people under its care. Thus, when the Muslim forces under Abū ‘Ubaida were engaged in a struggle with the Roman Empire, they were compelled to beat a retreat, at Ḥims, which they had previously conquered. When the decision was taken to evacuate Ḥims, Abū‘ Ubaida sent for the chiefs of the place and returned to them the whole amount which he had realized as jizyah saying that as the Muslims could no longer protect them, they were not entitled to the jizyah.

Further it appears that exemption from military service was granted only to such non-Muslims as wanted it, for where a non-Muslim people offered to fight the battles of the country, they were exempted from jizyah. The Banī Taghlib and the people of Najrān, both Christians, did not pay the jizyah (En. Is.). Indeed the Banī Taghlib fought alongside the Muslim forces in the battle of Buwaib in 13 A. H. Later on in the year 17 A. H., they wrote to the Caliph ‘Umar offering to pay the zakāt, which was a heavier burden, instead of the jizyah. “The liberality of ‘Omar,” says Muir in his Caliphate,12 “allowed the concession; and the Banī Taghlib enjoyed the singular privilege of being assessed as Christians at a ‘double Tithe’, instead of paying the obnoxious badge of subjugation”. Military service was also accepted, in place of jizyah, in the time of ‘Umar, from Jurjān. Shahbarāz, an Armenian chief, also concluded peace with the Muslims on the same terms.

Incidence of the Jizyah

The manner in which the jizyah was levied also shows that it was a tax for exemption from military service. The following classes were exempt from jizyah: all females, males who had not attained majority, old people, people whom disease had crippled (zamin), the paralyzed, the blind, the poor (faqīr) who could not work for themselves (ghair mu‘tamil), the slaves, slaves who were working for their freedom (mudbir), and the monks (H.I., pp. 571, 572). And besides this, “in the first century many persons were entirely exempt from taxation, though we do not know why” (En. Is.). It has already been shown that certain non-Muslim tribes that had agreed to do military service, were also exempted from jizyah, and these two facts — the exemption