Boyle J.A. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods
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INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
OF THE SALJUQ EMPIRE
250
Arslan
took Ani, the Byzantines are alleged to have agreed to pay
jizya;
and Alp-Arslan appointed the 'amid of Khurasan to collect this.
Malik-Shah
is also stated to have received
jizya
from the Byzantine
emperor; but both these payments, in so far as they were made, were in
the
nature
of tribute
rather
than
actual
jizya.
The
nature, method of assessment, and collection of uncanonical
taxes varied widely throughout the empire. The matter of their
levy
moreover, involved a conflict between religious scruples and financial
practice; attempts were made from time to time to revoke them, but
never with lasting success. Malik-
Shah remitted additional levies
{qismat va taqsif) from the people of Isfahan;
1
and in 479/1086-7 he
ordered the abolition of the mukus levied on
traders
who handled all
kinds of merchandise in
Iraq
and Khurasan.
2
He also abolished all tolls
and escort dues
(khafardt)
paid by travellers throughout his dominions.
Muhammad b. Malik-Shah, on his arrival in Baghdad in Sha'ban
501/1108,
abolished the mukus, dard'ib(? imposts), market taxes,
transit
dues, and other similar dues which had been levied in
Iraq
and all his
provinces,
and tablets to this effect were hung up in the markets. When
he went back to Isfahan, the mukus were again levied on the merchants
in Baghdad according to custom; on his
return
to Baghdad he re-
affirmed their repeal. To
ghril Beg, on the other hand, reimposed the
mukus and the practice of confiscating inheritances. Mahmud b.
Muhammad, on the advice of his vizier Kamal al-Mulk Simirumi, also
decided to reimpose the mukus in
Iraq
in
515/1121-2,
but after the
assassination of Kamal al-Mulk in the following year, he revoked the
mukus and abolished the taxes
that
the vizier had imposed on merchants
and dealers. Their abolition was brief, however, because Mas'ud b.
Muhammad
is
recorded
as
having revoked the mukus in
5
33/113
8-9, and
tablets to
that
effect were put up in the Friday mosques and markets.
Remissions of taxes were occasionally granted on special occasions
or because of some natural calamity. To
ghril
Beg,
for example, remitted
the taxes of Isfahan for three years when he took the city in
443/1051.
Individuals, such as members of the religious classes, were also some-
times given immunity from taxes as a special favour.
A
fairly important source of revenue was provided by confiscations
1
Husain b. Muhammad b. Abi,
Tarjuma-i
Mahasin-i
Isfahan,
ed.
4
Abbas Iqbal (Tehran,
1328/1949),
p. 140.
2
Ibn al-Jauzi makes no mention of this
under
the year 479, but states
that
the
dard'ib
and
mukus
were abolished in Baghdad according to the decree
of
the
Caliph
al-Muqtadl in
480
(vol.
ix, p.
39).
INTERNAL
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EMPIRE
251
and fines. Toghril Beg confiscated
100,000
dinars and
20,000
dinars
from
an
c
Alid
and a Jew respectively in Basra in 449/1057-8. Under
Alp-Arslan
there were said to have been no confiscations, but after
the death of Malik-Shah, the mulcting of officials on their dismissal
was
common. This was a measure partly of the growing financial
stringency, and partly of the increase in dishonesty and corruption
among the
official
classes. Intrigue and insecurity were the normal
concomitants of
official
life.
Men of influence and power accumulated
wealth
to defend their personal interests against any future intrigues by
their rivals, or against a loss of the sultan's favours, and those who were
ambitious for
office
accumulated wealth in order to buy it. Through
these corrupt practices many officials amassed, temporarily at least,
considerable riches.
