Under the Buyid dynasty, an iqta, or iqtaa, was an Islamic tax farming system that grew common throughout Muslim Asia. According to famous Orientalist Claude Cahen, the iqta is a form of an administrative grant that is usually (wrongly) translated as 'fief' in Europe. The substance of the I changes with time and place, and a translation focused on other sorts of structures and conceptions has all too often led Western and Eastern historians wrong.

According to Irfan Habib, a system needs to be established to collect excess from the peasantry and divide it among the ruling class members. The iqta was a key component of this process since it merged the functions of collecting and distribution without jeopardizing the governmental structure's coherence. The iqta was the geographical assignment, and the muqti was the person who held it.

Unlike European systems, muqtis could not interfere in a paying person's private life as long as they remained on the muqti's domain. In addition, by law, iqtas were not hereditary and had to be validated by a greater rank like a sultan or king.

In Middle Eastern society, local iqta owners had little motivation to offer public goods to the regions entrusted to them. The iqta was reversible and uninheritable, which was the underlying idea. The iqta was a fiscal instrument that gave troops a strong interest in the government, even though it was not an investment in a specific piece of land.