al-Kharaj li Yahya ibn Adam
- Author died
- 203 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭbaʻah al-Salafīyah wa-Maktabatuhā
Kitab al-Kharaj (The Book of Land Tax) is an early legal and tradition-based treatise on public finance and land taxation in Islam, compiled by the Kufan traditionist and jurist Yahya ibn Adam al-Qurashi (d. 203 AH / 818 CE) .
Scope and Contents
The work examines the legal rulings, fiscal revenues, and property designations established across Islamic territories following the early conquests . Its subject matter encompasses:
- The division and legal rulings of spoils of war (ghanima) and state revenue (fay'), which opens the work under Bab al-Ghanima wa-l-Fay' .
- The taxation of agricultural lands, including the land tax (kharaj), tithes (ushur), and the poll tax (jizya) .
- The historical and legal status of conquered territories, such as the Sawad of Iraq (Kufa), differentiating between lands acquired by force (anwatan) and those settled by treaty (sulhan) .
- Jurisprudential questions regarding Muslim ownership or leasing of taxable kharaj land and the obligation of paying both kharaj and zakat on crops .
Method and Transmission
Yahya ibn Adam constructed the text around narrated traditions (athar and hadiths) supported by chains of transmission (isnad) . Alongside prophetic reports and practices of the early caliphs—most notably Umar ibn al-Khattab and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz—he recorded the legal opinions and inquiries of early Iraqi authorities, including Sufyan al-Thawri, Sharik ibn Abd Allah, and al-Hasan ibn Salih .
The primary preserved transmission chain of the book runs from Yahya ibn Adam through:
- Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Affan al-Kufi
- Abu Ali Ismail ibn Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Saffar
- Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Abd al-Jabbar al-Sukkari (d. 416 AH)
- Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Ahmad ibn al-Busri
Standing and Editions
While bio-bibliographers like Ibn al-Nadim recorded several works by Yahya ibn Adam—such as al-Fara'id, al-Zawal, and al-Qira'at—Kitab al-Kharaj is his only known surviving composition . Alongside Abu Yusuf's earlier work of the same title, it forms one of the principal extant primary sources on early Islamic taxation and agrarian jurisprudence . Subsequent historians and jurists drew heavily upon it, including al-Baladhuri in Futuh al-Buldan and Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali in al-Istikhraj li-Ahkam al-Kharaj . In modern legal assessments, Abd al-Wahhab Khallaf noted that Yahya ibn Adam's book focuses on traditions and legal reports, contrasting with Abu Yusuf's comprehensive administrative treatise addressed to Harun al-Rashid .
The text has been published in critical editions prepared by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir (published by al-Matba'a al-Salafiyya in Cairo) and by Husayn Mu'nis .
Answer updated