The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.291

v3.c20.291

‘Alā-ud-dīn now addressed himself, in accordance with the decision at which he had arrived, to the enactment of laws for the prevention of rebellion, and, with the severity which was part of his nature, framed regulations which might have been designed to punish actual rather than forestall potential rebels. Private property was the first institution which he attacked, and he began by confiscating all religious endowments and all grants of rent-free land, both of which supported numbers of useless idlers. Tax-collectors were appointed and were instructed to extort gold, on any pretext that could be devised, from all who possessed it. The result of this ordinance, as described by the contemporary historian, was that gold was not to be found save in the houses of the great nobles, the officers of state, and the wealthiest merchants, and that excepting lands of an annual rental of a few thousand *tangas* in the neighbourhood of Delhi all rent-free grants in the kingdom were resumed.