The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c14.38

c14.38

⁴ Barani, p. 153. *Cf.* Qureshi: *op. cit.* p. 84, who propounds a theory that this department dealt with religious affairs and was allied to the *diwan-i-qaza*, the two being usually presided over by the same person. No definite authority for this statement is however cited, nor is any available in the early chronicles. His statement that "the *Diwan-i-Rasalat* dealt with religious affairs, pious foundations, stipends to deserving scholars and men of peity and that it was presided over by the *Sadrus-Sudur* "is based purely on supposition, for the references given do not admit of such an inference. His ingeneous explanation of why the term *rasalat* applied by the Ghaznawides to the chancellery, was, under the Memelukes, transferred to the ecclesiastical department, hence becomes pointless. The Memelukes in fact made little change in what they found of the Ghaznawide institutions in the Punjab and seem to have followed administrative traditions current in other Muslim countries of Asia. See Nazim; pp. 142-43, for a description of this department's functions under Mahmud of Ghazni.