98 Law and Morality Abroad (to ca. ad 1550)law had no ready answers. Much the same thing occurred in the Islamic
world, as various pragmatic mea sures were devised to temper the severity of
the doctrine of unremitting hostility between the Dar al- Islam and the Dar
al- Harb. It would appear that ordinary diplomatic relations with infi del states
posed no great problem. In 765, King Pepin of France dispatched a mission
to Baghdad and received a return embassy three years later. In 797, Char-
lemagne sent another mission to Baghdad. It returned with some handsome
gift s, if nothing else— including a white elephant. Th ere were even (if very
rarely) personal meetings between rulers of diff erent faiths. In 1162, Byz-
antine Emperor Manuel Comnenos hosted the Turkish sultan of Iconium
(modern- day Konya) in his palace in Constantinople, resulting in the con-
clusion of a friendship treaty.
Of rather more interest for present purposes was the development of vari-
ous legal devices that had the eff ect of mitigating at least some of the eff ects
of the basic doctrine of permanent war against infi del states. Th ree such le-
gal devices proved to be especially useful. One was the substitution of truces
for peace treaties. Th at truces of ten years’ duration were permissible was
indicated by an incident in Muhammad’s career. At one point, he concluded
a truce of that duration with enemies, with divine approval clearly indicated
in the Quran. In addition, there was no clear bar to the conclusion of a
fresh truce immediately upon the expiry of an old one, with the result that,
in practice if not in theory, peaceful relations with infi del states could be
stretched out indefi nitely. Th is state of aff airs even came to be honored with
the designation of Dar al- Sulh (or “house of truce”), to indicate a middle
status between war and peace. Th is innovation was, however, controver-
sial. It was particularly the product of the Shafi ’i school of Muslim jurispru-
dence but was rejected by the Hanafi tes, who continued to deny the existence
of a middle category. It may be noted, though, that truces were regarded as
terminable at any time at the will of the Muslim party, so long as due notice
was given fi rst.
A second legal device for enabling peaceful relations to take place between
Muslim and infi del states was for an infi del country to be tributary to an Is-
lamic one. So long as the nonbelieving state was treated as being on a legal
or moral level inferior to the Muslim one, there need not be ongoing war.
Th is arrangement was sometimes known as Dar al- Ahd (or “ house of cov-
enant”). Muslims could even, like the Chinese, take a broad view of “tribute”