アラブ征服地における私的土地所有の起源をめぐって

Abstract

The assassination of the third Caliph 'Uthman by disaffected elements among Arab warriors from the garrison towns was a serious occurrence which caused a crisis for the nascent Muslim state. During this period of the assassination of 'Uthman there occurred the active acquisition of private landholdings by 'Uthman and other Companions of the Prophet. This fact has already been noted by al-Ya'qubi, the 'Abbasid historian. In order to establish of treatises on the land system in Islamic law, Muslim scholars of the early Islamic period emphasized that following the Great Arab conquests, there existed land that continued to be used by the indigenous farmers. whose possession of such was recognized. In addition, there existed unowned land which had been under the jurisdiction of the Sassanid Dynasty and others, and which was confiscated and given the designation of sawafi or state land. 'Uthman gave land from this sawafi to the Companions of the Prophet as qati'a. This interpretation is followed by most modern scholars. However, such an interpretation can not be supported on the basis of a careful evaluation of the documents. This paper makes clear the fact that 'Uthman's transferral of land resulted from a specifically political policy that was concerned with the class of Muslim leaders who wielded special authority, and that was based on an overarching structure of buying and exchanging land. Such land included that acquired as spoils of war; held as a right of "participants in the conquests", and land which was possessed by this class of Muslim leaders on the Arabian peninsula.