ahl al-dhimma - "people of the dhimma" (see Dhimma)

Dhimma: the pact or covenant acorded by the Muslim state and community to the followers of other revealed religions living under their rule, according them protection and certain limited rights on the condition of their recognition of the supremacy of Islam. Members of religious commuities benefiting from the dhimma are called dhimmi. *

galut - Hebrew word meaning "exile." It refers to Jewish diaspora, the condition of living in exile from the land of Israel, or the period during which Jews had no nation of their own and lived under Christian or Muslim political domination.

Hadith - a tradition relating an action, utterance, or decision of the Prophet [Muhammad]. The corpus of hadith constitutes one of the major sources of Islamic law. *

halakha - Jewish religious law. Rabinnic Judaism possesses the Written Law (the Torah) and the Oral Law (the Talmud, which began to be written down in 200 C.E. in Babylon). The Talmud consists of legal commentary on the Torah; rabbinic discussions of halakha--legal matters--make up a large part of the Talmud. For more information, consult the Encyclopaedia Judaica (Olin and Uris Reference Sections). Halakha plays much the same part in Judaism as shari`a (Islamic religious law) does in Islam.

jizya - the poll tax paid by protected non-Muslim subjects of the Muslim state (see dhimma). The rate was in time fixed by Holy Law at one, two, or four gold pieces per annum for each adult male, according to his wealth. *

Ka`ba - a cubelike building, almost in the center of the great mosque in Mecca. The Black Stone, venerated as a sacred object, is inside the building, built into the wall at the eastern corner. The four inside walls are covered with black curtains (kiswa), fastened to the ground with copper rings. The Ka`ba is regarded as the palladium of Islam and forms the focal point of the ceremonies of pilgrimage. *

"lachrymose conception of Jewish history" - a phrase coined by the historian Salo Baron to describe the one-sided view of Jewish history as one long, dark story of unmitigated suffering, a view that downplays or ignores Jewish cultural achievements during the diaspora.

Qur'an - Koran, the holy scripture of Islam. Qur'an is the currently accepted transliteration of this Arabic word.

umma - an Arabic term meaning approximately "community," used of both religious and ethnic entities. The two were not clearly differentiated, although the religious meaning usually predominated. The term was commonly used for the religio-political community of Islam as a whole...It was not normally used in medieval times for ethnic groups within Islam. *

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