New Worlds and Th eir Challenges 99by deeming ordinary, customary gift s by diplomatic missions to be
tribute.
Th e third principal device for mitigating the incon ve nience of perpetual
enmity with infi dels was the granting of safe- conducts. Th is was a signifi -
cantly more fl exible arrangement than the conclusion of truces or tributary
relations, since a safe- conduct (aman in Arabic) could be issued by any adult
Muslim. Rulers could go further and issue them collectively to foreign
states as a whole. It was through this device that extensive commercial ties
with various Eu ro pe an Christian states were established in the course of the
Middle Ages.
Some additional adjustments to strict doctrine became necessary when
po liti cal fragmentation occurred within the Islamic world. Th ese began in
the middle of the eighth century, when the Muslim rulers of Spain withdrew
their allegiance to the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. By 800, the Abbasids no
longer ruled eff ectively anywhere in North Africa beyond Egypt. Th e way
was now open for armed confl ict between Muslim states. Th ese were re-
garded in Islamic law as acts of rebellion against the legitimate successors of
Muhammad. In practice, however, enemy Muslim rulers were readily held
to be entitled to treatment as enemies according to the laws of war rather
than as mere criminals.
In the course of time, this treatment was extended to insurgent groups
within individual Islamic states. Th e rule came to be that, if the insurgents
were or ga nized in the manner of a government, with actual control over a
portion of territory, then they would not be regarded as mere bandits or
criminals, but instead as a sort of de facto governmental entity. Th e Muslim
legal term for this kind of opponent was bughat, to distinguish him from a
mere bandit or highwayman. Th e key requirement for bughat status was that
the insurgents be fi ghting for some kind of doctrine or cause and not for
mere personal advancement. Possession of this status entailed a number of
important legal privileges. For example, truces made by rulers with bughat
groups had to be honored. Also, persons living in the area that was controlled
by the bughat movement would be exempted from their normal taxation
obligations to the legitimate government. Th is meant that citizens could pay
their taxes to the bughat overlords, in the confi dence that they would not
have to pay a second time later, to the legitimate government, when (and if )
the insurgency was suppressed. In addition, government acts promulgated