Between Implementation and Legislation: The Shiʿi Imam Muḥammad al-Jawād’s Khums Demand Letter of 220 ah/835 ce

Abstract

The Imami Shiʿa are usually treated as a community defined by belief. By analysing a letter attributed to the ninth Imami Imam, Muḥammad al-Jawād dated to the year of his death in 220/835, I show that the Imami Shiʿa were defined also by institutional structures that tied them to their Imam in his capacity as community leader. Details of transmission, form and content suggest that the letter may well be authentic, giving us a unique window onto the Imamic administration. The letter is a tax demand, encouraging payment of the khums levy upon the spoils of war and other items. My analysis suggests that the understanding of khums and ghanīma among Imamis at this time continued to be fluid, subject to the Imam’s adjustment, and that implementation influenced the elaboration of the law. Subsequently, hadith scholars and jurists were thus forced to interpret how such ad hoc, pragmatic acts fit into Islamic law, which is conceived as eternal and divine.