Jizya

Jizya or jizyah (Arabic: جزية ǧizyah IPA: [dʒizja]; Ottoman Turkish: cizye) is a religiously required per capita tax levied by a Muslim state on non-Muslim subjects permanently residing in Muslim lands under Islamic law. Islamic jurists required adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya while exempting women, slaves, minors, the poor, the insane, and musta'mins (non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands). Jizya is mandated by the Quran and the Hadiths.

The application of jizya varied throughout Islamic history. Jizya and kharaj collected from non-Muslims, were terms that were sometimes used interchangeably, and together were the predominant contributor to total annual taxes collected by the Muslim officials in various Islamic states. Jizya tax rates on non-Muslims have historically varied from being a fixed annual amount regardless of one's income, to 50% of their produce. Muslims have been exempt from Jizya tax, paying a 2.5% Zakat tax on annual income instead.

Jizya is an example of taxes that depended on the religion of the individual. Some scholars state Jizya to be a discriminatory tax. Historically, the Jizya tax has been rationalized in Islam as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as material proof of the non-Muslims' submission to the Muslim state and its laws. Jizya has also been rationalized as a symbol of the humiliation of the non-Muslims in a Muslim state for not converting to Islam.

The jizya tax was historically imposed on Jews and Christians in Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq, North Africa, Caucasus and Spain, and on Hindus in South Asia into the 19th century, but almost vanished in the 20th century. The tax is no longer imposed by nation states in the Islamic world, moderate Muslims consider the dhimmi system as inappropriate for the modern era, though modern era Islamic scholars such as Abul A'la Maududi of Pakistan and Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Egypt have argued that Jizya should be re-imposed on non-Muslims in a Muslim nation. In modern era, religious minorities such as Hindus and Sikhs in northwest Pakistan have been forced to pay jizya or leave, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has enforced jizya in some areas they have captured.

The overwhelming majority of moderate Muslims reject the dhimma system, and therefore jizya, as anachronistic, in the sense that it is inappropriate for the age of nation-states and democracies.

Etymology and Meaning

A jizya document from 17th century Ottoman Empire.

Commentators disagree on the definition and derivation of the word jizya:

• Shakir and Khalifa's English translations of the Qur'an render jizya as "tax", while Pickthal translates it as "tribute". Yusuf Ali prefers to transliterate the term as jizyah.
• The early 20th century Islamic scholar Yusuf Ali explained Jizyah as follows, "the root meaning is compensation. The derived meaning was a poll tax levied on those who did not accept Islam, but were willing to live under the protection of Islam, and were thus tacitly willing to submit to its ideals being enforced in the Muslim state. There was no amount permanently fixed for it, and in any case it was an acknowledgment that those whose religion was tolerated would in their turn not interfere with the preaching and progress of Islam. I accept the interpretation An Yadin (for Jizya in Quranic verse 9:29) to be 'in token of willing submission'."
• Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, a classical Muslim lexicographer, writes about jizya: "A tax that is levied on Dhimmis and it is so named because it is in return for the protection they are guaranteed."
• Thomas Walker Arnold thought of Jizya as being an exemption from military service, he gives the example of the tribe of al-Jurajima, a Christian tribe in the neighborhood of Antioch who "made peace with the Muslims, promising to be their allies and fight on their side in battle, on condition that they should not be called upon to pay jizyah and should receive their proper share of the booty."
• Edward William Lane, citing Ibn Athir in An Arabic-English Lexicon defines jizya as "the tax that is taken from the free non-Muslim subjects of a Muslim government whereby they ratify the compact that assures them protection, as though it were a protection for their not being slain.
• Ibn Rushd explains that jizya is in fact a broader concept than just a head-tax. It also includes monies exacted in times of war – what is normally understood in English by the word ‘tribute’ – as well as levies (‘ushr) on non-Muslim merchants who are trading in the Dar al-Harb.
• Michael Morony states that the emergence of "protected status and the definition of jizya as the poll tax on non-Muslim subjects appears to have been achieved only by the early eighth century. This came as a result of growing suspicions about the loyalty of the non-Muslim population during the second civil war and of the literalist interpretation of the Quran by pious Muslims."
• Bravmann states that jizya (al-gizyatu an yadin, gizyah) meant ransom in early Arabic society, as a compensation for letting someone live rather than killing that person.
• Jane McAuliffe states that Jizya, in early Islamic texts, was an annual tribute expected from non-Muslims, and not a poll tax.
• Tritton states that both Jizya in west, and Kharaj in the east Arabia meant tribute. It was also called Jawali in Jerusalem. Shemesh notes that Abu Yusuf, Abu Ubayd, Qudama, Khatib and Yahya used the terms Jizya, Kharaj, Ushr and Tasq as synonyms. Long states Jizya in Islamic history sometimes referred to a land tax.
• Lambton states that the "origins of Jizya are extremely complex, regarded by some jurists as compensation paid by non-Muslims for being spared from death and by others as compensation for living in Muslim lands".

Scholars disagree on the origin of the concept of jizya taxation, with some suggesting the subjugation tax was an adaptation of the Byzantine and Sassanian system of taxation.

