Tax-farming was a method of landholding and surplus extraction employed by many premodern states across Eurasia. Under this system, the government contracted out the collection of revenues from designated tax-units for a given period to a private bidder, who in return for a substantial payment was given the right to collect the unit’s taxes or fees in the name of the state and keep the balance over and above the initial amount he paid to the state. In the early Islamic world, the Abbasids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, and Mamluks all extensively used such a system, usually called ḍamān or ḍamāna (sec…