Islamic taxes are taxes sanctioned by Islamic law. They are based on both "the legal status of taxable land" and on "the communal or religious status of the taxpayer". Islamic taxes include *''

zakat Zakat ( ar, زكاة; , "that which purifies", also Zakat al-mal , "zakat on wealth", or Zakah) is a form of almsgiving, often collected by the Muslim Ummah. It is considered in Islam as a religious obligation, and by Quranic ranking, is ...

'' - one of the

five pillars of Islam The Five Pillars of Islam (' ; also ' "pillars of the religion") are fundamental practices in Islam, considered to be obligatory acts of worship for all Muslims. They are summarized in the famous hadith of Gabriel. The Sunni and Shia agree o ...

. Only imposed on Muslims, it is generally described as a 2.5% tax on savings to be donated to the Muslim poor and needy. It was a tax collected by the Islamic state. *'' jizya'' - a

per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

historically levied by Islamic states on certain non-Muslim subjects—

dhimmis ' ( ar, ذمي ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligatio ...

—permanently residing in Muslim lands under

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

, the tax excluded the poor, women, children and the elderly. (see below) *'' kharaj'' - a land tax initially imposed only on non-Muslims but soon after mandated for Muslims as well. *'' ushr'' - a 10% tax on the harvests of irrigated land and 10% tax on harvest from rain-watered land and 5% on Land dependent on well water. The term has also been used for a 10% tax on merchandise imported from states that taxed the Muslims on their products. Caliph `Umar ibn Al-Khattāb was the first Muslim ruler to levy ''ushr''. The taxes stipulated by Islamic law generally did not generate enough revenue even for the limited expenditures made by pre-modern governments, and rulers were forced to impose additional taxes, which were condemned by the

ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...

. According to scholar Murat Çizakça, only ''zakat'', ''jizya'' and ''kharaj'' are mentioned in the Buktasira. __TOC__

Ushr

''Ushur'' or ''ushr'', in Islam, is 10 percent for irrigated lands or 10 percent for non-irrigated lands levy on agriculture produce. Caliph

Umar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...

expanded the scope of ushr to include border trade tax.Volker Nienhaus (2006), Zakat, taxes and public finance in Islam, in Islam and the Everyday World: Public Policy Dilemmas (Editors: Sohrab Behdad, Farhad Nomani), , pp. 176–189 It literally means a tenth part, and it remained in practice in Islamic ruled territories from Spain and North Africa through India and Southeast Asia through the 18th century. Ushur was applied only on non-Muslim traders, at a rate of 10% of the value of the merchandise that was either imported or exported across the border controlled by the Islamic state. It applied to non-Muslim traders who were residents of the Islamic state (dhimmi), as well as to non-Muslim traders who were foreigners and wished to sell their merchandise inside the Islamic state. Historical medieval era trade documents between Oman and India, refer to this tax on ships arriving at trade port as ''ashur'' or ''ushur''.Roxani Eleni Margariti, Aden & the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port, University of North Carolina Press, , pp. 128-133 Ushr and Jizya would grant non-Muslims a privilege in war time, ie. non-Muslims could not be obliged to join in military activities, in case, there was a war. By paying taxes, non-Muslims were protected by the Islamic law from any harm (dhimmi- the protected one), as opposed to, Muslims had to pay Zakah as well as were obliged to join in military activities in order to protect Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Taxation in Islam