Research Information System
Milestones and Turning Points, Cambridge, England, 7 - 08 February 2024
Nowadays, it is hardly impossible to find an economic (fiscal) system based on a religious basis. In other words, today economies continue to exist on the secular ground while religious rules are considered outside of this area. Considering the situation for Islamic societies (especially from the Ottoman perspective), we can say that this differentiation started with the announcement of the Edict of Reform (Islahat Fermanı) in 1856. I believe, therefore, that the year 1856 constituted a turning point for the Ottoman economy due to the abolishment of jizya, or the poll tax, one of the primary taxes of Islam. Throughout Ottoman history, great importance was attached to the collection of jizya, known as cizye, defined as an Islamic poll tax imposed upon a non-Muslim male adult based on the verses of the Quran. There were many changes from its collection method to amount throughout Ottoman history, but it existed until 1856. Since jizya was a tax collected only from non-Muslims, there were harsh criticisms against it for damaging the principle of equality that was declared in the Tanzimat. In the end, jizya was abolished along with the Edict of Reform, and it was decided to recruit non-Muslims, particularly Christians, to the army. However, Muslims and non-Muslims expressed their criticisms about this change on the grounds of different reasons. As a result of these severe criticisms from all sides of society, a new tax named a military tax, which had no religious basis, was introduced in return of the abolition of an Islamic tax, jizya. All in all, my study postulates the abolition of jizya as a turning point for the Ottoman economy (or Islamic economy) with arguing the elimination of öşr (tithe) —another type of tax in Islam— in 1925 in the early years of the Turkish Republic.