Abu'l
Qasim Anasabadi Darguzini, who eventually
became vizier to Toghril b. Muhammad, founded his fortune when
vizier
to Muhammad b. Malik-Shah's amir hajib, 'All b. 'Umar. The
latter alleged
that
on his deathbed the sultan had ordered
200,000
dinars to be distributed among his enemies and those who had com-
plaints against him; but when this sum was obtained from the treasury
most of it was misappropriated by Darguzini. He appears to have been
one of the most corrupt of the Saljuq
officials,
making large sums of
money
from confiscations and fines. Bundari states
that
he fined
Qutlugh
Rashidi, the chamberlain {itstdd al-ddr) of Mahmud b. Mu-
hammad, 110,000 dinars, also
that
he extracted from a merchant of
Hamadan
30,000
dinars, and
20,000
and
70,000
dinars respectively from
the ra'is of Hamadan and the ra'is of Tabriz, together with 150,000
dinars from Taj al-Din Daulatshah b. 'Ala' al-Daula and his mother
and vizier. Bundari's own family also suffered at the hands of Dar-
guzini.
He relates
that
his uncle
'Aziz
al-Din, who was employed in the
dlvdn-i istifd of Mahmud b. Muhammad, was imprisoned by Mahmud
in
return
for
300,000
dinars from Darguzini, who also imprisoned
Bundari's father and another uncle,
Diya'
al-Din, and seized their
estates.
Corruption became widespread under Muhammad b. Malik-Shah,
and relatively large sums were
involved.
Bundari relates
that
a number of
prominent persons wanted to make their nominee ra'is of Hamadan in
place
of the existing ra'is, Abu. Hashim. Accordingly they imposed a
fine
of
700,000
dinars upon him, besides what was confiscated from his
numerous retainers. Muhammad b. Malik-Shah sent Anushirvan b.
Khalid,
who was then his treasurer, to collect the money. After
INTERNAL
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EMPIRE
252
Anushirvan
had paid the money into the sultan's treasury he told the
sultan of the plot against Abu Hashim. Muhammad thereupon re-
instated him as ra'is and sent him magnificent presents and robes of
honour.
1
Ravandi
gives
a slightly different version of this incident. He
alleges
that
Diya'
al-Mulk Ahmad b. Nizam al-Mulk, Muhammad's
vizier,
determined to attack the ra'is and gave the sultan
500,000
dinars
to
hand
him over, but
that
Abu Hashim, hearing of this, came to
Isfahan and bought himself off for
800,000
dinars in
return
for which
Muhammad handed
Diya'
al-Mulk over to him.
2
Zain
al-Mulk Abu Sa'id b. Hindu, who became mustaufi in 498/
1104-5
during the vizierate of Sa'd al-Mulk
Abu'l
Mahasin
Avaji,
was
alleged
to have been extremely corrupt, and when Sa'd al-Mulk was
killed
in 500/1107, Muhammad b. Malik-Shah seized and imprisoned
him for two years. He was subsequently reinstated and became
Muhammad's vizier. But in
506/1112-13
a
number of amirs conspired
against him and offered to
give
200,000
dinars of his wealth to the
sultan's treasury if they were allowed to seize him. The sultan agreed;
he was handed over to one of the amirs, put to death, and his goods
plundered. When Sanjar seized Muhammad b. Fakhr al-Mulk b.
Nizam
al-Mulk, who was his vizier from 500/1106 to
511/1118,
the sum
of
1,000,000
dinars in cash, together with jewels and other possessions,
was
found belonging to him.
3
Further
sources of revenue were the money received from the buying
of
offices
(though
offices
were not put up to auction as they had been in
Buyid
times), and also presents from those who wished to secure or
regain the sultan's favours; it is probable
that
revenue from these
sources,
as
well
as from confiscations and fines, went for the most
part
into the sultan's treasury and not the public treasury. Fakhr al-Mulk b.
Nizam
al-Mulk gave Berk-Yaruq many presents, including tents,
weapons,
jewelled implements, Arab horses, hunting birds, and an
armourer's shop
{^arrdd-khdnd)
when he joined him in 488/1095 and
became vizier. Similarly in
494/1101,
after defeating Muhammad b.
Malik-Shah,
and capturing his vizier Mu'ayyid al-Mulk b. Nizam al-
1
Pp. 89-90.
2
Rabat
al-utdur,
pp.
162-5.
^
n
al-Athir states
that
Abii
Hashim, whose maternal grand-
father
was
Ibn
'Abbad,
the famous
Buyid
vizier,
was
extremely
wealthy,
and
that
Muhammad
b.
