Reviews of the book: Bat Ye’or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam (1985)
From a review by Martin Gilbert, published in "Challenge to Civilization. A History of the 20th Century." 1952-1999 (HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999, vol. 3, pp. 142-143): "[Bat Ye’or] the acknowledged expert on the plight of Jews and Christians in Muslim lands, and their vigorous champion: her book "The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam" brought the issue of continuing discrimination to a wide public.”
From a review by Professors Allan Harris Cutler and Helen Elmquist Cutler (Institute of Medieval Mediterranean Spain), published in SPECULUM (Journal of the Medieval Academy of America) (Summer 1985,Volume 62, page 648):
“[We] owe a debt of gratitude to Bat Ye’or for the extreme realism of her challenging book, which is in essence a documentary history of Islamic antagonism toward Jews and Christians. We cannot hope to open a new chapter in the history of the unique tripartite relationship between synagogue, church, and mosque, which has crucially influenced so much of Western Civilization from the seventh century, unless we take off our blinders about the past and stop romanticizing it. (…) the Muslims will have to revise the traditional harshness toward Christians and Jews documented by Bat Ye’or as radically as Roman Catholicism revised its equally harsh attitudes toward Jews and Muslims.”
From a review by Professor Steven B. Bowman (University of Cincinnati), published in CHOICE (Association of College and Research Libraries, USA ), September 1985, page 187.
“This superb collection of valuable source material crystallizes the historical relationship between the conquering Muslims and the dhimmi (conquered minorities) living in Islamic society (…) This extremely useful volume supersedes A.S. Tritton’s The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects (1930) and Norman Stillman’s more specialized compilation, The Jews of Arab Lands (1979). It is an excellent companion to the studies edited by B. Braude and Bernard Lewis, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire (1982).”
From a review by Professor Ben Segal (Emeritus Professor of Semitic Languages, London University, and member of the British Academy), published in The Jewish Quarterly, London, Vol. 33, N° 2 (122) 1986
"Bat Ye’or performed a meritorious service by the publication of this book. Muslims have rarely been criticized openly for the ill-treatment of the hostage minorities of Jews and Christians in their midst. Wesren academics have united in a conspiracy of silence – or in well-turned apologetics, that to often appear to condone acts of injustice and indeed savagery. These acts have not been the less wicked because they were perpetrated in the name of religion."
From a review by Professor Lionel Kochan (University of Warwick), published in International Affairs (Chatham House), Summer 1986, vol. 62, N° 3, pp. 49-50.
“The work first provides an historical survey of the evolving status, conception and treatment of such nations and communities – primarily Jews and Christians. The second presents documents of both legal and sociologico-literary character descriptive of the dhimmi condition. (…) The author has served her readers well and added usefully to the knowledge of the implications of dhimmi status for Christians and Jews.”
From a review by David Thomas (CSIC, Selly Oak Colleges), published in the British Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Durham, UK), Vol. 25, N° 1, May 1998, pp. 184-185)
“Nevertheless the scope of the research covered and the importance of the subject itself must make this a key text in continuing research on this field. While it may overstate its arguments, the book exposes an aspect of Islamic social and religious history that requires frank and unbiased investigation. In this respect, it serves to put the study of this topic on a new footing, and will be impossible to ignore.”