Jizya

In Islamic law , jizya or jizyah ( Arabic : جزْية) is a per capita tax imposed on adult males of other faiths under Muslim rule.

Under Islamic law , jizya or jizyah ( ; Ottoman Turkish : cizye; both derived from Pahlavi and ultimately from Aramaic gaziyat ) is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state 's non- Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria. The tax is/was to be levied on able bodied adult males of military age and affording power, (but with specific exemptions, though these were discarded at various points in history ). From the point of view of the Muslim rulers, jizya was a material proof of the non-Muslims' acceptance of subjection to the state and its laws, "just as for the inhabitants it was a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes." In return, non-Muslim citizens were permitted to practice their faith, to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy, to be entitled to Muslim state's protection from outside aggression, to be exempted from military service and the Zakat as obligatory upon Muslim citizens. But in some Islamic regions this controversial tax is being charged from Non-Muslims regardless of their military service contribution in their Islamic states . The Arabic term jizya appears in verse Quran 9:29 , but the Qur'an does not specify jizya as a tax per head. According to Paul Heck , the jizya taxation seems to be a developed form of the Sassanian practice of taxation. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates .

( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Jizya or jizyah ( ǧizyah ; Ottoman Turkish : cizye ) is a religiously required per capita tax on non-Muslims under Islamic law, levied by an Islamic state . Jizya tax was not paid by Muslims, who however paid zakat (alms) tax instead. Jizya is an example of taxes that depended on the religion of the individual. Some scholars state Jizya as a discriminatory tax. However, 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 privately 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 tax on non-Muslims is mentioned in and mandated by the Quran and the Hadiths. The jizya tax was historically imposed on Jews and Christians in Arabian peninsula, 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. However, armed groups such as ISIS enforce it in some areas they have captured. In the 21st century, it is widely regarded as being at odds with contemporary secular conceptions of citizen's civil rights and equality before the law, although there have been occasional reports of religious minorities in conflict zones and areas subject to political instability being forced to pay jizya. Islam in South Asia a short history . A history of modern India, 1480-1950 . The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought . Islam in the World Today .