Malik-Shah on one occasion mulcted him of
700,000
dinars. He died, according to Ibn
al-Athir,
in
502/1109
(vol.
x, pp. 332-3).
8
Muhammad b. Fakhr al-Mulk had apparently accepted a bribe from Arslan Shah to
induce Sanjar to abandon
his
march on
Ghazna.
Sanjar
seized
him on
his
return
from Ghazna
(Ibn al-Athir, vol. x, p. 385; Bundari, p. 244).
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
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EMPIRE
253
Mulk,
Berk-Yaruq agreed to accept the latter as his own vizier in
return
for ioo,ooo gold dinars; but the new sultan later regretted his
decision
and killed the vizier before the transaction was completed.
1
Shams al-Mulk
c
Uthman b. Nizam al-Mulk is alleged to have given his
brother
Diya'
al-Mulk Ahmad, vizier to Muhammad b. Malik-Shah
2,000
dinars to make him 'arid al-jaish in place of Anushirvan b.
Khalid.
The sultan and his ministers probably
exacted
sums
of
money and
presents in
return
for the grant of robes of honour and similar favours.
Tribute was paid to the Saljuqs by various local rulers, but this was
not a regular source of revenue. In the early period of expansion, in the
time of Toghril Beg, the local rulers made sundry payments to the
Ghuzz;
these were not
tribute
as they are sometimes represented in the
sources,
but
rather
payments to mercenaries which naturally ceased
when
the Ghuzz left the district. Later as the power of the Saljuqs
increased and they began to reduce the local rulers to submission, the
terms imposed often included the payment of a sum of money. But in
due course most of the local rulers, if they continued to possess some or
all
of their former territories, were absorbed into the iqta
c
system.
Occasionally
in the later period
tribute
was imposed on a neighbouring
ruler. Malik-
Shah, for example, imposed an annual
tribute
of
40,000
dinars on the ruler of Shirvan, but this was not regularly paid;
2
and
Sanjar, when he took
Ghazna in
510/1116-17,
settled an annual
tribute
of
250,000
dinars on Bahram Shah.
Lastly
there
was the revenue from the private estates
that
the sultan
owned
in various
parts
of the empire, including landed estates,
qanats>
and real property
{mustaghallaf)
in towns. There is no indication of their
total extent or income. In
Kufa
the private domains of the sultan were
farmed in 452/1060 for
40,000
dinars a year. It is not clear whether the
1
Ravandi's
account
of this
incident
is
as
follows:
Mu'ayyid
al-Mulk
raised
the
money
in
a
week,
and it
was
agreed that the day after he paid it he should
become
vizier.
However,
disputes
arose
between
him and the
officials
of
the
treasury
over
the
value
of
what
he had
produced
in
cash
and kind; and he
haggled
over
this and
annoyed
them. On the next day
when
the sultan
was
having
a
siesta
in
his
tent, the
tasht-ddr,
thinking
the sultan
was
asleep,
said
to a group of
people,
"How
lacking
in
zeal
these
Saljuqs
arel
Now
he
(Berk-Yaruq)
is
going
to make
vizier
again
and trust a man who has
given
him so much trouble, who
once
induced a
slave
of
his
father [i.e. the amir Unar] to
seek
the
kingdom,
and prepared
for
himself
an
insignia
of
royalty,
and on another
occasion
went
to
Ganja
and brought out
his
(the sultan's) brother [to
seek
the
kingdom]...".
The sultan heard this, came out of
his
tent, sent for
Mu'ayyid
al-Mulk,
cut off
his
head, and turned to the
tasht-ddr
and said,
"
See
the
zeal
of
the
Saljuqs
Whereupon
the
tasht-ddr
fled
and did not dare
look
upon
the
sultan
again
(Rahdt
al-sudur,
p.
147).
2
Bundari, p.
128.
According
to the Akhbdr
al-daulat
al-Saljuqiyya,
the sum
fixed
was
70,000 dinars
(p.
73).
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE OF THE SALJUQ EMPIRE
income
from the sultan's private estates was paid into his treasury or the
public treasury. So far as the revenue was collected and the estates
administered by the tax collectors
i^ummdl)
of
the
dwdn-i
istifd-yt
mamdlik,
it would seem likely
that
it was paid into the public treasury.
