The jizya verse has been the basis of a huge amount of writing by Muslims in Islamic law and Qur'anic exegesis, and by non-Muslim scholars writing about Islam. It continues to be used by some academics, the media and anti-Islamic propagandists to denigrate Islam and its treatment of non-Muslims, especially the ‘People of the Book’. This article aims to examine the verse afresh, using close linguistic analysis and paying due regard to the linguistic and historical contexts of the verse and all its elements, as well as the style of the Qur'an, and what it says outside the confines of this verse. Such analysis will demonstrate that the picture that has been made of this verse, based on various historical contingencies, both by Muslim exegetes and jurists and non-Muslim writers, is far removed from the actual picture as given in the Qur'an itself.