The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.113

v3.c20.113

During the next five years the two brothers were much occupied with the affairs of Khurāsān, and Muhammad had so little leisure to spare for India that the northern provinces enjoyed a period of comparative repose, welcome to the troops after nine years’ warfare, and beneficial to the country. We may imagine that the conquerors employed this interval of peace for the establishment of their simple system of government, but of this no details are given, for Muslim historians are concerned almost exclusively with war and court intrigue. There is no reason to believe that the system established by the earlier conquerors differed from that which we find in existence at a later date under Muslim rulers. Military fief-holders were responsible for the preservation of order, for the ordinary executive duties of government, and for the collection of the revenue when it was necessary to use any degree of force, but in matters of detail full use was made of indigenous institutions. Hindu accountants kept the registers in which was recorded the landholder's or cultivator's normal liability to government, Hindu village officials ordinarily collected such revenue as could be collected without the employment of force, and Hindu caste tribunals decided most of the disputes to which Hindus only were parties. Disputes between Muslims were decided by Muhammadan *qāzīs* and *muftīs*, and differences between Hindus and their conquerors either by these officials or by the strong hand of the fief-holder or his deputy, whose natural predilection for their co-religionists would be restrained sometimes by a sense of justice but more often by their interest in repressing misconduct likely to lead to disorders.