The
most important charge upon the revenue was the payment of
the standing army and expenditure on military expeditions. Secondly,
there was the upkeep of the court, which was only partly met by special
levies
such as the provision of sheep by the Ghuzz for Sanjar's kitchen.
There were probably various other special levies of
a
minor kind. Cloth
for
robes of honour and for the various needs of the court and the
army may have been partially secured by levies in kind on craftsmen,
or by requiring them to carry out work for the dargah or divan as
part
or all of the tax demand upon them. In some cases, however, this
appears to have been done against a payment of money. Ibn Eal
khi
states in the Fdrs-Ndma
that
the weavers of Kazarun used to receive
from
the divan an advance on their woven cloth, the delivery of which
would
be made by some trusted man, the price being fixed by brokers.
1
Except
when they were paid by iqta', officials were largely re-
munerated by special dues (rusum,
marsumdt)^
which were presumably
paid directly to them, and in some cases collected by them personally
and were not remitted to the divan although they were included in the
revenue assessments.
Among
incidental but regular expenses there were the pensions and
allowances
paid to the
sayyids
and others of the religious classes, as
well
as alms given by the sultan in Ramadan. For example,
Alp-Arslan
gave
annually 1,000 dinars in Balkh, Marv, Herat, and Nishapur, and 10,000
dinars at his court. Malik-Shah and Sanjar were both liberal in their
gifts
and alms. The latter on one occasion is alleged to have distributed
the greater
part
of the contents of his treasury, giving away over
700,000
gold dinars during
five
consecutive days, while the value of
the horses and garments he bestowed was even greater.
The
government revenue tended to increase up to the reign of
Malik-
Shah,
when the empire achieved its greatest
size,
stability, and pros-
perity. Subsequently the revenue declined, partly because an increasing
area was alienated from the control of the central government, and
partly because of the growing instability. The balance between order
and disorder was at all times precarious, and rapid fluctuations in local
prosperity took
place.
Thus
parts
of Fars, which were reduced to a state
:
Pp.
145-6.
*54
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
OF THE
SALJUQ
EMPIRE
255
of
decay and disorder by the depredations of the Shabankára, returned
to relative prosperity under Chauli Saqao. Hamd
Allah
Mustaufi, who
was
for many years a mustaufi in the service of the Il-Khans and has
left
a valuable account of Persia in the latter days of the Il-Khans, states
that
the revenue of Fárs in Saljuq times amounted to 2,33
5,000
currency
dinars, whereas in his own time it had been 2,871,200 currency dinars.
1
According
to Mustaufi, the revenue of'Iraq-i
c
Aj
am had been
25,200,000
odd currency dinars in Saljuq times,
2
while in his day it
fell
to
3
5
0,000
currency dinars.
3
He states on the authority of the lost Kisdlat-i Malik-
shahi
that
the total revenue of Malik-Shah was 215,000,000 gold dinars,
which
amounted to some
500,000,000
currency dinars.
4
In spite of the
depreciation in the value of the coinage, this figure appears somewhat
improbable, for the entire revenue of the Islamic empire under the early
'Abbasids
was only some 25 million dinars.
5
Whatever
reserves Malik-Shah may have accumulated during his
reign were rapidly dissipated by his successors. Terken Khatun, when
she went to Isfahan after her son
Mahmüd was proclaimed sultan
distributed all the stores
that
had accumulated; and when Berk-Yaruq
besieged
Isfahan she emptied the treasury and gave gold without stint
to the amirs and the standing army. Berk-Yaruq was frequently in
difficulty
for money. When
Abu'l
Mahásin Dihistáni was appointed
vizier
in 493/1099-1100 there was no money in the treasury, and when
Berk-Yaruq
reached Baghdad in
494/1101
he had no funds and sent to
the caliph for help; after negotiations the caliph sent him
50,000
dinars.
The
financial situation improved slightly under Muhammad b.
Malik-Sháh.