Disambiguation of the terms Kharaj and Jizya

Throughout Islamic history, the terms jizya and kharaj were often used interchangeably, and these were collected from non-Muslims as a combined assessment.

Juan Campo states, "it was once thought that the distinction between the land tax and poll tax was clear cut and absolute; however, numerous historical studies have shown conclusively that, throughout Islamic history, the terms kharaj and jizya were used interchangeably". A few studies question the almost synonymous usage of the terms kharaj and jizya in the historical sources. The general view suggests that while the terms kharaj and jizya appear to have been utilized interchangeably in early historical sources, what they specified in any given case depended on the linguistic context.

Ziauddin Ahmed remarks that the popular assumption is that Jizya and Kharaj are two different concepts, jizya being poll tax, while kharaj being a land tax, but in reality the jizya verse in Quran does not provide this clarification. Historical Islamic texts, writes Ahmed, mention phrases such as 'Jizya on their lands' and 'Kharaj on their heads', which suggests that these were synonymous terms in practice.He states that, in the time of Muhammad, there is no testimony to suggest that any tax term other than Jizya existed, and the term Jizya in early Islam was a tribute expected from non-Muslim individuals or communities as a poll or on produce.

Anver Emon wrote that when a reference to "kharaj on their heads" is found in a source, then the reference is to a poll tax, in spite of the use of the term kharaj, which later became the term of art of land tax. Likewise, if the expression "jizya on their territory" is used, then this referred to land tax, in spite of the usage of the word jizya which later come to refer to the poll tax. Thus, early history shows that albeit each term did not have a determinate specialized meaning at first, the concepts of poll tax and land tax existed early in Islamic history.

Scripture

Qur'an

Jizya is sanctioned by the Qur'an based on the following verse:

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

— Qur'an, ^{[Quran 9:29]}

Hadith

Jizya is mentioned a number of times in the hadiths. Common themes across multiple hadith (and often multiple collections of hadith) include Muhammad ordering his military commanders to fight non-Muslims until they accepted Islam or paid the jizya, Muhammad and a number of caliphs imposing jizya on non-Muslim residents of Islamic lands, and the prediction of eventual abolition of jizya with the establishment of Islam as the only religion by Allah and Jesus' Second Coming. Specific specific hadith examples include:

• Muhammad commanded his military leaders to fight "those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children. When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; invite them to migrate from their lands; If they refuse to migrate, if they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them."
• Some non-Muslim kings, agreed to pay Jizya to Muhammad in exchange for sparing their lives and for peace, or in exchange for letting their people to stay where they are.
• Muslim rulers collected the jizya from the "Magian infidels" (Zoroastrians), from people of Bahrain and others.
• The caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab spent spoils of war (fay) collected from non-Muslims as stipends for Muslims, and provided protection to non-Muslims for jizya they paid.
• Grim warnings against tormenting of non-Muslims who fail to pay jizya, since Muhammad is reported to have said: "Allah would torment those who torment people in the world."
• Jesus will come again, who will fight for the cause of Islam, (among other things) abolish Jizya, and Allah will perish all religions except Islam.

Rationale

See also: Dhimmi

Most Muslim jurists regard the jizya as a special payment collected from non-Muslims in return for the responsibility of protection fulfilled by Muslims, as well as for non-Muslims being exempt from military service. However, Mikhail states that it is "doubtful that the average individual viewed the jizya as a payment in lieu of military servive or for protection, as later jurists claim. Indeed, [Quran] sura 9:29 does not cite either reason for its collection. By the first quarter of the eighth century, most Arabs did not serve in the army either".

The second rationale offered by Islamic scholars for the imposition of Jizya tax on non-Muslims is that it is was a substitute to the requirement of Zakat tax from Muslims. Some scholars have called the rationalization of jizya as a tolerant "duty of care" and a "substitute for military service" as a re-interpretation of the Islamic legal heritage.

Thirdly, jizya created a place for the inclusion of a non-Muslim dhimmi in a land owned and ruled by a Muslim, where routine payment of jizya was a tool of social stratification and treasury's revenue. Finally, jizya served as a reminder of subordination of a non-Muslim under Muslims, and created a financial and political incentive for dhimmis to convert to Islam.

The Muslim jurist and theologian Fakhr al-Din al-Razi suggested in his interpretation of Q.9:29 that jizya is an incentive to convert. Taking it isn't intended to preserve the existence of disbelief (kufr) in the world. Rather jizya allows the non-Muslim to live amongst Muslims and experience the goodness of Islam in the hope that the non-Muslim will convert to Islam.

Many Muslim rulers saw jizya as a material proof of the non-Muslims' acceptance of the authority of the Islamic state. The Islamic jurists have generally believed that jizya tax is a badge of humiliation and punishment of non-Muslims for their unbelief, its exemption for Muslims a reward for their belief, but some modern era scholars consider this as a literal interpretation and question its historical implementation.

