Barat tax cheques

From the late Ghaznavid period on (early eleventh century), the tax cheque (barat) became a much-feared instrument of reprisals. The barat put the taxpayers and the ultimate recipient (often a military man) into direct contact, with violence often the result.

The military man had recourse to violence in order to get what was written in the document (or what he wanted otherwise). Tax cheques were also used for the requisitioning of foodstuffs. In a critical moment during his campaigns in Khurasan against the Seljuq Turks, the Ghaznavid sultan Mas‘ud (1030-41) had cheques written on an enormous scale and handed them out to the army; recipients of such documents then had the right to take what was written from the place mentioned in the document. This was a barely disguised licence to plunder. In many cases, it is not clear whether this was a procedure to raise revenue or an extortionist practice used to make subdued places pay in order to avoid unrestricted looting. Later, in the times of Sanjar, the barat had become a ^[98] ^{^[99] ^[100] normal procedure, and in an appointment deed for a representative of the royal administration in the Marv oasis the appointee is told to write the barat documents in such a way that the subjects do not complain (which must have been next to impossible).^{^[101]} In the Mongol period, the barat again can be equivalent to plunder. Hagiographic texts report marauding on the basis of barat documents so that we get the impression that this was current practice. Very small amounts of money or objects of little value could be at stake, such as a sheepskin. However, the barat was also used as a normal instrument of taxation.^{^[102]}
In the late thirteenth century, Rashid al-Din writes, the tax system had broken down completely, and even through extremely violent means the holders of barat assignments had not been able to take in even a small fraction of the sum to which they were entitled.
Ghazan Khan then is said to have abolished it in his famous reforms (in 1304), but, like such reforms in general, it is doubtful whether this particular policy was implemented.^{^[103]} At any rate, the barat as a fiscal instrument soon resurfaced after Ghazan. Again, barat assignments apparently were quite normal and served, for example, to equip warriors. Barat thus was a current instrument for paying the troops before and after Ghazan Khan's reforms. Tax exemptions also mentioned that no barat should be given out on the exempted lands. This understanding of the barat continued into Timurid times: in an appointment for one of Shahrukh's important amirs over a province, it is stated that the warriors who are living in the region are to turn to him to get their payment - in barat.1^{^[104]} In such cases, we do not learn how the holders of barat assignments behaved on the spot when they tried to ‘cash' them, but the same term meant a share in the plunder to which a conquered town was subjected. Thus, Timur's troops, when they plundered Delhi, had barat assignments which they then took into the city. Most of them, the source adds, were for sugar and grain.^{^[105]}
Timurid hagiographic sources also show the process of ‘cashing' barat assignments. A military man once came to the house of Khwaja Ahrar (d. 1490) in Tashkent with a barat for barley to be used as fodder for horses. When the khwaja's servant told the man that the khwaja was in his private quarters and not to be disturbed, the warrior whipped him so that his screams made the khwaja come forth. The barley was duly delivered, but when the soldier came to the army camp, he suddenly dropped dead, and his master's days were also counted.^{^[106]}
On the administrative level, thus, barat was a regular instrument for paying the troops. What happened on the ground is not clear; the hagio- graphic accounts, however, indicate that the process often was chaotic and included violence. And thus, the instrument could also be used as a kind of makeshift regulation, a semblance of control in an otherwise uncontrolled situation such as the plundering of a conquered city.}

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Source: Gordon Matthew, Kaeuper Richard, Zurndorfer Harriet (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 2: AD 500-AD 1500. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 696 p.. 2020

Barat tax cheques

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