LAND TAX
Chapter 2
TAXES
Sasanian political theory recognized the dependence of a bureau-
cratic administration on the taxable wealth and services of the subject
population and expressed it in the principle that "the tax (Ar. kharaj)
is the support of the state; nothing increases it like justice and nothing
reduces it like oppression."! In theory, the payment of taxes was
guaranteed by treating them as forms of rent or debt secured by systems
of surety or collective responsibility. Attempts were made to prevent
undue exploitation by using internal checking mechanisms and by
favoring the employment of persons with the proper ethical virtues to
collect taxes. Evidence for the survival or alteration of Sasanian tra-
ditions of taxation in early Islamic Iraq lies in the extent to which
these ideals were realized, in the kinds and rates of taxes and obli-
gations, the methods of assessment and collection, and to a certain
extent, the amount of taxes collected.
Studies concentrating on the linguistic derivation, ambiguities, and
inconsistencies of the technical terms used for different kinds of taxes
have tended to obscure the existence and significance of separate land
and poll taxes in Sasanian Iraq. Whatever terms may have been used,
the available sources are unanimous in describing both an agricultural
tax and a tax on persons under Sasanian rule. Up to the end of the
fifth century, the land tax was taken as a portion of the yield (Ar.
muqasama) and would amount to one-half, one-third, one-quarter,
one-fifth, one-sixth, or one-tenth of the crop, depending on the amount
of irrigation, the intensity of cultivation or productivity, and the dis-
tance from the nearest urban market. This system was replaced in
much of lower Iraq in the early sixth century by one in which agri-
cultural land was surveyed and a tax was levied per unit of area based
on a rate schedule that took the type of crop, amount of irrigation,
and productivity into account (Ar. mi~aha). The survey was begun by
Qubadh I who died before it was finished, leaving it to his successor
Khusraw Anushirvan to complete the survey and implement the sys-
tem. As quoted in the Arabic sources, the following tax rates were
1 This statement is ascribed both to Ardashlr (Tha'iilibl, Ghurar, p. 484) and to
Aniishirviin (Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, IV, 222-23).