DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22900#0123
CHAP. II.]
NASAREDIN SHAH.
81
the Zoroastrians must be dealt with in the same manner as our
other subjects are treated.
"Given at Teheran in the month of Kamzan, 1299 (August,
1882).—Translated by
(Signed) "J. Ibrahim."
Such, was the happy issue of a long-sustained and
well-fought battle by the Parsis of Bombay against
this grievous and obnoxious impost on behalf of a
remote and obscure, albeit kindred, community. No
one who reflects on their complete disinterestedness
as well as their unflagging persistency can help being
impressed with the conviction that their action
throughout was highly laudable, and calculated to
shed no common lustre on the records of Bombay
philanthropy. During a period of twenty-three years
the managers of the Persian Amelioration Fund had
spent about Es. 109,564 in contributions towards the
payment of the "jazia." The major portion of this
sum had been subscribed by local munificence, as
the Zoroastrians of Yezd and Kerman were never in
a position to pay for themselves without such assist-
ance, so that when the royal firman was promul-
gated in 1882 loud were the praises of the Parsis,
both in India and the mother-country. The present
Shah is the first of the Persian monarchs, after a
lapse of thirteen centuries, to show clemency and
justice towards the children of the original Persians
by putting them on a footing of equality with his
other subjects. The name of Nasaredin Shah will
VOL. I. G
NASAREDIN SHAH.
81
the Zoroastrians must be dealt with in the same manner as our
other subjects are treated.
"Given at Teheran in the month of Kamzan, 1299 (August,
1882).—Translated by
(Signed) "J. Ibrahim."
Such, was the happy issue of a long-sustained and
well-fought battle by the Parsis of Bombay against
this grievous and obnoxious impost on behalf of a
remote and obscure, albeit kindred, community. No
one who reflects on their complete disinterestedness
as well as their unflagging persistency can help being
impressed with the conviction that their action
throughout was highly laudable, and calculated to
shed no common lustre on the records of Bombay
philanthropy. During a period of twenty-three years
the managers of the Persian Amelioration Fund had
spent about Es. 109,564 in contributions towards the
payment of the "jazia." The major portion of this
sum had been subscribed by local munificence, as
the Zoroastrians of Yezd and Kerman were never in
a position to pay for themselves without such assist-
ance, so that when the royal firman was promul-
gated in 1882 loud were the praises of the Parsis,
both in India and the mother-country. The present
Shah is the first of the Persian monarchs, after a
lapse of thirteen centuries, to show clemency and
justice towards the children of the original Persians
by putting them on a footing of equality with his
other subjects. The name of Nasaredin Shah will
VOL. I. G