Jizya

Under Islamic law, the jizya was a tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens. In return, non-Muslim citizens were often permitted to practice their faith and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy.

The Arabic term jizya appears in verse Qur'an 9:29, but the Qur'an does not specify jizya specifically as a tax per head. According to Paul Heck in the Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, the jizya seems to be a developed form of the Sassanian practice of taxation.