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.