Bundári states
that
he found a balance sheet {tafsil) in the
handwriting of his uncle, which stated
that
Muhammad's treasury
contained
18,000,000
dinars apart from gold ornaments,
jewels,
and
garments embroidered with gold and silver thread. The improvement,
however,
was short lived; at the beginning of the reign of Mahmüd b.
Muhammad the treasury he inherited from his father was emptied by
his followers.
Bundári relates
that
on one occasion Mahmüd and his
officials
lacked funds even to provide the daily allowance of beer for
themselves.
They accordingly sent to the brewer a number of empty
boxes
from the treasury so
that
with the proceeds of their sale he might
1
Nu^bat
al-qulüb,
ed.
G.
Le
Strange
(Gibb
Memorial
Series,
Persian
text;
London,
1915),
p.
113.
2
Variant
reading
2,568,000.
8
Nu^bat,
p.
48.
4
Nusrftat,
p.
27.
5
See
Alfred
Von
Kremer,
"Ueber
das
Budget
des
Harun",
in
VII
International
Congress
of
Orientalists
(Vienna,
1888).
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
OF THE
SALJUQ
EMPIRE
256
obtain what he needed. On another occasion Mahmud b. Muhammad
is
alleged to have asked his treasurer, who had also served his father, for
some perfume. The treasurer asked for a few days' delay to procure it.
He then brought thirty mithqdls (i mithqdl
=
4-3 grammes). Mahmud said
to him, "
Tell
the company how much perfume there used to be in
my
father's treasury". He answered, "In the fortress of Isfahan there
was
nearly 180 ritls (1 ritl = 140 mithqdls) in golden, silver, crystal, and
china vessels, and we had in the 'field' treasury 30 ritls
99
.
1
Mas'ud b. Mahmud's treasury was also usually empty. Such revenue
as arrived from the outlying districts he used to distribute among
his audience at once. His vizier Kamal al-Din Muhammad al-
Husain, attempting to reform abuses in the financial administration,
organized the collection and payment of taxes and revived practices
which
had been neglected. In doing this he exposed the fraudu-
lent practices of officials and others; he also tried to break the power
of
the amirs and prevent their corrupt practices. He achieved some
measure of success and succeeded in collecting the taxes with greater
regularity, but eventually his opposition to the amirs cost him his
life.
It appears
that
he had attempted to bribe 'Izz al-Mulk Tahir b.
Muhammad Burujirdi, then vizier to Qara-Sonqur, to hand over his
master for
500,000
dinars.
2
'Izz al-Mulk refused; Kamal al-Din then
made Mas'iid frightened of Qara-Sonqur, and together they summoned
the amir
Boz-Aba
from Fars, hoping to use him to overthrow Qara-
Sonqur. The latter, however, reacted strongly; he summoned Saljuq-
Shah b. Muhammad and prepared to set out for Fars to take it from
Boz-
Aba
and
give
it to Saljuq-Shah. Da'ud and his atabeg
Ayaz,
who was
one of Qara-Sonqur's followers, also joined them. Setting out with the
two
Saljuq maliks from Azarbaijan with an army of 10,000 men, Qara-
Sonqur reached Hamadan, whence he sent 'Izz al-Mulk Burujirdi to
Mas'ud with an ultimatum
that
Kamal al-Din be killed or handed over
to them; Mas'ud was obliged to
give
way and Kamal al-Din was
executed
by them in
533/1139.
Establishing 'Izz al-Mulk Burujirdi as
Mas'ud's vizier, Qara-Sonqur then went to Fars. Having taken posses-
sion of the province, he handed it over to Saljuq-Shah and returned to
Azarbaijan.
Boz-Aba,
however, recaptured Fars shortly afterwards.
1
Bundari, pp.
141-2.
2
Qara-Sonqur had been appointed atabeg to Toghrfl b. Muhammad and Mas'ud b.
Muhammad in
521/1127.
He fled from Mas'ud in
5
27/1132-3
and remained in Azarbaijan
after defeating Da*ud b. Mahmud in
5
30/1135-6.
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
OF THE
SALJUQ
EMPIRE
17
257
BCH
Of
the later sultans Sanjar was the only one who had a relatively
well-filled
treasury, containing
rare
and valuable objects, including
necklaces,
pearls, priceless pendants, and other
jewels;
purses
full
of
money,
and garments. His
jewels
were kept in sealed drums.
