ethno-religious minorities 365
Vandal kingdom had disappeared and the Lombards would soon be in decline. In 589
the Visigothic King, Reccared (586–601), converted to Catholicism.
Thus, it was in late antiquity—as a consequence of developments in Judaism
(foremost among which was the emergence of Christianity)—that ethno-religious
communities of the type that would constitute the “majorities” and “minorities” of
the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages emerged (Brown, 1971). These communities
manifested particular interpretations of the Abrahamic scriptural tradition, typically
including the development of a confessionally-orientated legal tradition, association
with a particular vernacular or liturgical language, and attachment to a specific local
culture and power structure—or “national” tradition. Judaism also diversified and
fragmented, both formally, as Rabbinical, Karaite and Samaritan confessions, and
informally, as regional Jewish communities and their elites acculturated and came to
identify with specific locales, and Hebrew declined in favor of Aramaic, Greek and
Latin, except in narrow religious contexts.
The Islamic Mediterranean in the Middle Ages (c. 600–c. 1550 Ce)The conclusion of the Roman–Persian war in 628 ce coincided with the emergence of
a new power that would come to dominate the Mediterranean. Having been exposed
to imperial culture and scriptural monotheism for many centuries as a consequence of
trade and migration, the nomads of Arabia developed a prophetic movement that
gave rise to Islam—a religion that presented itself as the final iteration of Abrahamic
monotheism, wedded to a dynamic, nomadic warrior culture. Within less than a cen-
tury after the hijra of 622 ce, which marks the formal beginning of the Islamic era,
much of the Mediterranean shore had come under the nominal control of Arab
Muslims. Although it immediately developed a political and juridical dimension, ini-
tially the “Community of Believers” was not clearly bounded and was extremely
receptive to Christian and Jewish “People of the Book” (Donner, 2010). That said,
from the outset Islam was conceived of as a community (umma) destined to establish
peace and order by subordinating legitimate confessional communities (dhimmis) that
did not recognize the prophetic status of Muhammad. Initially, Islam was essentially
conceived of as an Arab movement, in linguistic, cultural and genealogical terms;
there was little will to convert anyone except for “polytheists” (meaning pagan Arabs
and, later, Berbers). Arabo–Islamic domination was tributary in nature, and the
comparatively tiny military-religious elite that colonized the Mediterranean lived in
cordoned-off garrison towns (amsar), and generally eschewed non-Muslim natives.
The conquest was a spectacular military venture, but one carried out largely by
negotiation with local native elites under threat of violence (Donner, 1981). It con-
sisted, in essence, in a promise by conquered peoples to acquiesce to Arab overlord-
ship, acknowledge the superior status of Islam, and render tribute. Local administrative
elites, including those tied to churches, remained intact—they provided the crucial
institutional framework and apparatus of administration that Arabs lacked. Aside from
a prohibition to proselytize, Muslim rulers did not interfere with the religious lives of
Christians and Jews. Indeed, freed of the authority of Byzantium, the autonomy and
political power of local churches increased, particularly as their role expanded to
include civil and fiscal administration of their congregant communities. At once iso-
lated and empowered, the distinct traditions and observances of the various churches