The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c15.17

c15.17

The *muqti* in India tions for his campaign in Transoxiana¹. According to Barani, Prince Muhammad, Balban’s eldest son and viceroy of Sind, used to bring the revenue of his province personally to his father every year². If we may take instances from the Khalji and Tughlaq period we may cite the instance of Alauddin, the *muqti* of Karra and Awadh, who asked Firoz Khalji for permission to utilise the surplus revenue (*fawazil*) of his province in purchasing horses and employing troops for an advance on Chanderi³. That the *muqti* or *wali* was responsible for the accounts of his provincial revenue to the Finance Ministry (*diwan-i-wazarat*) seems clear from the order of Ghiyasuddin Tughluq to his newly appointed officers: “If you desire that you may not be taken to task by the *diwan-i-wazarat*....you should not be avaricious; take little from the *iqta* and with this defray your expenses and pay your troops, and do not take a single farthing from the pay of the troops”. A close audit of the account of the *muqti* is also implied in the following passage: “Those (*muqtis*) who embezzle the money and tamper with the accounts and exact more than the specified share from the *iqta*, would be punished with chains and imprisonment”⁴.