Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani - christiansquoting.org.uk

Jihad is a precept of Divine institution. Its performance by certain individuals may dispense others from it. We Malikis [one of the four schools of Muslim jurisprudence] maintain that it is preferable not to begin hostilities with the enemy before having invited the latter to embrace the religion of Allah except where the enemy attacks first. They have the alternative of either converting to Islam or paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared against them.- Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani,(922 – 996) (a Maliki scholar from Al-Qayrawan in Tunisia.) La Risala (Epitre sur les elements du dogme et de la loi de l'Islam selon le rite malikite.) Translated from Arabic by Leon Bercher. 5th ed. Algiers, 1960, p. 165. [English translation, in Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, Cranston, NJ, 1996, p. 295]