Another occurrence may here be aptly related, as a further illustration of the nature of the government to which the people of Egypt are subjected. A felláh, who was appointed Názir (or governor) of the district of El-Manoofeeyeh (the southernmost district of the Delta), a short time before my present visit to Egypt, in collecting the taxes at a village, demanded, of a poor peasant, the sum of sixty riyáls (ninety faddahs each, making a sum total of a hundred and thirty-five piasters, which was then equivalent to about thirty shillings). The poor man urged that he possessed nothing but a cow, which barely afforded sustenance to himself and his family. Instead of pursuing the method usually followed when a felláh declares himself unable to pay the tax demanded of him, which is to give him a severe bastinading, the Názir, in this case, sent the Sheykh el-Beled to bring the poor peasant’s cow, and desired some of the felláheen to buy it. They saying that they had not sufficient money, he sent for a butcher, and desired him to kill the cow; which was done: he then told him to divide it into sixty pieces. The butcher asked for his pay; and was given the head of the cow. Sixty felláheen were then called together; and each of them was compelled to purchase, for a riyál, a piece of the cow. The owner of the cow went, weeping and complaining, to the Názir’s superior, the late Mohammad Bey, Deftardár. “O my master,” said he, “I am oppressed and in misery: I had no property but one cow, a milch cow: I and my family lived upon her milk; and she ploughed for me, and threshed my corn; and my whole subsistence was derived from her: the Názir has taken her, and killed her, and cut her up into sixty pieces, and sold the pieces to my neighbours—to each a piece, for one riyál; so that he obtained but sixty riyáls for the whole, while the value of the cow was a hundred and twenty riyáls, or more. I am oppressed and in misery, and a stranger in the place, for I came from another village; but the Názir had no pity on me. I and my family are become beggars, and have nothing left. Have mercy upon me, and give me justice: I implore it by thy hareem.” The Deftardár, having caused the Názir to be brought before him, asked him, “Where is the cow of this felláh?” “I have sold it,” said the Názir. “For how much?” “For sixty riyáls.” “Why did you kill it and sell it?” “He owed sixty riyáls for land: so I took his cow, and killed it, and sold it for the amount.” “Where is the butcher that killed it?” “In Manoof.” The butcher was sent for, and brought. The Deftardár said to him, “Why did you kill this man’s cow?” “The Názir desired me,” he answered, “and I could not oppose him: if I had attempted to do so, he would have beaten me, and destroyed my house: I killed it; and the Názir gave me the head as my reward.” “Man,” said the Deftardár, “do you know the persons who bought the meat?” The butcher replied that he did. The Deftardár then desired his secretary to write the names of the sixty men, and an order to the sheykh of their village to bring them to Manoof, where this complaint was made. The Názir and butcher were placed in confinement till the next morning; when the sheykh of the village came, with the sixty felláheen. The two prisoners were then brought again before the Deftardár, who said to the sheykh and the sixty peasants, “Was the value of this man’s cow sixty riyáls?” “O our master,” they answered, “her value was greater.” The Deftardár sent for the Kádee of Manoof, and said to him, “O Kádee, here is a man oppressed by this Názir, who has taken his cow, and killed it; and sold its flesh for sixty riyáls. What is thy judgment?” The Kádee replied, “He is a cruel tyrant, who oppresses every one under his authority. Is not a cow worth a hundred and twenty riyáls, or more? and he has sold this one for sixty riyáls: this is tyranny towards the owner.” The Deftardár then said to some of his soldiers, “Take the Názir, and strip him, and bind him.” This done, he said to the butcher, “Butcher, dost thou not fear God? Thou hast killed the cow unjustly.” The butcher again urged that he was obliged to obey the Názir. “Then,” said the Deftardár, “if I order thee to do a thing, wilt thou do it?” “I will do it,” answered the butcher. “Slaughter the Názir,” said the Deftardár. Immediately, several of the soldiers present seized the Názir, and threw him down; and the butcher cut his throat, in the regular orthodox manner of killing animals for food. “Now, cut him up,” said the Deftardár, “into sixty pieces.” This was done: the people concerned in the affair, and many others, looking on; but none daring to speak. The sixty peasants who had bought the meat of the cow were then called forward, one after another, and each was made to take a piece of the flesh of the Názir, and to pay for it two riyáls; so that a hundred and twenty riyáls were obtained from them. They were then dismissed; but the butcher remained. The Kádee was asked what should be the reward of the butcher; and answered that he should be paid as he had been paid by the Názir. The Deftardár therefore ordered that the head of the Názir should be given to him; and the butcher went away with his worse than valueless burden, thanking God that he had not been more unfortunate, and scarcely believing himself to have so easily escaped until he arrived at his village. The money paid for the flesh of the Názir was given to the owner of the cow.
