The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c14.21

c14.21

Finance Ministry. The Memelukes appear to have had one *wazir* at a time, but Minhaj ascribes three to Muizzuddin². Even as a bureaucratic administrator he lost much of his importance after Iltutmish's death, when the *amir-i-hajib*, the *wakil-i-dar*, and finally the *naib-i-mamlikat* superseded him in power. He was then reduced, in practice at least, to a mere departmental head, in charge of finance and revenue; the *masnad-i-wazarat* (office of the prime minister) continued to be held by him, but the *diwan-i-wazarat* (finance ministry) was the only department be really controlled, and which always formed his own portfolio. Through his fiscal staff he collected land revenue from the unassigned land, (*khalisah*) and tribute from the vassal princes. By far the largest amount of his department's routine work was auditing the accounts of the provincial governors and realising the surplus revenue, sometimes even by violent methods³. He had an army of clerks under him. The audit section of the ministry was run by two officers, the *mushrif-i-mamalik* and *mustaufi-i-mamalik* whose functions correspond to those of the chief accountant and auditor general of the kingdom⁴. The *amil*, *karkun* and *mutasarrif*, comprised his fiscal and clerical staff¹. The office work of the *diwan-i-wazarat*, must have been elaborate, even in that early stage of governmental organization, to merit Fakhre Mudir's description of the *wazir* "as ruling over a highly complex department²." We hear of Muhammud Tughluq's *wazir* having four *dabirs* (secretaries) under him each of whom had a staff of 300 clerks³. Afif, writing of Firoz Tughluq's time, remarks, "if one wants to describe the work of the *diwan-i-wazarat*, one has to write a book⁴."