While I Marco was in Quinsai, an account was taken for the great khan, of the revenues, and the number of inhabitants, and I saw that there were enrolled 160 toman of fires, reckoning for each fire a family dwelling in one house.

This lord has been known to forgive 200 tomans of arrears at one time to his people, or three millions of florins, lest they should be reduced to distress.

This Janzu is a great and noble city, having forty-eight tomans of tributary fires, and abounds in all manner of victuals, flesh, fish, and fowl.

To write really well is considered as great an accomplishment in Persia as to be a successful musician, painter, or sculptor in Europe; and a famous writer of the last century, living in Shiráz, was paid as much as five tomans for every line transcribed.