Hunter Harton 

12/19/2013

Primary Source Argument Project

Two countries were fighting to grow, both demanded money from the people. The Byzantine Empire was trying to expand, but could not fund their great plan. They had to find new ways to tax the people to support the empire. In the Islamic Civilization the native tribes were forced to pay taxes. The empire used them as a pillar to hold up the entire civilization. The Byzantine taxation was evenly distributed across their population. The Islamic taxation was focused on the nomadic people, Muslim or not. One of my primary sources is a stone slab with theByzantine laws engraved in it. My other source is an Islamic rug with red,white, black and blue diamonds and spheres woven into it. Both sources are a reflection of the taxation in the empires.

            The Byzantine Empire was very organized and fairly taxed everyone. One of theheaviest taxes was the hearth tax. This held the empire up for years before the expansion. It was charged to the residents to pay the tax. The expansion still needed money, and the hearth tax was not enough. There were new taxes put in place. There were taxes on inheritances, judicialfines, and customs duties. This greatly increased the income of the empire to support their plans. My primary source depicts an organized document that was the Byzantine law for taxation. Even the monks were taxed, spreading the burden over everyone, not just a single group. This made life easier on everyone, allowing them to carry on with their lives, instead of filling their heads with tax worries. However, in other empires, the tax was used as a weapon and focused on one group.

            The Nomadic tribes were told that taxes were a necessary conditionfor belonging in the Islamic community. Over time the Islamic state started depending on the tax from the tribes. The taxation was used as a weapon to control the nomadic peoples. The government took more tax off of the population and put more on the tribes. Before Abi Waqqas waspromoted to commander he was in charge of the taxation of the Hawazin tribe.Most tribes were challenging to stop and tax because catching them wasproblematical. Taxing them was difficult, but it was eventually accomplished bywaiting for the tribe at the drinking well and forcing them to pay. The tribe had no Islamic currency, so they were forced to pay with their camels. Rugs, such as my primary source, were too expensive for the nomadic tribes to afford because of the heavy taxation. Overall, the Islamic Empire found ways to siphon all of the money out of taxation, but so did the Byzantine.

            The Byzantine taxation was evenly distributed across their population. The Islamic taxation was focused on the nomadic people, Muslim or not. The Islamic taxation took advantage of the nomadic people, while the byzantine taxation was fairly distributed to every citizen. The tribes close to the Islamic empire were stolen from. In the Byzantine Empire they came up with better ways to tax the people. The Byzantine Empire was more organized and fair than the Islamic empire.

NA, . N.p.. Web. 19 Dec 2013. <http://www.persianrugllc.com/history-of-persian-of-rug.php>.

Torrissen, Bjorn. N.d. 0. n.p.

. N.p.. Web. 19 Dec 2013. <http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/MunByz.html>.

Metin Coşgel, Rasha Ahmed, and Thomas Miceli, . N.d. 0. n.p.