putative Islamic state, thereby emptying dhimmi
status of any real meaning.
See also christianity and islam; dar al-islam
and dar al-harb; emigrants; hindUism and islam;
JUdaism and islam.
Further reading: Khaled Abou El Fadl, “Islamic Law
and Muslim Minorities: The Juristic Discourse on
Muslim Minorities from the Second/Eighth to the Elev-
enth/Seventeenth Centuries,” Islamic Law and Society
1 (1994): 141–187; Patricia Crone, God’s Rule (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 358—392; S.
D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 6 vols. (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1967–1993).
Dhu al-Qarnayn See alexander the great.
dialogue
Interreligious (or interfaith) dialogue is a form of
positive interaction between known followers of
different religious traditions or different denomi-
nations and sects within a single religious tradition.
It is done on different levels, from the individual
and local to the institutional and global. Dialogue
topics include theology, worship, ethics, inter-
faith relations, and worldly issues. The goals of
dialogue can vary, but they often involve efforts
to achieve mutual understanding and tolerance,
identify shared values, establish interfaith bonds,
overcome prejudice and religious fanaticism, and,
perhaps most importantly, avert conflict or foster
healing where conflict has occurred. Dialogue
may also result in a reexamination of one’s own
religious convictions. One thing dialogue does
not intend to do is convert people from one reli-
gion or one denomination to another, nor does
it seek to create a new religion. Muslim leaders
and organizations engage in dialogue with non-
Muslims, including Christians, Jews, Hindus, and
Buddhists. There have also been some efforts to
promote mutual understanding among Sunni and
Shii Muslims.
Muslims have been in close contact with
people belonging to other religions for all
of their history, beginning with mUhammad’s
encounters with polytheists and Jews in mecca
and medina in the seventh century. There is
substantial evidence for exchanges and discus-
sions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews
in the first centuries of Islamic history in syria,
iraq and egypt. These exchanges have left their
imprint on Islamic religious tradition, philoso-
phy, the sciences, and monumental architecture.
They also enriched religious and cultural life in
medieval andalUsia. Figures such as al-birUni
(d. 1048), akbar (d. 1605), and dara shikoh (d.
1659) are remembered for their learned engage-
ment with Hindu pundits and representatives
of other religious communities in india. On the
other hand, conservative religious authorities,
Muslims and non-Muslims, wrote polemical
literature refuting the religious claims of other
religions. Muslim rulers employed non-Muslims
in the courts as ministers and physicians, which
is how the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides
(d. 1204) made his living in Egypt. Non-Mus-
lims were legally protected subjects (dhimmis)
under the sharia, but they held subordinate
status and periodically fell victim to Muslim
tyrannical rulers.
Continuing interfaith dialogue activities by
organized religious associations, whereby all
participants had relatively equal footing, did
not really begin to develop until the early 20th
century, with the onset of a new ecumenical
spirit in the West. The 1893 Parliament of World
Religions in Chicago signaled new, more tolerant
attitudes among some Christian churches toward
non-Christians. The parliament included at least
two people who represented the “Mohammedan”
faith (Islam). Major Christian churches began to
consider interreligious communication to be a
more valued goal than conversion. They also had
the benefit of more accurate knowledge about
Islamic beliefs and history, thanks to the efforts
of European and American scholars, the Orien-K 196 Dhu al-Qarnayn