Note 19 — Chapter II · The Zoroastrians in Persia

One of the harshest conditions of the conquest of Persia had been at all times a tax called “Jazia.” The Mahomedans are the only persons exempted from this tax, all the other infidel inhabitants of the kingdom, Armenians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, being subject to it. The Armenians of Tauris and of the villages of Persia situated near the frontier have been relieved of this tax by the care of the Russian Government. It is difficult to arrive at an estimate of the tax paid by the Armenians and the Jews, but this is certain—and the fact has been verified—that the annual tax imposed upon the Zoroastrians rose to 660 tomans. The governors and collectors having gone on increasing its amount in order to profit by the surplus, the sum rose to nearly 2,000 tomans, or £1,000 sterling, about 25,000 francs of our money. According to statistics, a thousand Zoroastrians were compelled to pay. Of these two hundred could pay it without difficulty, four hundred with much trouble; the rest could not do so even under threats of death. Lamentable scenes have ensued at the time of the collection of this onerous tax.19 Sometimes these unfortunate beings turned to their brethren in India in the hope of obtaining a favourable intervention with the Persian Government, such as some of the European Powers had effectually attempted in certain cases.