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From its peculiar position, and its commercial importance, Tashkent is a microcosm of life in Central Asia, and Mr. Schuyler took advantage of his comparatively long stay there to gather all sorts of information regarding the residents and their customs. Among the people to be seen there, as well as in the other towns of Central Asia, are Liuli, who are apparently identical with Gypsies. The women tell fortunes, cure the sick, and carry on a small traffic. The men trade in horses, and have almost a monopoly of leeches, which they collect from the streams.
Then there are the Hindoos, who are also to be found in all the towns of the country, and especially in Tashkent. They come, for the most, from Shikarpur, and, although they are engaged in various branches of commerce, they chiefly devote themselves to money-lending and usury. They do not have the monopoly of this business: Jews, Afghans, and even native Mussulmans, share it with them. With their tight trousers, their peculiar coats, and the red or black caste-marks on their foreheads, apart from their race characteristics, the Hindoos are easily distinguished from those of other nationalities. Mr. Schuyler gives the following interesting description of the methods in which these Hindoos carry on their financial operations, and, at the same time, manage to evade the precepts of their religion:
They usually lend sums for twenty-four weeks, to be paid in weekly installments of one tenga to every tilla, -- that is, one-nine-teenth, making a gain, as interest, in the course of the transaction, of five tengas, or about twenty-six per cent, which would be fully fifty- six per cent per annum. The rate of interest is sometimes much higher, although among Mussulman capitalists four per cent a month is considered fair. As the money is thus paid back in installments, it is evident that a money-lender with a very small capital can make a large yearly profit.
Lending out money at interest is forbidden by Mussulman law, and tradition says that lending money freely to the poor is a more worthy action, and will have a greater reward from God than giving alms. But while the Mussulman is strictly forbidden to make a contract for the payment of interest, it is perfectly allowable for him to receive interest which is voluntarily given by the borrower. Casuists, however, have without much difficulty discovered what are called "paths," that is, methods of evading the strict letter of the law, which, from the places where they were invented, or are most customary, are known as the Bokharian, Samarkand, Tashkent, and other "paths." For instance, the Tashkent "path" is this: In order to receive the interest of twenty rubles on one hundred, the hundred rubles are lent without interest, and some small article, as a whip, is nominally sold to the borrower for twenty rubles more. This article is called shari, i. e., lawful, and must always be the property of the seller. The Bokharian way is similar; but here, instead of a nominal sale, some article, usually a book, is handed to the borrower for safe keeping, and for keeping and using this book he pays the sum constituting the interest on the principal lent to him.
Another method is for the lender to buy of the borrower some piece of property, as a house, or a horse, for less than its value, paying him at the same time the amount of the loan. A paper is then drawn up before the Kazi, in which the lender promises to re-sell the property to the borrower for a sum that will equal the money lent with the interest added. Mussulmans, however, perfectly well understand that these methods are evasions of the direct religious command, and among the traditions as to future punishment is one that the usurer will be sealed up in a metallic box, which will then be heated in a fire. When the usurer cries out in his torment, asking the reason of such punishment, the Almighty and All-blessed will answer him, "You are punished because you took usury." -- But I did not take usury," he will reply, "I sold a thing lawfully." "Well," the All-highest will reply, "I do not burn you: I only heat the box." Where the borrower is a person of property and known for his probity, the lender merely makes a note in his account-book, and gives the debtor a similar note to remind him of the payment. In other cases, however, the receipt of the debtor is taken and witnessed before the Karl, and frequently large security is demanded.
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