The
divan over which the
vizier
presided, the divdn-i a?
Id
as it was
called,
had four main departments: (i) the
dwan
al-inshd' wa?l
tughrd^
sometimes called the divdn-i rasaHl or the divdn-i insha
9
; (2) the
diwdn
al-^amdm
wo*I istifd (also called the divdn-i istifd-yi mamdlik)\
(3) the
divdn-i
ishrdf-i
mamdlik;
and (4) the divdn-i
c
ard.
The
divan-i insha' was primarily concerned with the supervision of
incoming
and outgoing correspondence, and all diplomas of appoint-
ment to the various
offices
of state, including "administrative" iqta's,
were
prepared in and issued from this
office.
Its head was called the
fugbra
9
?*
According to Bundari, the
chief
requisite for his
office
was an
ability
to execute "curved" handwriting (al-khatt al-qausi).
1
In fact,
however,
since considerable importance was attached to literary form,
the tughra'i was probably often a master of literary style, as indeed was
Mu'ayyid
al-Daula Muntajab al-Din
Badf
Atabeg Juvaini, the head of
Sanjar's divan-i insha'. Further, since the
office
was a stepping-stone to
the vizierate, and its holder acted as deputy-vizier in the absence of
that
official,
the attainments expected of the tughra'i were clearly more
than
those of a calligrapher.
The
divan-i istifa-yi mamalik was concerned with the revenue
accounts,
tax assessments, collection, and expenditure; its head was the
mustaufi
al-mamdlik. There exists no detailed information of the exact
procedure
followed
in this department in Saljuq times,
2
or of its
relations to the divan-i ishraf-i mamalik. It was presumably divided
into a number of sub-departments, also called divans: e.g. the divdn-i
mtfdmila
va qismat appears to have been concerned among other
things with tax contracts of the muqata'a type. The empire, so far as it
was
not alienated from the direct control of the central divan in the
form
of "administrative" iqta's, was divided into tax districts, each
presided over by a mustaufi or 'amil. The tax statement was prepared in
the divan-i istifa-yi mamalik and sent to the district mustaufi, who
allocated
the amount demanded within the district, and was responsible
1
P. 77. The
tughrd
was
originally a calligraphic emblem put on rescripts and farmans.
Each
ruler had his own
tughrd.
2
See,
however, H. Horst,
Die
Staatsverwaltung,
pp.
71
ff.
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
OF THE
SALJUQ
EMPIRE
25
8
for
the local expenditure of revenue on allowances, pensions, and
salaries. Collection was carried out by the local tax-collectors
(
c
ummdl)
and by their subordinates, the
muhassils
and
mutasarrifs.
Oppression in
the collection of taxes was not uncommon; and a proportion of the
total sum levied must have frequently failed to reach the treasury.
1
Tax
collection
in " administrative " iqta's and provincial governments was in
general the responsibility of the muqta' or provincial governor, who
had his own divan. In theory the muqta's and provincial governors had
no power to alter taxation, but in practice they exercised a wide dis-
cretion in such
matters
and were not subject to
effective
control by the
divan-i istifa-yi mamalik.
After
the reign of
Malik-Shah
an increasing proportion of the empire
was
alienated from the direct control of the central divan. When Sanjar
reinstated Mahmud b. Muhammad as the ruler of the western provinces
of
Persia in
513/1119-20,
no land remained
under
his divan because
Sanjar had made various assignments to To
ghril b. Muhammad and
Saljuq-Shah b. Muhammad, and various amirs had taken possession of
other districts; the only source of revenue remaining to Mahmud's
divan, according to Bundari, was confiscations.
The
divan-i ishraf-i mamalik was concerned with the auditing of
financial transactions. Its head was the
mushrif-i
mamalik.
