700 
PER 
2. The fadeer is an arbitrary tax raifed on extraordinary 
occafions, fuch as the paffageof a prince, grand dignitary, 
ambaffador, or body of troops. The fadeer is fixed upon 
the fame fyftem as the malieh. 
3. The prjhkeejh, or prefents which the governors are 
obliged to make the king at certain feltivals, are alfo le¬ 
vied upon the towns and villages. 
From the preceding ftatement it appears, that the cul¬ 
tivator is in the worlt fituation in Perfia, and that the 
tradefman or lhopkeeper fares much better. The latter 
pays a particular tax, it is true; but the merchant is not 
liable to any other than the duty of cuftoms. The cuftoms 
are under the direftion of feveral officers independent of 
one another, being farmed out by government to the 
higheft bidder. No difference is made in favour of the 
produce of Perfia, nor are the duties upon the manufac¬ 
tures of one country higher than upon thofe of another: 
but the rate is not invariable. At Bufiiire the duty on 
goods imported into Perfia amounts to about five per 
cent, and at Shiraz a duty of two and a half per cent, is 
levied. A caravan going to any of the cities of Irak 
from Bufiiire mull pay the duties at Shiraz; if it paffes 
Ifpahan, at that city ; and, in fiiorf, at every city it may 
pafs through where duties are levied : fo that, by the time 
it reaches the Cafpian Sea, the merchants may probably 
have paid thirty per cent, on their goods. 
The claffes of people who pay the heavieft tax to go¬ 
vernment are the female dancers and the votaries of plea- 
fure. They exercife their profeffions under the immedi¬ 
ate patronage of the governor: their names, ages,and pla¬ 
ces of abode, are carefully regiftered ; and, if one fhould 
die or marry, another inllantly fupplies her place. They 
are divided into claffes, agreeably to their merits and the 
eftimation in which they are held ; and each clafs inhabits 
a feparate ftreet. (Jourdain iii. 14-6 & feq.) 
Kinnier is of opinion that the revenue arifing from 
land and merchandife does not exceed three millions fter- 
ling; meaning, no doubt, that fuch may be the amount 
of what is paid into the royal treafury ; but how much 
this fum is increafed upon the payers by the extortion of 
the collegers is not even to be gueffed at. We are now 
to enquire if any, and what, cotie of laws is provided to 
protedl the fubjeft in Perfia in what remains to him after 
thefe exaflions. 
In confidering the general chara£fer of the Perfian le- 
giflation, u'e fliall find the connexion between church 
and (late very intimate indeed. The Koran is both a re¬ 
ligious and civil code; juft in the fame manner as the fa- 
cred books of many nations of antiquity, and of the 
Ifraelites in particular, furnifiied rules for the various 
circumftances of life. The legiflator, in thus (lamp¬ 
ing his works wdth the feal of the Deity, undoubt¬ 
edly had recourfe to this expedient, as the only one cal¬ 
culated to enfure to them the veneration and obedience 
of men. 
The Perfians have but a fingle term, cheriet, to exprefs 
the canon law and the civil law. That they have a legif- 
lation cannot be queftioned ; but there is every reafon 
to believe that its application is frequently perverted or 
evaded, and that, though there exilt laws, there is no 
juftice. 
The Muffulman legiflation takes the lextalionis for its 
balls. It is the development of the principle, Do not to 
others what you would not have them do to you; or, re¬ 
ceive an equivalent for whatever you do to them. Murder 
is accordingly punifhed by murder, and one wound by 
another, provided the latter be not more dangerous than 
the former. Such is the rule, but its application is fub- 
je£l to various modifications. 
