Here is a fascinating glimpse of what life was like for Jews and Christians under Ottoman rule in 1838, before the abolition of the dhimmi laws that ensured that they would “pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29). “The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder’s fancy. The local Government authorities would occasionally, when in need of funds, levy blackmail to the amount of hundreds of pounds on the Jews and native Christians, threatening them with massacre and plunder in default of payment. Consequently, Jews and native Christians dared to make any display of wealth only at the risk of losing life or property, and often both.”
Muhammad said it: “I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform a that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah.” (Bukhari 1.2.24)
“Life in Palestine 1830-1880 as Described by a Very Unusual Woman, Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford,” Israel’s History – A Picture a Day, June 9, 2014 (thanks to WTD):
We never heard of Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford (1855-1917) until we came across several clippings in a New Zealand archive from the 1880s.
She was born in Jerusalem to a Russian family, apparently Jewish, according to historian Ron Bartur. She spoke Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, German, and French. The family converted to Christianity and it appears she later became a Mormon. She was a popular actress, missionary, and news correspondent. She traveled to the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand presenting Bible-based plays. She filed news reports on the German Emperor’s visit to Jerusalem in 1898, and probably appears in the bottom left of this picture with a reporter’s pad in hand.
One of her most interesting articles appeared in the Aroha News (New Zealand), October 24, 1888, entitled “PALESTINE FIFTY YEARS AGO AND PALESTINE TODAY.” Her observations about life in the Holy Land for Christians and Jews are fascinating, and we present excerpts below in blue [At Jihad Watch, in blockquotes — RS]:
About fifty years ago, with the exception of some Polish Jewish families, and a few Latin monks, there were no European residents in Jerusalem. At that period the Jews did not contribute either to the civilisation of the inhabitants or the improvement of the city, but adapted themselves to the manners of the people and the exigencies of the place. The monks confined themselves to their daily avocations in the convents, and to the entertainment of wealthy pilgrims and travellers, whose visits, like those of angels, were few and far between.
The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder’s fancy. The local Government authorities would occasionally, when in need of funds, levy blackmail to the amount of hundreds of pounds on the Jews and native Christians, threatening them with massacre and plunder in default of payment. Consequently, Jews and native Christians dared to make any display of wealth only at the risk of losing life or property, and often both….
… With the advent of the American and English missionaries came the dawn of a brighter day tor the Holy City, and indeed for the whole country. On account of Moslem fanaticism and prejudice, these messengers of the Gospel, and consequently pioneers of civilisation, were obliged for a certain period of time to adopt the Oriental dress for safety. The Oriental furniture, utensils, and cuisine, though in many respects better adapted to the climate and surroundings, were so entirely different to those of Europe and America, that those early settlers, wealthy or otherwise, may truly be said to have endured hardships and privations great and innumerable. Occidental furniture, utensils, crockery or glass, were not to be had for love or money; and only those fortunate families or individuals possessed them who had had sufficient foresight to bring such articles from their homes in Europe. Further, there was not a window in any house in Jerusalem that had a pane of glass in it; wooden lattices, shutters, and iron bars being the order of the day….
Islamisdeath says
This cant be true after all that paragon of pristine information Daisy Khan assured us that Christians, Jews Nd Muslims lived together in a kind of Walden Pond type ecstasy under the Caliphate.
Kepha says
The “von” in the name makes me wonder if Lydia Mamreoff vonFinkelstein wasn’t some kind of Russo-German (Baltic, Volga, Black Sea) rather than Russian Jewish. Such people were also subjects of the Tsar, albeit enjoying a much higher social status than the Jews, and having their own nobility (think Von Nesselrode at the Congress of Vienna or Von Ungern-Sternberg in the Russian Civil War). The 19th century had a number of Western Christians of various sects (including German-speaking Pietists) moving to the Holy Land–although they were of course few compared to the indigenous Christians.
In any case, I think this is not the only account to note how Dhimmi status in the Ottoman Empire was far from the interfaith idyll propagated in too many textbooks. Sultan Bayezid II thinking that the Spanish Jews would enrich his realm wasn’t respect for Jews: it was greed for jizya.
Champ says
islam brings nothing but HELL on earth–always has, always will.
Larry S says
Not true, Champ-
Why, if you are a guy looking for 72 virgins (whose virginity is renewable- go figure), why Islam is pure heaven!
DustyFae says
They are barbarians and never will amount to civilized human beings…Really a one track mind set back in the days of Pagan Rulers and Pagan Kings who worship false Gods…They still dress the same way.. they are really Satan’s followers…
eib says
Muslims humiliate and brutalize non-Muslims.
This is a fact.
It does not matter which culture or region they live in, they humiliate, brutalize, dispossess and kill non-Muslims because their religion is profane and their culture is corrupt. Ye shall judge them by their fruits. As Christians we are empowered by our scriptures and traditions to judge Islam and Mohammed.
We find Islam to be profane.
