[Sidenote:  Tribute and humiliation.  Disabilities imposed on Jews and Christians.] On the other hand, for those who held to their ancestral faith there was no escape from the second or the third alternative.  If they would avoid the sword, or, having wielded it, were beaten, they must become tributary.  Moreover, the payment of tribute is not the only condition enjoined by the Koran.  “Fight against them (the Jews and Christians) until they pay tribute with the hand, and are humbled."[50] The command fell on willing ears.  An ample interpretation was given to it.  And so it came to pass that, though Jews and Christians were, on the payment of tribute, tolerated in the profession of their ancestral faith, they were yet subjected (and still are subjected) to severe humiliation.  The nature and extent of the degradation to which they were brought down, and the strength of the inducement to purchase exemption and the equality of civil rights, by surrendering their religion, may be learned from the provisions which were embodied in the code named The Ordinance of Omar, which has been more or less enforced from the earliest times.  Besides the tribute and various other imposts levied from the “People of the Book,"[51] and the duty of receiving Moslem travelers quartered upon them, the dress of both sexes must be distinguished by broad stripes of yellow.  They are forbidden to appear on horseback, and if mounted on a mule or ass their stirrups must be of wood, and their saddles known by knobs of the same material.  Their graves must not rise above the level of the soil, and the devil’s mark is placed upon the lintel of their doors.  Their children must be taught by Moslem masters, and the race, however able or well qualified, proscribed from any office of high emolument or trust.  Besides the churches spared at the time of conquest no new buildings can be erected for the purposes of worship; nor can free entrance into their holy places at pleasure be refused to the Moslem.  No cross must remain in view outside, nor any church-bells be rung.  They must refrain from processions in the street at Easter, and other solemnities; and from any thing, in short, whether by outward symbol, word, or deed, which could be construed into rivalry, or competition with the ruling faith.  Such was the so-called Code of Omar.  Enforced with less or greater stringency, according to the intolerance and caprice of the day, by different dynasties, it was, and (however much relaxed in certain countries) it still remains, the law of Islam.  One must admire the rare tenacity of the Christian faith, which, with but scanty light and hope, held its ground through weary ages of insult and depression, and still survives to see the dawning of a brighter day.[52]