"convened a meeting of the learned Ulama and renowned Mashaikh and suggested to them that an error had been committed: the Jiziyah had never been levied from Brahmans: they had been held excused, in former reigns. The Brahmans were the very keys of the chamber of idolatry, and the infidels were dependent on them . They ought therefore to be taxed first. The learned lawyers gave it as their opinion that the Brahmans ought to be taxed. The Brahmans then assembled and went to the Sultan and represented that they had never before been called upon to pay the Jiziyah, and they wanted to know why they were now subjected to the indignity of having to pay it. They were determined to collect wood and to burn themselves under the walls of the palace rather than pay the tax. When these pleasant words were reported to the Sultan, he replied that they might burn and destroy themselves at once for they would not escape from the payment. The Brahmans remained fasting for several days at the palace until they were on the point of death. The Hindus of the city then assembled and told the Brahmans that it was not right to kill themselves on account of the Jiziyah, and that they would undertake to pay it for them. In Delhi, the Jiziyah was of three kinds: Ist class, forty tankahs; 2nd class, twenty tankahs; 3rd class, ten tankahs. When the Brahmans found their case was hopeless, they went to the Sultan and begged him in his mercy to reduce the amount they would have to pay, and he accordingly assessed it at ten tankahs and fifty jitals for each individual."
React to this quote
More by Firuz Shah Tughlaq
See allResonant Thoughts
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
"Does knowledge rest on construction in the sense that it only functions because the knowing system is operatively closed, therefore: because it can maintain no operative contact with the outside world…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"For the present let us consider the position of the adepts as they now exist, or, to use the designation mo…"
— A. P. Sinnett"The idea of comparative advantage—with its implication that trade between two nations normally raises the r…"
— Paul Krugman"It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing the constitutional power "to coin money and …"
— Andrew Jackson"We know the country, its potential, its resources, where it was and where it could have been. We should be …"
— Reza Pahlavi"Every man knows there are evils in this world which need setting right. Every man has pretty definite ideas…"
— Henry Hazlitt"A man is known by the company he keeps. A company is known by the men it keeps."
— Thomas J. Watson