We find Mohammed to be a false prophet and warlord.
There is nothing more to see, except the conquest and brutality of Muslims in their history and in their aspirations for the future.
Salah says
Muhammad said it: “I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that…blah, blah, blah”
By Allah? how do we know that? remember the Satanic Verses episode???
Can Muhammad be trusted if he can’t distinguish between Godly and Satanic inspiration?
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/10/muhammad-and-satan_24.html
BC says
“The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder’s fancy.
BC says
Sorry hit the button by mistake
“The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder’s fancy.
This is exactly how the Brownshirts in Nazi Germany behaved towards the Jews
Jay Boo says
The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine were caught under a landslide of Islamic fanaticism inspired by the satanic verse quoting false prophet criminal Muhammad.
dumbledoresarmy says
“Hugh Fitzgerald”, who formerly contributed much to this website and forum, and who is still going strong over at “New English Review”, once summed up dhimmitude as “a condition of humiliation, degradation and perpetual physical peril”.
*That* is about as good a definition as any. Worth learning by heart and repeating – in cool, measured tones – every time you encounter a Muslim – or a non-Muslim enabler of Islam – burbling on about how wonderful it was to be a dhimmi, to be “protected” by Muslims.
If they use the word “protected”, answer , “Yes, “protected”…the dhimma was a “protection racket”. A dhimmi was “protected” just like a small shopkeeper in Sicily was “protected” by the local mafia don”.
My own view of the matter, after reading Bat Yeor and Mark Durie on the subject of the dhimma system, is that a dhimmi was a combination of milch cow, punching bag, scapegoat and, from time to time, human-sacrifice victim for the benefit of the surrounding Mohammedan mob; and (as we see happening over and over today in Egypt and Pakistan particularly) the wives and male and female children of the dhimmis could at any time be seized by mohammedans and used as sex toys…sometimes kept and force-“converted” to Islam, to be then used as concubines or on-sold as sex slaves for some other mohammedan, but also sometimes simply used and abused until they died and were dumped like so much rubbish… or were dumped and left to die. There have been cases of Pakistani Christian girls – *little* girls, a mere toddler in one case, a seven year old in another – being seized by Pakistani Muslim males and GANG-RAPED. Imagine the kind of man who gets off on **gang-raping a two-year-old**. The kind of man who feels perfectly *entitled* to do that, to a toddler; and the kind of *society* that *produces* a man like that, and that does not see anything wrong in his doing such a thing, so long as he does it to those who are Designated Prey.
dumbledoresarmy says
The situation hadn’t changed much, by 1917.
Here’s a lucid paragraph from Australian lighthorsemen Ion L Idriess, whose book “The Desert Column”, includes a description of the WWI campaign by the British and the Australian Light Horse which liberated the land of Israel from Ottoman Muslim domination. Idriess was with that campaign all the way from Egypt through Sinai and Gaza as far as Jaffa, where he received a serious wound which put him out of the war (so his book does not describe the liberation of Jerusalem). He kept detailed daily diaries throughout, and the book is based on those diaries.
The Desert Column, Chapter 50, Page 183:
“I think this is the 17th (December, 1917). Yesterday we rode by numbers of vividly pretty little red-roofed towns. The inhabitants are very fair skinned, mostly Jews. They are by far the most cleanly people we have yet met. They are very hospitable although they do charge us a hefty/ p. 184 / price for brown bread, honey and tobacco.
“Lots of them have had a hard time from the Turks. (who were, of course, Muslim – dda).
“They seem to live between two devils, the Turk and the Arab (both Muslim – dda).
“Apparently the Turk prevents the Arab from massacring them outright, because the Jews are a very handy people to squeeze taxes from.”..(i.e. JIZYA – dda).
And thus this Australian journalist and bushman summed up, in three simple sentences, centuries of Jewish dhimmitude in the land of Israel.
Petey says
centuries of Jewish dhimmitude in the land of Israel. WHAT THERE WERE JOOOOOS in Israel before 1948? The leftards and so called palestinians wont like hearing this at all
gravenimage says
Excellent point, Petey.
gravenimage says
“The Jews, as well as the native Christians…were daily and hourly subjected to oppression…and insults from their Moslem neighbours”
………………………………
When Taqiyya artists talk about Jews, Christians, and Muslims having live “in harmony” for centuries, *this* is what they mean—that supremacist Muslims abused Jews and Christians; robbing them, threatening them, abducting and raping them, wringing every last coin from them, and periodically subjecting them to riots and mass murder.
And note that this eye-witness says that things improved slightly only with the influence of *Western Christians*.
Of course, ten years after she was quoted here, the Ottoman Muslims started the first horrifying wave of what would be known as the Armenian Genocide—but that really targeted all Infidels—Jews and Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, and Levantine Christians.
Today there are only a handful of Christians and even fewer Jews remaining in Anatolia—Turkey—which was the heart of the Ottoman Empire.