Jizya

This article is about the Tax per head. For the land tax, see Kharaj.
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Jizya (Arabic: جِزْيَة, romanized: jizya), or jizyah,[1] is a type of taxation historically levied on non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law.[2] The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount,[3] and the application of jizya varied in the course of Islamic history. However, scholars largely agree that early Muslim rulers adapted some of the existing systems of taxation and modified them according to Islamic religious law.[4][5][6][7][8]

Historically, the jizya tax has been understood in Islam as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the exemption from military service for 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' allegiance to the Muslim state and its laws.[9][10][11] Muslim jurists required adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya,[12] while exempting women, children, elders, handicapped, the ill, the insane, monks, hermits, slaves,[13][14][15][16][17] and musta'mins—non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands.[13][4] In regimes that allowed dhimmis to serve in Muslim armies those who chose to join military service were also exempted from payment,[2][14][18][19][20][21] some Muslim scholars claim that some Islamic rulers exempted those who could not afford to pay from the Jizya.[14][22][23]

Together with kharāj, a term that was sometimes used interchangeably with jizya,[24][25][26] taxes levied on non-Muslim subjects were among the main sources of revenues collected by some Islamic polities, such as the Ottoman Empire and Indian Muslim Sultanates.[27] Jizya rate was usually a fixed annual amount depending on the financial capability of the payer.[28] Sources comparing taxes levied on Muslims and jizya differ as to their relative burden depending on time, place, specific taxes under consideration, and other factors.[2][29][30]

The term appears in the Quran referring to a tax or tribute from People of the Book, specifically Jews and Christians. Followers of other religions like Zoroastrians and Hindus too were later integrated into the category of dhimmis and required to pay jizya. In the Indian Subcontinent the practice stopped by the 18th century with Muslim rulers losing their kingdoms to the Maratha Empire and British East India Company. It almost vanished during the 20th century with the disappearance of Islamic states and the spread of religious tolerance.[31] The tax is no longer imposed by nation states in the Islamic world,[32][33] although there are reported cases of organizations such as the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS attempting to revive the practice.[31][34][35]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Britannica-Afsaruddin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Abdel-Haleem, Muhammad (2010). Understanding the Qur'ān: Themes and Style. I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd. pp. 70, 79. ISBN 978-1845117894.
  3. ^ Sabet, Amr (2006), The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:4, Oxford; pp. 99–100.
  4. ^ a b Bowering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia; Mirza, Mahan; et al., eds. (2013). The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-0691134840. Free adult males who were not afflicted by any physical or mental illness were required to pay the jizya. Women, children, handicapped, the mentally ill, the elderly, and slaves were exempt, as were all travelers and foreigners who did not settle in Muslim lands. [...] As Islam spread, previous structures of taxation were replaced by the Islamic system, but Muslim leaders often adopted practices of the previous regimes in the application and collection of taxes.
  5. ^ Bravmann 2009, pp. 199–201, 204–5, 207–12.
  6. ^ Mohammad, Gharipour (2014). Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities Across the Islamic World. BRILL. p. XV. ISBN 978-9004280229. Sources indicate that the taxation system of early Islam was not necessarily an innovation of Muslims; it appears that 'Umar adopted the same tax system as was common at the time of the conquest of that territory. The land tax or kharaj was an adapted version of the tax system used in Sassanid Persia. In Syria, 'Umar followed the Byzantine system of collecting two taxes based on the account of lands and heads.
  7. ^ Shah 2008, p. 20. "Jizia was not a specific Islamic invention but was the norm of the time. "Several of the early caliphs made peace treaties with the Byzantine Empire some of which even required them to pay tribute [Jizia] to the Byzantines" (Streusand, 1997)."
  8. ^ Walker Arnold, Thomas (1913). Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith. Constable & Robinson Ltd. p. 59 ff. There is evidence to show that the Arab conquerors left unchanged the fiscal system that they found prevailing in the lands they conquered from the Byzantines, and that the explanation of jizyah as a capitation-tax is an invention of later jurists, ignorant of the true condition of affairs in the early days of Islam. (Caetani, vol. iv. p. 610 (§ 231); vol. v. p. 449.) H.Lammens: Ziād ibn Abīhi. (Rivista degli Studi Orientali, vol. iv. p. 215.) (online)
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference anveremon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Walker Arnold, Thomas (1913). Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith. Constable & Robinson Ltd. pp. 60–1. This tax was not imposed on the Christians, as some would have us think, as a penalty for their refusal to accept the Muslim faith, but was paid by them in common with the other dhimmīs or non-Muslim subjects of the state whose religion precluded them from serving in the army, in return for the protection secured for them by the arms of the Musalmans.
