TAXESBut this was in the beginning, before it was superseded by the im-
position of kharaj on those liable to pay it."S 'Umar is supposed to
have "increased [the tax] on every jartb of land cultivated with wheat
or barley by a qaflz (Ar.) of wheat [and] up to two qa{tz [of barley?]
and from it he provisioned the army" because he considered the Sa-
sanian level of taxation inadequate.^6
The establishment of a regular land tax in Iraq under the Muslims
was, as in so many other matters, the work of governors and other
local officials that 'Umar merely approved, although in abbreviating
the process 'Umar himself is sometimes credited with establishing the
tax.^7 The earliest claim is made for Abii Miisa, governor of Basra in
637-38, who is said to have established the districts of Kuwar Dijla,
to have ordered a cadastral survey there, and to have levied taxes
according to the degree of productivity.s Then, in 642, 'Umar sent a
two-man commission to survey the Sawad: l:Iudhayfa ibn al-Yaman,
who had written down the estimates of the date and raisin crops in
the Hijaz for Mul).ammad, to the land irrigated by the Tigris river and
its tributaries as far as Hulwan,9 and 'Uthman ibn I:Iunayf to the land
irrigated by the Euphrates-the Sawad of Kufa up to the Tigris river. to
All land capable of cultivation was surveyed except for tells, reed
thickets, swamps, and unirrigated land.ll The entire cultivable area
came to thirty-six million jarws,12 but most of this seems to have been
in the Sawad. of Kufa where 'Uthman knew what he was doing.
l:Iudhayfa is said to have been deceived by the people in his region,
Ard Jukha, in the measurement of their land, with the result that this
district never paid taxes equivalent to the Sawad of Kufa.135 Qudama ibn la'far, Kitiib al-Khariij, tt. A. Ben Shemesh, Taxation in Islam (Leiden,
1965), 11, 44. Abii Yiisuf (Khariij, p. 197) says that 'Umar imposed fifteen sii' of wheat
on the inhabitants of Iraq. In this period a sii' equalled a qafiz and amounted to 4.2
iiters.
6 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, pp. 59, 130, Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 962-63.
7 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, p. 302; Mawardi, A/Jkiim as-sul,iiniyya, p. 143; Tabari, Ta'rikh,
1,962-63.
8 Baiadhuri, Fueu/J, p. 345.
9 Ibid., pp. 269, 272; Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, IV, 161; Tha'alibi, La,ii'if, p. 57.
10 Baiadhuri, Fueu/J, p. 260; Ibn Rustah, A'liiq, p. 104; Mawardi, A/Jkiim as-sul,ii-
niyya, p. 168; Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2645.
11 Tabari, Ta'rilch, I, 962; Ya'qiibi, Ta'rikh, 11, 174.
12 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, p. 56; Baiadhuri, Fueu/J, p. 269; Ibn J:lawqai, Kitiib ~urat al-
art!. (Leiden, 1938-39), 11, 234; Ibn Khurradadhbih, Kitiib al-masiilik wa 'l-mamiilik
(Leiden, 1889), VI, 14; Ibn Rustah, A'liiq, p. 104; Mawardi, A/Jkiim as-sul,iiniyya, p.
168.
13 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, pp. 59-60.