Dhimmis in Ottoman society XVI-XIX centuries

Dhimmis in Ottoman society XVI-XIX centuries The word dhimmi designates non-Moslem subjects of an Islamic state. The status of the dhimmi was at once discriminatory and protective: it included non-Moslems in the concept of the Islamic city but with a subordinate status. At the time of the Ottomans this discrimination was associated with a great deal of day-to-day contact between dhimmis and Moslems, but this contact did not correspond to modern notions of tolerance.