ADMINISTRATIONthe Islamic maks (Ar.). As a commercial tax, the miksu on seafaring
merchants at Ur amounted to a ten percent customs duty in the Old
Babylonian period.^83 In Sasanian Iraq ad valorem tolls were levied on
the goods of merchants at bridges, and the right to collect them was
sold to tax farmers.^84 The peace treaty between the Persians and By-
zantines in 561 allowed merchants on both sides to engage in com-
merce, provided they paid customs duty on their merchandise at the
border between Nasibin and Dara.^85
Ubulla was the major port for the Indian trade, and although there
is no evidence that the Sasanians collected customs there, it was at
Ubulla that Muslim customs duties were first set. According to Ibn
Sa'd, when Anas ibn Malik was put in charge of Basra by Ibn az-
Zubayr in the spring of 685, he appointed Anas ibn Strin as the customs
inspector (Ar. 'ashir) for Ubulla. To guide him in his responsibilities,
a document purporting to go back to the caliph 'Umar I himself was
brought forth. According to it, a Muslim was to pay two and one-
half percent ad valorem on his merchandise, a protected non-Muslim
(dhimmi) five percent, and a foreign non-Muslim ten percent.^86 Along
the former Per so-Byzantine border, Ziyad ibn I:Iudayr collected a five
percent ad valorem customs tax from the Christian Arabs in the time
of 'Umar I by stretching a chain across the Euphrates and requiring
them to pay the customs toll every time they went in either direction.^87
The Sasanian state also requisitioned lab or, animals, and provisions
for royal projects and whenever the court or provincial governors and
their retinues passed through a district. Apart from works such as
canals, dikes and bridges, such local levies appear to be related to the
state communication and transport system for which animals were
commandeered. Local notables were obliged to lodge government of-
ficials en route at their own expense, perhaps in lieu of other taxes.^88
The Muslims imposed a similar requirement to give directions and
hospitality for three days to Muslim travelers on the dahaqm in the
Sawad of Kufa. The right to receive such hospitality came to be re-
83 Ellis, Agriculture and the State, p. 149.
84 Newman, Agricultural Life, pp. 179-81.
8S Christensen, Sassanides, p. 125.
86 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, pp. 204-5, 209-10, 212-13; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VIl(l), 151.
87 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, pp. 210-11. Tyan (Organisation judiciaire, p. 79) points out
that none of the authors who mention 'Umar's letter lived earlier than the end of the
eighth century.
88 Chabot, Synodicon, p. 103; Newman, Agricultural Life, pp. 182-84; Ibn Rustah,
A'liiq, p. 197.