ADMINISTRATIONremained in use until the fall of the Marwani dynasty and was also
called the cadastral cubit (Ar. dhira' al-mi~aha).22
The sa' had been used as a measure for grain among the Jews of
Sasanian Iraq and at Madina at the time of MUQammad and 'Umar
I. The sa' of Madina was a volume of wheat (4.2 liters) weighing five
and one-third ra# (Ar.), and it is reasonable to suppose that this was
the sa' used for grain in the early Muslim levies in the Sawad. How-
ever, this measure seems to have been standardized only in the time
of al-I:Iajjaj, who is said to have brought a sealed sa' of 'Umar from
Madina, which was thereafter called the makhtUm al-J:Iaijaji (Ar.).23
But we are also told that the qafiz used by 'Uthman ibn I:Iunayf in
the Sawad was the native measure called a shaburqan (M.P.) which
the sources equate with the makhtum al-J:Iaj;a;iand the sa·.^24 It would
seem then that there was no volumetric change that would have af-
fected the amount of the grain tax, although we are told that in 644
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, as governor of Basra, had one qafiz for his
household and another to measure rations for the local Muslims.^25
On the whole, the way the Muslims dealt with the tax rates in the
Sasanian mi~aha system illustrates well the complexities of change and
continuity. There were at least three discernible processes. As usual,
the Sasanian principle of a land tax based on a rate schedule per unit
of area for different kinds of crops survived. But the Islamic regime
increased the regularity of the system by extending that principle to
groves of palm and fruit trees and by including as part of the rate
system itself the practice of taking a portion of the tax in kind as
provisions for the army. Lastly, real changes were made that increased
the tax burden by raising the rates and by taxing additional crops.
But the mi~aha system was not the only one in use in seventh-century
Iraq. Taxes proportional to the yield (muqasama) survived on Sasanian
22 Hinz, Masse, pp. 58-60; Mawardi, AlJkiim as-sul,iiniyya, p. 138. Al;Cording to the
Chronicle of Si'irt (Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 11[2), 620) the system of khariij
established in the time of 'Umar I lasted until the time of Mu'awiya, so Ziyad may
actually have undertaken a new survey in the Sawad. However, the tale in Qalqashandi
(Kitiib ~ubh al-a'shii [Cairo, 133211914), Ill, 447) about how Ziyad averaged the length
of a tall, middle-sized, and short man's arm to get the length of his dhirii' is surely
fanciful.
23 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, pp. 58, 81; Hinz, Masse, p. 53; Khadduri, Islamic Law of
Nations, p. 289; Rodkinson, Talmud, Ill, "Erubin," 37,201; Yal,ya ibn Adam, Khariij,
p.92.
24 Baladhuri, FutUlJ, p. 269; Hinz, Masse, p. 48; Khadduri, Islamic Law of Nations,
pp. 269-70; Mawardi, AlJkiim as-sul,iiniyya pp. 151, 168. Mawardi's remark that the
shaburqiin was said (Ar. qual to weigh thirty ra#s cannot be reconciled with its equiv-
alence to the makhtum al-1:lajjiijt and qa(iz.
25 Tabari, Ta'rtkh, I, 2711.