Jizyah: Difference between revisions

The amount of the Jizyah tax and the way it was collected varied from time to time and from place to place, but when imposed, the forced payment of Jizyah greatly stimulated the conversion of non-Muslims into Islam.<ref>[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article?tocId=9368576 Jizya] - Encyclopedia Britannica</ref> In some cases the taxation of the non-Muslims was so profitable that some Islamic rulers discouraged their subjects from converting to Islam, lest they should lose their income.<ref>Hawting, G.R. ''The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750''. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 0-415-24073-5.</ref>

Jizyah was not entirely an Islamic initiative or the innovation of its prophet [[Muhammad]]. 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.