People must not meet any pressure from rulers in farming the kharaj and zakat...

People must not meet any pressure from rulers in farming the kharaj and zakat, but most Abbasid kings paid no attention to that, and rather, they subjected the nation by violence and oppression in collecting the kharaj. Increasing The Kharaj The officials of the Abbasid governments often asked people to pay more than the specified taxes and they took the further amounts for themselves.

When Abu Ubaydillah bin Yasar became the vizier of al-Mehdi, he made the kharaj on date palms and trees, and it continued so after him.[^373] Egypt suffered different misfortunes and distresses because of the kharaj. Its wali Musa bin Mus’ab doubled the kharaj on every acre, and he imposed taxes on the people of markets and on cattle. He took bribes in judgment. People revolted against him because of his oppression.[^374] Ibn Taghri said, ‘He pressed on people in farming the kharaj.

He doubled the tax on every acre unlike what had been before him. People met distresses from him. He was bad to people. He took bribes on judgments…soldiers hated him. They caused him troubles and often opposed him because he was an oppressive tyrant.’[^375] These doings were too far from the essence and reality of Islam. Those men were but a gang of thieves and highwaymen who went far into crimes and sins.

Umar bin Ubayd said to al-Mansur ad-Dawaniqi, the Abbasid caliph, ‘Behind your door there are fires flaming because of oppression. Behind your door it is acted due to neither the Book of Allah nor the Sunna of His messenger.’[^376] Appropriating The Wealth Of The State The Abbasids appropriated the wealth of the nation and took for themselves and for their kin, as they liked.

The income of Muhammad bin Sulayman al-Abbasi a day was about one hundred thousand dirhams.[^377] When he died, he left a great inheritance which ar-Rashid took sixty thousand dirhams from. Historians say, ‘Great monies came to al-Khayzuran (the mother of Harun ar-Rashid) until her wealth became about one hundred million and sixty thousand dirhams.

Some writer says that this amount equaled the half of the revenue of the state at that time and two thirds of the revenue of Rockefeller in this century. It was found with the wife of al-Mutawakkil (an Abbasid king) one million and eight hundred thousand dinars. The mother of al-Muqtadir (an Abbasid king) was too wealthy.[^378] Ibn al-Jawzi said about her, ‘She had a great wealth that was beyond counting.