printAnd it isn’t an “inner struggle‿ or a soul search: “There is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics,‿ says the brilliant Andrew Bostom, scholar of Jihad, in a speech entitled “The Legacy of Jihad in Historical Palestine,‿ delivered at the Heritage Foundation’s Lehrman Auditorium.
Bostom’s seminal best seller, The Legacy of Jihad, “provides a comprehensive, meticulously documented compilation, which includes Muslim theological and juridical texts, eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by preeminent scholars analyzing jihad (‘holy war’) and the conditions imposed upon the non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns.‿
“The Legacy of Jihad reveals how, for well over a millennium, across three continents – Asia, Africa, and Europe – non-Muslims who were vanquished by jihad wars, became forced tributaries (dhimmi in Arabic), in lieu of being slain. Under the dhimmi religious caste system, non-Muslims were subjected to legal and financial oppression as well as social isolation. Extensive primary and secondary source materials, many translated here for the first time into English, are presented, making clear that jihad conquests were brutal, imperialist advances, which spurred waves of Muslims to expropriate a vast expanse of lands and subdue millions of indigenous peoples. Also examined is how jihad war, as a permanent and uniquely Islamic institution, ultimately regulates the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims to this day.‿
Here is an excerpt from the speech, which is available in its entirety on Dr. Bostom’s website:
“The only Marxist philosopher I appreciate—Groucho—once said:
Beside a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.
Groucho’s satirical wisdom explains the lack of general knowledge about the two uniquely Islamic institutions I will introduce today—jihad and dhimmitude. Both are copiously documented in chronicles and documents and books whose brilliant light remains concealed by the darkness of denial, obfuscation, and apathetic ignorance. Jihad and its corollary institution dhimmitude have shaped events in historical Palestine—modern Israel, Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and Jordan—from 634, through the present. This living legacy, including the initial jihad conquest and imposition of Muslim rule in historical Palestine, set in place archetypal patterns which are still quite evident.
There is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics. The noted 19th century Arabic lexicographer E.W. Lane, who studied the etymology of the term, observed, ‘Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war against unbelievers.’ Jihad was pursued century after century because jihad embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were formally conceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the 8th to 9th centuries onward, based on their interpretation of Koranic verses and long chapters in the ‘hadith,’ or acts and sayings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, especially those recorded by al-Bukhari [d. 869] and Muslim [d. 874].
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist, renowned philosopher, historian, and sociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:
‘In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force… The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense… Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.'”
Barely a Blog has also featured an exclusive–and related–essay by Dr. Bostom: “Death for Apostasy as Islamic as Apple Pie.‿ Read it here.