The Successors of Genghis Khan - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

THE SUCCESSORS OF GENGHIS KHAN
Christians, iheerke'uns,7B priests, monks, and scholars (ahbdr), of the idolaters
the famous toyins, and of every community those who were advanced
in age and no longer capable of earning a living.80 And in order that
every agent might make a [new] distribution every day he instituted
an annual scheme whereby in the countries of Khitai a man of great
wealth paid 11 dinars and so on, in proportion down to a poor man
who paid but one; and so it was in Transoxiana also; in Khurasan
and 'Iraq a rich man paid 7 dinars and a poor man I dinar. The
governors and scribes were not to show favor or partiality or to take
bribes. As for the levy on animals, which they call qubchur*1 if a person
had a hundred head of a particular kind of beast he was to give one,
and if he had less, none. And whenever there were arrears of taxes
and whoever owed them they were not to be exacted from the peasants.
And of all the peoples and religious communities he showed most
honor and respect to the Muslims and bestowed the largest amount of
gifts and alms upon them. A proof of this is the following: On the
occasion of the id-i fitr in the year 650 [5th of December, 1252] the
Cadi Jalal al-Din Khujandi and a group of Muslims were present at
the gate of the ordo. The cadi delivered the sermon and led the prayers,
adorning the khutba with the titles of the Caliph. He likewise prayed
for Mongke Qa'an and uttered praises of him. [Mongke] ordered them
to be given wagon-loads of gold and silver bdlish and costly clothing as a
present for the festival, and the greater part of mankind had their
share thereof.
He issued a command for the release of all captives and prisoners
throughout the Empire; and messengers proceeded to all parts upon
this errand.
Now were one to begin describing the deeds which occur daily in that
Court by reason of his justice and equity, whole volumes would be
filled to overflowing and there would be no end to these tales. A little
of it is a guide to the greater part.
And since the fame of his justice and equity had spread to all the
78 On erke'un, "Christian (Nestorian) priest," see Doerfer, I, No. 15 (pp. 123—25).
79 T. toyin, from Chinese tao-jen, "Buddhist priest."
80 That these privileges were denied to the Jews (HWC, p. 599) is passed over in
silence by Rashid al-Dm. Spuler (1939, p. 249) adduces this silence as one of the
indications of the historian's Jewish origin.
81 See above, Section i, p. 55, note 217.
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