Dhimmis were offered specific rights in exchange for certain obligations, the major one being the payment of the jizya. This was a personal tax, not a tax on property or commerce—a tax for simply being a non-Muslim in a Muslim state. Unquestionably, it represented a humiliating subjugation. Still, it enshrined a pact between the non-Muslim taxpayer and the Muslim sovereign: in exchange for payment of the jizya, the sovereign was obliged to protect dhimmi rights to freedom of worship and the open exercise of each community’s religious laws.
