146 MeynarcVs Ibn Khordddbeli. [No. 2, 



This sum represents 68,347 Roman pounds of gold, and does not 

 amount to much more than two millions sterling, but this is only the 

 revenue of the western provinces where the Dynar was the currency. 

 It is true, if we cast up the above items, we obtain a sum which falls 

 short by 127,000 Dynars of the sum stated by Qodama. This, how- 

 ever, is evidently owing to an omission or a mistake in the text. 



If we omit in the item Tabaristan, the two hundred millions as 

 being evidently too large, the revenue of the eastern provinces includ- 

 ing the Sawad amounts to 223,487,320 Dirhams, or 2,171,404- Roman 

 pounds of pure silver, or about 162 millions of francs. The income 

 of the whole empire, as it was at the time of Qodama, did not there- 

 fore amount quite to 8J million pounds sterling. But we must 

 recollect that a great proportion of it was the nett income, after all 

 expenses of administration had been defrayed, and may be considered 

 as the civil list of the Khalyf. 



The study of the finances of the glorious Khalyfs would be edifying 

 for discontented Musulmans in India. The Khalyfs, like Indian princes, 

 squandered away the money in debauchery, ground down the people 

 to the dust, surrounded themselves with Tartar mercenaries, who soon 

 became a pretorian guard, full of insolence and insubordination. These 

 deposed or put to death the Khalyf at pleasure, and no longer content 

 with putting on the screw as tightly as possible, they plundered the 

 provinces ; and now those countries are so completely depopulated, 

 that many a district, which at the time of Qodama yielded a revenue 

 of more than a million of Dirhams, cannot pay as many cowries. 



There is much good in the Islam and in the Musulmans, but 

 they have a great deal to learn, before they will be able to administer 

 their own affairs. 



