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(a.) is a technical term denoting common and repartitional ownership by the entire village community of all agricultural lands of the village. 1. In the Near East. In villages in the Middle East where mus̲h̲āʿ prevailed, the peasant community would convene once every year or two to divide the available land by lot to individual peasants. The history of the institution is extremely obscure. In the technical sense mentioned above, the word mus̲h̲āʿ does not appear in classical Arabic dictionaries, which may suggest that the institution did not exist in classical Islam…

(a.), the verbal noun of the form III verb ḳāṭaʿa , with the basic meaning “to come to an agreement on the basis of a certain sum”. This might be in regard to a peace agreement, ṣulḥ , muṣālaḥa , cf. the Glossarium to al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 90; or for the collection of taxation, a ḳabāla [ q.v.] contract; or for the carrying-out of a certain piece of work, cf. al-K̲h̲ wārazmī, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm , 70, where a special measure, the azala , is the basis of a piecework agreement for the excavation of canals and other irrigation works. In general, see the citations from the sources in Dozy, Supplément, ii, 3…

(a.), lit. “dividing out”, a system of raising the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ or land tax. 1. In the caliphate. This involved the levy, by agreement, of a percentage or share of the crops, usually taken when these last had ripened. The early sources on law and finance, up to the time of al-Māwardī [ q.v.], distinguished it from the system of misāḥa [ q.v.] “measurement” or assessment of a fixed lump sum on the land according to its fertility, location, etc, and from the system of muḳāṭaʿa [ q.v.] which implied a fixed annual sum payable without regard to the variations of prosperity and harvest and often the ¶ sub…