Most of the governors of provinces and districts carry their oppression far beyond the limits to which they are authorized to proceed by the Básha; and even the sheykh of a village, in executing the commands of his superiors, abuses his lawful power: bribes, and the ties of relationship and marriage, influence him and them, and by lessening the oppression of some, who are more able to bear it, greatly increase that of others. But the office of a sheykh of a village is far from being a sinecure: at the period when the taxes are demanded of him, he frequently receives a more severe bastinading than any of his inferiors; for when the population of a village does not yield the sum required, their sheykh is often beaten for their default: and not always does he produce his own proportion until he has been well thrashed. All the felláheen are proud of the stripes they receive for withholding their contributions; and are often heard to boast of the number of blows which were inflicted upon them before they would give up their money. Ammianus Marcellinus gives precisely the same character to the Egyptians of his time.[[226]]
The revenue of the Básha of Egypt is generally said to amount to about three millions of pounds sterling.[[227]] Nearly half arises from the direct taxes on land, and from indirect exactions from the felláheen: the remainder, principally from the custom-taxes, the tax on palm-trees, a kind of income-tax, and the sale of various productions of the land; by which sale, the government, in most instances, obtains a profit of more than fifty per cent.
The present Básha has increased his revenue to this amount by most oppressive measures. He has dispossessed of their lands almost all the private proprietors throughout Egypt, allotting to each, as a partial compensation, a pension for life, proportioned to the extent and quality of the land which belonged to him. The farmer has, therefore, nothing to leave to his children but his hut, and perhaps a few cattle and some small savings.
The direct taxes on land are proportioned to the natural advantages of the soil. Their average amount is about 8s. per feddán, which is nearly equal to an English acre.[[228]] But the cultivator can never calculate exactly the full amount of what the government will require of him: he suffers from indirect exactions of quantities (differing in different years, but always levied per feddán) of butter, honey, wax, wool, baskets of palm-leaves, ropes of the fibres of the palm-tree, and other commodities: he is also obliged to pay the hire of the camels which convey his grain to the government shooneh (or granary), and to defray various other expenses. A portion of the produce of his land is taken by the government,[[229]] and sometimes the whole produce, at a fixed and fair price, which, however, in many parts of Egypt, is retained to make up for the debts of the insolvent peasants.[[230]] The felláh, to supply the bare necessaries of life, is often obliged to steal, and convey secretly to his hut, as much as he can of the produce of his land. He may either himself supply the seed for his land, or obtain it as a loan from the government: but in the latter case he seldom obtains a sufficient quantity, a considerable portion being generally stolen by the persons through whose hands it passes before he receives it. To relate all the oppressions which the peasantry of Egypt endure from the dishonesty of the Mamoors and inferior officers would require too much space in the present work. It would be scarcely possible for them to suffer more, and live. It may be hardly necessary, therefore, to add, that few of them engage, with assiduity, in the labours of agriculture, unless compelled to do so by their superiors.
The Básha has not only taken possession of the lands of the private proprietors, but he has also thrown into his treasury a considerable proportion of the incomes of religious and charitable institutions, deeming their accumulated wealth superfluous. He first imposed a tax (of nearly half the amount of the regular land-tax) upon all land which had become a “wakf” (or legacy unalienable by law) to any mosque, fountain, public school, etc.; and afterwards took absolute possession of such lands, granting certain annuities in lieu of them, for keeping in repair the respective buildings, and for the maintenance of those persons attached to them, as Názirs (or wardens), religious ministers, inferior servants, students, and other pensioners. He has thus rendered himself extremely odious to most persons of the religious and learned professions, and especially to the Názirs of the mosques, who too generally enriched themselves from the funds intrusted to their care, which were, in most cases, superabundant. The household property of the mosques and other public institutions (the wakfs of numerous individuals of various ranks) the Básha has hitherto left inviolate.
The tax upon the palm-trees has been calculated to amount to about a hundred thousand pounds sterling. The trees are rated according to their qualities; generally at a piaster and a half each.
The income-tax, which is called “firdeh,” is generally a twelfth or more of a man’s annual income or salary, when that can be ascertained. The maximum, however, is fixed at five hundred piasters. In the large towns it is levied upon individuals; in the villages upon houses. The income-tax of all the inhabitants of the metropolis amounts to eight thousand purses, or about forty thousand pounds sterling.
The inhabitants of the metropolis and of other large towns pay a heavy tax on grain, etc. The tax on each kind of grain is eighteen piasters per ardebb (or about five bushels); which sum is equal to the price of wheat in the country after a good harvest.[[231]]