ADMINISTRATIONwith 'Urwa ibn Zayd for his territory. After the Battle of Kaskar in
634, 'Abu 'Ubayd received four dirhams per head from two local
notables: Farrukh for the territory of Barusma and Farwandadh for
the territory of Nahr J~wbar.38 The agreement that the Nestorian
catholicos Isho'yahbh!LI;is claimed to have made with 'Umar also
provided that the tax on the poor was not to exceed four silver coins
(Syr. zuzi), while that on merchants and the wealthy was to be set at
ten coins per man.^39
However, in the Sawad of Kufa I:Iudhayfa ibn al-Yaman and 'Uth-
man ibn I:Iunayf established new, higher rates comparable to their
increase in land taxes. They required some five hundred thousand adult
males, including artisans, to pay a graduated annual poll tax of twelve,
twenty-four, or forty-eight dirhams.^40 The threefold increase in the
lowest rates and the fourfold increase in the highest rate was quite in
line with the level of increase in land taxes at the same time. This
schedule was maintained in 'All's instructions to Yazid al-An~ari, in
which dahiiqzn who rode a birdhawn (Syr.) and wore gold anklets on
their feet were to pay forty-eight dirhams, middle income merchants
were to pay twenty-four dirhams, and farmers and others were to pay
twelve dirhams per year.^41 By the time of 'Umar II in the early eighth
century, the poll tax had been defined as the tax paid by farmers from
their produce, by artisans from their earnings, and by merchants from
their profits.^42 Ultimately Islamic law exempted women and children,
the aged, the blind, crippled, insane, or chronically ill-essentially
everyone who by reason of age of infirmity was too poor to pay the
poll tax.^43
There are thus several theoretical dimensions to the way the poll
tax developed. Originally, it appears to have been a form of tribute
levied on the urban population, designed to cover non agricultural
sources of income and to prevent people from escaping taxation by
abandoning the land. In the smaller towns and villages, it is natural
to suppose that land and poll taxes overlapped somewhat because
peasants did not normally live on the land they farmed but in a nearby
38 Baliidhuri, Futu~, p. 251; Tabarl, Ta'rlkh, 1,2049,2170.
39 Thomas of Margha, The Book of the Governors, (London, 1893), Il, 126.
40 Abii Yiisuf, Kharaj, pp. 56-57, 60, 187, 196-97; Baliidhuri, Futu~, p. 329; Ibn
Khurradadhbih, Masalik, p. 14; Ibn Rustah, A'laq, p. 105; Khadduri, Islamic Law of
Nations, pp. 143, 245; Ya~ya ibn Adam, Kharaj, p. 28; Ya'qiibi, Ta'rtkh, Il, 174.
41 Baladhurl, Futu~, p. 271.
42 H.A.R. Gibb, "The Fiscal Rescript of 'Umar Il," Arabica 2 (1955), 6.
43 Abii Yiisuf, Kharaj, p. 57; Khadduri, Islamic Law of Nations, pp. 143,276.