Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/153

 124 The settlement of the land was the next concern. The Sawād, or rich plain of Chaldæa, having been taken, with some few exceptions, by force of arms, was claimed by the Arab soldiery as prize of war. The judgment and equity of ʿOmar is conspicuous in the abatement of this demand. After counsel held with his advisers at Medīna, the Caliph ordered that cultivators who had fled during the operations in Al-ʿIrāḳ, as well as those who had kept to their holdings throughout, should be treated as Dhimmīs, or protected subjects, and confirmed in possession on moderate tribute. Royal forests and domains, lands of the nobles and of those who had opposed the Muslim arms, and the endowments of Fire-temples, were confiscated; but the demand for their division as ordinary prize was denied. Equitable distribution was impossible, and the attempt would have but bred bad blood amongst the people. The necessities also of the great system of canals, and of the postal and other services, as first charge upon the revenues, demanded that the public land should be kept intact.

The revenues of the State came from two sources, the forfeited lands of which it had taken possession, and out of which estates were bestowed upon some of the principal Companions, and from the taxes payable by the non-Muslim native cultivators of the soil. These taxes were later on of two kinds, the land or property tax (Kharāj), and the poll tax (jizya). It is usual to say that the latter was payable by non-Muslims only; but at first the two terms are often interchanged, and, in point of fact, both were paid by the non-Muslims. The Muslims did not pay taxes; but merely tithes—a tenth of the produce of their lands. On the contrary, the income of the lands conquered was divided amongst them in the shape of pensions. As long as the conquests were going on, the spoil was great and the pensioners comparatively few; and this arrangement worked very well. But, when the native cultivators began to come over to Islam in large numbers, difficulties arose.

The confiscated lands scattered over the province were administered by Crown agents, and the profits shared between the captors and the State. The prize domains of Al-Kūfa,—conquered by the armies of Khālid and of Saʿd,—were much more extensive than those of Al-Baṣra. Shortly