The “Sunna-minded” Trend 269
Works of fiscal jurisprudence such as the Kitâb al-kharaj constituted a sepa-
rate genre with origins in the eighth century.130 This genre was the product of
an effort to systematize the legal foundations of the Islamic state’s power to
collect the land tax. It was Caliph ‘Umar I (r. 634–44) who decided to treat the
lands of conquest collectively for the benefit of all Muslims, instead of divid-
ing it among the Muslim warriors as Prophet Muhammad had done, and to
use it as revenue for the state finances. The problem was the absence of any
stipulations concerning land tax in either the Quran or hadith.131 The concern
about legitimacy in taxing the land grew increasingly important, especially as
the Abbasid state started to rule over large swathes of territory and, moreover,
became increasingly centralized.132
The person whom the grand vizier commissioned with the translation was
a certain Rodosizade (Rodosluzade) Mehmed (d. 1701–2), who would become
fairly well known for his literary skills and services in the latter part of the
seventeenth century.133 In the introduction to his translation, Rodosizade
mentioned that Mustafa Pasha, who was always preoccupied with conquer-
ing countries (feth-i bilad), holy war, and improving the country (ıslahkar-ı
ibad), asked for a book that dealt with all these issues.134 The ulema in his
circle brought to his attention a book that was written by Abu Yusuf and sub-
mitted to Harun al-Rashid. They explained to the grand vizier its contents and
commented further on it. The work seems to have impressed the grand vizier
sufficiently that he commissioned Rodosizade with the task of translating it
from Arabic to Turkish.
The Kitab al-kharaj starts with an address to a prince and initially shows the
characteristics of a work of advice and adab rather than fikh. The preamble is
followed by hadith reports and other juristic material relating to the distribu-
tion of booty taken in battle, landholding, land taxes, and taxes on agricul-
tural produce. The discussion of kharaj precedes discussions of other taxes
such as ‘ushr, zakat, and sadaqa. Kitâb al-kharaj also discusses the poll-tax or
jizya, applicable only to non-Muslims, together with discussion of the social
status, rights, and obligations of non-Muslim citizens in Islamic territory. The
last sections of the book relate to topics such as to how to deal with thieves,
how to implement the prescribed hudud penalties, how to pay government
130 Heck 2002, 147.
131 Heck 2002, 158.
132 Heck 2002, 166–167.
133 Rodosizade completed the translation of Qazwini’s ‘Aja ’ib al-makhluqat in 1703 (Hagen
2000, 187).
134 Rodosizade (Rodosluzade) Mehmed, Terceme-i kitabü’l-harac, Halet Efendi MS 128, 4, 5.