22	JEWS   IN  THE   LIFE   OF   MEDIAEVAL,  ISLAM
also used against financial crises. New departments and offices
•were created, the administration was divided and subdivided
into numberless offices and functions, not from administrative
but from purely financial motives, i.e. in order to increase
the revenue of the State by selling such posts. The selling
of offices to the highest bidder was a frequent occurrence,
as was also the sale of crown lands and the arbitrary con-
fiscation of private fortunes. The Caliph's privy purse was
squeezed to the last farthing, so that it could no longer be
considered a reserve fund against emergencies. The Viziers,
the responsible chancellors of the empire's exchequer, could
hardly find any way out; for even the systematic economies
of *Ali b. *Isa, who reduced salaries, pensions, and other
expenses, were not able to balance the budget.
It was probably in this situation that the idea occurred
to the Caliph of calling in the aid of the Jewish bankers in
consolidating the finances of the State. It is permissible to
infer from the picture the sources present of Aaron b. ATnra.m
and Joseph b. Phineas, that their importance for the financial
economy of al-Muqtadir's empire lay in their capacity of
money-suppliers and money-lenders. This was really the
centre of gravity of their business activity, far surpassing in
significance all the other financial activities discussed above.
We are able to reconstruct, with the help of our Arab sources,
their functions as money-suppliers in, many details.
We know of three instances of credits being extended to
the State by these financiers.
(1) In Wuz., 178, we hear that the Vizier Ibn
al-Furat, during his first vizierate,^1 called the Jewish banker
(al^jdkbadh al-yahudi) Joseph b. Phineas,^2 who is designated as
J\ j-*Y^ -*-4f-, and asked him for an advance of money in
order to pay salaries for the officials of Ahwaz for two months
{mal shaftrain). It was indicated that as ofricial tax-collector of
^1 Probably about the year 311/923.
* The text reads       U-i        OL-» -