What Is the Jizya? Dhimmi Status and the Pact of Umar

The jizya was a poll tax paid by non-Muslim People of the Scripture under Muslim rule, in return for protection and exemption from military service. The rule is Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source. How it was applied ran from lighter protective arrangements to the restrictions summed up in the Pact of Umar. The pact’s link to the caliph Umar I is disputed, and the English on the page used here does not name a translator.

Key Points

• Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source (Saheeh International) says to fight those who were given the Scripture until they give the jizya willingly while they are humbled. Marmaduke Pickthall’s 1930 English says “until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.”
• Sahih Muslim 1731aCloseFight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children.Sahih Muslim 1731a · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen source (Abdul Hamid Siddiqui) says to demand the jizya if people refuse Islam, to accept it and hold off if they pay, and to fight if they refuse. This is Sunni hadith. Which Muslims Accept Which Hadith?
• Britannica’s jizya article, by Asma Afsaruddin, says the poor, the elderly, women, monks, and the sick could be exempt, that military service could replace the tax, and that Umar returned the jizya when he could not protect the payers.
• The same article says that increasingly after about the eighth century, earlier tolerant attitudes hardened, and the tax became a marker of inferior socio-legal status.
• The Pact of Umar, in the form given by al-Turtushi, forbids new churches, public display of the religion and of crosses, saddles, and girding swords, and it requires a distinctive belt. The Fordham English does not name its translator.
• The Islamic Conquests (632–1071) is the wars in which this tax was imposed. What Is Sharia Law? and What Is a Caliphate? are the law and the office.

What the Qur’an and the Hadith Say

Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source (Saheeh International) names the people, the fight, and the payment:

Fight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.

Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh International

Qur’an · accepted by Muslims

The brackets are the translator’s. Pickthall’s public-domain English of 1930 renders the close “until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.” The two translations agree that the payment is the condition on which the fight stops, and that the payers are brought low or humbled. They do not agree on every English word. What Does Jihad Mean in the Qur’an and Hadith? reads this verse beside Qur’an 2:190CloseFight in the way of Allāh those who fight against you but do not transgress. Indeed, Allāh does not like transgressors.Qur’an 2:190 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source and Qur’an 9:5CloseAnd when the inviolable months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakāh, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful.Qur’an 9:5 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source.

Sahih Muslim 1731aCloseFight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children.Sahih Muslim 1731a · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen source puts the tax in an army’s instructions. If the people refuse Islam, demand the jizya. If they pay, accept it and hold off. If they refuse the tax, fight. The same report forbids mutilation and the killing of children. Protection and subordination are both in the text. A reading that keeps only the protection drops the word humbled. A reading that keeps only humiliation drops the command to hold off once the tax is paid.

Britannica records a reading that sets Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source against the Byzantine campaign of Tabuk in 630. That is a historical setting offered for the verse. The verse still states the jizya.

Who Paid, and Who Was Sent Back

Afsaruddin’s Britannica article says the poor, the elderly, women, the sick, and monks were often exempt, and that a man who fought in the Muslim army did not pay. It says Umar returned the jizya when he could not give the protection the tax was supposed to buy. Those are reports of practice, and they match a tax that was explained as payment for protection.

The same article says that increasingly after about the eighth century, earlier tolerant attitudes toward non-Muslims began to harden, and that the jizya became a marker of inferior socio-legal status. The early exemption stories and the later hardening are both in that account. The Islamic Conquests (632–1071) includes Sophronius’s bargain at Jerusalem: civil and religious liberty for Christians in exchange for tribute. The Coptic History of the Patriarchs, in Basil Evetts’s 1904 English, records treaties with those who consented and plunder for those who refused.

The Pact of Umar

A text called the Pact of Umar, as given by al-Turtushi in Siraj al-Muluk, lists what Christians in a conquered city undertook. The Fordham page says the source of the English translation is not given. Scholars dispute whether the caliph Umar I issued it. What follows is the text as that page prints it, not a claim that Umar’s own hand signed every line.

The undertakings include no new churches, and these words:

We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it

They also say, “We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets,” and, “We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords.” A distinctive girdle, the zunar, marks the people. They shall not strike a Muslim. If they break the terms, they forfeit the covenant.

A community that may repair an old church, pay a tax, and keep its worship is not a community that was ordered to convert or die. A community that may not show a cross in the market, may not ride as the rulers ride, and may not invite a Muslim to its faith is not an equal citizen either. Both descriptions fit the pact as printed.

The Fordham introduction says the pact compares well with the treatment of non-Christians in Christian Europe. That is the editor’s comparison, and it is fair to set it beside what Christian rulers did. The Capitulary for Saxony, in D. C. Munro’s English, orders death for a Saxon who “shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a pagan.” The Rhineland killings of 1096 are on Were the Crusades Justified?. A humiliating pact and a death penalty for refusing baptism are two different wrongs. Naming one does not erase the other.

Britannica’s jizya article notes the Marrakesh Declaration of 2016 among modern Muslim statements on the status of non-Muslims. The verse and the pact are the older texts.

The Christian Claim

Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source ties the end of fighting to a tax and to being humbled. The gospel does not put a tax on the neighbor who will not believe. Matthew 26:52CloseThen said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.Matthew 26:52 · King James VersionOpen source tells Peter to put the sword back. John 18:36CloseJesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.John 18:36 · King James VersionOpen source says the kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is God. The Islamic Dilemma is what the Qur’an says about him beside what it says about the earlier books. What Is the History of Islam? is the political span of that tax.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Jizya Only a Fee for Protection?

Protection and exemption from the army are how Muslim scholars have explained it, and Umar is said to have returned the money when he could not protect. Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source also says the payers are humbled. Pickthall says they are brought low. The pact adds rules about churches, crosses, saddles, and swords.

Did Umar I Write the Pact?

The text is carried under his name, from al-Turtushi. Historians dispute that attribution. The restrictions are still in the document that bears the name.

Did Christianity Use a Similar Tax?

This page does not invent a Christian poll tax to match the jizya. It does record the Saxon capitulary’s death penalty for refusing baptism, and the crusade page records the Rhineland massacres. Those are Christian wrongs of a different kind.