Reflections: Wine and Tulips in Kabul

Though Kabul was not rich in grain, it was a cosmopolitan city – Babur reckoned that 11 or 12 languages were spoken – on the trade route between Central Asia and India

• Though Kabul was not rich in grain, it was a cosmopolitan city – Babur reckoned that 11 or 12 languages were spoken – on the trade route between Central Asia and India
• Historians reckon that merchants provided most of the revenues for Babur’s remarkably sophisticated taxation system
• Merchants were taxed at 5% on gold coins and 2.5% on silver
• There was also a tariff on foreign trade (of 5% or 10%, depending on whether the merchants were Muslims or not) an income tax on harvests (a third to a half) and a progressive wealth tax on flocks (one sheep from a herd of 40 -120, and two from herds of 120 and up)

But Babur’s orderly state-building could not solve a problem that has troubled Afghanistan’s rulers through the ages; the tribes

• But Babur’s orderly state-building could not solve a problem that has troubled Afghanistan’s rulers through the ages; the tribes
• They not only failed to pay taxes, but also, by holding up caravans, threatened the prosperity of the merchants who did
• And the mountains that protected Babur from foreign invaders also protected the tribes from Babur
• He had no sympathy for them
• Although he had spent much of his youth wandering around Central Asia with a tent, he was at heart a city boy

He prized the civilized pursuits – literature, science, and music – that flourished in an urban environment and regarded tribesmen as “stupid peasants”

• He prized the civilized pursuits – literature, science, and music – that flourished in an urban environment and regarded tribesmen as “stupid peasants”
• Babur’s approach to the problem was not constrained by modern notions of human rights
• Shortly after his arrival in Kabul, he attacked Kohat and killed hundreds of tribesmen
• Some of the survivors put grass into their mouths – a way, locals explained to him, of saying “I am your cow.”
• But he had them killed anyway, and a tower built of the victims’ heads