"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎١‎٧‎٧] (٨٦٢/٣٥٨)

THE ARAB CALIPHATES
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regions were immediately and forcibly converted to Islam, which by
its primitive simplicity and freedom from theological and ecclesiastical
complexity attracted plenty of volunteers.
It was during the Abbasid Caliphate that the majority of the
inhabitants of the empire became Moslems, sometimes forcibly, but
more often under the social and economic pressure of legislation
directed against non-Moslem subjects (Dhimmis) which regulated
their dress, excluded them from the service of the State, and dis
allowed the testimony of Dhimmis against Moslems. But a man was
generally free to retain his faith with the status of a Dhimmi. Also
the restrictive laws, which originated in the time of the Omayyad
Caliph Omar II, were seldom put fully into effect. Thus in Iraq large
Many Christians held high office in the Caliphate. There were
several Christian vizirs in the ninth and tenth centuries, and most
of the physicians of the Caliphs were Nestorians. As late as 1138
began to fade away. The thoroughgoing anti-Christian tradition of
Islam seems to originate in the East, with the barbarian conquerors
of Turkish and Mongolian race. The Abbasid period was indeed the
hey-day of the Nestorian missionary effort when churches were
founded in India and China.
Jews fared as well as Christians. Prior to the Moslem conquest
Judaism had spread widely in southern Mesopotamia. There were
great universities and seminaries where Jewish scholars worked out
the rabbinical system and composed the Mesopotamian Talmud,
which has been of greater importance than the Palestinian version.
Under Islam Jews were subject to disabilities similar to those of
the Christians, but Judaism flourished and the colony at Baghdad
iginKfa, communities maintained their separate faiths throughout the Abbasid
bwerede- period, particularly Jews and Christians.
the privileges of the Nestorians were confirmed anew by Muktafi,
though with the advent of the Seljuk Turks the tradition of tolerance