Love and justice towards the people of the book during the Ottoman Empire

• Having captured Istanbul, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror told the priest and former Orthodox Patriarch who prostrated on the ground before him: “RISE! I AM SULTAN MEHMET, AND I TELL YOU AND ALL YOUR PEOPLE THAT FROM THIS DAY ON YOU NEED NOT FEAR MY WRATH REGARDING YOUR LIVES AND FREEDOM.”

• Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror published a firman guaranteeing freedom of sect and belief for all the people, including the Genoese.
   

 

• Historical references say this about the Jews living under the Umayyad state in Andalusia;

"THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE SPLENDOR OF JEWISH IN GRANADA LIFE DO NOT KNOW WHAT SPLENDOR IS." AT THAT TIME, GRANADA WAS THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH FOR JEWS.”

• The Ottoman Empire guaranteed peace and security for five centuries in the area.
   
• The freedoms and acceptance enjoyed in Jerusalem and its surrounding area under Ottoman rule is described by one of Israel's ex-foreign ministers, Abba Eban, as follows:

JERUSALEM AND THE JEWISH NATION SUFFERED BLOODSHED AND TORTURE FROM THE ROMANS AND EVERY OTHER OCCUPYING FORCE. ONLY AFTER THE CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM BY SULTAN YAVUZ SELIM AND ITS FORTIFICATION BY KANUNI DID THE JEWISH NATION DISCOVER WHAT HUMANITY, EQUALITY, AND A PEACEFUL LIFE MEANT. (İlhan Bardakçı, "Biz Hiç Irk Olmamışız" (We Have Never Been a Race), Tercüman, May 7, 1983)

• The memoirs of a priest who participated in the 2nd Crusade, describe the loving and just attitude of the Muslims toward the People of the Book:

"… THE TURKS SAW TO THE WOUNDS OF THESE UNFORTUNATES, GENEROUSLY FED THE POOR AND FREED THEM FROM WOE... THIS PROTECTIVE TREATMENT OF MEMBERS OF OTHER FAITHS... LED TO THEM MAKING SUCH A COMPARISON WITH THE CRUSADERS THAT A GREAT MANY OF THEM CONVERTED, OF THEIR OWN WILL, TO THE RELIGION OF THE MUSLIMS WHO HAD SAVED THEM." (Reference: Osman Turan, Türk Dünya Nizamının Milli, İslami ve İnsani Esasları (The National, Islamic and Humanistic Principles of Turkish World Order), Vol. 2, p. 138)

• The People of the Book living in captured lands were given dhimmi, not captive, status and thus enjoyed significant legal rights.
   
• Dhimmi was a status bestowed on non-Muslims who recognized Muslim authority and paid a specific level of the duty known as the jizye or capitation tax.
   
• As a result of this, their lives and property were guaranteed, they enjoyed freedom of religion and conscience, were exempted from military service, maintained the right to use their own laws in resolving disputes among them and the jizye tax they paid was sometimes rebated to them when occasion demanded.
   
• During a war against the Byzantines, when a climate arose in which the armies of Islam were unable to provide sufficient protection for Christians they returned the jizye tax to them, and this is another excellent example of the moral values that our Prophet (saas) taught to Muslims.