ABSTRACT
Emerging Jewish and Christian religious elites defined the new Jewish and Christian ‘religions’ and ‘churches’ and strove to erect a firm and watertight barrier between the two. The various Christian communities enjoyed considerable legal autonomy, and their religious leaders were often recognized by Muslim rulers as de facto heads of their communities, often acting as judges in disputes between members of their communities. Like Jews in Muslim and Christian lands, they had to try to accommodate both the legal traditions of their own religious communities and the strictures imposed by the law of the dominant culture. Refusal to participate would indicate lack of civic duty as well as religious duty. Religious studies permitted scholars to examine these religious objectively and comparatively, in theory without partisan bias. The basic concepts of religion and law are of course products of long and rich historical evolution.
