RUHI AL-KHALIdI’S “AS-SAYūNīZM” • 83sensitive to the effects of antisemitic prejudice and legislation in eu-
rope. On the other hand, he seems unable or unwilling fully to absolve
Jews of responsibility for their situation.
In a long passage on the position of Jews in nineteenth- century Rus-
sia, al- Khalidi details the various discriminatory laws imposed against
the Jewish population^151 — additional taxes exclusively for Jews, fees
for the right to wear certain types of clothing,^152 duties on Sabbath
candles and kosher slaughtering,^153 prohibitions against Jews’ work-
ing on Sundays and christian holidays,^154 and regulations permitting
a Jewish convert to christianity to divorce his or her Jewish spouse.
Al- Khalidi offers three explanations for Russia’s harsh treatment of
Jews. The first is Russians’ “religious animosity and their christian fa-
naticism [taʿaṣṣubuhum^155 ] as they believe that the Jews killed christ,
peace be upon him.” Because the Jews murdered christ, christians
(^151) Ibid.
(^152) In al- Khalidi’s description of this particular tax, one finds a fascinating insight
into the way he perceived the Jewish population in his native Jerusalem: “And if a Jew
wishes to wear a fur hat and a jubbah [a long outer garment, open in front, with wide
sleeves], that is, the dress of the Polish nobles and their neighbors in the country, he
must pay another tax of five rubles a year. Therefore, you see the Ashkenazim [saknāj]
in Jerusalem and the rest of the cities of Palestine dressing up in this clothing on the
Sabbath and holidays and they do not pay the tax.” It is not clear to which Russian
law al- Khalidi refers here. The JewishEncyclopedia’s article on “costume” notes that,
in nineteenth- century Russia, one of the taxes specifically targeting Jews “was that col-
lected for wearing jarmulkas, which seems to have been collected in various places in an
irregular manner, but was finally compounded, by a special decree of Feb. 11, 1848, for
a tax of five rubles annually, the proceeds to go to the fund of the ‘korobka’ (basket tax).”
Perhaps this is the law al- Khalidi has in mind.
(^153) Al- Khalidi explains for his reader the concept of kosher slaughtering: “A tax was
also imposed on slaughtering performed according to the Mosaic law of separating be-
tween ‘the kosher and the tref’ [transliterated into Arabic] as the Jews do not eat any
[meat] other than their own slaughtering commissioned [supervised?] on the part of the
rabbi, who permits them to eat it. That which he does not permit them to eat, they sell
for a fifth of the price to non- Jews.”
(^154) “In 1882,” al- Khalidi recounts, “a law was issued that forbade Jews from engaging
in commerce on Sundays and christian holidays. Through this [law] they forced the Jews
to be idle for two days each week and during christian and Mosaic holidays.”
(^155) Taʿaṣṣub can also have a more benign sense, of solidarity. It is the term Jamal
ad- din al- Afghani uses for the force that binds a society together. expounding on the
tenuousness associated with this term in al- Afghani and Muhammad Abduh’s al-ʿUrwa
al-wuthqā, Albert Hourani writes: “Like all human attributes, it [taʿaṣṣub] could be per-
verted; it was not a law unto itself, it was subject to the principle of moderation or
justice, the organizing principle of human societies. Solidarity which did not recognize
this principle and was not willing to do justice turned into fanaticism.” Hourani, Arabic
ThoughtintheLiberalAge,1798–1939, 117. It would seem that in al- Khalidi’s mind,
christian Russian solidarity, lacking the “principle of moderation or justice,” had become
plain fanaticism.