[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945) › c19.61 # The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c19.61 The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c19.61 - **Language:** English ### [c19.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945.c19.61) This is not intended to mean that trade had no place in the economic life. On the contrary the government earned not a little income from taxes on traders and shop-keepers and also from transit duties on mercantile commodities. The luxury living of the nobility undoubtedly quickened the demand for consumers' goods and the middlemen as well as the craftsmen did good business. In Alauddin's reign we hear more about the traders on whom he sought to impose his economic regulations. Under Balban is, mentioned an \*amir-i-bazar\*². Firoz Tughluq's list of the taxes he abolished would give us an idea of the variety of sellers who supplied the growing needs of the cit-folk³. The army department had no commissariat service and was dependent for provisions on the grain merchants who accompanied the compaigning force. We hear of no regular slave markets as in other Islamic countries, but the human merchandise was a recognisel means of making money and was even used as a side business by members of the \*ulema\*⁴. A highly profitable business was money-lending, confined almost exclusively to Hindus whose mounting rate of interest, enforced by the state, enabled them to impoverish the Profligate nobles⁵. Amir Hassan mentions Muslim traders from Lahore (\*saudagar\*) in Bahram's reign journeying to do business with the Hindus of Gujrat and making huge profits therefrom¹. - [Previous: c19.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945.c19.60) - [Next: c19.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945.c19.62) - [Up: c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945.c19.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.habibullah-1945.c19.61) · Pramāṇa