One of the peculiar features of Perfian jurifprudence 
is its exemption from judicial forms. The moll import¬ 
ant fuit is terminated in a few days; fo that the parties 
are not reduced to beggary by the law’s delay. A Per¬ 
fian cannot form any idea of our fyltem of procedure, 
and the delays attendant on it: he prefers arbitrary but 
S I A. 
foeedy juftice to the tedioufnefs of a regular inveftiga- 
tion. Still lefs has he any conception of the equality of 
all men in the fight of the law, though it is inculcated in 
the Koran, and though defpotifm and venality alone have 
deftroyed it. The protection which the law affords to 
the poor againft the oppreffion of the rich appears to him 
as but a dream ; becaufe in Perfia the humbler claffes 
are always facrificed to the opulent and the powerful; 
and the man of quality there enjoys a number of privi¬ 
leges, which are denied to people of low condition. A 
fervant muff not complain of the diftionefty or cruel 
treatment of a grandee; nor muft a tradefman demand 
of him the payment of a debt. This is a fpecies of in- 
juftice which cuftora has erefted into a principle; but 
there is an infinity of other circumftances in which the 
laws are violated. Hence arifes the averfion of the Per¬ 
fians to law-fuits ; they are too well acquainted with the 
iniquity of judges to wifii to expofe themfelves to its 
effeCls. 
In Perfia there is no profefiion correfponding with that 
of attorney or notary. When a contraft is made, the 
only way to enfure its validity, is to obtain the fignatures 
of teveral witneffes: for it is right to obferve, that in 
this cafe the fyftem of evidence in civil and criminal mat¬ 
ters is generally purfued agreeably to the Koran : but 
the facred book alfo recommends to the faithful to be 
fincere in their teftimony, were it even againft themfelves 
or their parents that they had to give evidence. The 
Perfians are at no lofs for reafons for evading this precept; 
and giving evidence is with them a profefiion, which, 
like any other, they will exercife for money. 
Since religion, as we have faid, ferves as a foundation 
to the laws, the adminiftration of juftice is committed to 
magiftrates whom we may, without impropriety, term ec- 
clefiaftical. The chief of thefe magiftrates is the Sheik~ 
ul-IJlam, an appellation which fignifies the “ elder, 
teacher, or high-prieft, of the Mahometan religion.” 
This title was created in 14.23, by the Turkifti emperor 
Mahomet II. to be conferred on the celebrated Djelalza- 
deh, whom he raifed to the dignity of mufti and cadi of 
Conllantinople. Shah Ifmael, founder of the dynafty of 
the Sofis, having inllituted a new religious dignity in 
Perfia, gave to the perfon who filled it, the fame title ; 
and this prelate is now regarded as the head of religion 
in that country. The ftieik-ul iffam is the judge of all 
civil caufes, the deciiion of which is governed by the 
text of the divine law, or the Koran. He alfo determines 
all religious caufes. The great cities of the empire, fuch 
as Teheran, Ifpahan, Shiraz, Tabreez, &c. have each a 
ffteik-ul-iflam: we believe, however, that they are not 
all of equal rank, but that the magiftrate of the firft of 
thefe cities is fuperior to the others. 
The Cadi, whofe authority was formerly very great, is 
fubordinate to the (heik-ul-illam : his functions are of 
the lame nature. Scrupulous Muffulmans apply in pre¬ 
ference to the cadi, in confideration of the antiquity of 
that dignity, which has exilled ever fince the time of the 
firft caliphs, whereas that of flieik is of modern creation. 
The Mufti feems to be rather a lawyer than a magif¬ 
trate, as is implied by his name, which is an Arabic par¬ 
ticiple, fignifying “ one who gives decifions founded on 
the Koran.” He feems, in faft, to combine the charac¬ 
ters of doflor of divinity and dodlor of law ; for he is 
confulted on litigated matters, on points relative to re¬ 
ligious doflrines and ceremonies, or to morality, and in 
civil and criminal caufes. In Perfi3 the mufti enjoys 
refpeft rather than authority : the ftieik, the cadi, the mi- 
nifters, and the king himfelf, defer to his decifions. 
Thefe are the only magiftrates whofe judgments are 
founded on the text of the Koran. Each of them has his 
feparate tribunal; for there is no place fet apart for the ad¬ 
miniftration of juftice. This tribunal is in general a large 
room open towards a court or garden, and raifed two or 
three feet above the ground. A kind of alcove of lattice- 
work is conftrudted in it for the accommodation of fe¬ 
males. 