Maliki

The 8th century founder of Maliki fiqh, Malik Ibn Anas, in Al-Muwatta Number 17.24.42 states that Muhammad collected jizya from the "Magians" (Zoroastrians) of Bahrain and Persia, and from the Berbers. In Number 17.24.44, he states that Umar ibn al-Khattab imposed a jizya tax of four dinars on those living where gold was the currency, and forty dirhams on those living where silver was the currency. Moreover, the non-Muslims had to "provide for the Muslims and receive them as guests for three days".

In Number 17.24.45, Malik states that Umar ibn al-Khattab took a camel branded as jizya (not zakat) and ordered for it to be slaughtered, the meat placed on platters with fruits and delicacies, and distributed to the wives of Muhammad. He then had the remainder prepared and invited the Muhajirun and the Ansar to eat it. Malik, of Maliki madhab of Sunni, stated regarding this "I do not think that livestock should be taken from people who pay the jizya except as jizya."

In Number 17.24.46, Malik says that jizya is only taken from male non-Muslims who are past puberty. Further, if they convert to Islam, they are relieved from paying jizya. Jizya, Malik adds, is imposed on non-Muslim "People of the Book" to humble them; also, they do not have to pay zakat, which is paid by Muslims. If the non-believers remain in one country, they pay no other property taxes; however, if they do business in multiple Muslim countries, then they have to pay ten percent of the value of the traded goods each time they visit or trade in another country.

Finally, in Book 21, Number 21.19.49a Malik states that when one collects jizya from a people who surrendered peacefully, then they are allowed to keep their land and property. However, if they resist and then surrender in battle and forced to give jizya, then their land and property is seized and becomes a booty for Muslims.

Hanafi

In the Kitab al-Kharaj by the Hanafi scholar Abu Yusuf, the Jizya payment is set at 48 dirhams for the richest (e.g. moneychangers), 24 for those of moderate wealth, and 12 for craftsmen and manual laborers. Jizya should be collected in cash or in kind, such as goods, beasts of burden that can be slaughtered for food, or other property. According to Abu Yusuf, Jizya must be collected from anyone who has any means (income, property), even if he is a cripple, invalid, monk or blind.

Any non-Muslim who converts to Islam shall become exempt from Jizya, stated Yusuf. However, the new convert must pay Jizya for previous years, at the time of conversion, for the period he was a non-Muslim. Yusuf stated that non-Muslims should not be beaten in order to exact payment of the jizya nor punished if they fail to pay jizya. Instead, they should arrested and put in prison till jizya has been exacted from them in full.

Application

As Muslim army commanders expanded their empire and attacked countries in Asia, Africa and southern Europe, they would offer three conditions to their enemies: convert to Islam, or pay jizyah (tax) every year, or face war to death. Those who refused war and refused to convert were deemed to have agreed to pay jizya.

Source of jizya tax

Islamic jurists required adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya while exempting the women, slaves, minors, and the insane, as well as musta'mins (non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands) and converts to Islam. Some jurists excluded Monks, the old and the sick. Ann Lambton observes that the rules formulated by jurists in the early Abbasid period "appear to have remained generally valid thereafter".

Though jizya was mandated initially for People of the Book (Judaism, Christianity, Sabianism), it was extended by Islamic jurists to all non-Muslims. Thus Muslim rulers, with the exception of Akbar, collected jizya from Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs under their rule.

Ann Lambton states that the jizya was paid in humiliating conditions by every free male dhimmi of age, who became exempt from Jizya if he converted to Islam. Monks were exempt from Jizya according to some Muslim jurists while others disagreed. Foreigners staying temporarily in Muslim lands were exempt. These rules formulated by jurists in the early Abbasid period, according to Lambton, appear to thereafter have been generally followed. According to medieval Islamic opinions, states Cohen, the Quran itself does not prescribe humiliating treatment for the dhimmi when paying Jizya, but later Muslims interpreted it to contain "an equivocal warrant for debasing the dhimmi (non-Muslim) through a degrading method of remission".

The sources of jizya tax and the practices varied significantly over Islamic history. The jizya varied in accordance with the affluence of the people of the region and their ability to pay. In this regard, Abu Ubayd ibn Sallam comments that the Prophet imposed 1 dinar (then worth 10 or 12 dirhams) upon each adult in Yemen. This was less than what Umar imposed upon the people of Syria and Iraq, the higher rate being due to the Yemenis greater affluence and ability to pay. Ennaji and other scholars state that Jizya tax had to be paid by each non-Muslim male in person, by presenting himself, arriving on foot not horseback, by hand, in order to confirm that he lowers himself to being a subjected one, accepts humiliation of having been conquered, willingly pays in gratitude for his life being spared in lieu of the taxes. Ari Ariel states that in 19th century Ottoman Empire, the Jews were required to pay jizya as a lumpsum community tax instead of individually, and the lumpsum jizya was not based on "actual total number of adult Jewish males", but based on a higher historic number before they had abandoned the Islamic state. A Ben Shemesh writes that in some traditions non-Muslim women were also required to pay Jizya.

