On the Origins of the Office of Head of the Jews in the Fatimid Empire

Abstract

Students of medieval Near Eastern Jewish history have long recognized the immediate relevance of Islamic legal sources delineating the status of dhimmīs (i.e., all non-Muslim protected peoples) to understanding the position of Jews in Islamic domains.1 Jews are rarely singled out in the sources relating to the legal status of the religious minorities. For instance, the extant versions of the so-called Pact of ‘Umar, the document which spells out the obligations and privileges of the dhimmī communities, specify Christians as the recipients. Hence inferences about the position of the Jews in Islamic law have perforce had to be drawn from records referring to dhimmīs in general, or to Christians in particular. relating to the legal status of the religious minorities. For instance, the extant versions of the so-called Pact of 'Umar, the document which spells out the obligations and privileges of the dhimmī communities, specify Christians as the recipients. Hence inferences about the position of the Jews in Islamic law have perforce had to be drawn from records referring to dhimmīs in general, or to Christians in particular. In a similar vein, attention has properly been paid to the fact that such documents as the important Caliphal charter for a twelfth-century Nestorian Catholicos, head of the principal Christian denomination in the eastern Islamic lands, shed light on the administrative relationship between the Islamic state and the Jewish minority.