Compare and Contrast between “Prescriptive” and “Descriptive”
Paper details:

On pages 240-247 of the Human Record, there are excerpts from five sources that talk about Islam’s relationship with “dhimmi” or unbelivers (non-Muslims). The first three excerpts are “prescriptive” – that is, they present us with the ideal and/or theoretical response to non-Muslims. The other two excerpts are “descriptive”, that is, they purport to describe and show us real-life practices.

What conclusions can you draw about the way that medieval people thought how Muslims and non-Muslims should interact (from the prescriptive sources), and the way that they actually interacted (from the descriptive sources)?