the abbasìd’s golden age 189it, becomes its legitimate owner, and (b) the caliph may grant from
this land to whom he wishes, lease of it, or do anything beneficial
with it, but (c) a permission was required from the Caliph when
reviving the barren land in order to claim its ownership otherwise,
in the absence of permission, the land may be taken away from the
reviver. In agreement with Abù-Œanìfah, but in contrast to the
Sunnah, Abù-Yùsuf explains the reason for the permission as being
necessary in case there was a conflict of interest or competition over
the land. However, Abù-Yùsuf was of the opinion that if there was
no damage or harm to someone, or dispute over the land, no per-
mit was necessary and the general practice of the Prophet would
hold. In taxing the revived land after cultivation, the ushr, one-tenth,
should be imposed if the land belonged to the category of ushr land,
and Kharàj tax should be levied if it was Kharàj land. Also, if the
revived barren land was part of the conquered land which the Caliph
decided to distribute to the conquerors (Muslims), after deducting
the state’s one fifth, Khums, the reviver would pay the ushr, one-
tenth, or half the ushrdepending upon the state of irrigation. On
the other hand if the land was part of the conquered land which the
Caliph decided to leave in the hands of its owners (non-Muslims),
the reviver would pay the Kharàj tax on the revived land.
Administration of land tax
On the administration of Kharàj, Abù-Yùsuf believed that no Kharàj
administrator or a governor was entitled to release someone from
the Kharàj tax without permission from the Caliph. Similarly, no
one was to be allowed to accept a release from the Kharàj tax
imposed on him knowing that no permission had been given from
the authority to release it. Release from the Kharàj tax may be
granted to someone if this was for the benefit of the community.
Also, it was not permissible for anyone to convert Kharàj land to
ushrland or vice versa. The conversion was permissible only when
a man who possessed land of ushr bought land of Kharàj in the
neighbourhood and joined the two lands together, and then he paid
ushron it. The conversion was also permissible when a man who
owned Kharàj land purchased land of ushrand added it to his own
land; he would pay Kharàj tax on it.
Furthermore, Abù-Yùsuf was against intermediaries between the
Treasury and tax payers in paying land tax, or taxes in general. The