Jizyah: Difference between revisions

To be fair to history; Jizyah was not entirely an Islamic initiative or the innovation of its prophet [[Muhammad]], (Emphasis on the word “entirely”). A certain form of Jizyah had existed among the tribes of Northern Arabia in pre-Islamic times. This fact is attested by the famous historian Philip. K. Hitti in his ''History of Arabs''. ''Ghazw'' (غزو) or raiding others for feeding mouths was an accepted norm among the Bedouin tribes of that time. As ''Hitti'' noted, "Ghazw was a manly occupation of Bedouins where fighting mood was a chronic mental condition". For people among the tribes, everything that belonged to the other tribes guaranteeing material gain made a legitimate target. The context made it necessary for a weaker tribe or a sedentary settlement on the borderland to buy protection from the stronger tribe by paying what it then called ''Khuwwah'' which later became Jizyah in Muhammad’s Islam. Along with the booty acquired through raids and wars, Jizyah turned out to be a good source of income for believers when they were constantly occupied in spreading the newly founded religion by means of violence. To sum up, by imposing Jizyah on subjugated unbelievers Muhammad was reinstating an undivine tribal norm into his religion, thus broadening an abject backward practice.