KHIRAJ.. ARAB. Tax, tribute, land tax, generally the largest item of revenue. In Timur's Institutes, the land tax was fixed at a third of the produce on all irrigated land, besides a certain due for using water from the public reservoirs ; the land tax has, from the most remote ages, been the chief source of revenue in all Asiatic countries. The Sassanian kings of Persia established the tax at a third of the value of the produce ; but when calamity overtook the crops, the cultivators re ceived advances from the treasury. These are still continued in Southern India, and are called Takkavi, or support. By Muhammadan law the produce of the land is liable to two imposts, namely, the Ashr or tithe, a poor-rate due only on the actual produce of the soil ; and the Khiraj or tribute, generally imposed on land within reach of irrigation or running water. No land can be subject to both Ashr and Khiraj at the same time. The Khiraj was imposed on Syria by Umar, and on Egypt by Amru; but Arabia is Ashr, a very small part of it being under the influence of run ning water. The Khiraj is of two kinds, Mukas siamah and Wazeefa. The former is due on the actual produce only, and resembles the Ashr ; the latter is due whether there be any produce or not. The khalif Umar levied the Khiraj in Syria and Persia, the rate varying according to the value of the produce. Kings of India exacted one-sixth of the produce, besides a poll-tax which was Mukas siamah ; but the Muhammadans converted it into Wazeefa in the time of Sher Shah; and the emperor Akbar, while adopting the same system, carried it into effect with greater precision and exactness.
In Persia, in the days of Timur, the laud tax amounted to one-tenth of the produce of the soil; but the husbandman was loaded with a number of other taxes, which altogether exceeded half the produce. In India, Timur's descendant, the emperor Akbar, abolished all arbitrary taxes, and fixed the revenue according to the value of the different lands, which were divided into four classes 1. Poolej, which never lies fallow.
2. Perowty, kept out of cultivation a short time, for the soil to recover its strength. The Poolej and Perowty were each of three kinds,—best, middling, and bad. The produce of a bigha of each sort was added together, and a third of the sum was considered as the average produce of Poolej or Pcrowty land ; one-third of it being the revenue. Sher Shah exacted rather more.
3. Chechcr was land which had suffered from inun dations or excessive rains, and received grants of remissions for five years.
4. Bunjer was land which had suffered from great inundations, and enjoyed still larger remissions.
Rewards were granted by Akbar for high culti vation, and the land settlement was made f or periods of ten years.—Ayin-i-Akbari; Neil Baillie on the Land Tax, quoted in Markham's Embassy, p. 31.