The agrarian system of Moslem India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804119261

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-188010

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Moreland, William Harrison http://d-nb.info/gnd/172263670

Title:: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Edition:: 2. ed. Reissue (d. Ausg. Cambridge) 1929; [Reprint]

Place of publication:: Delhi

Publisher:: Oriental Books, Munshiram Manoharlal

Year of publication:: 1968

Scope:: XVII, 296 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter I. Antecedents

Collection:: Economics Books

14 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA taking into account along with it the facts which have been indicated above, the inference may fairly be drawn that, when we meet with an apparently new institution in the Moslem period, it would be rash to accept it offhand as a Moslem innovation. The possibility must always be borne in mind that it may have been in existence for an indefinite time before it happened to secure mention in onc of the chronicles; and -a student who confined his attention to [ndia might be tempted to infer that the Moslem rulers accepted in the lump the institutions which they found in existence at the time of conquest. We must, however, remember that the conquerors brought with them the ideas of an agrarian system of their own, the main lines of which were laid down by Islamic law, and were not, in theory, subject to alteration by Kings or Ministers. In the next section, I shall attempt a sketch of the ideas which the conquerors brought with them, and of the relation of those ideas to the institutions which they found in existence. 3. THE ISLAMIC SYSTEM The most authoritative account of the early Islamic system is to be found in a book! recording the views of Abu Yiasuf Yaqiib, who was Chief Qazi of Baghdad in the eighth century, during the caliphate of Hariin-ul Rashid. At the root of the system, as described by him, lies the distinction between tithe-land and tribute-land. Tithe- land (ush»?) was primarily the home-country in Arabia, and conquered territory was included in it only when the conqueror dispossessed the inhabitants, and distributed the land among his Moslem followers. This process was not followed in India, at least to any appreciable extent; the Hindu inhabitants were left in possession, and consequently the country was technically khardji, or tribute-land, that is to say, the occupants became liable for the payment of the personal tax (jiziya), and for the tribute (khardj) due from the land they cultivated. The original idea was that this tribute was taken for the benefit of Moslems in general; 1 Abt Yisuf, Kitab-ul Kharaj. See also the article on Kharadj in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. I am dependent on translations for the Arabic authorities.

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