A type of tax or duty collected in some Middle Eastern countries, particularly a fee imposed on merchants or goods.
From Arabic 'abwāb' (plural of 'bāb'), literally meaning 'gates' or 'doors,' referring to customs duties collected at city gates or checkpoints in Ottoman and Islamic trade systems.
The word 'abwab' reveals how medieval Middle Eastern cities controlled commerce—imagine guards at every gate collecting taxes on goods passing through, which is why the plural of 'gate' became the word for the tax itself!
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