primarily in the contexts of religious law, the
sharia, which sought to encompass all facets of
life in the Muslim community. The cornerstones
of Islamic belief were captured in the shahada:
“There is no god but God and Muhammad is his
messenger.” Other aspects of faith were expressed
in the Quran, the hadith, and later creedal state-
ments. The inward and experiential aspect of
Islam was explored in more depth by Sufi mystics.
theology, however, never attained the promi-
nence in Islamic religion that it held in Christian-
ity. Muslims were held more answerable for their
wrongful acts than for unorthodox beliefs.
Although Muslims see Islam as a unique
monotheistic religion, they also believe that it is
one of a group of Abrahamic religions interlinked
through a common mythic lineage to the ancient
biblical patriarch and quranic prophet abraham.
The Quran, for example, mentions the millat
Ibrahim, the religion of Abraham, eight times. It
states, “Who is better in religion than he who
submits himself completely to God while doing
what is right and follows, as a believer in one God,
the religion of Abraham?” (Q 4:125). This verse
links Abraham’s religion with performing an act
of submission. Elsewhere in the Quran, Abraham
asks God to make him, his son, and their descen-
dants his submitters (or Muslims, Q 2:128).
Islam, therefore, is seen as the one true religion
proclaimed by Abraham and all the other prophets
until Muhammad. Jews and Christians are consid-
ered to be people oF the book who, like Muslims,
believe in one God and possess sacred scriptures
that came from the same heavenly source, the
“mother of the book” (Q 43:4).
One consequence of this belief concerning
other religions was that wherever Muslims ruled,
People of the Book were guaranteed “protected”
(dhimmi) status under the sharia, as long as they
paid their taxes, recognized the authority of the
Muslim ruler, and did not proselytize Muslims.
Muslim authorities in india even recognized Hin-
dus as People of the Book with their own prophets
and scriptures. Of course, history has shown that
these protections were not always observed, how-
ever. Muslims understood that their religion could
not accept disbelief and idolatry, but they also
recognized that Islam obliged them to establish
relations with followers of other religions. This
outlook was also reflected in a concept the ulama
called the dar al-Islam (house of Islam), a desig-
nation for territories ruled by Muslims but that
included protected non-Muslim resident commu-
nities. This realm was opposed to the dar al-harb
(house of war), which was not under Muslim
rule and which under certain conditions could be
made a target for Jihad.ISlAM IN WESTErN EyES
Understandings of Islam among Europeans and
Americans have been shaped by the historical
interactions of Muslims and non-Muslims through
the centuries. During the Middle Ages—the era
of the crUsades and the Christian conquest
of Spain—many Europeans saw Islam as the
heretical or idolatrous religion of the enemy.
They regarded Muhammad as a demon named
Mahound, a false prophet or a magician and
charlatan. In his Divine Comedy, the famed Italian
poet Dante Alighieri (d. 1321) placed Muhammad
and his cousin Ali in the level of hell reserved for
people who caused religious division and dissent.
Other Christian writers called Muslims pagans,
gentiles, Saracens, or Moors, terms that usually
connoted the superiority of Christianity, which
they saw as the one true religion. Admittedly, a
handful of medieval scholars sought a deeper,
more accurate understanding of Islam, but others
studied it to refute its truth claims and to convert
Muslims. Negative European understandings of
Islam continued in the 15th and 16th centuries,
when Europe was confronted with the threat of
invasion by the Ottoman Empire. Turkish armies
seized Constantinople (istanbUl) in 1453 and
soon gained control of much of eastern Europe
and the eastern Mediterranean. The words Turk
and Muslim became synonymous, usually with
negative connotations.Islam 373 J