Since the very beginning of its long and chequered history. Islam has encountered various religious communities both in the area in which it emerged, and in the vast territories which it conquered during the period of its phenomenal expansion. The most distinctive characteristic of these encounters was the fact that Muslims faced the other religions from the position of a ruling power, and enjoyed in relation to them a position of unmistakable superiority. They were therefore able to determine the nature of their relationships with the others in conformity with their world-view and in accordance with their beliefs. Barring the earliest years of nascent Islam in Mecca, the first two or three years in Medina, the period of the Crusades in certain regions and a few other minor exceptions, this characterization holds true for the pre-modern period of Islamic history in its entirety. Islam formulated toward each community that it faced a particular attitude, which was shaped by the historical circumstances in which the encounter took place, and was influenced to a certain extent by the nature of the respective non-Muslim religious tradition.

These attitudes were intimately related to the matter of religious tolerance or intolerance and interfaith relations between Muslims and others. This was a prominent theme in the Muslim tradition since the early period of Islam. It was extensively discussed in Qur’anic exegesis, in the various collections of hadith and in the literature of jurisprudence throughout the medieval period. A survey and analysis of a portion of these sources will form the mainstay of the present work.

The Qur’an does not have a specific term to express the idea of tolerance, but several verses explicitly state that religious coercion (ikrah) is either unfeasible or forbidden; other verses may be interpreted as expressing the same notion. Modern Muslim writers find the idea of tolerance mentioned in the prophetic tradition as well. A favourite proof-text adduced in support of the idea of religious tolerance is the hadith which read: “Let (the Jews know that in our religion there is latitude: I was sent with (the) kindly hanifiyya” (li-ta’lama yahud anna fi dinia fushatan inni ursiltu bi-hanifiyya samha). Another hadith says in a similar vein. “The religion most beloved to Allah is the kindly hanifiyya” (ahabbu al-din ila Allah al hanifiyya al-samha). Because of the linguistic affinity of samha with tasamuh or samaha, the modern Arabic terms for tolerance, these ahadith are sometimes understood as a supportive of the idea of Islamic tolerance toward other religions. In their original context, however, the traditions in question carry a substantially different meaning. In Bukhari’s Sahih, the latter tradition is included in a section entitled “The religion (of Islam) is lenient” (al-dinu yusrun) and is pertinent to the Qur’anic idea according to which Islam is a religion which is considerate to its believers and does not impose on them excessively arduous duties. Several details in Muslim ritual are perceived as examples of such leniency. Muslims are allowed to postpone the obligatory fast of Ramadan to the following month of Shawwal in case of sickness or travel. They may shorten their prayers when they are in danger of attack and may use sand for ritual purification when water is not available. This was also the commentators understanding of hanifiyya samha: Islam is a “lenient religion which does not impose hardship or constraints on the people” (wa al-milla al-samha allati la haraja fiha wa la tadyiqa fiha ‘ala al-nas). Thus this hadith speaks of the lenient nature of Islam for its own adherents rather than about its relationship with members of other faiths.

With the beginning of modern European scholarship on Islam, the subject received a fresh impetus. Responding to criticism directed at the alleged intolerance of Islam as reflected in the idea of jihad, both Muslim and non-Muslims thinkers and scholars wrote a substantial number of rebuttals, marshalling arguments in support of the tolerant nature of Islam and of its civilization. Many asserted that Islam was misrepresented in Western scholarship and public opinion as an intolerant religion and aggressive civilization. As a result of this argument and in view of the generally heightened interest in the significance of religious diversity in the twentieth century, the tolerance theme acquired major importance in modern Muslim apologetics and in some modern descriptions of Islam. The whole issue has frequently aroused heated controversy.