Simak ibn Ubayd al-Absi

Overview

Simak ibn Ubayd al-Absi, a man whom al-Baladhuri mentions in the report of Nihawand. He pursued a Persian man who had eight horsemen with him. Whenever one of them came out to him, he killed him, until the man was left alone. He then asked for safe conduct and laid down his weapons, and Simak took him prisoner. He turned out to be Dinar, lord of the Nihawand treaty. From then on he would visit Simak, giving him gifts and kindness ¹.

Jizya (capitation on treaty peoples)

Jizya in al-Baladhuri is what the People of the Book pay per head under treaty in return for confirmation in their religion and lands: he reports from al-Zuhri 'the first of the People of the Book to pay the jizya, so far as we know, were the people of Najran, who were Christians; then the people of Ayla, Adhruh and the people of Adhri'at paid jizya in the Tabuk campaign'; its forms with him include a dinar per hālim per year — the treaty of Ayla totalling three hundred dinars, Jurash a dinar per hālim plus hospitality for Muslims, Adhruh a hundred dinars every Rajab, and the Jews of Maqna a quarter of the 'uruk catch, a quarter of the women's spinning and a quarter of the fruits — beyond which the people of Maqna owed 'no jizya and no corvée'; when Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz took office he had the people of Najran counted, found them at a tithe of their former number and said 'I see this treaty is a jizya on their heads, not a treaty on their lands — and the jizya of the dead and of the Muslim lapses', so he set them at two hundred hullas.

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Jizya (capitation on treaty peoples)