Early Middle Ages and Crusades
Decrees of al-Mutawakkil
850-854·Bagdad, Empire abbasside
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
distinctive sign imposed (ghiyar), demolition of new synagogues, exclusion from public office
The caliph al-Mutawakkil broke with the relative tolerance of his predecessors. A series of decrees imposed on the protected peoples, Jews and Christians alike, a distinguishing mark on their clothing — the ghiyar, a piece of honey-colored fabric — as well as markings on the doors of their houses and recognizable mounts. Synagogues and churches built after the conquest were to be demolished, and access to public offices was closed.
Baghdad was then the center of the Jewish world: the academies of Sura and Poumbedita were seated there, and the exilarch represented the communities before the authorities. The decrees were applied neither everywhere nor lastingly, but they established a legal precedent to which subsequent powers would refer.
- Period :
- Early Middle Ages and Crusades
- Type :
- Persecution
- Region :
- Near and Middle East
- Country :
- Irak
al-Tabari, *Ta'rikh al-rusul wa-l-muluk* ; Antoine Fattal, *Le statut légal des non-musulmans en pays d'Islam* ; Norman Stillman, *The Jews of Arab Lands*.