in your peace treaty.” Bashir ibn Saʿd and Muhammad ibn Maslamah testified on his behalf, so Khalid excluded her from the peace treaty and handed her over to Khuraym. “I bought her from him for one thousand dirhams, and she was an old woman.”

If the grant and transfer of ownership are valid in this manner, the outcome depends on how the conquest took place. If it was by treaty, the land would belong to the grantee and, by virtue of the prior grant, would fall outside the terms of the treaty. If the conquest was by force, the grantee and the recipient of the promised gift would have a stronger claim to what had been granted and gifted to them than the participants entitled to the spoils.

As for the spoils-sharers, if they knew of the grant and gift before the conquest, they could not demand compensation for what had been granted and gifted. If they did not learn of them until after the conquest, the imam would compensate them with whatever would satisfy them, just as he would seek their willing acceptance regarding other spoils. It has also been said that he is not obliged to seek their consent concerning this—or any other spoils—if he considers taking it to serve the public interest.

The second category of developed land is land whose owners cannot be identified and whose rightful claimants cannot be distinguished. It falls into three divisions. The first is what the rulers set aside for the public treasury from the conquests of various lands—either by virtue of the khums, in which case it is taken as a rightful entitlement for those eligible to receive it, or by setting it aside after obtaining the willing consent of the spoils-sharers to relinquish it. Thus, Umar set aside from the lands of al-Sawad the properties of Kisra and his household, as well as whatever property its owners had abandoned by fleeing or perishing. Its revenues amounted to 9,000,000 dirhams, which he spent on the interests of the Muslims, and he did not grant any part of it as a concession. Then Uthman granted it as a concession because he believed that doing so would generate more revenue than leaving it unproductive. He stipulated that the person to whom he granted it pay him the due fayʾ. Thus, his grant was a leasing concession, not a grant conferring ownership.