zakat

plural zakats · alternative zakaah · alternative zakah · alternative zikat · alternative Zikat

1. uncountableusuallyIslamAlmsgiving, usually in the form of an annual tax on certain types of property which is then used for charitable purposes; the third of the five pillars of Islam.

   Services given by the Sayyids are supposed to be free, but they should receive the Zikat, or one tenth of the fruits of the earth.

   1963, Emrys L[loyd] Peters, “Aspects of Rank and Status among Muslims in a Lebanese Village”, in Julian Pitt-Rivers, editor, Mediterranean Countrymen: Essays in Social Anthropology of the Mediterranean, Paris: Mouton and Co., →OCLC, page 170; republished in Louise E. Sweet, editor, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East: An Anthropological Reader, volumes II (Life in the Cities, Towns, and Countryside), Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press for the American Museum of Natural History, 1970, →ISBN, page 88

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   Zakât is an ordinance of God, incumbent upon every perſon vvho is free, ſane, adult, and a Muſſulman, provided he be poſſeſſed, in full propriety, of ſuch eſtate or effects as are termed in the language of the lavv a Niſâb, and that he has been in poſſeſſion of the ſame for the ſpace of one complete year, vvhich is denominated Havvlân-Hâvvl. The reaſon of this obligation is found in the vvord of God, vvho has ordained it in the Koran, ſaying, "Bestovv Zakât."

   1791, [Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani], chapter I, in Charles Hamilton, transl., The Hedàya, or Guide; a Commentary on the Mussulman Laws: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Bensley, →OCLC, book I (Of Zakât), page 2

   The Mahometan law insists on the legal obligation of society to support their indigent fellow-citizens, the Hedaya or Mahometan Guide begins, "take zakat," said Mahomet, "from the rich Mussulmans, and bestow it upon the poor Mussulmans: zakat or charity," says the code, "signifies alms imposed by law, in opposition to [sadka], voluntary charity." […] The zakat was a property-tax paid on all productions and profits, on merchandise, mines, &c.

   1831, James Butler Bryan, chapter XII, in A Practical View of Ireland, from the Period of the Union; with Plans for the Permanent Relief of Her Poor, and the Improvement of Her Municipal Organization: […], Dublin: W. F. Wakeman, […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, […], →OCLC, page 327

   The Alcoran and all the subsequent teachings of the faithful enjoined a constant and liberal charity. […] The theory of the zakat, or tax, is that it is a voluntary gift. Contributing for the needs of the state followed in due course of time, and became obligatory. These taxes, or zakat, amounted by law to two and a half per cent. of the principal of certain assessed property.

   1886, William A[ddison] Phillips, “The Mahometan System, and the Governments and Forms of Society Founded on It”, in Labor, Land and Law: A Search for the Missing Wealth of the Working Poor, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 140

   Amongst these stations is the well-known place called Qaṭyā, which the people pronounce Qaṭya, where zakāt is collected from the merchants, their goods are examined, and their baggage most rigorously searched.

   1958, Ibn Battuta, “Syria”, in H[amilton] A[lexander] R[osskeen] Gibb, transl., The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa A.D. 1325–1354 […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press for the Hakluyt Society, →OCLC, page 72

   […] Russian goods were subject to numerous zakats as well as to taxes on buying and selling in the bazaars, on maintaining shops and stalls in the bazaars, and on the compulsory use of the official bazaar weights.

   2004, Seymour Becker, “Economic Development”, in Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924, London; New York, N.Y.: RoutledgeCurzon, published 2005, →ISBN, part 3 (The Russian Presence), page 136