The Other in the Islamic Society in the Medieval Period: Historical Approaches on Jizya and Jews’ Commercial Role under Islamic Sovereignty

Other’s image was ordained in the Islamic heritage during the medieval, which was formulated from a cultural domain saturated with a homogeneous belief system, differed altogether from the system of the other، which proved that its cultural, historical and civilizational reality  has been shaped proving itself only by  expulsion, exclusion, and defamation of the other, unlike what  It was in the Islamic society during long periods of its history.

 Accordingly, defining the essence of the relationship with the other in the Islamic world does not inseparable from monitor the reality of the Islamic community in the medieval era, as its civilizational and cultural value is represented by the bright human principles it has achieved, which transcended  its limits to  Let its  humanity pervade others, even if they have different  religion, gender and language, and the resulting successive social interactions have been linked to those societies and  territories that  have yielded to Islamic sovereignty.

The Islamic society became a social and societal melting pot in which civilizations were mixed for ever many people of open areas converted to Islam, in addition to the intermix and friction between Muslims and others. So the Islamic society became a pot in which those cultures and religions – especially the Jews – melted, they became an integral part of the Islamic society’s social fabric during the medieval era,  they assumed a distinguished position formed through the state of coexistence and tolerance that existed,  and they were active in the community, performed works and participated in many activities.

This book comes as an attempt to understand the social and economic situation of the other – the Jewish community – in the Islamic society by analyzing the inferred reality of the Geniza documents, and trying to answer some questions, including: How did the members of the Jewish community live in the Islamic community?  Did social factors affect it?  How was its structure and economic structure?  What are its commercial sources?  And the size of its economic relations in the Islamic urban area?  All these questions stem from the concept of the other in the Islamic society during the medieval era.