Page 189 - PERSIAN 2 1879_1883

RESIDENCY AND MUSCAT POLITIC A l. AOENCT TOR 1880-81. 21

lands is absolutely necessary in accordance with the changing of seasons.
Could this even be obviated and the tribes settled and forced to dwell in
villages, Government might fatten for a year or two, for this indeed is
(lie only object of every Persian Government; but the country would
be so completely at its mercy that population would inevitably decrease
from actual want.
The only remedy I see for unhappy Persia lies in some contact
with the outside world, and thence in the chance of some dawn of civil­
ization. But rulers and moollahs know too well that such dawn would
herald the downfall of their privileges and power, and both will offer
every objection, and strain every nerve to keep outside knowledge and
influence where It now is. The system of taxation, as 6kctehed_above,
gives rise to a custom that prevails to some extent of a certain number
of families of a tribe, or even of a village population, bolting, and then
denying their obligations both towards the Government they have
escaped from, and the Government in whose territory they have taken
refuge. This also becomes another minor cause of the inequality in
the iueidence of taxation.
In the towns themselves the taxation is said to be imposed through
the heads of the different guilds who are told off to realise the amount
inflicted. Besides this, the towns are divided into muhallebs, or quarters,
to simplify the extractive process, each quarter having an officer in
charge of the collections.
The outlying, and consequently less get-at-able districts are often
more than lax in sending in their share, and this necessitates a.tour on
the part of some trusted Government official for the collection of the
taxes. Prince Ihtisb;im-ed-Do\vlah,
Isow withdrawn, 1S3L
the son of Firhad Mirza, Governor of
Fars, is of great assistance to bis father in this way, and makes a yearly
tour with great advantage to himself, and no doubt to his father's com­
plete satisfaction.
* * * * * *
That the population of Fars is made up of many and different races,
none will deny, but the hank is in great confusion, and it will require a
man of special linguistical and scientific power to separate and classify

* * # * * *
Politict of Part.—I must here call attention to a few facts which
it is necessary to keep in mind whilst reading what follows
H w impossible to give an idea of the state of politics in Fars; and
I doubt ^ not in the whole of Persia also, without saying once for all
and distinctly that it hinges absolutely on the one word “ Mudakhil," so
thoroughly understood in Southern Persia. “Mudakhil" is a commis­
sion that which a man gets for himself out of a trust reposed on him,
whether the orgauized robbery of a prince, or the peculations of A