THE RESOURCES OF THE MARJA‘IYYA AND HAWZA, AND THEIR HISTORICAL EVOLUTION 97 examples of precepts of the current marji‘, Sayyid Ali al-Sistani. First piece of confirmation: Rather than be adamant about the necessity of paying khums to the mujtahid marji‘, Sayyid al-Sistani gave his followers in Afghanistan and Iraq license to pay khums to eligible persons known to them, at the hands of the payers themselves, with no need to pay khums to his agents. Although he rescinded this license for Afghans after the fall of the Taliban government, it is still valid for Iraqis. Second piece of confirmation: It relates to the payment of khums on an uninhabited building. About 10 years ago, the supreme marji‘ mandated the payment of khums on a house built as a residence if a year has passed and it remains uninhabited, even if the house is incomplete and even if it has no roof. He changed this precept six years ago to require that the house be complete and inhabitable, and that a year has passed, for khums to be payable on it. Both cases show that the mujtahid has wide latitude to derive legal rulings on khums, the resources on which it is levied, and how it is spent. This supports the paper’s hypothesis that khums is linked to the need to find a stable resource independent of the state, whether it has a good relationship with the marja‘iyya or not. It is axiomatic that one of the primary features of traditional states is their control over production resources, which has shrunk to state control of taxation. Khums, as a resource similar to a tax, has been a subject of major disagreement between Shi‘ites and the state throughout history. It has been noted that the powerful Abbasid caliph Abu Ja‘far al-Mansour questioned Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq about khums and said to him disapprovingly,“You are the one who exacts this tribute?” 66 Throughout the subsequent centuries, khums was levied both secretly and openly. Shi‘ite mujtahids spent it on the traditional resources that were mentioned earlier. The ways in which it was spent were linked to jurists’ customary process for 66  After the Battle of Bakhamra in 763 AD, in which Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Hasan ibn al­Muthanna ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali was killed after leading the people of Basra in an uprising against Al-Mansur al-Abbasi, Al-Mansur summoned a large number of Alids to Kufa, the seat of government before Baghdad was built. He ordered two of their leaders to come to him, so Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq and Al-Hasan ibn Zayd went in. Al-Mansur rushed to say to al-Sadiq,“Do you know the unseen?” He said,“No one knows the unseen except God.” Al-Mansour asked,“You are the one who exacts this tribute?” Al-Sadiq answered,“You exact it.” The discussion continued until Al-Mansur ultimately pardoned them, forgiving them for Ibrahim’s uprising against him and allowing them to return to the city.