Ashtor and Bornstein-Makovetsky state that jizya taxpayer list included children 12 years and younger in 19th century Ottoman Empire, as well as in earlier centuries.

Exemptions

Abu Yusuf wrote, "slaves, women, children, the old, the sick, monks, hermits, the insane, the blind and the poor, were exempt from the tax" and states that jizya should not be collected from those non-Muslims who have neither income nor any property, but survive by begging and from alms. Exemptions were granted, by the companion ‘Umar of 7th century, such as the likes of an extremely old blind Jew. Islamic scholars have disagreed as to whether and to what degree jizya must be collected from the poor non-Muslims.

The treaty Khalid bin al-Walid concluded with the people of Al-Hirah of Iraq required all non-Muslim men and women to pay jizyah, but included a clause that exempted Jizya from any aged person who was weak, had lost his or her ability to work, fallen ill, or who had been rich but became poor.

The Qur'anic exegete Al-Qurtubi writes that "there is a consensus amongst Islamic scholars that jizya is to be taken only from heads of free men past puberty and who are fighting, but not from women, the children, the slaves, the insane, and the dying old." The 13th century Islamic scholar Al-Nawawi wrote, "A woman, a hermaphrodite, a slave even when partially enfranchised, a minor and a lunatic are exempt from poll-tax," but he also said that, "Our religion compels the poll tax to be paid by dying people, the old, even in a state of incapacity, the blind, the monks, the poor and those incapable of practicing a trade. As for people who seem to be insolvent at the end of the year, the sum of the poll tax remained as debt to their account until they should become solvent." In contrast, the 14th century Islamic scholar Ibn Qayyim wrote, "And there is no Jizya upon the aged, one suffering from chronic disease, the blind, and the patient who has no hope of recovery and has despaired of his health, even if they have enough.". In addition to approving that "There is no Jizya on the kids, women and the insane. This is the view of the four imams. Ibn Munzar said, ‘I do not know anyone to have differed with them.’ Abu Muhammad ibn Qudama said in al-Mughni, ‘We do not know of any difference of opinion among the learned on this issue." The latter is the correct policy in light of the exemption ‘Umar made for an old Jew and the likes of him.

Shelomo Dov Goiten states that some of these exemptions were no longer observed during later periods in Muslim history, was discarded entirely by the Shāfi‘ī School of Law. Krijnie Nelly Ciggaar writes that in the 9th century, the pagan law, in Egypt and West Asia required Christians to pay jizya in guineas, or thirteen dinars if really poor. Those who could not afford to pay were put in jail, until "God sent an angel to set him free" or "other Christians paid for his freedom".

Period of contract

Shoukri says that there is an "apparent consensus" among Muslim scholars that the dhimma contract is perpetual and not temporary. Ibn Muflih states that even "the imam has no right to change this contract" or to cancel it, as al-Mirdawi says. Al-Husayni, Al-Shirbini as well as Ibn Yusuf state that the four obligations of a non-Muslim, under this contract, included paying jizya, accepting rulings of the Islamic law, only speaking well about Islam and not doing anything to harm the Muslims.

Rate of jizya tax

By the time of Mohammed, the jiyza rate was one dinar per year imposed on male dhimmis in Medina, Mecca, Khaibar, Yemen, and Nejran and maximum of twelve dirhams under Achtiname of Muhammad for Saint Catherine's Monastery. Yusuf states that there was no amount permanently fixed for the tax, though the payment usually depended on wealth: the Kitab al-Kharaj of Abu Yusuf sets the amounts at 48 dirhams for the richest (e.g. moneychangers), 24 for those of moderate wealth, and 12 for craftsmen and manual laborers.

The rate of jizya that were fixed and implemented by the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, namely 'Umar bin al-Khattab, during the period of his Khilafah, were small amounts: four dirhams from the rich, two dirhams from the middle class and only one dirham from the active poor who earned by working on wages, or by making or vending things.

The 13th-century scholar Al-Nawawi writes, "The minimum amount of the jizya is one dinar per person per annum; but it is commendable to raise the amount, if it be possible to two dinars, for those possessed of moderate means, and to four for rich persons."

Other scholars wrote that the tax rates and amounts were fixed and strictly implemented. In the western Islamic states, for dhimmis who were Christians and Jews of Egypt and Morocco, these taxes were often graded into three levels with minimum rate being 20% of all estimated assets and any sales. In the eastern Islamic states, for dhimmis who were Hindus and Jains, the tax structure were similar, with non-Muslims paying jizya and Kharaj tax rate at least twice the zakat tax rate paid by Muslims. The discriminatory and high tax rates led to mass civil protests of 1679 in India, these protests were crushed by Aurangzeb. In some regions, such as Lebanon and Egypt, jizya was payable collectively by the Christian or the Jewish community, and was referred to as maktu - in these cases the individual rate of jizya tax would vary, as the community would pitch in for those who could not afford to pay.

