History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes
CHAP. I1.] THE JAZIA. 61
would not part with. No one here can read Pehlevi They complain that when Aga Mahomed Khan gave the town up to indiscriminate plunder and slaughter, most of their books were destroyed, and great numbers of the race were killed.”
We have thus seen how wretched is the general condition of the Zoroastrians remaining in Persia. The few who can be called rich belong to the merchant class; and besides these there are perhaps none who can be said to be even in good circumstances, while the great majority are in a state of extreme poverty.
One of the severest hardships under which these people suffered, until quite recently, was the levy of the poll-tax, called “jazia.” The Moslem population alone was exempt from this tax,—all “unbelievers” residing in the kingdom, such as Armenians, Jews, and Parsis, being compelled to pay it. The Armenians at Tabriz and in other places of Persia contiguous to the Russian frontier had been exempted from the payment of it, a favour which they owed to the influence of the Russian Government. ‘The straits to which these races were driven in order to meet this tax were often deplorable. We have no means of knowing the exact amount of the impost which the Armenians and Jews were required to pay, but it has been ascertained that the annual tax leviable on the Parsis, according to the imperial order, was six hundred and sixty-seven tomans. As is the case,
however, in all Oriental kingdoms, the governors