Nizam al-
Mulk
seems to have envisaged the divan-i ishraf as ideally exercising
supervision and inspection over the administration in general, and not
only
its financial matters. In practice, however, the mushrif seems to
have been concerned with finances only. There were district or
provincial
mushrifs in the same way
that
there
were district or
provincial
mustaufis. The function of the provincial mushrif was:
To
account
for
(zfr-i
qalam-i
khwish
ddrad)
everything which went
on in the
(provincial) divan concerning different kinds of financial transactions
(mudmaldt),
the
conclusion
of
agreements
i^uqud-i
qabdldt),
adjustment
of
accounts
(taujih),
pasture
taxes
(mard'I),
alms taxes
(sadaqdt),
the allocation of
allowances
(itldq-i
jdmagiyydt
va
jardydt),
particulars of accounts (tafsll-i
muhdsibdt\
the conduct of monetary affairs
{hall
va 'aqd va
khtfd
va
raj'),,
and
the collection and disbursement of revenue; and to certify
{ma'lum
ddrad)
all
the landed estates
(amldk)
and real property
{mustaghalldt)
of the sultan, the
revenue from
khardj
and 'ushr {mdl-i
khardj
va
kha^anat
va ghalldt-i
e
ushr va
irtifd'dt),
and salaries
{marsumdt),
and to take cognizance of whatever sums,
great or small, relating to the collection and disbursement of revenue were
new, and not omit to record them so
that
the smallest item of revenue in
1
C£ Fadd^l
al-andm,
p. 59.
INTERNAL
STRUCTURE
OF THE
SALJUQ
EMPIRE
cash
or kind should not be levied or expended without his knowledge and
authorization. He was to take cognizance of everything
that
went on in the
office
of the
ra'Js
in the way of
meetings,
the allocation and assessment of tax
quotas
(qism
va
taqsitdt),
and alterations [in these], and to conceal nothing; to
keep
himself informed of what went on in the mint and concerning seals
{muhr),
coins {sikka), and the standards used in every forge. No overseers of
markets
(muqaddimdn-i
asvdq)
or headmen of districts
(p>tfamd-yi
navdhi)
were
to be appointed without his knowledge, and he was to appoint vigilant and
efficient
deputies so
that
he would know what went on and how those in
charge of affairs conducted their business and the state of agriculture and the
development [or otherwise] of the district. He was to look into the matter of
seed,
draught
animals,
means
of
cultivation,
estimates
of
the
value
of
crops,
and
measures, and should consider whether they were too high or too low; he
should always have available an amended and up-to-date register and a clear
and accurate statement of the extent of the tax districts and their conditions,
so
that
if asked about these he could
give
an answer. He was to investigate
the affairs of the taxpayers and peasants
{dahdqin
va
ra'ayd)
so
that
the tax
collectors
('ummdl
va
mutasarrifdn),
scribes, and
officials
should not make
improper demands or impose any extra burden upon them.
1
From this document it is clear
that
the mushrif was concerned with
overseeing
the collection and disbursement of taxes, and with what-
ever
affected this. Since the prosperity of the empire depended ulti-
mately on the well-being of agriculture, and since, too, over-taxation
would
lead to the ruin of the countryside and in the last resort to the
flight
of the peasantry, he was
given
a general authority over agri-
cultural matters. To what extent and in what way action was taken
when
a mushrif reported adversely on the action of
officials
or others in
the area under his jurisdiction, is not clear; and there is little reason to
suppose
that
his presence was
effective
in curtailing corruption and
extortion. The divan-i ishraf and the district mushrifs also exercised
general supervision over the administration of
auqdf>
although these
were
normally under the immediate charge of the qadi; this supervision
followed
from the fact
that
the divdn-i auqdf handled the collection
and expenditure of funds.
The
fourth department of the divan-i a'la was the divan-i 'ard,
headed by the 'arid al-jai
sh (also called the sdhib-i divdn-i
c
ard), or the
muster master. The military registers and records of the "mili-
tary" iqta's were kept in this department, and everything relating to the
pay
of the standing army and of the amirs went through it. It was also
concerned with recruitment and with assembling and reviewing troops
1
Muhammad
b.
'Abd
al-Khaliq
al-Maihanl,
Dastur-i
Dabiri,
pp.
111-12.
See
also Horst,
Die
Staatsverwaltung,
pp.
133-4.
259
17-2