The Hierarchy of Tax Officers in Medieval Iran, with an Emphasize on Transoxiana and Eastern Lands

Continuity and change in the administration of medieval Iran in eastern lands is from important issues in the social, economic and administrative history of Iran. But less attention has been paid to the subject of the taxing system as the basic idea of Iranian administrative; noticing the fact that lack of direct sources about the administrative system, especially in eastern lands of Abbasid Caliphate, makes it even harder to have access to details. Moreover, the hierarchy of the taxing system, which has had a central role in its protection and function, has not been noticed. This article is about to question the mentioned problem. Here, with the extraction of common administrative titles of tax officers in early medieval from Persian texts, research is about to study the facts with historical research method and identify the relations between these titles and posts. The results show that following the change in administrative language to Persian in 3rd of 4th century A.H., instead of ‘Amil, Mostawfi became a common title for the high ranking tax officer, from 5th century onward; while ‘Amil was still in use in the meaning of employee. Authorities of middle-rank officers, with titles as ‘Amid, Bondar … was variable and increased and decreased. Verifying the main administrative posts shows the necessity of some other titles, and also the point that posts were variable based on local needs.