TAXESat Edessa in A.D. 500 when the Byzantine governor put lead seals on
the necks of the poor and gave them a pound of bread per day.61
Similarly, during the plague of 544 in the Sasanian empire people
wrote down their names and homes on a scrap of cloth and hung it
around their necks.^62
Some of the arrangements made between the native population and
the Muslims at the time of the conquest conform to local traditions
of collective responsibility that possibly were encouraged by similar
precedents in Arabia and by the initial tendency of the Muslims to
regard all payments as a form of tribute. In the cities that surrendered
on terms, such as Hira, tribute was imposed as a total amount to be
divided among the people of each city, not necessarily according to
the rates of the poll tax, and no separate tax was levied on their land.^63
However, at Khaniqin, I:Iudhayfa and 'Uthman are said to have put
seals on the necks of the dhimmls, collected the kharaj, and instructed
the dahaqln to break the seals afterwards.^64
The best example of group taxation in early Islamic Iraq is provided
by the experiences of the Christian Arabs from Najran in Yaman who
were resettled in a village of the same name near Kufa. According to
an agreement originally made with Mul:Iammad, the entire community
at first paid an annual tax of two thousand robes to the Muslim state
as tribute for their land. But this tax was remitted by 'Umar I for two
years when they were resettled in Iraq in 641. He also freed them from
the responsibility of providing hospitality to Muslims or special sup-
port for government officials. The amount of the tax was divided
among the men of the community who had not converted, even if one
of them had sold his share of the land to someone outside the com-
munity. If anyone acquired land elsewhere, he was required to pay
the land tax on it. But as early as the reign of 'Uthman, the amount
of the tax was decreased by two hundred robes because the local
notables had forced them off their land. In 657 their bishop interceded
unsuccessfully with 'Ali to allow them to return to Yaman. Although
'An refused, he did promise to respect their rights. The amount of the
tax was further decreased by Mu'awiya or Yazld I by another two
hundred robes because of dispersion, death, and conversion to Islam;
61 Wright, Joshua the Stylite, p. 31.
62 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," II(l), 183.
63 Baladhuri, Futuq, pp. 243, 245, 246, 265; Tabari, Ta'r'ikh, I, 2017-19, 2044-45;
Ya~ya ibn Adarn, Kharii;, pp. 26, 46, 47; Ya'qiibi, Ta'r'ikh, 11, 147.
64 Abii Yiisuf, Kharii;, pp. 195-97; BaladhurI, Futuq, p. 272.