Kitab al-Kharaj (Abu Yusuf)

Kitab al-Kharaj is by the judge Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ibrahim (113-182 AH), companion of Imam Abu Hanifa, who wrote it for the Commander of the Faithful Harun al-Rashid at his suggestion. ¹

The book opens: "This is what Abu Yusuf wrote to the Commander of the Faithful Harun al-Rashid", and says the caliph asked him for a comprehensive book to act on in collecting the land tax, tithes, alms, the jawali and other matters he had to oversee, wishing thereby to lift injustice from his subjects and set their affairs right, and that he explained what was asked. ² The publisher's note explains that jawali is the plural of jaliya, a group that leaves its homeland, and came to mean the poll tax. ²

Abu Yusuf opens with a long exhortation: God has placed the affairs of this community in the caliph's charge; a building founded on anything but piety will fall; shepherds render to their Lord what their flock renders to them; so he should not put off today's work till tomorrow, should hold near and far equal in God's affair, choose the matter of the hereafter when it conflicts with this world, and beware of ruling by whim and acting in anger. ^{2 3}

The section headings show its subjects: fay' and land tax; the lands of Syria and the Jazira; land grants; dead land in lands taken by treaty and by force; honey, walnuts and almonds; alms; selling fish in marshes; renting bare land and palm land; islands in the Tigris and Euphrates; channels, wells, rivers and water rights; pasture; the jizya and who owes it; gentleness to the protected peoples, and their dress; Magians, idol-worshippers and apostates; customs dues; churches, synagogues and crosses; the ruling on the apostate; and fighting polytheists and rebels and how they are first called. ^{4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17}

Abu Yusuf states his view addressing the caliph, "O Commander of the Faithful", and supports it with reports he introduces with "so-and-so told me", through his teachers to the Companions and Successors, as when he relates from several scholars of Medina how Umar ibn al-Khattab took counsel over dividing the lands of Iraq and Syria. ^{4 18} At the start of the section on fay' he states that fay', for him, is the land tax. ⁴

The fourth edition of al-Matba'a al-Salafiyya, Cairo, 1392 AH, based on a manuscript in the Taymuriyya library collated with the Bulaq print of 1302 AH. ^{1 19}