Land regime in the Umayyads period

This study specifically aims to reveal the current land regime during the Umayyad period. Since the term land regime is a title that covers every subject related to land, the study required to be dealt with in a wide range from the ownership understanding of the period, land classification, tax systems, social classes, labor and efforts made in the development of agriculture. The concept of fey had an important effect on the formation of the ownership understanding of the period. The lands obtained by means of this understanding were classified according to the conquest style. However, over time, new soil types started to emerge. The source of these is ihyâ and iktâ practices. Katâis and day'as came out as a result of these practices. With the process of increasing empowerment of individuals against the state, private ownership has increased gradually, and the process of large-scale production in agriculture and the production of goods for the market has been initiated with the capital accumulation obtained from large-scale farms. As the absolute owners of power, the Umayyads had vast territories, and they tried to make other tribesmen benefit from it, in proportion to their closeness to power. The big landowners needed labor and tried to meet this by taking advantage of the peasant working class. The centralization of the state has paved the way for a more planned collection of taxes such as tribute, jizya, and uşur. Increasing Islamization due to tax advantage and consequently decreasing tribute and tax revenues prompted the administrators to come to the people with harsher measures, becoming a Muslim was ceased to be a privileged criterion in terms of paying tribute tax in order to prevent the decrease in income. The Umayyads followed the Sassanid and Byzantine methods of the previous periods, namely the four caliphs, with some minor changes in the collection and procedures of the tax, and again benefited from their officers in the field. Significant changes were made only with the increase of bureaucrats of Arab origin who were able to dominate the tax process in the last period of the Umayyads. Key Words: Umayyad, Land, Fay, Tribute, Poll Tax, Jizye, Uşur, Islamization, Agriculture, Labor, Zimmî.