‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎257v] (521/722)

buffaloes bullocks, camels, wells, kanats, mills, which vary in the different
provinces and even districts, not only in amount but in the nature of the
obiect taxed. In one province there is a pole tax tor males above 14
vears of • which in another province is substituted by a house or, as it
is called alloor tax; and again in another neither of these imposts is levied.
In many districts no revenue whatever is levied, the land being held free
on a sort of feudal tenure in requital of military service. In general, the
tent-dwellino-tribes pay no tax on land, the quantity cultivated by those
tribes bein^ small. Another and considerable source of exemption from
taxation is Tand which has been made ‘ wakf ’-—that is, dedicated to religious
purposes, such as land attached to mosques. ..
Altogether the system is not free from complication, and requires all
the ingenuity of the Persian chancellor of the exchequer to unravel it.
It is confectured that, through the extortion of governors, subordinate
chiefs of districts and villages, and tax-gatherers, the raiyats pay double
the amount of their assessments, no part of which excess reaches the Shah s
11 The'revenue is paid part in money and part in kind, consisting of wheat,
barley, rice, chaff, or chopped straw. _
To making the following statements intelligible, it is necessary to
explain that a tuman is roughly estimated at about 10 shillings sterling,*
and that a kharwar is equal to 650 lbs., or 6 cwt.
In 1806, the total revenue in money amounted to 2,677,000 tumans.
The income produced by wheat and barley reached 245,2b7 kharwars,
which is rated on an average at two tumans a kharwar. It is sometimes
compounded for in money, but not generally.
Pice produced 4,487 kharwars, at the average valuation of two tumans
a, xiiiaiwux. r ... , , ,
Chaff for horses amounted to 10,895 kharwars, which is valued at three
kirans, or shillings, each kharwar. _
The grain not compounded for in money is generally expended in
rations to soldiers, provisioning the Shah’s camp, and so forth..
If the value of the revenue paid in kind be estimated in money, it
amounts to something more than 500,000 tumans, which would make the
total revenue of Persia ascend to about 3,1//,000 tumans, or £l,o88,000.
Of this amount, no less a sum than 800,000 tumans is expended at the
capital in salaries and allowances to the members of the different depart
ments of the state and their subordinates, and to the other public servants,
exclusive of the army. The following are a few of these items, which in
the public accounts are classed as f amalajat ’:—
Tumans.
The prime minister of Persia receives, exclusive, of other
emoluments, which treble the income
Allowances to the numerous royal family
Khans and nobles
Arhab-i-lcalam,‘lords of the pen ’
Ulama, mullas, saiyids, &c.
Physicians, poets, interpreters, &c.
Salaries of the attendants in the royal stables, and for camels
horses, mules, including fodder
Khans of the royal tribe (Kajar)
Refugees from Georgia and Russian Armenia and Herat .
Master of ceremonies and attendants of the presence
42,000
257,126
98,276
18,110
4,110
18,843
17,540
21,302
77,597
18,428
* The present value of a tuman is about 6 s. Sd., or Rs. 4.