Mansour Zarra-Nezhad and Muhammad Reza Alam state that Jizya and peace tribute taxes collected from non-Muslims by early Muslim states in Islamic history were the predominant sources of annual government revenue to Umayyad and Abassid caliphates, while Zakat revenue collections were insignificant. They estimate that Jizya tax collected from non-Muslims yielded a state income of 109 million dirhams in the time of Uthmān, while Jizya and Kharaj taxes collected were the largest sources of income to later Muslim governments in medieval Islam. Jizya collected from Christian and Jewish communities was the primary source of income to the Ottoman treasury through the late 18th century.

Those who paid the jizya were permitted to keep their religion, practice it in private without offending Muslims, but were not allowed to build new Churches, Synagogues or Temples. They were considered to be under the protection of the Muslim state, subject to their meeting certain conditions. The restrictions on non-Muslims varied in different Muslim dynasties. After Umar of Rashidun Caliphate, for example, during the rule of Al-Mansur, and in Abbasid Caliphate era by Al-Mutawakkil, new restrictions and regulations were imposed on non-Muslims that were counter to the promise of protection and freedom to keep their profession and religion to those who paid Jizya. The new restrictions enforced within Muslim states included removal of crosses from the top of churches, prohibitions on holding vigils, prohibitions on singing during prayers and of all Christians in public office.

Jizya and kharaj taxes were a crushing economic burden for the non-Muslim peasants in a subsistence economy. The hardship on rural people not only caused large scale conversions to Islam to escape the taxes on non-Muslims, but also triggered a mass flight of people from rural to urban areas. Yet in some cases, such as the Byzantine region, these tax rates, states Lewis, reflected a lower burden than taxes before.

Associated Taxes

Along with jizya as head tax (sometimes called neck tax), non-Muslims were also required to pay Kharaj as land tax. This was levied on anyone who worked on land or owned property on land. Both jizya and kharaj were not payable by Muslims or if the non-Muslim converted to Islam.

Other taxes payable, by or from the property of non-Muslim subjects, along with jizya were fai, ghanima and ushur. Fai (sometimes spelled fay) was non-Muslim property seized by a Muslim official; the non-Muslim was sometimes allowed to reclaim the seized property by paying 100% of assessed value of the seized property. Ghanima was the 20% tax paid by the Muslim army commander on the booty and plunder collected from non-Muslims by force (anwatan) after a war or after the commander launched a raid against non-Muslim trade posts, temples, or caravans. The commander and his Muslim soldiers were entitled to keep 80% of the booty. Ushur (sometimes spelled ushr) was customs tax payable when people entered or exited the borders of an Islamic state. Non-Muslims paid twice the rate than Muslims on assessed value of property in possession of the transiting person. This was in addition to the jizya.

Jizya and other associated taxes were payable by sedentary non-Muslim populations. Sadaqa was a tax levied on nomadic people, instead of jizya. There is some controversy about whether sadaqa was mandatory or voluntary.

Non-compliance

According to Abu Yusuf, jurist of the fifth Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, those who didn't pay jizya should be imprisoned and not be let out of custody until payment. The collectors of the jizyah, wrote Abu Yusuf, were instructed to show leniency, and avoid corporal punishment in case of non-payment. If someone had agreed to pay jizya, leaving Muslim territory for non-Muslim land was, in theory, punishable by enslavement if they were ever captured. This punishment did not apply if the person had suffered injustices from Muslims.

Mark Cohen writes that the hadiths on jizya suggest stringent humiliation as well as lenient patience with the defaulters, and remarks that the lenient treatment was "doubtless, rarely headed".

In practice, non-payment of jizya tax, or the associated Kharaj tax, by any non-Muslim subject in a Muslim state was punished by his arrest or enslavement. Non-payment of either taxes was additionally frequently punished with the arrest of family members and selling the family members into slavery. The women and girls of an enslaved family would become property of a Muslim master and serve as houseworkers and sex slaves (raqiq or baghiya). In South Asia, for example, seizure of dhimmi families upon their failure to pay annual jizya was one of the two significant sources of slaves sold in the slave markets of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal era.

In some regions of Islamic rule, the Sultans faced rebellion and the non-Muslim masses refused to convert to Islam or pay jizya. Militant opposition erupted to Islamic punishment for refusal to pay discriminatory jizya taxes, such as in India, Spain and Morocco. In some cases, this led to its periodic abolishment such as the 1704 AD suspension of jizya in Deccan region of India by Aurangzeb.

Use of jizya tax

Jizya was considered as one of the basic tax revenue, and was collected by the Bayt al-Mal (public treasury).

Jizya was used to build mosques, buy freedom for Muslim prisoners of war in non-Muslim states, fund Islamic charities meant to help Muslims, fund enlargement of armies, and pay for the wars of expansion. Non-Muslims and slaves owned by Muslims had no right to expenditures or grants from any collected jizya and other taxes. Jizya and associated taxes also ended up in "private" treasuries.

Ann Lambton states that the non-Muslims had no share in the benefits from public treasury derived from jizya. He was treated as politically and socially distinct from and inferior to the Muslim. The non-Muslims could not bear arms and paid heavy taxes. The jizya revenue collected from non-Muslims was distributed as salaries for officials, pensions to the army and charity in theory. In practice, the jizya tax collections were allocated as pensions to Muslim elites such as Islamic scholars.

