Toyul

a conditional type of fief in Iran and Azerbaijan in the 15th to 19th centuries; tankhakh was the corresponding term in Middle Asia. In the Safavid state in the 16th century, the term toyul was used for a specific right granted to sluzhilye liudi (military servitors)—namely, the right to collect taxes, in whole or in part, from a given territory; such taxes thus became a form of feudal rent. Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, toyul came to mean a land grant. Sometimes a toyul was attached to an official post and was granted for the time that an individual remained in office. Alternatively, a toyul might be a lifetime grant to an individual for services personally rendered. In the 18th century, such personal toyuls in effect became hereditary estates of the soyurghul type.