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The traditional doctrine of Islamic law in regard to international
re lations is well known. The Shari'a includes many excellent
provisions about declarations of war, treaties of peace,
armistices, diplomatic envoys, negotiations and guarantees of safe
conduct. But the fact remains that it divides the world, broadly
speaking, into the "Abode of Islam" and the "Abode of 'War," and
that it envisages the continu ance of intermittent war between them
until the latter is absorbed in the former. In the course of such
fighting, and in the intervals in be tween, many civilities were to
be meticulously observed; but prisoners of war could be killed,
sold or enslaved at the discretion of the Muslim authorities, and
the women of those who resisted the advance of Islam could be taken
as slave-concubines, regardless of whether they were single or
married. The "Abode of Islam" did not, indeed, consist ex clusively
of Muslims, for those whose religion was based on a book accepted
by Islam as originally inspired and in practice, indeed, those
other religions too - were not forced to embrace Islam but only to
accept Muslim rule. They were granted the status of dhimmis, were
protected in their persons and their property, were allowed to
follow their own religion in an unobtrusive fashion, and were
accorded the position of essentially second-class citizens. They
were also of course, perfectly free to embrace Islam; but for a
Muslim to be converted to another faith involved the death
penalty."
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