Islamic tax on non-Muslims This article is about the Tax per head . Collection Economic nexus in the United States Revenue service Revenue stamp Tax assessment Taxable income Tax lien Tax refund Tax shield Tax residence Tax preparation Tax protester Tax investigation Tax collector Tax withholding Private tax collection Noncompliance Types Direct Indirect Per unit Ad valorem Aviation Airport improvement Landing Solidarity Capital gains Exit Consumption Departure Hotel Sales Stamp Television Tourist Value-added Digital goods Dividend Environmental tax Carbon Eco-tariff Landfill Natural resources consumption Severance Steering Stumpage Excise Alcohol Fat Meat Sin Sugary drink Tobacco General Georgist Gift Gross receipts Hidden Hypothecated Income Inheritance (estate) Internet tax Land value Luxury Mining On childlessness Payroll Pigouvian Property Resource rent Single Stealth Surtax Turnover Use User charge / fee Congestion Fuel Road / GNSS Toll Vehicle miles traveled Corporate profit Excess profits Windfall Negative (income) Wealth International Financial transaction tax ATTAC Currency transaction tax European Union Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) Global minimum corporate tax rate Robin Hood tax Tobin tax Spahn tax Tax equalization Tax treaty Exchange of Information Permanent establishment Transfer pricing European Union FTT Foreign revenue rule Trade Custom Duty Tariff Import Export Tariff war Free trade Free-trade zone Trade agreement ATA Carnet Research Religious Church tax Eight per thousand Teind Tithe Fiscus Judaicus Leibzoll Temple tax Tolerance tax Jizya Kharaj Khums Nisab Zakat By country Business portal Money portal v t e Jizya ( jizyah / ǧizyah ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis , that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law . The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount, and the application of jizya varied in the course of Islamic history . However, scholars largely agree that early Muslim rulers adapted existing systems of taxation and tribute that were established under previous rulers of the conquered lands, such as those of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. 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' submission to the Muslim state and its laws. Muslim jurists required adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya, while exempting women , children , elders , handicapped , the ill, the insane , monks , hermits , slaves , and musta'mins —non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands. Dhimmis who chose to join military service were also exempted from payment, as were those who could not afford to pay. According to Islamic law, elders, handicapped etc, must be given pensions, and they must not go into begging. Together with kharāj , a term that was sometimes used interchangeably with jizya, 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 . Jizya rate was usually a fixed annual amount depending on the financial capability of the payer. 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. 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 British East India Company. It almost vanished during the 20th century with the disappearance of Islamic states and the spread of religious tolerance . The tax is no longer imposed by nation states in the Islamic world, although there are reported cases of organizations such as the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS attempting to revive the practice. Understanding the Qur'ān: Themes and Style . Building upon the historical practice, classical Muslim jurists argued that the poll tax is money collected by the Islamic polity from non-Muslims in return for the protection of the Muslim state. If the Muslim state was incapable of extending such protection to non-Muslims, it was not supposed to levy a poll tax." Jizyah The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2010), Oxford University Press , Quote: Jizyah : Compensation. Poll tax levied on non-Muslims, such as Jews and Christians, as a form of tribute and in exchange for an exemption from military service, based on Quran 9:29. The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought . 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. 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. "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)." Walker Arnold, Thomas (1913). 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. 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 dh immīs 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. 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." M. Is Jihād a Just War?: War, Peace, and Human Rights Under Islamic and Public International Law (Studies in religion & society) . Sharī'a: Theory, Practice and Transformations . 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." Alshech, Eli (2003). "Islamic Law, Practice, and Legal Doctrine: Exempting the Poor from the Jizya under the Ayyubids (1171-1250)". 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. Disability in Islamic law . 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. Mapel, D.R. and Nardin, T., eds. Quote: " Jizya was levied upon dhimmis in compensation for their exemption from military service in the Muslim forces. Iraq after the Muslim conquest . The social structure of Islam . 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. In Gilbar, Gad (ed.). Ottoman Palestine, 1800-1914 : Studies in economic and social history . Abu Khalil, Shawkiy (2006). al-Islām fī Qafaṣ al-ʾIttihām الإسلام في قفص الإتهام (in Arabic). Quote: و يعين مقدار الجزية إعتبارا لحالتهم الإقتصادية، فيؤخد من الموسرين أكثر و من الوسط أقل منه و من الفقراء شيء قليل جدا. و على الدين لا معاش لهم أو هم عالة على غيرهم يعفون من أداء الجزية. 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 ). Quote: و ما يعطيه الذمي من المال يسمى جزية؛ [...] و لأنها جزاء لأن يدفع الإسلام عنهم، و يكفيهم مئونة القتال، و لأنها جزاء لما ينفق على فقراء أهل الذمة كما كان يفعل الإمام عمر، [...] و الإسلام قام بحق التساوي بين جميع من يكونون في طاعته، فإن الجزية التي تكون على الذمي تقابل ما يكون على المسلم من تكليفات مالية، فعليه زكاة المال، و عليه صدقات و نذور، و عليه كفارات، و غير ذلك، و لو أحصى كل ما يؤخد من المسلم لتبين أنه لا يقل عما يؤخد من جزية إن لم يزد. و إن الدولة كما ذكرنا تنفق على فقراء أهل الذمة، و لقد روى أن عمر - رضي الله تعالى عنه - وجد شيخا يهوديا يتكفف، فسأله: من أنت يا شيخ؟ قال رجل من أهل الذمة، فقال له: ما أنصفناك أكلنا شبيبتك و ضيعناك في شيخوختك، و أجرى عليه رزقا مستمرا من بيت المال، و قال لخادمه: ابحت عن هذا و ضربائه، و أَجْرِ عليهم رزقا من بيت المال. 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."" Long, Matthew (2012). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought . Islam in the World Today . The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists . 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." Aryn Baker (Feb 28, 2014). 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.

