The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c17.36

c17.36

In towns, the police work was the responsibility of the *kotwal* who maintained law and order and even helped in military defence. Originally he was a military officer, the commandant of the fortified town, but with the expansion of civil administration he gradually became mainly a police officer. He had undoubtedly a police force under him but we do not hear of anything like the *Shurta* of the Abbasides; whether the city constables were called *guzarban* as in the Mughal period, the chronicle gives us no indication. Another officer, doing something of the police work by supervising the markets, checking dishonest dealings and enforcing price regulations and punishing hoarders and profiteers, was called the *rais-i-bazar*⁵. His duties would require the assistance of a staff to go round the markets and inflict summary punishment. An important officer having also something to do with the enforcement of law and order was the *muhtasib*⁶. He was primarily a member of the judicial staff and acted as a kind of prosecutor in offences against religious law. But he was also to supervise the markets, check weights and measures and punish adulteration of foodstuffs and the sale of wine. Writers of legal treatises ascribe to him duties corresponding to those of a modern inspector of educational institutions and also such municipal work as sanitation and maintenance of roads¹. He was empowered to inflict summary punishment with the help of his subordinate staff². He was, however, no judge, and cases requiring exposition of law or the ascertainment of fact had to be taken to the qazi. The muhtasib's was a separate organization, though allied to that of the qaziul-quzat who almost invariably was also the chief muhtasib. From Firoz Tughluq's reference to a tax called ihtisabi, the officer seems to have been entitled to a fee which probably went to pay for his remuneration³.