Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker.

Date:
1885-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    d-Kism. Subordinate to the nazir again is the Shekh el-Beled, or chief magistrate or mayor of the village, usually known simply as shekh (plur. shiUkK). In the larger towns there is a magistrate of this kind in each quarter (at Cairo fifty-three), over whom are placed prefects of larger sections (shekh et-tumn). Over the whole of these presides the Mu- dir, and lastly over the latter in some cases a Hokmdar with very extensive powers. Other provinces again are governed by specially appointed inspectors, who occupy the highest rank in their respective jurisdictions. If the administrative reforms proposed by England actually come into effect, the duties of the provincial governors will be very ma- terially circumscribed. The police administration has been made a separate department, and Egypt has been divided into the three police districts of Cairo, Alexandria, and Upper Egypt, each under an inspector general. The administration of justice is to be com- mitted entirely to the native courts, while a special minister is to have the charge of canal-making and other public works. In order, however, to afford some idea of the importance of the Mudir in the public life of the provinces, we give here a short account of the functions he has hitherto had to perform. The Duties of the Mudir were very multifarious. He presided over the administration, the finances, and the police of his province. He was required to watch over the public safety, to superintend public works, to regulate all sanitary matters, to register all transfers of property, contracts of sale, title-deeds, and mortgages, to pronounce judgment in all law-suits which do not fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the spiritual court (the Mehkemeh), and lastly to collect the taxes. The four chief taxes are as follows: (I) Land-tax (khar&g), levied from the Arddi el-Miriyeh (see below; the Ab:ddiyeh pay ten per cent only, while the Shiflik is entirely exempt). It is levied monthly by the sarraf. A feddan of the best land in Lower Egypt pays about 25s. per annum, but medium and inferior land is taxed at a lower rate. A valuation is made annually, and the different estates and farms registered under one of these three classes. (2). Income-tax, paid by merchants, bazaar-keepers, and artizans (werko, i. e. the Turkish wergi, firdeh, or ‘tax’), and varying from 4 to 20 per cent. (3). Market-tax (himl), levied according to a certain tariff on all produce brought to the markets, at a rate varying from 2 to 9 per cent. This tax is now confined to the four largest towns. (4). Palm- tax, levied at the rate of 20 piastres per tree. Distribution of Land. Down to 1879 the Khedive and his family pos- sessed one million and a half feddans of landed property, or about one- fourth of cultivable Egypt-, valued at forty million pounds sterling, and practically forming his private property. This land is officially called Shiflik (or properly tshiftlik, the Turkish for ‘estate’, or ‘farm’). Part of these vast estates came into the hands of the reigning monarch by the confiscation of the fiefs (iktd'a) held by the Mamelukes, who were exterminated by Mohammed fAli on 11th March, 1811, and by the appro- priation of all family foundations (irsdd), estates belonging to mosques (waicf), and land which in consequence of the depopulation caused by the Mameluke regime had ceased to have any owner. The great bulk of the crown estates was, however, amassed during the 15 years’ rule of Khedive lama'll, who was not over-scrupulous as to the methods he employed in doing so. Shortly before his abdication he was forced to resign almost the entire estates of himself and his family to the board of domains ap- pointed by the international financial commission. 3 *
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