"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٠‎٦‎٥] (١٧٨٢/١٢٢٠)

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The financial arrangements of the Wahhabi government were simple Financial
and effective. 'I he state domains were the principal source of revenue; the^Wah-^
they consisted chiefly of the confiscated lands of rebels and other ^abis.
offenders, leased in many instances to the original owners on a rent of
one-half or one-third of the produce; and they were very extensive,
embracing in Qasim, for instance, almost all the cultivated ground of
the district. Another principal item of revenue was Zakat or tribute,
literally " alms,'' taken from many classes and professions in accord
ance with the precepts of the Quran; under this head unirrigated
cultivation was assessed at one-tenth and irrigated at one-twentieth
of the actual produce, and merchants were taxed at the rate of per
cent, upon their capital, the amount of which they were required to
declare on oath. One-fifth of the booty taken from a heretics '* was
appropriated to public purposes, the remainder being divided among the
troops by whom it was captured ; and in the early days of the Wahhabi
power, when wars were being waged simultaneously in Hijaz and
Yaman, in Mraq, and on the Persian Gulf littoral, this must have been
a productive source of income. Ordinary miscellaneous fines also brought
something into the treasury, and from the Bedouins were taken in kind,
viz., in horses, camels, and sheep.
The whole of this revenue, with the exception of the Bedouin Zakat,
which was paid to the Wahhabi Amir direct and retained by him
for his personal expenditure, was collected with elaborate precautions
against fraud and extortion and deposited in the Bait-al-Mal or treasury
which existed in each administrative district; and of the amounts received
at each place one-fourth was forwarded to the great public treasury at
Dara'iyah, while the rest was expended locally for the public benefit. The
aggregate value of the contributions received at the head treasury from
local treasuries did not ordinarily exceed $1,000,000 per annum ; but
in one particular year, under the rule of Sa'ud, it was said to have
reached $2,000,000. From the central treasury compensation was paid
to Wahhabis who had suffered at the hands of the enemy and assistance
was given to those who had lost cattle by accident or disease; but in
Sa^ud's time the outgoings were small in proportion to the income, and
there must have been a great accumulation of treasure at Dara'iyah.
From the Bedouin Zakat, collected in spring at prescribed watering
places and delivered over to the Amir for private disbursement, were
met the cost of his magnificent hospitality and that of the maintenance
of his bodyguard : the dependents and guests whom he fed were esti
mated at 400 to 500 persons daily, and the expenditure on the bodyguard
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