The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c15.5

c15.5

A study of this earliest form of Indo-Muslim government must therefore begin with a consideration of the status and power of the vassal ruler to whom the paramount power entrusted the ordinary administration over the major part of the kingdom. Very little however can be gleaned on this point from the chronicles in which only his hostile behaviour provided an occasion for mentioning the feudatory chief. The most important condition of his vassalage was, it is certain, the undertaking to pay the tribute regularly. This tribute represented, it may be assumed, both the land-revenue and perhaps also the *jaziah*, realizable from his dominions. His sovereignty was curtailed to provide for the inclusion, in his coins, the suzerain's name, whose omission, at any rate, was considered a clear proof of the repudiation of vassalage. In the majority of cases the right of having an independent coinage appears