Tax farming

thumb|Conversion of Zacchaeus (Pietro Monaco, 1730s): Jesus (right) addresses a publicanus (left); [[Zacchaeus watches from a tree.]]

An iqta () and occasionally iqtaʿa () was an Islamic practice of farming out tax revenues yielded by land granted temporarily to army officials in place of a regular wage; it became common in the Muslim empire of the Caliphate. Iqta has been defined in Nizam-al-Mulk's Siyasatnama. Administrators of an Iqta were known as muqti or wali. They collected land revenue and looked after general administration. Muqtis (, "holder of an iqtaʿ") had no right to interfere with the personal life of a paying person if the person stayed on the muqtiʿ's land. They were expected to send the collected revenue (a

Octroi (; , to grant, authorize; Lat. auctor) is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. thumb|City Coal-tax post|Coal Tax Octroi Post in London, England

thumb|upright|Vincenzo Giustiniani was the last owner of the Genoese Maona of Chios

technique of financial management

An iltizam () was a form of tax farm that appeared in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire. The system began under Mehmed the Conqueror and was abolished during the Tanzimat reforms in 1856.

Malikâne was a form of tax farming introduced in the Ottoman Empire in 1695. It was intended as an improvement on the Iltizam system, in which a tax-farmer was responsible for a single year. Malikâne contracts were for life; this provided more security for the tax farmer (malikaneci) and a less exploitative relationship with the peasants; malikanecis might even make investments to improve productivity. However, vested interests - from existing mültezims who benefited from the Iltizam system - prevented wider adoption of malikâne. Also, malikâne could not be converted into vakf - an important d