History

Jizya, in early Islamic history, was a continuation of the practice of paying tribute to earlier regimes, and in its later history, from the point of view of the Muslim conqueror, was a material proof of the payer's subjection to the state and its laws. William Montgomery Watt traces its origin to a pre-Islamic practice among the Arabian nomads wherein a powerful tribe would agree to protect its weaker neighbors in exchange for a tribute, which would be refunded if the protection proved ineffectual. Oasis dwellers, states Norman Stillman, used to pay "protection money" to neighboring Bedouin tribes, in the form of a share of their produce.

During Muhammad's era

Jizya was levied in the time of Muhammad on Jews in Khaybar, Christians in Najran, and Zoroastrians in Bahrain. Norman Stillman states that jizya was a tribute in the time of Muhammad, and it was not the poll tax it became in later times. Muhammad's early treaties with the Jews of Maqna on the Gulf of Aqaba and Christians of Najran in Yemen suggest that the jizya was, states Stillman, in "the form of an annual percentage of produce and a fixed quantity of goods." In 632 CE, Muhammad instructed his representative in Yemen to not collect Jizya from Believers and collect it from non-Believers, states Stillman, that "Every [Christian or Jew] adult, male or female, freeman or slave, must pay a dinar of full weight or its equivalent in garments. Whoever fulfills that has the protection of Allah and his Apostle. Whoever withholds that is the enemy of Allah, His Apostle and the Believers altogether." This instruction set the precedent for jizya as a "tax per head" on non-Muslims.

Three military campaigns during Muhammad's era culminated with the agreement requiring the new non-Muslim subjects to pay jizya. The Battle of Khaybar in 628 CE, led to the surrender by the Jews of Khaybar, and they agreed to pay "one half of their annual date harvest" as jizya in return for "personal safety and the right to retain their homes and property" and "protection money", according to Norman Stillman. This arrangement was repeated after the battle of Fadak and of Wadi 'l-Qura, and the tribute payment became a part of future raids against Jews and Christians. One clause that was common in the treaties between Muhammad and the Jewish people, states Stillman, was that "the Jews might remain in their homes only as long as the Muslims permitted, but could be expelled whenever the Umma saw fit to do so." However, Stillman adds that this clause may have been inserted later in the treaties to justify the expulsion of Jews from their lands.

During the Invasion of Banu Qaynuqa, Muhammad reportedly asked the Jews to pay the tribute (jizyah), but they refused and instead taunted Muhammad by claiming his God is poor. Islamic tradition says that the Quran verse ^{[Quran 3:118]} was revealed because of the comments. The verse states not to take non-Muslims as "Bitanah", which has been interpreted as meaning, advisors, consultants, protectors, helpers and friends.

Early Islam and the Rashidun Caliphate

The history of the origins of the jizya is considered to be extremely complex, according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam. This is attributed to three reasons:

• in historical texts, the term "jizya" is used with different meanings, and thus medieval historians (who collected the text) tended to interpret them according to the meaning which was best defined in their own time;
• the system established by the Arab conquest was not uniform, rather resulted from a series of non-identical agreements or decisions; and
• finally, the system that followed after the earlier systems are imperfectly understood and subject to controversy.

Historical development

Following his migration to Medina, Muhammad drafted a document, known as the Constitution of Medina, which codified the rights and duties among Medina's communities, including the Jews and Muslims. According to F. E. Peters, the Jewish tribes of Medina rejected Muhammad's claim to be a prophet, and secretly liaised with Muhammad's enemies in Mecca to overthrow him.

Moshe Gil writes that during the Tabuk campaign however, Muhammad altered his policies towards Jewish and Christian communities by offering them protection in exchange for certain promises as evidenced from the Qur'an. In this new policy, Gil sees a "paradigm" shift occurring in the treaties and letters of security that future Muslim leaders issued to conquered peoples. These letters of protection were sent to several of these towns, asking them to pay taxes (jizya) and to agree not to maintain military forces in return for protection by Muslim forces (dhimma).

Under Caliph Umar the Zoroastrian Persians were given People of the Book status, and jizya was levied on them. Christian Arab tribes in the north of the Arabian Peninsula refused to pay jizya, but agreed to pay double the amount, and calling it sadaqa, a word meaning "alms" or "charity". According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi the name change was done for the benefit of the Christian tribesmen, "out of consideration for their feelings".

Fred Donner, however, in The Early Islamic Conquests, states that the difference between sadaqa and jizya is that the former was levied on nomads, whereas the latter was levied on settled non-Muslims. Donner sees sadaqa as being indicative of the lower status of nomadic tribes, so much so that Christian tribesmen preferred to pay the jizya. Jabala b. al-Ayham of the B. Ghassan is reported asked Umar "Will you levy sadaqa from me as you would from the [ordinary] bedouin (al-'arab)?" Umar acceded to collecting jizya from him instead, as he did from other Christians.

