“As for taking one-fifth from land owned by the People of the Covenant that lies within Arab territory—do you have any report on that, or is it without textual support?”

He answered, “We possess no report on the matter; we simply drew an analogy with what ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—ordered to be taken from their wealth when they trade with it and pass by the tax-collector.”

Thus Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about a dhimmī who revives dead land, and he replied that nothing is due from him. He then noted the jurists’ disagreement regarding a dhimmī’s purchase of land: should he be prevented from buying it, or should the tithe be doubled against him? From this it becomes clear that, in his view, the two issues are one and the same: the dhimmī’s ownership of tithe-able land, whether through purchase, reclamation, or any other means.

Al-ʿAnbarī, the judge of Basra, likewise reported that they collect one-fifth from every parcel of tithe-able land belonging to the People of the Covenant, whether the land came into their possession by transfer or through original reclamation.

This shows you that if Aḥmad bars a dhimmī from purchasing tithe-able land, he likewise bars him from reviving it; and that if he levies a fifth on land the dhimmī buys, he does the same for land he revives. Consequently, anyone who quotes him as imposing a single tithe only on reclaimed land but not on purchased land is inaccurate; the error arises from his statement in the other report transmitted by al-Kirmānī: “It is land ….”