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Zakat: Islam’s missed opportunity to limit predatory taxation

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  • Timur Kuran

    (Duke University)

Abstract

One of Islam’s five canonical pillars is a predictable, fixed, and mildly progressive tax system called zakat. It was meant to finance various causes typical of a pre-modern government. Implicit in the entire transfer system was personal property rights as well as constraints on government—two key elements of a liberal order. Those features could have provided the starting point for broadening political liberties under a state with explicitly restricted functions. Instead, just a few decades after the rise of Islam, zakat opened the door to arbitrary political rule and material insecurity. A major reason is that the Quran does not make explicit the underlying principles of governance. It simply outlines the specifics of zakat as they related to conditions in seventh-century Arabia.

Suggested Citation

  • Timur Kuran, 2020. "Zakat: Islam’s missed opportunity to limit predatory taxation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 395-416, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:182:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11127-019-00663-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-019-00663-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Becker, Sascha O. & Pfaff, Steven, 2022. "Church and State in historical political economy," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1409, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Ilia Murtazashvili, 2023. "Mehrdad Vahabi, Destructive coordination, Anfal and Islamic Political Capitalism: a new reading of contemporary Iran. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 478 pages. USD 149.99 (hardback)," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 207-211, July.
    3. Gregory W. Caskey & Ilia Murtazashvili, 2022. "The predatory state and coercive assimilation: The case of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 217-235, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Zakat; Islam; Taxation; Predation; Governance; Property rights; Poverty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N25 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Asia including Middle East
    • N45 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law
    • H13 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Economics of Eminent Domain; Expropriation; Nationalization

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