Islamic tax on non-Muslims This article is about the religious tax per head . Collection Economic nexus in the United States Revenue service Revenue stamp Tax assessment Taxable income Tax lien Tax refund Tax shield Tax residence Tax preparation Tax protester Tax investigation Tax collector Tax withholding Private tax collection Noncompliance Types Direct Indirect Per unit Ad valorem Aviation Airport improvement Landing Solidarity Capital gains Exit Consumption Departure Hotel Sales Stamp Television Tourist Value-added Digital goods Dividend Environmental tax Carbon Eco-tariff Landfill Natural resources consumption Severance Steering Stumpage Excise Alcohol Fat Meat Sin Sugary drink Tobacco General Georgist Gift Gross receipts Hidden Hypothecated Income Inheritance (estate) Internet tax Land value Luxury Mining On childlessness Payroll Pigouvian Property Resource rent Single Stealth Surtax Turnover Use User charge / fee Congestion Fuel Road / GNSS Toll Vehicle miles traveled Corporate profit Excess profits Windfall Negative (income) Wealth International Financial transaction tax ATTAC Currency transaction tax European Union Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) Global minimum corporate tax rate Robin Hood tax Tobin tax Spahn tax Tax equalization Tax treaty Exchange of Information Permanent establishment Transfer pricing European Union FTT Foreign revenue rule Trade Custom Duty Tariff Import Export Tariff war Free trade Free-trade zone Trade agreement ATA Carnet Research Religious Church tax Eight per thousand Teind Tithe Fiscus Judaicus Leibzoll Temple tax Tolerance tax Jizya Kharaj Khums Nisab Zakat By country Business portal Money portal v t e Jizya ( Arabic : جِزْيَة , romanized : jizya ), or jizyah , is a type of taxation levied on non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law . The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount, 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. 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. The majority of Muslim jurists required adult, free, sane males among the dhimma community to pay the jizya, while exempting women, children, elders , handicapped , the ill, the insane , monks , hermits , slaves , and musta'mins —non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily reside in Muslim lands. However, some jurists, such as Ibn Hazm , required that anyone who had reached puberty pay jizya. Islamic Regimes allowed dhimmis to serve in Muslim armies. Those who chose to join military service were also exempted from payment; some Muslim scholars claim that some Islamic rulers exempted those who could not afford to pay from the Jizya. Together with kharāj , a term that was sometimes used interchangeably with jizya, 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 . Jizya rate was usually a fixed annual amount depending on the financial capability of the payer. 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. 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 . The tax is no longer imposed by nation states in the Islamic world, although there are reported cases of organizations such as the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS attempting to revive the practice. Understanding the Qur'ān: Themes and Style . The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought . 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. 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. "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)." Walker Arnold, Thomas (1913). 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. 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 dh immīs 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. 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." M. Is Jihād a Just War?: War, Peace, and Human Rights Under Islamic and Public International Law (Studies in religion & society) . Sharī'a: Theory, Practice and Transformations . 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." Alshech, Eli (2003). "Islamic Law, Practice, and Legal Doctrine: Exempting the Poor from the Jizya under the Ayyubids (1171–1250)". 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. Disability in Islamic law . 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. Quote: " Jizya was levied upon dhimmis in compensation for their exemption from military service in the Muslim forces. Iraq after the Muslim conquest . The social structure of Islam . 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. In Gilbar, Gad (ed.). Ottoman Palestine, 1800–1914 : Studies in economic and social history . Abu Khalil, Shawkiy (2006). al-Islām fī Qafaṣ al-ʾIttihām الإسلام في قفص الإتهام (in Arabic). 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 ). 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."" Long, Matthew (2012). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought . Islam in the World Today . The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists . 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." Aryn Baker (Feb 28, 2014). 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.