Themes Of The Pact Of Umar

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Throughout the history books, conflict is a major reoccurring theme as different nations seek to earn freedom, expand territory, and gain power. Thousands of wars have been started by such motives and ended either in a glorious victory or disastrous defeat; however, another common theme can be found within the war treaties written on such occasions. From the Treaty of Versailles to the Treaty of Paris, these agreements are written in an attempt to achieve peace and cooperation between the conquerors and those conquered; similar themes can be found in the Pact of Umar. Written by the Muslim caliph, Umar ibn AbdulAziz, the Pact of Umar was an agreement between Muslims and the conquered Jews and Christians. Due to a majority of the land still …show more content…

Several of the rules included no publicly wearing crosses or showing their books; there must be no public display of their religion. Any worship in their churches must be done in secretly and quietly. Other rules included that non-Muslims must house Muslims passing through the city, no building new churches, and absolutely no conversion to Christianity or Judaism. Children born to them must not be prevented from entering Islam if that is their desire. The Pact of Umar even affected the way non-Muslims must physically look from being forced to dress similarly to each other no matter what that may look like and no imitating Muslim clothing from their shoes to even their hairstyle. This must have been made a rule in an attempt to easily identify non-Muslims in the city streets. No non-Muslims were to be buried near Muslims, and non-Muslim houses could not be larger than Muslim housing. Muslims must always be shown the highest respect, and if a Muslim citizen commands you to stand or move, you must …show more content…

This undeniable fact will cause tension between both sides and the conditions placed upon the losing side can truly be as unfair and suppressive as desired because they, in fact, lost. Although many of the rules are viewed as unfairly harsh and subjective, that is the nature of war, a place where even an agreement of peace can be twisted into submission. The Pact of Umar has had a long lasting affect on the relationship between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and there is no doubt that it will continue to impact generations to

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