A History of Agriculture in India v2.c54.s2.8

v2.c54.s2.8

'According to the original ordinance of 'Umar, those persons who were of any persuasion non-Muhammadan were called Zimmis, or those under protection, and were assessed with a toleration, or poll-tax, at the following rates. A person in easy circumstances had to pay 48 dirhams a year, one of moderate means 24 dirhams, and one in an inferior station, or who derived his subsistence from manual labour, 12 dirhams. Women, children and persons unable to work paid nothing. But a century had not elapsed when 'Umar the Second, considering these rates too moderate, calculated what a man could gain during the year, and what he could subsist on, and claimed all the rest, amounting to four or five dinars, about two pounds, a year.