The Origins of the Islamic State/Part 2/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
The Samaritans
The terms made by abu-ʿUbaidah. Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr from Ṣafwân ibn-ʿAmr:—Abu-ʿUbaidah ibn-al-Jarrâḥ made terms with the Samaritans in the provinces of the Jordan and Palestine, who acted as spies and guides for the Moslems, stipulating that they pay tax on their persons but nothing on their lands. When Yazîd ibn-Muʿâwiyah, however, assumed power he assessed kharâj on their lands.
The tax imposed by Yazîd. I was informed by certain men well versed in the conditions of the Jordan and Palestine that Yazîd ibn-Muʿâwiyah assessed kharâj on the lands of the Samaritans in the Jordan, and levied on every man two dînârs as poll-tax. He also assessed kharâj on their lands in Palestine and levied five dînârs on every man.
Sects. The Samaritans are Jews and are divided into two classes, one is called ad-Dustân [Dositheans] and the other al-Kûshân.[1]
Their lands become crown-land. There was in Palestine in the early part of the caliphate of ar-Rashîd a devastating plague which in some cases would attack all the members of a household. As a result, their land was rendered waste and useless. Ar-Rashîd put it in charge of some who cultivated it and [by gifts] attracted the farmers and tenants into it, thus making it crown domains. In these places the Samaritans lived. One of those villages called Bait-Mâma, which lay in the district of Nâbulus and whose inhabitants were Samaritans, made a complaint in the year to the effect that they were poor and unable to pay the five-dînâr kharâj, upon which al-Mutawakkil gave orders that it be reduced again to three.
Muʿâwiyah spares the hostages. Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr from Ṣafwân ibn-ʿAmr and Saʿîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz:—The Greeks made peace with Muʿâwiyah with the stipulation that he pay them a certain sum of money. Muʿâwiyah took hostages from them and held them in Baʿlabakk. The Greeks proved perfidious to Muʿâwiyah, but still the Moslems did not consider it legal to put the hostages in their hands to death; and so they set them free, saying, "Loyalty against perfidy is better than perfidy against perfidy." According to Hishâm, al-Auzâʿi, among other authorities, maintains the same view.
Footnotes edit
- ↑ Cf. Al-Maḳrizi, al-Khiṭaṭ, vol. iv, p. 371; The Jewish Encyclopaedia, s. v. "Samaritans"; J. A. Montgomery, History of the Samaritans, p. 253 seq. De Sacy. Chrestom., vol. i. pp. 305, 341–344.