Manuscript/Mixed Material Hādhā Kitāb al-kharāj al-Imām Abī Yūsuf, rahimahu Allah taʻālá, ṣāḥib al-Imān al-Aʻẓam Abī Ḥanīfah al-Nuʻmān, raḍiya Allah ʻanh هاذا كتاب خراج الامام ابي يوسف رحمه الله تعالى، صاحب الامام الاعظم ابي حنيفة النعمان، قضي الله عنه
About this Item
Title
- Hādhā Kitāb al-kharāj al-Imām Abī Yūsuf, rahimahu Allah taʻālá, ṣāḥib al-Imān al-Aʻẓam Abī Ḥanīfah al-Nuʻmān, raḍiya Allah ʻanh
Other Title
- هاذا كتاب خراج الامام ابي يوسف رحمه الله تعالى، صاحب الامام الاعظم ابي حنيفة النعمان، قضي الله عنه
Summary
- Kitāb al-Kharāj (Book of taxation) is a classic text on fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), written by Abū Yusūf Yaʻqūb Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī al-Kūfī (died 798; 182 A.H.) at the request of the Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (763 or 766-809). Abū Yusūf was the most famous student of Abū Ḥanīfa and along with his illustrious teacher is considered one of the founders of the Ḥanafī school of law. In the introduction to the book, Abū Yusūf describes how the caliph asked him to write a work treating the collection of al-kharāj (the tax collected from non-Muslims), al-ʻushūr (a tithe payable by Muslims), al-ṣadaqāt (alms), and related matters requiring attention and action. Hārūn al-Rashīd's expressed intent was to use the work to address the oppressed condition of his subjects and to improve their economic well-being. The work includes such chapter headings as "A description of the land [subject to] tithing and al-kharaj, and of Arabs and non-Arabs and idolaters and the people of the book [i.e., Christians and Jews] and others." The work also contains a considerable amount of historical and geographical information on the early centuries of Islam. This can be seen, for example, in the account of the conquest of Byzantine and Sassanian lands contained in the chapter faṣl fī arḍ al-shām wa al-jazīra (Chapter on the land of Syria and Mesopotamia). This manuscript copy of Kitāb al-Kharāj was completed in Damascus, near the end of Rajab, 1144 A.H. (January 1732). The table of contents, which appears to have been scattered and reattached to the book with its folios out of sequence, was apparently written about a century later, on the Dhū al-Ḥijjah, 16, 1245 A.H. (June 1830), in Sarajevo (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina). This work has been reprinted in multiple editions in modern times and has been translated from the original Arabic into English, Russian, and French. World Digital Library.
Names
- Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb, 731 or 732-798
- Ḥamawī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh, scribe
Created / Published
- Rajab 1144 [Dec./Jan. 1732]
Headings
- - Land value taxation (Islamic law)--Early works to 1800
- - Land value taxation--Islamic Empire--Early works to 1800
- - Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)
- - Real property tax (Islamic law)--Early works to 1800
Notes
- - Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh al-Ḥamawī al-nāsikh bi-Dimashq al-maḥrūsah.
- - Binding contemporary dark brown leather, with gold borders and center medalion.
- - Damascus, Syria.
- - First four leaves are an index.
- - Folio 1b-4b; 1b-94a.
- - Library of Congress. Arabic manuscript, SM-35.
- - Manuscript.
- - Naskhī script; 27 lines in written area, 13 x 6 cm.
- - Paper; thin light cream color laid paper with verical chain lines and no visible water-marks; some rubrication; fol. 1b has elaborate ʻunwān; fol. 1b and 2a text is enclosed in gold borders, remainder of text lacks borders or other decoration; catchwords on rectos.
- - Title from folio 1b (second group).
- - Fihris al-makhṭūṭāt al-ʻArabīyah fi Maktabat al-Kūnghris, 28
- - Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.
- - Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
- - Arabic.
- - Colophon: فيما نزل بك من المصايب. انتهى. هذا أخر ما وجد من كتاب الخراج ...
- - Incipit: بسم الله وبه ثقتي . قال ابو يوسف رحمه الله تعالى لهرون الرشيد ...
Medium
- 4, 94 leaves (27 lines) bound : paper ; 16 x 10.8 cm.
Call Number/Physical Location
- HJ4163 .A2 1732
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2013415245
Online Format
- image