Under Islamic law, jizya or jizyah ( '''' ; Ottoman Turkish: ''cizye;'' both derived from Pahlavi and possibly 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, 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'' taxes obligatory upon Muslim citizens.
It is also worth mentioning here that the word Jizya is derived from the root word that refers to “part”, hence taken from a part of the wealth of the non-Muslim citizens. In fact, the use of the word jizya was not even necessary. Al-Tabari wrote that some members of the Christian community asked the companion “Umar bin al-Khatab if they could refer to the jizya as sadaqah which literally means “charity”, which he approved of.
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''.
Commentators disagree on the definition and derivation of the word ''jizya'':
In practice, the word is applied to a special type of tax, levied upon the non-Muslim adult males living under an Islamic state.
After the Norman conquest of Sicily, taxes imposed on the Muslim minority were also called the "jizya".
Many Muslim rulers saw jizya as a material proof of the non-Muslims' acceptance of the authority of the Islamic state.
Though ''jizya'' was mandated specifically for other monotheistic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism), under the ''Maliki'' school of ''Fiqh'' ''jizya'' was extended to all non-Muslims. Thus some Muslim rulers also collected ''jizya'' from Hindus and Sikhs under their rule. The collection of the tax was sometimes the duty of the elders of those communities, but often it was collected directly from individuals, in accordance with specific payment rituals described in the writings of Muslim jurists.
In return for the tax, those who paid the ''jizya'' were permitted to keep their non-Muslim religion. Their economic and political security was guaranteed by the Islamic state, provided that they accepted Islamic control. They could not serve in the military or bear arms, but their community was considered to be under the protection of the Muslim state, subject to their meeting certain conditions. If someone refused to pay the ''jizya'', he could be imprisoned. The jizya was used for paying the salaries of state servants, pensions and on charities. In some instances, however, it ended up in "private" treasuries.
Bernard Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, states that the discrimination in the amount of taxation was inherited from the previous Byzantium and Iranian empires. Scholars differ as to the exact burden imposed by the ''jizya'' tax. Documentary evidence, including that found in eleventh-century Cairo Geniza documents, suggest that the burden, at least for the poorer classes, was heavy. As the taxation amount was fixed in gold, it became less burdensome over the centuries.
According to Abu Yusuf, jurist of Harun al-Rashid, those who didn't pay jizya should be imprisoned not to be let out of custody until payment. It is not permissible to exempt one person, while obliging another to pay jizya, nor is jizya to be reduced. Though it was an annual tax, non-Muslims were allowed to pay it in monthly installments.
If someone had agreed to pay jizya, leaving Muslim territory for non-Muslim land was punishable by enslavement if they were ever captured. This punishment did not apply if the person had suffered injustices from Muslims.
Two military campaigns during Muhammad's era culminated with the agreement requiring the new non-Muslim subjects to pay jizya, in return for Muslim protection: Battle of Khaybar and the expedition of Abdur Rahman bin Auf.
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 claim to be a prophet, and secretly liaised with Muhammad's enemies in Mecca to overthrow him.
Prompted by what he saw as their treasonous behavior, Muhammads ensuing reaction - in contrast to his treatment of Jews outside of Medina - was determined and progressively more violent. After each major battle against Mecca, the Jewish tribes of Medina were accused of treachery. Having broken the terms of their compliance to Muslim rule, the Jewish tribes of Medina were first banished, then enslaved and finally part of the community was executed en masse.
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 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.
Sir Thomas Arnold, an early 20th century orientalist, gives an example of a Christian Arab tribe which avoided paying the ''jizya'' altogether by fighting alongside Muslim armies "such was the case with the tribe of al-Jurajimah, a Christian tribe in the neighbourhood 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 jizya and should receive their proper share of the booty".
In his message to the people of Al-Hirah, Khalid bin Walid is recorded as saying (in reference to the ''jizya''), "When a person is too old to work or suffers a handicap, or when he falls into poverty, he is free from the dues of the poll tax; his sustenance is provided by the Muslim Exchequer." 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.”
According to Muslim accounts of Umar, in his time some payers of the ''jizya'' were compensated if they had not been cared for properly. The accounts vary, but describe his meeting an old Jew begging, and assisting him; according to one version:
Umar said to him, "Old man! We have not done justice to you. In your youth we realized Jizyah from you and have left you to fend for yourself in your old age". Holding him by the hand, he led him to his own house, and preparing food with his own hands fed him and issued orders to the treasurer of the Bait-al-mal that that old man and all others like him, should be regularly doled out a daily allowance which should suffice for them and their dependents.
In Khurasan, the native aristocracy reduced jizya, while increased taxes on the Muslim inhabitants, in order to prevent the non-Muslim conversion to Islam that jizya encouraged.
