186 chapter five
Abù-Yùsuf ’s view would put all lands outside Arabia, either owned
by Muslims or not, on an equal footing. The argument against that
is that Muslims would still have to pay Zakàh on their possessions,
which might be higher than the jizyah imposed on non-Muslims
depending upon their state of wealth.
Lands in the hands of the People of the Book in Arabia
Arabia was singled out in its tax treatment because the rate imposed
was determined by the Prophet. In support of this view, Abù-Yùsuf
stated that with regard to the land of Œijaz, Makkah and al-Medìnah,
the land of Yemen and the other lands of Arabia which the Prophet
had conquered, the tax was not to be increased or decreased. This
was something on which the Prophet had issued his orders and no
one could change them, and that was the tax rate of only one tenth,
ushr, or half-ushrdepending upon the state of irrigation. In taxation
terms, these lands were, therefore, regarded as ushr land. But in con-
trast to others, the Arab pagans who did not have a monotheistic
religion were treated differently in that no Jizyah was to be accepted
from them and they would have to either accept Islam or to be put
to sword. On them Kharàj tax was not, therefore, applicable. The
people of Yemen, still in the lands of Arabia, were the People of
the Book and as such they were allowed to retain their religion for
the payment of jizyah, the poll tax for non-Muslims and the one-
tenth tax, ushr, or half of that, on their lands.
To sum up, in the Arabian Peninsula, where people were only
either Muslims or Christians and Jews, the land was taxed by the
Prophet, and remained so, at the rate of ushr. In retrospect, the ques-
tion that could be asked would be: would the Prophet have adopted
a different attitude towards the taxation of land in Arabia that was
similar to that advocated by Abù-Yùsuf outside Arabia? We do not
know. On economic grounds, the fertility of lands in South Arabia
could not have been less than that of other conquered lands outside
the Arabian Peninsula. We saw in previous chapters how these regions
had developed an advanced civilization based on agriculture and
how trade routes between the south and north continued to be par-
ticularly active up to the emergence of Islam and after. Did the
Prophet aim to achieve equality of treatment in taxing the land in
general, and as such should this equality have been maintained