  11. ^ Esposito 1998, p. 34. "They replaced the conquered countries, indigenous rulers and armies, but preserved much of their government, bureaucracy, and culture. For many in the conquered territories, it was no more than an exchange of masters, one that brought peace to peoples demoralized and disaffected by the casualties and heavy taxation that resulted from the years of Byzantine-Persian warfare. Local communities were free to continue to follow their own way of life in internal, domestic affairs. In many ways, local populations found Muslim rule more flexible and tolerant than that of Byzantium and Persia. Religious communities were free to practice their faith to worship and be governed by their religious leaders and laws in such areas as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In exchange, they were required to pay tribute, a poll tax (jizya) that entitled them to Muslim protection from outside aggression and exempted them from military service. Thus, they were called the "protected ones" (dhimmi). In effect, this often meant lower taxes, greater local autonomy, rule by fellow Semites with closer linguistic and cultural ties than the hellenized, Greco-Roman élites of Byzantium, and greater religious freedom for Jews and indigenous Christians."
  12. ^ M. Zawati, Hilmi (2002). Is Jihād a Just War?: War, Peace, and Human Rights Under Islamic and Public International Law (Studies in religion & society). Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 63–4. ISBN 978-0773473041.
  13. ^ a b Wael, B. Hallaq (2009). Sharī'a: Theory, Practice and Transformations. Cambridge University Press. pp. 332–3. ISBN 978-0-521-86147-2.
  14. ^ a b c Ellethy 2014, p. 181. "[...] the insignificant amount of this yearly tax, the fact that it was progressive, that elders, poor people, handicapped, women, children, monks and hermits were exempted, leave no doubt about exploitation or persecution of those who did not accept Islam. Comparing its amount to the obligatory zaka which an ex-dhimmi should give to the Muslim state in case he converts to Islam dismisses the claim that its aim was forced conversions to Islam."
  15. ^ Alshech, Eli (2003). "Islamic Law, Practice, and Legal Doctrine: Exempting the Poor from the Jizya under the Ayyubids (1171–1250)". Islamic Law and Society. 10 (3): 348–375. doi:10.1163/156851903770227584. ...jurists divided the dhimma community into two major groups. The first group consists of all adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community, while the second includes all other dhimmas (i.e., women, slaves, minors, and the insane). Jurists generally agree that members of the second group are to be granted a "blanket" exemption from jizya payment.
  16. ^ Rispler-Chaim, Vardit (2007). Disability in Islamic law. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. p. 44. ISBN 978-1402050527. The Hanbali position is that boys, women, the mentally insane, the zamin, and the blind are exempt from paying jizya. This view is supposedly shared by the Hanafis, Shafi'is, and Malikis.
  17. ^ Majid Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam, pp. 192–3.
  18. ^ Mapel, D.R. and Nardin, T., eds. (1999), International Society: Diverse Ethical Perspectives, p. 231. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691049724. Quote: "Jizya was levied upon dhimmis in compensation for their exemption from military service in the Muslim forces. If dhimmis joined Muslims in their mutual defense against an outside aggressor, the jizya was not levied."
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Imara was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference ArnoldPoI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Shah 2008, pp. 19–20.
  22. ^ Ghazi, Kalin & Kamali 2013, pp. 240–1.
  23. ^ Abdel-Haleem 2012, pp. 75–6, 77.
  24. ^ Morony, Michael (2005). Iraq after the Muslim conquest. NJ, USA: Gorgias Press. pp. 109, 99–134. ISBN 978-1-59333-315-7.
