Conquest and its debates
Family: War, peace and the conduct of conflict · 21 entries
Entries on this theme
Event
The fall of Barcelona to the Franks (185 AH)
c. 801 CE · c. 185 AHWhile the fitna between al-Hakam I and his uncles burned, the Franks seized their chance and took Barcelona in AH 185 — the Muslim armies fell back south of it, and the hajib Abd al-Karim ibn Mughith led the riposte.Mahmud of Ghazna Enters Rayy, 420
c. April 1029 CE · Jumada I 420 AHA letter from Mahmud ibn Sabuktakin reached the caliph in Baghdad, dated the first of Jumada II 420 from his camp in the Rayy countryside. In it he describes leaving Isfahan in Muharram and entering Rayy on the morning of Monday, the sixteenth of Jumada I, with a dense army. He mentions that the people of Rayy had been tormented by the injustice of the Daylam and had called on him for aid, and that he gave them his protection. Abu Talib Rustam ibn Ali ibn Fakhr al-Dawla surrendered on terms of reconciliation. The leaders of the Batiniyya were seized; the Daylam testified to what they held; the jurists ruled their blood forfeit, and they were crucified on the roadside. Their property was divided, and their books were brought out: from one city alone fifty camel-loads of books of the Mu'tazila, the philosophers and the Rafida were burned beneath the afflicted. The valuables taken came to nearly five hundred thousand dinars and two hundred and sixty thousand dirhams. Abu Talib, his son and the senior amirs set out for Khurasan. The letter contains his prayer: 'May God remove from this land the hands of the wrongdoers and purify it of the call of the Batiniyya.' This is the conqueror's own account of himself and his reasons.
Concept
Conquest by force (anwa)
Fath 'anwa in al-Baladhuri is taking a town or land by combat and siege: his example is Khaybar — he reports via Abd al-Razzaq from Ma'mar from al-Zuhri 'that the Prophet took Khaybar by force ('anwatan)', so its goods and Khaybar itself were divided among the fighters — in Ibn Abbas's report 'Khaybar was divided into one thousand five hundred and eighty shares' matching the number of combatants, the Prophet's safaya from it being an allotment from which he provisioned his wives, his uncle Abbas, Abu Bakr, Umar, al-Hasan, al-Husayn and Banu al-Muttalib; 'anwa contrasts with sulh — what was taken by treaty remained with its people on the treaty terms, like Fadak, while what was taken by force became booty divided among those present at the conquest.Conquest by treaty (sulh)
Fath sulhan in al-Baladhuri is taking a town by negotiated capitulation without combat: his first example is Fadak — on his return from Khaybar the Prophet sent Muhayyisa ibn Masud al-Ansari calling its people to Islam, 'and they made peace with the Prophet on half the land with its soil, and he accepted that from them', so its people remained in it through the Prophet's life and Abu Bakr's until Umar exiled them; sulh contrasts with 'anwa — treaty peoples keep their lands and property on the treaty's terms except what was stipulated, and the half-land treaty made half of Fadak pure fay' for the Prophet 'because the Muslims had not charged upon it with horse or camel'.Fay' (property restored without battle)
Fay' in al-Baladhuri's usage is property God restored (afaa) to the Muslims from the People of the Book without combat: after Khaybar was taken by force the people of Fadak made peace with the Prophet on half their land with its soil, 'so half of Fadak was the Prophet's alone because the Muslims had not charged upon it with horse or camel'; and Umar is reported saying 'the Prophet had three safaya — the land of Banu al-Nadir as an endowment for his contingencies, Khaybar divided into three parts, and Fadak for the wayfarers' — the governing verse being al-Hashr 59:7 concerning Banu al-Nadir's property. Fay' thus contrasts with ghanima: what was charged upon with horse and camel was divided among the fighters, while what was restored without fighting was the Prophet's to place where God placed it.Iqta' (land grant)
Iqta' in al-Baladhuri is the ruler's grant of lands to those deserving or requesting them; its limits in his reports include that a request need not be granted: Abyad ibn Hammal asked the Prophet for the salt flat at Ma'rib and, being told it was like freely flowing water ('id water), he refused to allot it to him, whereas Alqama ibn Wa'il al-Hadrami — as reported from his father — was granted land in Hadramawt; broader still were the Prophet's Khaybar grants, as he allotted al-Zubayr land with palms and trees, and among Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's arrangements his confirming the heirs in land the Prophet had provisioned after they were registered — so the iqta' runs between designation of public amenities that cannot be granted and the sovereign gift of dead or reclaimed land.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.Kharaj (land tax)