Devşirme was a form of human jizya (blood tax), collected from non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire. It was chiefly the annual practice by which the Ottoman Empire sent its military to force collect 20% of sons and abduct young non-Muslim boys as a tax, then convert them to Islam and require them to serve as soldiers in Ottoman military. The blood jizya practice was deeply resented by non-Muslims.

A letter attributed to Khalid bin Walid said that "This is a letter of Khalid ibn al-Waleed to Saluba ibn Nastuna and his people; I agreed with you on al-jezyah and protection. As long as we protect you we have the right in al-jezyah, otherwise we have none." Khalid bin Walid is also attributed to the following offer to different communities as he invaded Iraq and Persia,

I call you to God and to Islam. If you respond to the call, then you are Muslims: You obtain the benefits they enjoy and take up the responsibilities they bear. If you refuse, then you must pay the jizyah. If you refuse the jizyah, I will bring against you tribes of people who are more eager for death than you are for life.

India

In India, Islamic rulers imposed jizya on non-Muslims starting with the 11th century. The taxation practice included jizyah and kharaj taxes. These terms were sometimes used interchangeably to mean poll tax and collective tribute, or just called kharaj-o-jizyah.

Jizya expanded with Delhi Sultanate and continued during most of the Mughal Empire rule. The tax rates varied, but typically was set at 50% of produce plus a fixed amount per person payable every month. Alā’ al-Dīn Khaljī, a Sultan of the Khilji dynasty who ruled over most of North, West and parts of Eastern India, from 1296 to 1316 AD, legalized the enslavement of the jizya and kharaj defaulters. His officials seized and sold these slaves in growing Sultanate cities where there was a great demand of slave labour. The Muslim court historian Ziauddin Barani recorded that Kazi Mughisuddin of Bayanah advised Alā’ al-Dīn that Islam requires imposition of jizya on Hindus, to show contempt and to humiliate the Hindus, and imposing jizya is a religious duty of the Sultan.

In late 14th century, mentions the memoir of Tughlaq dynasty's Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, his predecessor taxed all Hindus but had exempted all Hindu Brahmins from jizya; Firoz Shah extended it over all Hindus. He also announced that any Hindus who converted to Islam would become exempt from taxes and jizya as well as receive gifts from him. On those who chose to remain Hindus, he raised jizya tax rate.

Hindus who paid Jizya in Muslim-ruled parts of India were not free to practice their religion openly, and those who did were persecuted and killed. Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, for example, wrote

The Hindus and idol-worshipers had agreed to pay the money for toleration (zar-i zimmiya) and had consented to the poll tax (jizya), in return for which they and their families enjoyed security. These people now erected new idol temples in the city and environs in opposition to the Law of the Prophet which declares that such temples are not to be tolerated. Under Divine guidance I destroyed these edifices, and I killed those leaders of infidelity who seduced others into error, and the lower orders I subjected to stripes and chastisement, until this abuse was entirely abolished. – Autobiography of Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi

The Hindus hated and evaded jizya. During the early 14th century reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, expensive invasions across India and his order to attack China by sending a portion of his army over the Himalayas, emptied the precious metal in Sultanate's treasury. He ordered minting of coins from base metals with face value of precious metals. This economic experiment failed because Hindus in his Sultanate minted counterfeit coins from base metal in their homes, which they then used for paying jizya.

Jizya was temporarily abolished by the third Mughal emperor Akbar, in late 16th century. However, Aurangzeb, the sixth emperor, re-introduced and levied jizya on non-Muslims in 17th century. Aurangzeb ordered that the collected jizya be used for charitable causes to support the increasing number of impoverished and unemployed Muslim clerics in his empire. Certain historians believe that the tax was intended to encourage conversion of non-Muslims to Islam.

Sicily

After the Norman conquest of Sicily, taxes imposed on the Muslim minority were also called the jizya (locally spelled gisia). This poll tax was a continuation of the jizya imposed on non-Muslims in Sicily, by Muslim rulers in 11th century, before the Norman conquest.

Nineteenth and twentieth centuries

In Persia, jizya was paid by Zoroastrian minority until 1884, when it was removed by pressure on the Qajar government from the Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund.

The jizya was eliminated in Algeria and Tunisia in the 19th century, but continued to be collected in Morocco until the first decade of the 20th century (these three dates coincide with the French colonization of these countries).

The Ottoman Empire abolished the "jizya" in 1856. It was replaced with a new tax, which non-Muslims paid in lieu of military service. It was called "baddal-askari" (Arab. Military substitution), a tax exempting Jews and Christians from military service. The Jews of Kurdistan, according to the scholar Mordechai Zaken, preferred to pay the "baddal" tax in order to redeem themselves from military service. Only those incapable of paying the tax were drafted into the army. Interestingly, Zaken shows that paying the tax was possible to an extent also during the war. Zaken shows that some Jewish individuals paid 50 gold liras every year during World War I. Apparently - according to Dr. Zaken - "in spite of the forceful conscription campaigns, some of the Jews were able to buy their exemption from conscription duty." Based on the testimonies of several Kurdish Jews, Zaken came to the conclusion that the payment of the "baddal askari" during the war was a form of bribe that bought them only a brief relief from military service. "It may have been a deferment of the military service for a one year period or shorter."

