Definition of "zakat"

Zakât is an ordinance of God, incumbent upon every perſon vvho is free, ſane, adult, and a Muſſulman, provided he be poſſeſſed, in full propriety, of ſuch eſtate or effects as are termed in the language of the lavv a Niſâb, and that he has been in poſſeſſion of the ſame for the ſpace of one complete year, vvhich is denominated Havvlân-Hâvvl. The reaſon of this obligation is found in the vvord of God, vvho has ordained it in the Koran, ſaying, "Bestovv Zakât."

1791, [Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani], chapter I, in Charles Hamilton, transl., The Hedàya, or Guide; a Commentary on the Mussulman Laws: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Bensley, book I (Of Zakât), page 2

The Mahometan law insists on the legal obligation of society to support their indigent fellow-citizens, the Hedaya or Mahometan Guide begins, "take zakat," said Mahomet, "from the rich Mussulmans, and bestow it upon the poor Mussulmans: zakat or charity," says the code, "signifies alms imposed by law, in opposition to [sadka], voluntary charity." […] The zakat was a property-tax paid on all productions and profits, on merchandise, mines, &c.

1831, James Butler Bryan, chapter XII, in A Practical View of Ireland, from the Period of the Union; with Plans for the Permanent Relief of Her Poor, and the Improvement of Her Municipal Organization: […], Dublin: W. F. Wakeman, […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, […], page 327

The Alcoran and all the subsequent teachings of the faithful enjoined a constant and liberal charity. […] The theory of the zakat, or tax, is that it is a voluntary gift. Contributing for the needs of the state followed in due course of time, and became obligatory. These taxes, or zakat, amounted by law to two and a half per cent. of the principal of certain assessed property.

1886, William A[ddison] Phillips, “The Mahometan System, and the Governments and Forms of Society Founded on It”, in Labor, Land and Law: A Search for the Missing Wealth of the Working Poor, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 140

Amongst these stations is the well-known place called Qaṭyā, which the people pronounce Qaṭya, where zakāt is collected from the merchants, their goods are examined, and their baggage most rigorously searched.

1958, Ibn Battuta, “Syria”, in H[amilton] A[lexander] R[osskeen] Gibb, transl., The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa A.D. 1325–1354 […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press for the Hakluyt Society, page 72

Services given by the Sayyids are supposed to be free, but they should receive the Zikat, or one tenth of the fruits of the earth.

1963, Emrys L[loyd] Peters, “Aspects of Rank and Status among Muslims in a Lebanese Village”, in Julian Pitt-Rivers, editor, Mediterranean Countrymen: Essays in Social Anthropology of the Mediterranean, Paris: Mouton and Co., page 170; republished in Louise E. Sweet, editor, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East: An Anthropological Reader, volumes II (Life in the Cities, Towns, and Countryside), Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press for the American Museum of Natural History, 1970, page 88

[…] Russian goods were subject to numerous zakats as well as to taxes on buying and selling in the bazaars, on maintaining shops and stalls in the bazaars, and on the compulsory use of the official bazaar weights.

2004, Seymour Becker, “Economic Development”, in Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924, London, New York, N.Y.: RoutledgeCurzon, published 2005, part 3 (The Russian Presence), page 136

By tradition, zakat proceeds serve partly to deliver poor relief and partly to finance "praiseworthy activities," defined to include religious education and pilgrimage. In several countries, including Pakistan, zakat has become a legal obligation, and the government now organizes both its collection and its disbursement. In most parts of the Islamic world, however, zakat is collected and disbursed in a decentralized manner by local religious organizations […].

2006, Timur Kuran, “Islam and Economics: Policy Prescriptions for a Free Society”, in Sohrab Behdad, Farhad Nomani, editors, Islam and the Everyday World: Public Policy Dilemmas, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 43

Zakat is a system of alms giving which constitutes one of the five pillars of Islam, and zakat committees operate as social welfare agencies by collecting zakats from able Muslims and distributing them to the less fortunate.

2009, Atta El-Battahani, “Ideological Expansionist Movements versus Historical Indigenous Rights in the Darfur Region of Sudan: From Actual Homicide to Potential Genocide”, in Salah M. Hassan, Carina E. Ray, editors, Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan: A Critical Reader, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, part 1, section 1 (Origins and Evolution of the Conflict), endnote 16, page 67

In practice, the zakats seem to have varied a great deal with the context, the society, and local norms.

2020 March, Thomas Piketty, “Ternary Societies and Colonialism: Eurasian Trajectories”, in Arthur Goldhammer, transl., Capital and Ideology, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, part 2 (Slave and Colonial Societies), footnote 76, page 409