Kharaj in the usage of Futuh al-Buldan is the tax laid on land and produce owed by treaty peoples and dhimmis, the general name under which fall the capitation jizya and the tithe 'ushr on land: in the Prophet's letter to Najran the stipulated hullas are called 'the kharaj hullas', levied at two thousand a year in Safar and Rajab at an uqiyya apiece, and when the people of Najran presented their diminished numbers to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz he judged 'I see this treaty is a jizya on their heads, not a treaty on their lands'; among its rulings transmitted by him are Umar's letter to the people of al-Ta'if on their vines 'there is no tithe on them', and the positions of Sufyan al-Thawri, Abu Yusuf, Malik and others on what crops and fruits incur the levy and the five-awsuq threshold — kharaj being the subject al-Baladhuri pursues in the book's closing chapters after exhausting the conquest reports.Kharaj (land levy, fiqh entry)
Kharaj is lexically the yield of a thing, and it can mean a rent or a levy or tax. Abu Ubayd and al-Layth treat kharj and kharaj as one word, while Abu Amr ibn al-Ala' distinguishes them: kharj is what one gives freely, kharaj what one must pay. As a technical term it has a general sense, the funds the state collects and spends, and a particular sense, the duty the Imam imposes on productive land; al-Mawardi and Abu Ya'la define it as the rights laid on the necks of land and paid for it. Other names for it are land jizya, land rent, and tasq, a Persian word that appears in Umar's letter to Uthman ibn Hunayf. It is distinct from ghanima, fay', jizya (a levy on persons, not land), khums and 'ushr (the tithe on land owned by a Muslim). When conquests grew under Umar ibn al-Khattab, he decided not to divide land taken by force among the conquerors but to hold it as an endowment for all Muslims, with a fixed kharaj on its cultivators. Companions first differed; Abu Yusuf reports that Bilal ibn Rabah was among the strongest objectors; Umar argued from the verses on fay' in Surat al-Hashr and consulted the Emigrants and the Helpers until the matter was settled. Jurists base its legitimacy on the Qur'an, the Sunna and public interest. The Sunna cited includes the report 'Iraq withheld its dirham and qafiz' (a prophetic foretelling of the kharaj imposed on land), and the Prophet's division of half of Khaybar for the needs of the community. The interests cited are a stable revenue for future generations, keeping wealth from concentrating in one group, and keeping land cultivated by those who know it best; Mu'adh ibn Jabal's advice to Umar is quoted for this. Kharaj is due on every holder of productive kharaj land, Muslim or not, adult or minor, sane or insane, man or woman, since it is the cost of the land's yield. By form of levy there is kharaj al-wazifa, a fixed sum owed on the land's area and crop type whatever it yields, which Umar imposed on al-Sawad, Egypt and Syria; and kharaj al-muqasama, a share of the produce such as a quarter or a fifth, which al-Mahdi introduced in place of the fixed sum, a change that the text connects to falling prices. By status of the land there is sulhi kharaj, levied on land whose people made terms to keep it, and 'anwi kharaj, levied on land taken by force and held for all Muslims, including land its people left in fear without fighting. Kharaj lands are of two kinds: those settled by treaty, and those abandoned out of fear without battle, which by most jurists become an endowment for Muslims upon seizure. Conditions for kharaj land: it must be kharaj land, so the wazifa is not owed on 'ushri land; and it must be productive in fact (by yield) or in estimate (by fitness for cultivation), so no kharaj falls on houses or on barren land unfit for farming. When 'ushri land passes to a dhimmi, most jurists allow the sale; Malik and one report of Ahmad forbid it. They then differ on what falls due: the Shafiis and the preferred Hanbali view keep it non-kharaj; Abu Hanifa and Zufar make it kharaj; Malik and Abu Yusuf double the 'ushr on the dhimmi; Muhammad al-Shaybani keeps it 'ushri. Whether a dhimmi may revive barren land with the Imam's leave is disputed. The amounts: the Hanafis levy a qafiz and a dirham on each arable jarib, five dirhams on clover and ten on vines, with the ceiling at half the yield; Malik sets no fixed sum and leaves it to the Imam's judgement with experts; the Shafiis follow the figures of Uthman ibn Hunayf (two dirhams on barley, four on wheat); the Hanbalis set a dirham and a qafiz, and eight dirhams on palms. On raising or lowering Umar's figures, the Shafiis, one report of Ahmad, Muhammad al-Shaybani and one report of Abu Yusuf allow both; Abu Hanifa allows only lowering; a second report of Ahmad allows only raising; a third report forbids both. The assessor considers soil quality, the cost of irrigation (rain and river water cost less than well water), the crop or fruit, nearness to towns and markets, and leaves a margin for calamities, as the Prophet did in the estimation of fruit for zakat. When it is due depends on the type: a share levy (muqasama) is due at harvest and recurs with each yield; a fixed levy (wazifa) is taken once a year, by the lunar year for land area and the solar year for crop area; Abu Hanifa has it due at the start of the year on condition the land stays productive. Advance payment was allowed by the Hanafis and Hanbalis for a year or two; the Hanbalis refund it in all cases, the Hanafis only if the sum still exists. On default, a solvent holder is jailed until he pays unless goods are sold for it; an insolvent holder is given time and the debt stays. The Shafiis, the Hanbalis and the two companions of Abu Hanifa do not drop it; Abu Hanifa drops it on insolvency, as he does the jizya. The duty falls on whoever