  25. ^ Levy, Reuben (2002). The social structure of Islam. London New York: Routledge. pp. 310–1. ISBN 978-0-415-20910-6. "There is little doubt that in origin kharaj and jizya were interchangeable terms. In the Arabic papyri of the first century AH only jizya is mentioned, with the general meaning of tribute, while later the poll tax could be called kharaj ala ru'us ahl al-dhimma, i.e. a tax on the heads of protected peoples. The narrower meaning of the word is brought out by Abu Hanifa, "No individual can be liable at the same time to the zakat and to kharaj." [emphasis added]
  26. ^ Satish Chandra (1969), Jizyah and the State in India during the 17th Century, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 322–40, quote="Although kharaj and jizyah were sometimes treated as synonyms, a number of fourteenth century theological tracts treat them as separate"
  27. ^ Peri, Oded (1990). "The Muslim waqf and the collection of jizya in late eighteenth-century Jerusalem". In Gilbar, Gad (ed.). Ottoman Palestine, 1800–1914 : Studies in economic and social history. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 287. ISBN 978-90-04-07785-0. the jizya was one of the main sources of revenue accruing to the Ottoman state treasury as a whole.
  28. ^ Abu Khalil, Shawkiy (2006). al-Islām fī Qafaṣ al-ʾIttihām الإسلام في قفص الإتهام (in Arabic). Dār al-Fikr. p. 149. ISBN 978-1575470047. Quote: (Translation) "The amount of jizya is determined in consideration of their economic status, so that more is taken from the prosperous, less from the middle [class], and a very small amount from the poor (fuqaraʾ). Those who do not have any means of livelihood or depend on support of others are exempted from paying the jizya." (online)
  29. ^ Ghazi, Kalin & Kamali 2013, pp. 82–3.
  30. ^ Abu Zahra, Muhammad. Zahrat al-Tafāsīr زهرة التفاسير (in Arabic). Cairo: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī. pp. 3277–8. Quote: (Translation) "And the money that the dhimmī gives is called jizya: [...] and [it is so named] because it is in return for the protection that they are guaranteed by the Islamic [community], and instead of rendering military service, and since it is [also] in return for what is spent on the poor amongst the dhimmī community (ahl al-dhimma) as ʾImām ʿUmar used to do. [...] and Islam gave the right of equality between all of those who are under its rule, indeed, the jizya that is demanded from the dhimmī corresponds to the financial obligations that are compulsory on the Muslim, so he is obliged [to purify] his wealth [through] zakat, and he is required to pay sadaqat and nudhur, and he is duty-bound to give kaffarat, as well as other things. And if all that is taken from the Muslim was calculated, it would become clear that it isn't less than what is taken by way of jizya, if it isn't more. And as we have mentioned earlier, the state spends on the poor amongst the dhimmī community, and it is narrated that ʿUmar – May God Almighty be pleased with him – found an elderly Jew begging, so he asked him: 'Who are you, old man (shaykh)?' He said, 'I am a man from the dhimma community.' So ʿUmar said to him: 'We have not done justice to you in taking from you when you were young and forsaking you in your old age', so ʿUmar gave him a regular pension from the public treasury (Bayt al-Māl), and he then said to his servant: "Search for him and those like him, and give them out from the public treasury.""
  31. ^ a b Long, Matthew (2012). "Jizya". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. pp. 283–4. ISBN 978-0691134840.
  32. ^ Werner Ende; Udo Steinbach (2010). Islam in the World Today. Cornell University Press. p. 738. ISBN 978-0801445712.
  33. ^ Abou El Fadl, Khaled (2007). The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. HarperOne. p. 214. ISBN 978-0061189036.
  34. ^ Coming home to Orakzai ABDUL SAMI PARACHA, Dawn.com (JAN 05, 2010). "In December 2008, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan enforced a strict version of Islamic law in divergence of enviously guarded distinctive tribal culture in Orakzai Agency. Less than a month a later, a decree for jizya was imposed and had to be paid by all minorities if they want protection against local criminal gangs or that they had to convert to Islam."
  35. ^ Aryn Baker (Feb 28, 2014). "Al-Qaeda Rebels in Syria Tell Christians to Pay Up or Die". Time. In a statement posted to Jihadi websites and signed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-designated emir of the future Islamic caliphate of Raqqa, as well as the founder of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] rebel brigade, Christians are urged to pay a tax in order to continue living under ISIS's protection.