Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/395

MOHAMMED'S LAW AS THE STANDARD 337 available means of ascertaining the proper and authori- tative interpretation. The chief conductor of this difficult undertaking was Shaikh Nizam, the most learned man of the time, and all the members of the society were very handsomely and liberally paid, so that up to the present time a sum of about two hundred thousand rupees has been ex- pended on this valuable compilation, which contains more than one hundred thousand lines. Another excellence attending this design is, that with a view to afford facility to all, Chulpi Abd-allah and his pupils have been ordered to translate the work into Persian. Among the greatest liberalities of this king of the faithful is his remission of the transit duties upon all sorts of grain, cloth, and other goods, as well as on tobacco, the duties on which alone amounted to an immense sum. He exempted the Mohammedans from taxes and released the entire people from certain public demands, the revenue of which exceeded three million rupees every year. He relinquished the government claims against the ancestors of the officers of the state, which used to be paid by deductions from the salaries of their descendants. This money formed a very large annual income paid into the public treasury. He also abolished the confiscation of the estates of deceased persons against whom there was no government claim, a practice which had been very strictly observed by the accountants of his predecessors and which was felt as a very grievous oppression by their sorrowful heirs.