The History of Fīrūz Shāh (Baranī) 1.16

1.16

While on this campaign it was again brought to his notice that the old Shamsi military grantees of land were unfit for service, and never went out. * * * On returning to Dehli he ordered the muster-master to make out a list of them, with full particulars, and to present it to the throne for instructions. It then appeared that about two thousand horsemen of the army of Shamsu-d din had received villages in the Doab by way of pay. * * * Thirty or forty years and even more had passed since the establishment of this body, many of the grantees were old and infirm, many more had died, and their sons had taken possession of the grants as an inheritance from their fathers, and had caused their names to be recorded in the records of the 'Ariz (Muster-master). Some who had no children sent their slaves as their representatives. All these holders of service lands called themselves proprietors, and professed to have received the lands in free gift from Sultan Shamsu-d din. * * * Some of them went leisurely to perform their military duties, but the greater part stayed at home making excuses, the acceptance of which they secured by presents and bribes of all sorts to the deputy muster-master and his officials. When the list was brought to the Sultan, in the year of his return from Lahor, he divided the grantees into three classes. The first consisted of the old and worn-out, upon whom he settled pensions of forty or fifty tankas, and resumed their villages.