The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c10.s1.5

c10.s1.5

There is an equally interesting example of such an independent protest in a seventeenth century work entitled *Tarikh-i-Salatin-i-Afghana* by Ahmad Yadgar. Writing about the strict rules of the Mughals about the law of escheat, and ruminating over the good old days of the Lodi rule, Ahmad Yadgar says: God be praised for endowing Sultan (Sikandar Lodi) with such a generous spirit (of permitting retention of any buried treasure discovered by someone). In these days (that is, of Mughal emperor Jahangir), if any one was to find even a few *tankahs*, our rulers would immediately pull down his house to examine every nook and corner for more.³⁸ If a seventeenth century chronicler could make bold to write in such a way under the very nose of the mighty Mughals, it only shows that the Muslim middle class did sometimes gather courage to ventilate public grievances. But such occassions were rare. As pointed out earlier, the Muslim educated elite, the Ulama and Mashaikh, cooperated with the Muslim regime under which they enjoyed a privileged position.