History of the Arabs: From the Earliest Times to the Present. Tenth Edition. London: MacMillan Publisher Ltd., 1970.
Hughes, Aaron W. From Seminary to University: An Institutional History of the Study of Religion in Canada. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487531263.
Ibn Athīr, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Abī al-Karam Muhammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karim b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Shaybānī. al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh. Edited by Muḥammad Yūsuf al-Daqāq. Vol. 6. 11 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah, 1987.
Ibn Kathīr, Abū Fidāʾ al-Ḥāfiẓ. al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah. Vol. 10. 15 vols. Beirut: Maktabah al-Maʿārif, 1990.
Jāḥiẓ (al), Abū ʿUthmān b. ʿAmr b. Baḥr. Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Vol. 1. 4 vols. Cairo: Maktabah al-Khanjī, 1964.
-----. Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Vol. 3. 4 vols. Cairo: Maktabah al-Khanjī, 1964.
Kātib (al), Aḥmad b. Abī Yaʿqūb b. Jaʿfar b. Wahab. Tārikh al-Yaʿqūbī. Edited by Muḥammad Ṣādiq Baḥr al-ʿUlūm. Vol. 3. 3 vols. Najf: al-Maktabah al-Ḥaydurīyah, 1964.
Keating, Sandra Toenies. Defending the “People of Truth” in the Early Islamic Period: The Christian Apologies of Abū Rāʾiṭah. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
-----. “The First Arabic-Speaking Christian Theologians.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 90–97. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
-----. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Lassner, Jacob. The Shaping of ’Abbasid Rule. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Levy-Rubin, Milka. Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
-----. “The Pact of ʿUmar.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 80–89. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Lewis, Bernard. Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople: Religion and Society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1987.
-----. The Jews of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Luke Yarbrough. “Origins of the Ghiyār.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 134, No. 1 (2014), 113-121.
Marsham, Andrew. Rituals of Islamic Monarchy. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. “Christians in the Qurʾān and Tafsīr.” In Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions: A Historical Survey, edited by Jacques Waardenburg, 105–121. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Melchert, Christopher. “Religious Policies of the Caliphs from Al-Mutawakkil to al-Muqtadir, A.H. 232-295/A.D. 847-908.” Islamic Law and Society, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1996), 316–342.
Miskawayh, Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb. Tajārub al-Umam wa Taʿāqub al-Himam. Edited by Sayyid Kasrūwī Ḥasān. Vol. 4. 7 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah, 2003.
Pellat, Charles. “Al-Jahiz: The Peculiarities of the Turks.” In Islamic Central Asia, edited by Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela, 55–59. An Anthology of Historical Sources. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.
Sahas, Daniel J. “The Face to Face Encounter between Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem and the Caliph ʿUmar Ibn Al-Khaṭṭāb.” In The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, edited by Emmanouela Grypeou, Mark Swanson, and David Thomas, 33–44. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Sirry, Mun’im. “The Public Role of Dhimmīs during ʿAbbāsid Times.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 74, No. 2 (2011), 187–204.
Ṭabarī (al), Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr. Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk. Edited by Muḥammad Abū Faḍl Ibrāhīm. Secon Edition. Vol. 9. 11 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Maʿārif, 1967.
-----. The History of Al-Ṭabarī. Edited by Ihsan Abbas, C.E. Bosworth, Jacob Lassner, Franz Rosenthal, and Ehsan Yar-Shater. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Vol. I: General Introduction and from the Creation to the Flood. XV vols. New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Thomas, David. “Christians under Muslim Rule, 650-1200: Christians in the Muslim Arab World.” In Routledge Handbook on Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by David Thomas, 69-74. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
Tritton, A. S. “Islam and the Protected Religions.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1931), 311-338.
Turner, John P. “The End of the Miḥna.” Oriens, Vol. 38 (2010), 89-106.
Yarbrough, Luke. “Origins of the Ghiyār.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 134, No. 1 (2014), 113-121.