Abū Shujā' Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Rūdhrāwarī, also known by the honorific "Zaḥīr al-Dīn", was an 11th-century government official and author who served as vizier for the Abbasid Caliphate twice, once briefly in 1078 and the second time from 1083/4 until 1094.
[1] In 1091, an altercation broke out in Baghdad involving Ibn Samha, a Jewish commercial agent of the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk, and a Muslim carpet seller.
[2] In response, Abu Shuja promulgated a harsh anti-dhimmi edict on behalf of the caliph, enforcing them to wear a ghiyar to distinguish them from Muslims.
[2] Based on the accounts of Ibn al-Jawzi and Obadiah the Proselyte, an Italian convert to Judaism who was in Iraq around 1120, the distinguishing features included the zunnar, necklaces with a pendant saying "dhimmi", and distinct black and/or red shoes.
[2][note 2] Based Obadiah's account, these distinctions had the effect of singling out Jews for special physical and verbal abuse.
[2] Besides Obadiah the Proselyte, its effects were also mentioned in a heavily fictionalized Judeo-Arabic epistle found in the Cairo Geniza that is a retelling of the Book of Esther.