holds the land; if it is let or lent, most jurists place it on the owner, while a usurper owes it. The Imam, just in his rule, assesses, demands and disburses it; no one may distribute it himself; whoever pays an unjust ruler is generally released. Where rebels seize a town and collect it, most jurists release the payers; the Malikis require repayment. Brigands do not release the payer, since the sum is seized by force. The collector (amil) acts as the Imam's agent and may not distribute the sum without leave; the conditions are Islam, freedom, trustworthiness, sufficiency, knowledge and understanding (a dhimmi is not appointed to assess it, most jurists say, citing the verse on not taking an inner circle from outside the believers and Umar's refusal of a Christian scribe). The collector should be gentle, dividing the levy according to each harvest; just, without favour; and chaste, taking no bribe or gift, since Khattabi calls officials' gifts unlawful. The Imam must supervise the collectors through men of trust, and pay them salaries that suffice, as Abu Ubayda told Umar. Farming out the levy (qabala or tadmin): a person undertakes to collect it for himself at a fixed price; it appeared under the Umayyads and spread under the Abbasids. Ahmad, Abu Yusuf, Abu Ubayd and al-Mawardi rejected it for the injustice it brings, while Abu Yusuf allowed it where the Imam is secure from injustice and the payers consent. Causes of remission: first, the land's loss of fitness for cultivation through an event beyond human action, which by most jurists remits the levy; where it can be repaired the Imam repairs it from the public-interest share. Second, idleness: if it comes from outside the owner, the levy lapses; if by the owner's neglect, the share-levy lapses and he is ordered to farm; the fixed levy is not remitted by the Hanafis, Shafiis and Hanbalis, but is by the Malikis. Third, a crop lost to a heavenly blow before harvest remits the share-levy; for the fixed levy the Hanafis require two things: fewer than three months remain for another sowing, and the surviving crop is less than twice the levy. Fourth, the Imam's remission for a public interest: allowed by the Hanbalis and Abu Yusuf, forbidden by Muhammad al-Shaybani. Fifth, building on kharaj land: most Malikis, Shafiis and Hanbalis keep the levy; the Hanafis drop it; al-Mawardi drops it only for a necessary dwelling. Sixth, conversion of the owner or sale to a Muslim: the conquered-land levy never lapses; the treaty levy lapses by most jurists, citing a report of al-Ala' ibn al-Hadrami, but not by the Hanafis. Joint 'ushr and kharaj on a Muslim: most Malikis, Shafiis and Hanbalis require both; the Hanafis require only kharaj, citing the report that no Muslim pays both and Umar's order on a Nahr al-Malik convert. Uses of kharaj follow those of fay': the soldiers' pay, judges, scholars, mosques, roads, bridges and frontier defence; most Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis do not take a fifth of it, while the Shafiis do.Sawafi (the crown lands of the Sawad)
Sawafi in al-Baladhuri is what Umar set apart from the Sawad's land for the Muslims — neither left in its holders' hands nor laid under the customary kharaj: Abd al-Malik ibn Abi Hurra counts ten heads from his father — land of those killed in the war, of those who fled, all Khusraw's land and all his family's, every water-sink, every monastery of Yazid, every safiyya Khusraw had appropriated, and the Jalandima land — reaching seven million dirhams' revenue and remaining so until the Jamajim in al-Hajjaj's days, when the register burned and each people took what adjoined them; from these Uthman made Iraq's first land-grants, as Musa ibn Talha says.Silm: peace and treaty with the enemy
Silm in the lexicon means reconciliation, and it can also mean Islam; in the technical sense it stays close to the lexical one: reconciliation as the opposite of war, or the giving up of holy war against unbelievers on conditions. The jurists divide it into three senses: an absolute silm that belongs to the community by origin and does not arise from a contract; a silm of reconciliation, which is a lasting contract (the dhimma) or a time-limited one, in two forms, the truce (hudna) and safe-conduct (aman).
Group
Screening Room
Alparslan: Büyük Selçuklu
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Turkish historical series on the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan and Manzikert; among the largest Turkish period productions after Ertuğrul.Al-Qadisiyya
1981 CE · 1401 AH†Salah Abu Seif's Egyptian epic on the Battle of al-Qadisiyya and the fall of the Sasanian empire — a classic of Egyptian conquest-era drama.Ceddo
1977 CE · 1397 AH†Ceddo.Fetih 1453
2012 CE · 1433 AH†Fetih 1453.Islam: Empire of Faith
A three-part PBS/Gardner Films documentary surveying Islamic history from the Prophet's mission to the Ottoman empire — one of the most-broadcast documentaries on Islamic civilisation in the West.Kingdoms of Fire
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Kingdoms of Fire.Mehmed: Fetihler Sultanı
2024 CE · 1445 AH†Mehmed: Fetihler Sultanı.Rise of Empires: Ottoman
A Netflix docudrama series on Mehmed II's conquest of Constantinople and its aftermath, blending Turkish dramatic scenes with historians' commentary.
Work
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