In 1894 ''jizya'' was still being collected in Morocco; an Italian Jew described his experience there:
The kadi Uwida and the kadi Mawlay Mustafa had mounted their tent today near the Mellah [Jewish ghetto] gate and had summoned the Jews in order to collect from them the poll tax [jizya] which they are obliged to pay the sultan. They had me summoned also. I first inquired whether those who were European-protected subjects had to pay this tax. Having learned that a great many of them had already paid it, I wished to do likewise. After having remitted the amount of the tax to the two officials, I received from the kadi’s guard two blows in the back of the neck. Addressing the kadi and the kaid, I said” ‘Know that I am an Italian protected subject.’ Whereupon the kadi said to his guard: ‘Remove the kerchief covering his head and strike him strongly; he can then go and complain wherever he wants.’ The guards hastily obeyed and struck me once again more violently. This public mistreatment of a European-protected subject demonstrates to all the Arabs that they can, with impunity, mistreat the Jews.
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).
It is important to note that in the Ottoman Empire the "Jizya" was abolished in 1855. 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."
More recently, it has been 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.
It was, of course, evident that the tax represented a discrimination and was intended, according to the Koran's own words, to emphasize the inferior status of the non-believers. It seemed, however, that from the economic point of view, it did not constitute a heavy imposition, since it was on a sliding scale, approximately one, two, and four dinars, and thus adjusted to the financial capacity of the taxpayer. This impression proved to be entirely fallacious, for it did not take into consideration the immense extent of poverty and privation experienced by the masses, and in particular their way of living from hand to mouth, their persistent lack of cash, which turned the "season of the tax" into one of horror, dread, and misery. The provisions of ancient Islamic law which exempted the indigent, the invalids and the old, were no longer observed in the Geniza period and had been discarded by the Shāfi‘ī School of Law, which prevailed in Egypt, also in theory.
Critics often cite Jizya as a form of oppression in Islamic law.
Muslim apologists argue that it is fair, since all Muslims are obliged to pay Zakat (charitable donations) and the Shiite Muslims must pay the Khums Tax (1/5 of one's earnings). Additionally, Islamic law requires Muslims to do military duties when required but exempts the non-Muslims.
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, an Islamic legal text, declared it lawful to require twice as much of a Zimmee [dhimmi] as of a Mussulman [Muslim]."
Refusing to pay both Zakat and Jizya are considered under Islamic law to be crimes subjected to imprisonment and punishment.
Category:Sharia Category:Personal taxes Category:Islam and other religions Category:Islamic terms Category:Judeo-Islamic topics Category:History of taxation Category:Taxation in the Ottoman Empire
ar:جزية bg:Джизие ca:Jizya de:Dschizya es:Yizia fa:جزیه fr:Djizîa ko:지즈야 hi:जज़िया id:Jizyah it:Jizya he:ג'יזיה ms:Jizyah nl:Jizya ja:ジズヤ pl:Dżizja ro:Jizia ru:Джизья sq:Xhizja sr:Џизија sv:Jizya tr:Cizye ur:جزیہ zh:吉茲亞This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 30°19′10″N81°39′36″N |
---|---|
Region | Preacher, professor and speaker |
Color | lightsteelblue |
Name | Jamal Badawi |
School tradition | Islam |
Main interests | Islamic Dawah |
Influences | Hasan Al-Banna, Muslim Brotherhood |
website | }} |
Jamal A. Badawi () is an Egyptian born Muslim Canadian former professor in the Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a well-known author, preacher and speaker on Islam.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. He left for the U.S. in the 1960s and completed his Masters and doctorate, both in the department of Business Administration, at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He has been serving as a volunteer imam of the local Muslim community in the Halifax Regional Municipality since 1970. He cites Hassan al-Banna and Muslim Brotherhood as his source for inspiration.
In addition to his participation in lectures, seminars and interfaith dialogues in North America, Badawi was invited as a guest speaker in various functions throughout the world. He is also active in several Islamic organizations, including the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), and the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). He is also a member of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the founder and chairman of the Islamic Information Foundation, a non-profit foundation seeking to promote a better understanding of Islam and Muslims towards non-Muslims. He has lectured extensively in North America and abroad, and speaks on a variety of topics including Islam and Christianity and is a guest scholar at The American Learning Institute for Muslims.
Badawi has authored several books and articles on Islam. He also researched, designed and presented a 352-segment television series on Islam, aired in Canada, the US and other countries. Audio and video copies of this series are widely available.
Badawi is married and the father of five children.
Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Canadian anthropologists Category:Canadian Muslims Category:Ain Shams University alumni Category:Indiana University alumni Category:Egyptian emigrants to Canada Category:Saint Mary's University (Halifax) faculty Category:Muslim apologists
ar:جمال بدوي (داعية إسلامي)This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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