both unused and cultivated—amounting in all to 36,000 jarīb (a land unit). (1) ʿUmar’s measuring rod, with which the Sawād was surveyed, equalled one cubit plus a hand-span, the thumb laid flat.

He then wrote to him: “Impose the kharāj at one dirham and one qafīz (a grain measure) (2) on every jarīb, whether the land is cultivated or lying fallow. As for vineyards, levy ten dirhams per jarīb. Provide them with the produce of the date-palms and other trees; this will strengthen them to cultivate and maintain their territory.”

He set the personal assessment for the affluent at forty-eight dirhams, for those beneath that tier at twenty-four dirhams, and for anyone who possessed nothing at twelve dirhams, thereby freeing them from the bondage that had previously weighed upon their necks by substituting this land-tax in its place.

From the kharāj of the Sawād attached to Kūfah, eighty million dirhams were forwarded to ʿUmar in the first year; the following year the amount reached one hundred and twenty million dirhams, and it continued at about that level. (3)

Husayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrates from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn:

I came and found ʿUmar standing over Ḥudhayfah and ʿUthmān ibn Ḥunayf, saying, “Do you fear that you may have burdened the land with more than it can bear?”

ʿUthmān replied, “If I wished, I could double the levy on my own land.”

Ḥudhayfah said, “I have laid upon the land only what it can sustain.”

Whereupon ʿUmar kept saying, “See what…"