Page:A Moslem seeker after God - showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century (IA moslemseekeraft00zwem).pdf/49



THE ELEVENTH CENTUKY 41

to win converts direct, a command occasionally violated with honour and success, yet all the devel opment of Islam at Damascus and Bagdad was in a Christian atmosphere."

The Christianity of that period was, however, not the religion of Christ in its purity nor after the example of His love and toleration. Mutual hatred and suspicion prevented real intercourse of those who, as devout Christians and devout Moslems, were both seeking God. The Moslem was feared and the Christian despised. The followers of Jesus were the enemies of Allah in the eyes of Moslems.

How Christians were regarded at this time we may learn from the books of canon law of this period, and that immediately following upon it. They were considered infidels in the Moslem sense of the word, and were protected only by the pay ment of a poll tax, which gave them certain rights as subjects. The most distinguished jurist of the Shaft ite sect, An-Nawawi, who taught at Damas cus in 1267, lays down the law 1 as follows: "An infidel who has to pay his poll tax should be treated by the tax collector with disdain; the collector re maining seated and the infidel standing before him, the head bent and the body bowed. The infidel should personally place the money in the balance,

"Minhaj et Talibin of An-Nawawi," trans, from the French of L. W. C. Van Den Berg by E. C. Howard, London, 1914, pp. 46