{"id":48,"date":"2018-10-10T12:26:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2019-05-03T10:54:45","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T10:54:45","slug":"allowances-advances-and-credit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/ruralsocietyislam\/database\/allowances-advances-and-credit\/","title":{"rendered":"3. Allowances, Advances, and Credit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allowances (rizaq<\/em>)<\/h3>\n

Large villages allotted tax-free allowances (rizaq<\/em>) of arable land to local officials, including village headmen and guardsmen, supervisors of the sugarcane network, carpenters in charge of maintaining waterwheels, as well as Christian and Muslim clerics.<\/p>\n

Allowances were most commonly granted as tax-free plots of arable land, usually measured in feddans but sometimes in ploughshares (mi\u1e25r\u0101th<\/em>, pl. ma\u1e25\u0101r\u012bth<\/em>), a larger unit equal to perhaps a dozen feddans. These plots were exempt from the land-tax. Their surplus remained with the local beneficiaries and was not delivered to the iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holder.[1]<\/a> Since these plots were exempt from the lease contracts affecting other village lands, they were sometimes subject to a canonical land-tax on private property, called the tithe (\u02bfushr al-rizaq<\/em>).[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

The rationale for the allocation of tax-free allowances was that headmen and other officials provided services to the community which prevented them from attending to the land. The recording of these allowances by al-N\u0101bulus\u012b implies that the iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders approved these tax-free allowances, deducted from the overall fiscal revenue of the village.<\/p>\n

In al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s time there was no distinction between tax-free allowances for civilian and for religious functionaries. This would change a couple of decades later, when al-\u1e92\u0101hir Baybars created a separate category of endowed allowances (rizaq i\u1e25b\u0101siyya<\/em>) in support of Muslim religious institutions. After his reforms, allowances for guardsmen, headmen, and carpenters continued under a separate category, known as ma\u1e63\u0101li\u1e25 al-n\u0101\u1e25iya<\/em>.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Data: Allowances<\/a><\/p>\n

Seed Advances<\/h3>\n

The D\u012bw\u0101n al-M\u0101l provided annual seed advances (taq\u0101w\u012b<\/em>) for next year\u2019s sowing, largely in wheat and barley. The seeds were handed over to iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders or their agents, who controlled the actual distribution of the seeds to peasants. The iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holder was then expected to reimburse the state with an equivalent amount of seeds at the end of his tenure.[4]<\/a> The peasants received the seed advances as a loan for the sowing season, which they were supposed to return out of the yield of the spring harvest.<\/p>\n

Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b cites from two separate registers of seed advances. One register was of seed advances as recorded (al-mukhallada<\/em>) in the D\u012bw\u0101n. This was a record of the seeds that were to be issued to the iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders for the cultivation (\u02bfim\u0101ra<\/em>) of the village. The second was a record of the seed advances actually distributed (al-mu\u1e6dlaqa<\/em>) by the iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders, according to local practice (\u02bfal\u0101 m\u0101 jarat al-\u02bf\u0101da<\/em>). These seed advances are said to come out of the income of the local iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders.<\/p>\n

For most villages, al-N\u0101bulus\u012b reports either the figure obtained from the records of the D\u012bw\u0101n or the amount of seed advances actually distributed by the iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders, but not both.<\/p>\n

When a village was left without an iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holder, due to death or reassignment, seed advances were recorded under the category of al-ma\u1e25l\u016bl<\/em> (seed advances to a village without an iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holder) or al-murtaja\u02bf<\/em> (the seed advances which should be reclaimed from an iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holder after the end of his tenure).<\/p>\n

Data: Seed advances<\/a><\/p>\n

Advance Payments for Barley and Beans<\/h3>\n

In most large and medium-size villages there is record of contracts to supply the Royal Stables with barley or broad beans as fodder for government-owned animals (al-\u02bfaw\u0101mil al-d\u012bw\u0101niyya<\/em>). In return, the villages received an advance payment.<\/p>\n

The contracts are, for the most part, for the supply of barley. The common formula is \u2018wa\u2019l-musallaf \u02bfalayhi bi-h\u0101 min al-sha\u02bf\u012br bi-rasm al-i\u1e63\u1e6dibal\u0101t al-sul\u1e6d\u0101niyya<\/em>\u2019 (barley from the village, which had been paid for in advance, assigned to the Royal Stables).[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Al-N\u0101bulus\u012b records only the amount of barley and beans which the village was contracted to deliver, but not the amount of the advance payments by the government.<\/p>\n

Data: Advance payments for barley and beans<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrears<\/h3>\n

Arrears are mentioned only in seventeen villages. These villages are those which were either under the control of the royal domain (kh\u0101\u1e63\u1e63<\/em>) at the time of al-N\u0101bulus\u012b\u2019s visit, or had been under the control of the royal domain at some point over the previous decade. The arrears generally represent the village\u2019s debts at the time it was handed over from the royal domain to the iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders, although the arrears could occasionally also include debts to previous iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holders.<\/p>\n

