I860.] MeynanVs Ibn KlwrcUdbeh. 133 



Leben des Moh., Vol. 3, p. 136) that in Mahommedan law, it is as 8f 

 : 1 and even as 7 : 1. 



In Persia silver was the standard, in the Byzantian empire gold. 

 The Musulmans made no change : in the provinces which had belong- 

 ed to the kingdom of the Sasanians, silver remained the standard, and 

 in Syria, Egypt and other provinces which they took from the Greeks, 

 gold continued as the standard. In Makka and Madyna, silver became 

 the standard as early as Omar I., but in southern Arabia the revenue 

 was calculated by Dynars (Aurei.) The great difference of the value 

 which gold had at Constantinople under Constantine, and which it 

 had in the Sasanian and later in the Arabic empire, throws an unex- 

 pected light upon the relative prosperity of the two countries. The 

 fact requires no comment for those who know the elements of Political 

 Economy. 



Ibn Khordadbeh begins his geography with a description of the 

 Sawad — Babylonia. Immediately after the Musulmans had conquered 

 that country, 'Omar I. sent 'Othman b. i/onayf to survey it for the 

 sake of assessment. It appears that he measured the cultivated land 

 of every district, and also for the sake of control the whole country 

 en Hoc. He found that it is from i?adytha in the north to 'Abbadan 

 in the south 125 farsangs long, and from fiblwan in the east to 

 'Odzoyb in the west 85 farsangs wide. The whole surface of culti- 

 vated and waste land (y*^ jj*^) amounts therefore to 10625 o far- 

 sangs or 136607143 Jaryb. Ibn Khordadbeh (MS. of Oxford) and 

 Qodania calculate the surface in round figures at 136 millions of 

 Jaryb. 



Under the Sasanian king, Qobad b. Fyroz, the revenue of the Sawad 

 amounted to 150 millions Mithqals (of silver or Persian Dirhams) =• 

 more than 2 millions Roman pounds of silver — more than 214 

 millions of Musulman Dirhams. After the Musulman conquest, 

 'Omar I. derived a revenue of 120 millions Dirhams from it. This 

 sum is named by Ibn Khordadbeh and Qodama. Ibn Sad includes 

 the revenue of Jebel and mentions a higher sum, but as two figures' 

 are wanting in his text, we cannot make out what he means, his words 

 are <J^x'^ ^ Jd (ol/T) d^L? ('-*■' I oij«-*J| v_&J| ^^j <-sJ| uftJ| &JL> 



I shall speak on the assessment of 'Omar lower down. Here I will 

 only observe that the 120 millions are made up by the land-tax and 

 18 



