Page "Tax per head" Paragraph 11

The differing tax rates between zakat and jizya gave an incentive for populations to convert to Islam, to benefit from the lower tax rates.

However, this was not always respected by the governing authorities, who were reluctant to lose the cash revenues.

In the late 7th and early 8th C., during the Umayyad Caliphate, conversions were often ignored and jizya continued being collected on Muslim converts, particularly if they were non-Arabs ( e. g. Berbers, Persians ), raising tensions throughout the caliphate.

In 718, the Umayyad caliph Umar II strictly forbade collection of jizya from Muslim converts.

However, after his death, difficulties in the caliphal treasury prompted governors to side-step the prohibitions and surreptitiously re-introduce jizya-collection on converts by other guises.

The zeal of the Umayyad tax-collectors led to the eruption of two notable revolts in the 740s-the Berber Revolt in North Africa and Spain and the Abbasid Revolt in Persia-demanding the equality of all Muslims, regardless of ethnicity, and adherence to the tax rates prescribed by Islamic law.