ABSTRACT
Partly for historical reasons, and partly in response to the imperatives of dogma, the public law of Islam has regarded religious groups as separate nations, subject to the state but enjoying a measure of legislative and jurisdictional autonomy. Legislative and jurisdictional “immunity”, the term that is commonly used to designate the privileged position enjoyed by foreigners and protected persons in the Ottoman Empire under the regime of the Capitulations, has also been applied to the legal situation of Christians in the Islamic world. The origins of the Islamic state’s recognition of the legislative autonomy of Christian communities in Islamic lands is attributable to two factors, one doctrinal and the other historical. The classical Islamic system of law arose at the time of the advent of the Abbasid dynasty, and even at that comparatively early date, it considerably restricted the autonomy enjoyed by the Christian communities.
