RESOURCESThe Joshua Starr Memorial Volume (New York, 1953) called "Some
Minor Problems in the Qur'an," pp. 67-84. M. Khan's "Jizyah and
Kharaj (A clarification of the meaning of the terms as they were used
in the 1st century H.)," JPHS 4 (1956): 27-35 contains a survey of
the literature on this subject. Although Khan tends to follow Dennett,
he argues that terms such as jizya and khariij should be understood
from the context in which they occur. C. Cahen dealt with Qur'anic
usage in his notes on "Coran IX-29: ijatta yu'ta l-gizyata 'an yadin
wa hum ~agiriina," Arabica 9 (1962): 76-79, and more generally in
his article on "lliizya," EI(2), II: 559-62. M. M. Bravmann argued
that the pre-Islamic Arabs used jizya to mean ransom in "The Ancient
Arab Background of the Qur'anic Concept al-gizyatu 'an yadin," in
The Spiritual Background of Early Islam (Leiden, 1972), pp. 199-
- A. Abel's "La djizya: tribut ou ran<;on?" SI32 (1970): 5-19, is
an important restatement of these issues, while Schmucker (Unter-
suchungen) relates jizya to other terms signifying the degradation of
non-Muslim subjects in the early eighth century. A. Noth's article on
"Die literarische uberlieferten Vertrage der Eroberungszeit als histo-
rische Quellen fur die Behandlungen der unterworfenen Nicht-Mus-
lime durch ihre neuen muslimischen Oberherren," in T. Nagel et al.,
Studien zum Minderheitenproblem im Islam (Bonn, 1973) I: 282-314,
is actually about references to jizya and khariij in the Arabic accounts
of the early conquests. Noth's argument that from the point of view
of the Muslim conquerors both terms signified tribute at first and only
came to have distinct meanings later as the result of centralization and
integration with Byzantine and Sasanian fiscal traditions has much to
recommend it.
For definitions of weights and measures pertaining to Islamic tax-
ation, J. Decourdemanche's Traite practique des poids et mesures des
peuples anciens et des Arabes (Paris, 1909) has been effectively superseded
by W. Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte, Handbuch der Orien-
talistik (Leiden and Cologne, 1970), I: 1-66.
Administrative Geography
A knowledge of historical geography-the locations, distances, and
directions of places in respect to one another-is indispensable in
studying the past. Places sometimes change their names and place-
names sometimes shift their locations over time. In Iraq settlements
have come and gone, and the lower riverine and canal courses have
shifted so that the modern topography in some places hardly resembles