What does "jizya" mean?

A per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria.

What is a synonym for "jizya"?

Common synonyms include: cizye, kharaj.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria. historical, uncountable, usually
"Ending jizya lifted a real burden on the poor, and promised, at least symbolically, a greater equality between the followers of different faiths."

"Ending jizya lifted a real burden on the poor, and promised, at least symbolically, a greater equality between the followers of different faiths."

From Arabic جِزْيَة (jizya), from Middle Persian 𐭢𐭦𐭩𐭲 (gzyt /⁠gazīd⁠/), 𐭢𐭦𐭩𐭲𐭪𐭩 (gzytky /⁠gazīdag⁠/, “poll-tax”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.