مسالك الابصار في ممالك الامصار 2.41

2.41

ولكل خان لكان [1] ، كل لك مائة ألف تنكة [2] كل تنكة ثمانية دراهم، هذا خاص له، لا يخرج منه لجندي من أجناده شيء، ولكل ملك ستين ألف تنكة إلى خمسين ألف تنكة، ولكل أمير منه أربعين ألف تنكة إلى ثلاثين ألف تنكة، والأصفهلارية من عشرين ألف تنكة وما حولها، وأما الجند فكل جندي من عشرة آلاف تنكة إلى ألف تنكة، وأما المماليك السلطانية، فكل مملوك من خمسة آلاف تنكة إلى ألف تنكة، وطعامهم وكساويهم وعليقهم [3] والجند والمماليك ليس لهم بلاد، وإنما يأخذون أموالهم نقدا من الخزانة، وأما أولئك فبلاد تلك غيرها.

* * * He has 20,000 Turk mamluks. * * * It is not the same in India as in Egypt and Syria, where the maliks, amirs, and generals have in their service men whom they maintain out of their own resources. In India the officer has only to care for himself. As to the soldiers, the Sultán summons them for service, and they are paid from the public treasury. The sums granted to a khán, a malik, an amir, or a general, are given exclusively for his own personal maintenance. The chamberlains and other dignitaries; the military men, such as the kháns, the maliks, and the amirs, all have a rank in proportion to the importance of their employ. The isfah-sálárs (generals) have no right to approach the Sultán. It is from this class that governors and other similar functionaries are chosen. The khán has 10,000 horse under his command, the malik, 1,000; the amir, 100; and the isfah-sálár a smaller number. The kháns, maliks, amirs, and isfah-sálárs receive the revenues of places assigned to them by the treasury, and if these do not increase, they never diminish. Generally speaking, they bring in much more than their estimated value. The khán receives a grant of two lacs of tankas, each tanka being worth eight dirhams. This sum belongs to him personally, and he is not expected to disburse any part of it to the soldiers who fight under his orders. The malik receives an amount varying from 60,000 to 50,000 tankas, the amir from 40,000 to 30,000, and the isfah-sálár 20,000, or thereabouts.

The pay of the officer varies from 10,000 to 1,000 tankas. A mamluk receives 500 tankas, and all receive, in addition, food and raiment, and forage for their horses. Soldiers and mamlúks do not receive grants of land-revenue, but draw their pay in money from the public treasury. The officers have villages of which they receive the revenues. As this same traveller observed to me, the revenues of these lands, if they do not increase, certainly do not decrease. Some of the officers receive double, and even more than that, in excess of the estimated value of their grants. The slaves of the Sultán each receive a monthly allowance for their maintenance of two mans of wheat and rice, and a daily allowance of three sirs of meat, with all the necessary accompaniments. Besides, he receives ten tankas per month, and four suits of clothes every year. The Sultan has a manufactory, in which 400 silk-weavers are employed, and where they make stuffs of all kinds for the dresses of persons attached to the Court, for robes of honour and presents, in addition to the stuffs which are brought every year from China, 'Irak, and Alexandria. Every year the Sultan distributes 200,000 complete dresses; 100,000 in spring, and 100,000 in autumn. The spring dresses consist principally of the goods manufactured at Alexandria. Those of the autumn are almost exclusively of silk manufactured at Dehli or imported from China and 'Irak. Dresses are also distributed to the monasteries and hermitages.