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THE ORIGINS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

accident or what might befall him, and the other half he distributed among the Moslems. According to this, the Prophet's share included ash-Shiḳḳ with an-Naṭât and whatever was included within them. Among the lands turned into waḳf[1] were al-Katîbah and Sulâlim. When the Prophet laid his hands on these possessions, he found that he had not enough ʿâmils[2] for the land. He therefore turned it over to the Jews on condition that they use the land and keep only one-half of its produce. This arrangement lasted throughout the life of the Prophet and abu-Bakr. But when ʿUmar was made caliph, and as the money became abundant in the lands of the Moslems, and the Moslems became numerous enough to cultivate the land, ʿUmar expelled the Jews to Syria and divided the property among the Moslems.

Bakr ibn-al-Haitham from az-Zuhri:—When the Prophet conquered Khaibar the fifth share of it [reserved for himself] was al-Katîbah; as for ash-Shiḳḳ, an-Naṭât, Sulâlim and al-Waṭîḥ they were given to the Moslems. The Prophet left the land in the hands of the Jews on condition that they give him one-half of the produce. Thus the part of the produce assigned by Allah to the Moslems was divided among the Moslems until the time of ʿUmar who divided the land itself among them according to their shares.

Abu-ʿUbaid from Maimûn ibn-Mihrân:—The Prophet besieged the inhabitants of Khaibar between twenty and thirty days.

Al-Ḥusain ibn-al-Aswad from Bushair ibn-Yasâr:—The Prophet divided Khaibar into thirty-six shares—eighteen for the Prophet to meet the expenses of accidents, visitors,

  1. Unalienable legacy to the Moslem general community.
  2. Governors whose chief function it was to collect taxes and conquer more lands.