Christian bishops serving the emir functioned as tax collectors against their flocks

Evidence

Ostegesis, he says, extorts as much money as possible out of his flock so that he can live a life of drinking and debauchery in the caliph’s court. He ruthlessly draws up censuses of Christians in order to provide the emir with accurate tax rolls. He deals with recalcitrant taxpayers by flogging them, naked, through the streets. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 546

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the church functioned as an instrument of fiscal extraction under Muslim rule — a genealogical ancestor of claims about how minority institutional leaders serve majority state power.
• QUESTION: How widespread was use of clergy as census/tax agents across other dhimmi contexts (e.g. Egypt under Mamluks)?