Twenty-first century

As late as 2013, in Egypt jizya was reportedly being imposed by the Muslim Brotherhood on 15,000 Christian Copts of Dalga village.

The jizya poll tax is no longer imposed in the Islamic world. In the 21st century, jizya is widely regarded as being at odds with contemporary secular conceptions of citizen's civil rights and equality before the law. Nevertheless, there have been occasional reports of non-Muslims in Pakistan and areas controlled by Islamic State being forced to pay jizya.

In 2009 it was claimed that a group of militants that referred to themselves as the Taliban imposed the jizya on Pakistan's minority Sikh community after occupying some of their homes and kidnapping a Sikh leader.

In 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) announced that it intended to extract jizya from Christians in the city of Raqqa, Syria, which it controls. Christians who refused to pay the tax would have to either convert to Islam or die. Wealthy Christians would have to pay the equivalent of USD 664 twice a year; poorer ones would be charged one-fourth that amount. In June, the Institute for the Study of War reported that ISIL claims to have collected jizya and fay.

Comparison between Zakat and Jizya under Islamic law

Further information: Zakat

Zakat	Jizya
obligatory upon Muslims	obligatory upon Dhimmis
Zakat is obligatory if a Muslim's income and net worth of assets exceeded the Nisab (excess of certain basic amount)	Jizya is obligatory on non-Muslim men, regardless of income or wealth, above age 9; no minimum (Nisab) to determine Jizya,
only payable on income and on assets continuously owned over one lunar year that are in excess of the Nisab; to be paid on day of harvest (income)	payable on all assets and income, paid yearly or quarterly regardless to Nisab.
the amount of Zakat paid was specified by Sharia	the amount paid was not specified by Sharia; by the time of the Prophet, at least one gold Dinar and 12 Dirhams; later on, these taxes were often graded into three levels.
paid only by the owner of the assets himself/herself	paid by all able-bodied adult males of military age and affording power
refusal and failure to pay Zakat was treated with flexibility in some sultanates, with penalty and punishment in others	refusal and failure to pay Jizya by any non-Muslim subject in a Muslim state was a capital crime, punished by his family's arrest and enslavement. The women and girls of an enslaved family would become property of a Muslim master and serve as houseworkers and slaves. In some cases, the family could escape this punishment by converting to Islam.
should be paid by Muslims seeking God's pleasure	should be paid by non-Muslims with servility, humiliation and belittlement in exchange for Muslim protection

Criticism and support

Critics often cite jizya as a form of discrimination, persecution and oppression in Islamic law. However, W. Cleveland and M. Bunton assert that dhimma status represented "an unsually tolerant attitude for the era and stood in marked contrast to the practices of the Byzantine Empire". They add that the change from the Byzantine and Persian rule to Arab rule lowered taxes and allowed dhimmis to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy. In addition, they state that conversion to Islam was not encouraged in the first century "partly because the jizyah constituted an important source of state revenue".

Supporters argue that it is fair, since all Muslims are obliged to pay Zakat. While the tax rate and nature of zakat and jizya were different, supporters often cite jizya as a form of protection money and a religious requirement against non-believers in Islam per Sharia.

In practice, however, Timothy H. Parsons states that during the early caliphate, non-Muslims had to pay the kharaj. The sum of the jizya and kharaj taxes levied on non-Muslims were considerably larger than the zakat tax on Muslims and conversion generally brought tax relief. Some evidence suggests that the jizya was sometimes double the Zakat; for example, the Hedaya (Guide on Mussalman Law), an Islamic legal text, declared it lawful to require twice as much of a Zimmee (dhimmi) as of a Mussulman (Muslim).

See also

• Extortion
• Protection money
• Jewish tax
• Leibzoll
• Tolerance tax
• Opferpfennig
• Rav akçesi
• Tribute
• Devşirme system
• Dhimmi laws
• Gabr
• Kharaj
• Ottoman Millet system
• Minority religion
• Second-class citizen
• Zakat
• Islam and other religions
• Divisions of the world in Islam

Sources

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• Goiten, S.D. "Evidence on the Muslim Poll Tax from Non-Muslim Sources", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 1963, Vol. 6.
• Ibn Rushd, Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad. The Distinguished Primer (Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtsid). 2 vol. work. Trans. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee. (Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 2002).
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• Maududi, Sayyid Abul Ala. The Meaning of the Qur'an, A. A. Kamal (Editor). ISBN 1-56744-134-3
• Aisha Y. Musa "jizya: Towards a Qur’ānically-based understanding of a Historically Problematic Term," in Transcendental Thought, November 2011
• Seed, Patricia. Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640, Cambridge University Press, Oct 27, 1995, ISBN 0-521-49757-4
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• Stillman, Norman. The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979. ISBN 0-8276-0198-0
• "Jizyah and the spread of Islam" by Harsh Narain, Publisher:Voice of India, New Delhi

External links

• jizya – Encyclopædia Britannica