From time to time I come across blogs that give me a whole new experience and open up windows to the world I've never seen before. This is one such blog http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/ below is an excerpt from it
Jaziya
I'm sure you know how Islam is. You can do one of three things in the tribal agencies. One, you pay jaziya. Two, you embrace Islam. Three, you prepare to die.
We pay jaziya.
That's Taranjit Singh, a Sikh from Peshawar telling me about how the Sikhs of Peshawar get by. Jaziya is a religious tax that some Muslim kings, most infamously the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb used to levy on Non-Muslim subject. I'd always thought the practice had died out a couple of centuries ago, but large parts of the North-West Frontier Province, where I am right now, are stuck in an old time warp. Although it falls in Pakistan, Pakistan's government has no formal control over much of it, especially in the Khyber Agencies, where different tribes (or agencies) control different areas.
Just wanted to share a great read with you guys.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
A more correct transliteration would be "Jizyah", which is in general a tax for the non-Muslims living in a Muslim country. I don't know about later Islamic civilisations, but the jizyah was not meant to oppress. I remember a story of how one of the Khulafa Al-Rasyidin cancelled the Jizyah of an old Jew because the old dude can't afford it or something. Can't remember which Khalifa though. The Muslims pay their Zakat, while the non-Muslims pay the Jizyah. At least that's how it is from what I understand of it.
dudes...this is not my own writing, its just something from someone else's blog...
But thanks for the info though Rigel...will research more on it...
I don't know what you mean by "orthodox" ideas though..
Post a Comment