RESOURCESmedan Theories of Finance (New York, 1916) has the advantage of
distinguishing between theory and practice and is still a good place to
identify some of the most important sources. But M. Fateh's "Taxation
in Persia," BSOAS 4 (1926-28): 723-43, which covers. the Sasanians
on pages 729-32 and early Islam through the Marwanis on pages
732-37, puts matters into a simplistic interpretive framework and is
well out of date now. F. Lokkegaard's Islamic Taxation in the Classic
Period with Special Reference to Circumstances in Iraq (Copenhagen,
1950), although poorly organized, is detailed, ranges widely, and has
become a standard reference. Lokkegaard was one of the first to point
out that much of the content of Islamic Arabic literature on early
Islamic taxation pertained to Iraq and that it was unwise to generalize
much further. H.A.R. Gibb's "The Fiscal Rescript of 'Umar 11," Ara-
bica 2 (1955): 1-16 is also worth consulting. A. A. Duri identifies
precedents set in the Hijaz in his "Notes on Taxation in Early Islam,"
JESHO 17 (1974): 136-44.
The poll tax tends to have a literature of its own. D. Goodblatt's
"The Poll Tax in Sasanian Babylonia: The Talmudic Evidence," JESHO
22 (1979): 233-95 is a closely argued text-critical study of all the
Talmudic references. It has the incomparable advantage of being based
on a primary source for the Sasanian period, but the references in the
Babylonian Talmud belong to the third and fourth centuries. Unique
outside corroboration from the very end of the Sasanian period is
provided by a comment made by the Chinese Buddhist travel er Hsiian-
tsang (Tripitaka) who passed through Afghanistan between 629 and
- His account was translated into French by M. Julien as Memoires
sur les contrees occidentales (Paris, 1857) and into English by S. Beal,
Buddhist Records of the Western World (London, 1884), and A. Yu,
The Journey to the West (Chicago, 1977).
Discussions of the poll tax under Muslim rule are invariably linked
to matters concerning the status of the non-Muslim subject population.
A. S. Tritton's The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects (London,
- presents it this way but has been out of date for a long time.
D. Dennett's Conversion and the Poll Tax in Early Islam (Cambridge,
Mass., 1950) marked an important turning point by effectively refuting
the older view that there were early mass conversions to Islam by non-
Arab native subjects so they could escape paying the poll tax.
The origin and meaning of the term jizya has also been the subject
of debate. On the use of this term in the Qur'an see pages 68 to 72
of F. Rosenthal's contribution to the Conference on Jewish Relations: