FEUDALISM IN PERSIA DE MORGAN. 585 



remained unchanged and preserved the feudal traditions under which 

 the national kings were trusted, like their predecessors, with the 

 throne. 



Finally, there followed the dynasty of the Turkish Khadjars,^ 

 who exploited the country but did not govern it. In all districts 

 adjacent to the principal centers,^ in those where it was easy to oper- 

 ate with armies, the old nobility disappeared little by little, ruined, 

 dispossessed, deprived of important duties; but in all the remote 

 provinces, in the mountains where the Turkomans dared not ven- 

 ture, the Aghas, the Khans, and the Vahlis preserved their absolute 

 power at the expense of an annual tribute which they paid to the 

 Crown. 



Moreover, the governments of the provinces being sold at auction, 

 it was among the landed property holders, among the Khadjar^ 

 princes and the high Turkoman dignitaries, among those, who in the 

 eyes of the King, offered the highest guarantees, that the administra- 

 tion of the provinces was distributed, and often the seigniors of old 

 extraction bought the government of their own dependencies in order 

 to safeguard the interests of their families. In this case they left 

 nil their serfs in the dependency, decorating them merely with 

 pompous titles pertaining to their new duties. 



In that case, on the contrary, where the new governor owned no 

 lands of which he had purchased the government, he attached to 

 his suite certain clients* drawn from his particular domains and, in 

 consideration of an annual rent and some gifts, granted them all 

 the expenses of the Province, allowing to each according to the face 

 value it offered. Very often the purchase of the same govermnent 

 was made by a joint company of all these officials. It mattered little 

 whether the several members of the companj^ had the requisite 

 abilities for filling their offices ; each district was given its vice gov- 

 ernor, each group of villages its chief, and everyone was located 

 with his own clients living on the country and squeezing it for all 

 it was worth. The demands generally exceeded reasonable limits. 

 Then the governor was changed, his followers retiring with him, 



iThe Kh.idjars abandoned the old capital Ispahan and founded a new one at Teheran, 

 near the site of ancient Ragae in order to be in the midst of the land formerly con- 

 quered by the Turks and to be near Turkomania from which in case of need they could 

 quickly bring some tribes. 



2 The Turkoman tribe of Khadjars lived at Ak Kala (white fort) on the river Kara Su 

 (black water), some little way to the north of the city of Astrabad on the Turkoman 

 steppe. Exempt from taxes and loaded with favors, since the throne belonged to one of 

 their number, this tribe lived in idleness. 



sThe Khadjar princes increased greatly in Persia, Fath-'Ali Shah had more than a 

 hundred sons who nearly all had descendants. 



* The civil household of a governor was composed of a hundred persons more or less, 

 without counting the servants, ministers, chaplains, doctors, secretaries, vice governors, 

 chiefs of police, treasurers, etc. In a military household it was more numerous still. 

 None of these functionaries were paid, but on the contrary, it was a temporary expense 

 to him who accepted the position. 



