Greater Syria, together with the whole Sawad, is classified as kharaj land. Its limits run from al-ʿAdhib to the Hulwān Pass, and from al-ʿAlth to Abadān.
The land of the Sawad remains the private property of its inhabitants; they may sell it and otherwise dispose of it as they wish.
Every tract whose people embraced Islam while retaining possession of it, or that was conquered by force and then divided among the victors, is tithe land. Any land taken by force but left in the hands of its original owners is kharaj land.
Reviving dead land
Whoever revives wasteland, says Abū Yūsuf, has its status determined by the district to which it is contiguous: if it lies next to kharaj land it becomes kharaj land, and if it lies next to tithe land it becomes tithe land. In his view Basra is tithe land by unanimous agreement of the Companions.
Muḥammad maintained: if the land is revived by digging a well, bringing forth a spring, or irrigating it with water from the Tigris, the Euphrates, or the other great rivers that belong to no one, it is tithe land; but if the irrigation comes from canals excavated by non-Arabs, such as Nahr al-Malik or Nahr Yazdajird, it is kharaj land.
The kharaj that ʿUmar—Allah be pleased with him—fixed for the people of the Sawad was: from every jarīb reached by irrigation, one Hāshimī qafiz, that is, a saʿ, and one dirham; from each jarīb of orchards five dirhams; and from each jarīb of contiguous vineyards or date-palms ten dirhams.
Other categories of land are assessed according to their capacity; if they cannot bear the set amount, the imam reduces it.
If floodwater overwhelms kharaj land, water is cut off from it, or the crop is destroyed by blight, no kharaj is due. If the owner leaves it idle, however, the tax remains payable.
When someone from the kharaj-paying population embraces Islam, the kharaj continues to be taken from him at the same rate.
A Muslim may purchase kharaj land from a dhimmī; the kharaj is then collected from the Muslim buyer, and no tithe is due on produce from kharaj land.
Jizya is of two kinds:
- A levy fixed by mutual consent and treaty, its amount being whatever the two sides agree upon.
- A levy the imam himself sets when the Muslims prevail over the unbelievers and allow them to remain upon their property: the manifestly wealthy pay forty-eight dirhams a year, collected at four dirhams a month; those of moderate means pay twenty-four dirhams a year, at two dirhams a month; and the poor who earn a living pay twelve dirhams a year, at one dirham a month.
Jizya is imposed on the People of the Book, the Magians, and the idol-worshippers among the non-Arabs. It is not taken from idol-worshipping Arabs, nor from apostates.
No jizya is due from a woman, a child, the chronically ill, the blind, a destitute person who earns nothing, or from monks who do not