Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

The Legacy of Jihad provides a comprehensive, meticulously documented compilation, which includes Muslim theological and juridical texts, eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by preeminent scholars analyzing jihad (“holy war”) and the conditions imposed upon the non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns.

The Legacy of Jihad reveals how, for well over a millennium, across three continents – Asia, Africa, and Europe – non-Muslims who were vanquished by jihad wars, became forced tributaries (dhimmi in Arabic), in lieu of being slain. Under the dhimmi religious caste system, non-Muslims were subjected to legal and financial oppression as well as social isolation. Extensive primary and secondary source materials, many translated here for the first time into English, are presented, making clear that jihad conquests were brutal, imperialist advances, which spurred waves of Muslims to expropriate a vast expanse of lands and subdue millions of indigenous peoples. Also examined is how jihad war, as a permanent and uniquely Islamic institution, ultimately regulates the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims to this day.