Umar's Endowment of the Sawad upon Its People

إقرار عمر السواد في أيدي أهله

c. 17 AH

Kaskar

In al-Baladhuri: Umar wrote to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas when he conquered the Sawad: 'as for what follows — your letter reached me saying the people asked you to divide what God granted them; when my letter reaches you, look at what the army's men brought on their horses and mounts of money or chattel and divide it among them after the fifth, and leave the land and rivers to their workers so it may be in the Muslims' stipends — for if you divide it among those present nothing will remain for those after them.' Abdallah ibn Hazim asked Mujahid about the Sawad's land: 'it is neither bought nor sold — it was conquered by force and left undivided, so it belongs to all Muslims.' Sulayman ibn Yasar said Umar confirmed the Sawad for those in men's loins and women's wombs, made its people dhimma — jizya taken from them and kharaj from their land, dhimma with no enslavement — and al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik had wanted to make the Sawad's people fay' until told of Umar's precedent, so God turned him from it. Umar had wanted to divide the Sawad among the Muslims and ordered them counted — each man's share came to three peasants — so he consulted the Prophet's companions and Ali said 'leave them, a substance for the Muslims'; he then sent Uthman ibn Hunayf al-Ansari. Jamil ibn Busbuhri, dihqan of the two Fallujas and al-Nahrayn, converted, with Bistam ibn Tarsi dihqan of Babil and Khutarniyya, al-Rufayl dihqan of al-Al, Fayruz dihqan of Nahr al-Malik and Kutha, and other dihqans — Umar did not interfere with them, did not take the land from their hands, and lifted the jizya from their necks.