The records identify the creditor \u2014 the D\u012bw\u0101n al-M\u0101l or a named iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf-holder \u2014 and the type of unpaid fiscal obligation, whether in specie or in kind. This balance of payments carried over from previous years is listed immediately after the seed advances, since both were seen as categories of credit.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

The balance of payment is divided into three categories: al-\u1e25\u0101\u1e63il<\/em> (surplus), al-mawq\u016bf<\/em> (withheld) and al-b\u0101q\u012b<\/em> (outstanding), also called muta\u02beakhkhar<\/em> (delayed). The first category, the surplus (al-\u1e25\u0101\u1e63il<\/em>), is a record of over-payments from previous years.[7]<\/a> The second category, the withheld payments (al-mawq\u016bf<\/em>), is of exemptions, mostly in cash, due to flight or death of cultivators, to damage caused by force majeure (e.g., fire or mice), or because of mechanical failures (a malfunctioning mill).[8]<\/a> The third category, that of \u2018outstanding payments\u2019 (al-b\u0101q\u012b<\/em>), was that of unpaid taxes for which no exemption was granted.<\/p>\n

Data: Arrears<\/a><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Nicolas Michel, \u2018Les rizaq ihbasiyya, terres agricoles en mainmorte dans l\u2019\u00c9gypte mamelouke et ottomane: \u00e9tude sur les dafatir al-ahbas ottomans\u2019, Annales Islamologiques<\/em>, 30 (1996), 105\u201398 (pp.\u00a0109, 114); al-Nuwayr\u012b, Nih\u0101yat al-arab<\/em>, xxxi, 348 (rizaq al-i\u1e25b\u0101siyya<\/em> for religious buildings and personnel are exempt from being assigned as iq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> These tithes, in ardabbs of grains, are listed as an appendix to the land-tax of a few villages, after the measurement fees (Sinn\u016bris, B\u016br S\u012bnar\u016b). In Bab\u012bj And\u012br and \u1e24add\u0101da a payment of ardabbs of grain is mentioned as \u2018land-tax on the plough-shares of the allowances\u2019 (khar\u0101j ma\u1e25\u0101r\u012bth al-rizaq<\/em>). In Islamic law, tithe is levied on land which is the private property of Muslims, and varies between a full 10 per cent on naturally irrigated lands and 5 per cent on lands that require artificial irrigation. There is no evidence in the Villages of the Fayyum of wider payment of tithes, despite the detailed account by al-Nuwayr\u012b; al-Nuwayr\u012b, Nih\u0101yat al-arab<\/em>, viii, 252, 259.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> See also Michel, \u2018Les rizaq ihbasiyya\u2019, pp.\u00a0108\u201311\u00a0(Michel corrects the reading to rizaq, instead of the classical form rizq used by Cahen in his \u2018Le r\u00e9gime des imp\u00f4ts\u2019); Michel, \u2018Les services communaux\u2019; Sato, State and Rural Society<\/em>, pp.\u00a0185\u201388.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> See Sato, State and Rural Society<\/em>, pp.\u00a0200\u201304.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Correctly explained by Cahen (\u2018Le r\u00e9gime des imp\u00f4ts\u2019, p.\u00a023). See also al-Nuwayr\u012b, Nih\u0101yat al-arab<\/em>, viii, 241, for musallaf as advance payment.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Al-Makhz\u016bm\u012b also lumps together the seed advances and the arrears. He states that when the revenue in kind is collected, the clerks need to distinguish between the land-tax of the current year, the arrears (b\u0101q\u012b<\/em>) from the previous year, and the reclaimed seed advances (murtaja\u02bf<\/em>). See Al-Makhz\u016bm\u012b, Al-Muntaq\u0101 min kita\u0304b al-minha\u0304j<\/em>, p.\u00a062.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Al-Nuwayr\u012b, Nih\u0101yat al-arab<\/em>, viii, 218, 275\u201376, 284\u201385. On \u1e25\u0101\u1e63il<\/em> as the balance in favour of the peasant after the payment of land-tax, see viii, 259.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> It appears to be equivalent to the term ma\u1e25s\u016bb<\/em>, explained by al-Nuwayr\u012b as an exemption due to factors beyond the control of the tax-payer; al-Nuwayr\u012b, Nih\u0101yat al-arab<\/em>, viii, 289. The term ma\u1e25s\u016bb is mentioned elsewhere in the treatise with the general meaning of \u2018deduction\u2019. Al-Nuwayr\u012b mentions the term mawq\u016bf<\/em> as category similar to the arrears (b\u0101q\u012b<\/em>), and lists the ma\u1e25s\u016bb<\/em> separately, just after the surplus; al-Nuwayr\u012b, Nih\u0101yat al-arab<\/em>, viii, 285.
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