I860.] MeynanVs Ibn Khordddbeh. 143 



secretary (Katib) of the Khalyf Mahdiy reported on the inconve- 

 niences which arose, if the iasq-payers were obliged to pay a fixed 

 sum of money, or to supply a certain quantity of grain, and he proposed 

 that the taxes should be calculated (annually) by the Jaryb, as there 

 was no telling whether the prices would sink or rise. In the one 

 case the cultivator, in the other the government were in the disadvan- 

 tage. The best thing, he thought, would be to introduce the same 

 rule which the prophet adopted with regard to Khanghar : he left to 

 the inhabitants the land under the condition that they were to give up 

 to him one-half of the produce (as much the cultivators ought to 

 give up from irrigated land) ; but if the labour of irrigation was very 

 hard, they ought to give up only one-fourth ; and if it was less hard, 

 one-third. The choice was to be left to the farmers to give up as 

 much straw* to government as was due to it (i. e. £ or J or % accord- 

 ing to circumstances), or to sell it and pay the tax according to the 

 market price of grain. In fixing the amount of revenue on vineyards, 

 trees of every description, vegetables and every kind of produce, 

 agreeably to the dictates of justice, the nett price which would be 

 realized by the sale was to be calculated, taking into consideration 

 what distance the land was from the market or harbour, and how 

 great the expense and loss of time would be for bringing it there. 

 After all these deductions one-half was to be charged as revenue. 



This system of revenue, which was eventually introduced, and by 

 which the above detailed statements of Ibn Khordadbch and Qodama 

 are to be explained, is called Moqasima, a term which is used up to 

 this day in India very nearly in the same signification as it was used 

 at the time of our author : " partition of the actual crop between the 

 cultivator and the State, either in kind or in value." 



Certain it is that one-half of the produce was taken from the 

 cultivators by the 'Abbasides; but it is not certain whether j 'Omar 

 made so high a settlement as to deprive the farmers of the value of 

 one-half, and whether the above passage of Qodama is applicable to 

 the time previous to the Abbaside dynasty. But we may safely 

 assume that even at the time of 'Omar I. the revenue amounted to 

 two-fifths. Now if a Jaryb of wheat paid 4 Dirhams to Government, 

 the value of the whole produce of a jaryb could not be more than 

 * In the original ^"> 



