Under previous Umayyad rulers, beginning with Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, Arab Muslims had certain financial privileges over non-Arab Muslims. Non-Arab converts to Islam were still expected to pay the jizya (poll tax) that they paid before becoming Muslims. Umar put into practice a new system that exempted all Muslims, regardless of their heritage, from the jizya tax. He also added some safeguards to the system to make sure that mass conversion to Islam would not cause the collapse of the finances of the Umayyad government. Under the new tax policy, converted "mawali" (non-Arab Muslim converts) would not pay the jizya (or any other "dhimmi" tax), but upon conversion, their land would become the property of their villages and would thus remain liable to the full rate of the "kharaj" (land tax). This compensated for the loss of income due to the diminished jizya tax base.