112 chapter three
mentioned above, with no need for repetition, it can be said that
Umar could be but aware of the differences between Kharàj and
Jizyah and had the intention of differentiating between the taxes
when introducing the land tax Kharàj.
The other tax which caliph Umar introduced to the Islamic tax
system was the Ushùr or custom duties. At the recommendation of
one of Umar’s governors, Abù-Musa al-Ash"ari, the tax was initiated
as a reciprocal tax to that which Muslim merchants paid to foreign
states on crossing their borders. The rate of the tax was one tenth,
or “Ushr” the plural of which is “Ushùr”, which was determined at
the same rate that was imposed by foreign countries on Muslim mer-
chants. In the words of Abù-Musa in his letter to Umar, “Muslim
traders from our dominion go to the country of the enemies and
they levy Ushr (one tenth) on them”, to which Umar replied, “Take
Ushr from them just as they charge from the Muslim traders”, (Abù-
Yùsuf ). In his application of the tax, the second caliph, neverthe-
less, did not stop at charging non-Muslim merchants crossing the
Islamic borders; he also extended the tax base to cover all goods
crossing the borders with concessions given to Muslims and the ûim-
mis (Christians, Jews and Sabians). “... and charge from the ûim-
mis half of Ushr and from the Muslims one dirham for every forty
dirhams”, the second caliph continued his instructions to his gover-
nor, (Abù-Yùsuf ).
The difference between the Ushùr tax treatment of Muslims, ûim-
mis and people of other un-tolerated religions was that while mer-
chants of religions other than Islam, Judaism or Christianity were
liable to ten percent of the value of the goods transferred, Muslim
merchants paid two and half percent and Jewish, Christian and
Sabian merchants paid five percent. Also, the concessions given to
Muslims were higher than those given to ûimmis. The tax discrim-
ination in this regard, as well as in other aspects of taxation, should
be viewed in the light of the fact that the burden of defending the
state was allocated more heavily on Muslims than on non-Muslims.
Most notably, non-Muslims were exempt from taking part in wars
which were both defensive and expeditionary. Also, the differentiation
in the rate of tax was due to constitutional reasons: (a) the rate on
Muslim merchants was deemed as the equivalent rate of Zakàh tax
on trade assets, which by being stipulated by the Prophet could not
be changed, (b) the tax on Christians, Jews and Sabians (the People
of the Book) was regarded as equivalent to the Kharàj tax, which