عشر

العُشْر

In the lexicon, ushr is a tenth. As a technical term it is either the tithe on trade and sales or the tithe on produce or zakat on what the land yields; this entry treats the tithe on trade, which is levied on goods of non-Muslims carried for trade from one town of the Muslim lands to another ¹. It is taken from non-Muslim merchants when they enter the territory of Islam with their goods, on the basis of a prophetic report, a consensus of the early community and reasoning about the protection the state gives to traders; Muslim merchants owe nothing beyond zakat ^{2 3 4}. The liable persons are treaty-merchants, protected non-Muslims and enemy merchants under safe-conduct, and the schools set further conditions: adulthood, sanity, male sex, a threshold, and freedom from debt, which some schools reject ^{5 6 7 8 9}. The rate differs: the Hanafis and Hanbalis take half a tenth from a protected non-Muslim, the Malikis a full tenth except on grain brought to Mecca and Medina, and the Shafi'is leave it to the imam's terms ^{9 10}. The imam or governor is entitled to collect it, through a collector who must be a Muslim, free, knowledgeable and able to protect traders; farming the collection out is treated and disliked by some jurists ^{11 12 13 14}. It lapses on conversion and may be waived by the imam for goods the Muslims need, and it is spent on the fay' purposes ^{14 15}.