The Arabic word iqta literally means “a portion” or “a section”; more specifically, in the period of the crusades it was used to refer to an assignment of land or other source of revenue (such as a factory or a caravanserai) to a soldier or other functionary in the employment of a Muslim ruler in return for his service.
The term iqtā‘ has sometimes been translated by scholars as “fief,” but this is misleading, as these grants were not, in theory at least, hereditary, nor did they convey ownership over the land or judicial rights over those who worked on the land. The grant of an iqtā‘ merely conferred the right to collect taxes on a particular village or other revenue source and to keep those revenues. It can therefore be seen as a kind of tax farm. In most cases, the main revenue collected by the iqtā‘ holder (Arab. muqta) was the kharaj (land tax), which would normally be collected in kind as a proportion of the crops. One consequence of this was that the soldiers who held theiqtā‘ assignments tended to be reluctant to campaign during the harvest time, for that was when they or their agents collected their revenue. Iqtā‘ revenue was often supplemented by pay (Arab. jamakiyya) and campaign handouts.
The institution seems to have originated under the Saljûqs in Persia. It was imported to Egypt by Saladin. The Mamlûk military regime in Egypt and Syria from the late thirteenth century onward was founded on the institution of iqtā‘. Theory notwithstanding, in practice some of the iqtā‘ holders did acquire wider powers over their estates and were successful in transmitting them to their descendants. This particularly happened in Persia and Iraq during the late Saljûq period. Occasionally, the term iqtā‘ could be used in a much looser sense. For example, the word is sometimes used to refer to the princely appanages of the Ayyûbids. It was also sometimes used to recognize the jurisdiction of a hereditary tribal chieftain, particularly in highland Palestine and Lebanon.