Role of Booty in the Economy during the Prophet's Time

ABSTRACT. The author estimates the total value of the spoils of war accruing to the Muslims during the first decade of the Hijrah calendar (622-632 AD) not to exceed 6 million dirhams. Estimating the cost of living at Medina for an average family of six persons to be 3000 dirhams per annum, the above would support only a microscopic minority of the growing Muslims population at the time. It is also necessary to take into consideration the expenses incurred by Muslims on their war efforts, as well as the losses sustained by them. The author estimates the expenses alone to have exceeded 60 million dirhams- i.e. ten times the booty. All in all, the contribution of the spoils of war to the total income of the Muslims during the 10 years of the Prophet's rule could not be more than 2%, the author concludes. Without denying some role for this windfall, the mainstay of the Muslim economy must have been their own efforts in agriculture, industry, trade and commerce. Orientalists ' Viewpoint Emphasis has often been laid by Western scholars on the importance of the booty obtained in the Muslim expeditions during the Medinan decade of the Prophet Muhammad's eventful life (peace be upon him). This is, in fact, a logical conclusion one arrives at if one assumes beforehand that the early Islamic campaigns had economic motivations and financial objectives as their driving spirit. This stems from the sup position that the impoverishment of the early Makkan immigrants (muhajirun), weak economic condition of the helpers (ansar), further deterioration of conditions at Medina by continuous new arrivals of the immigrants, exhaustion of whatever resources the Prophet had at his disposal in the early months after the hijrah, and, finally, his keen desire to ameliorate the financial conditions of his followers, led to the initiation of a policy of raiding Makkan caravans which passed by Medina on their way to Syria. (Addison