The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s3.10

c8.s3.10

The Sultanate of Delhi, and more particularly the Mughal empire, possessed a highly unified and systematized bureaucratic apparatus the central point of which was the mansab or numerical rank. *Mansab* (introduced by emperor Akbar in 1573) defined the status and income of the holder, although titles of nobles in Persian, Turkish and Arabic sometimes make it difficult for us to form an idea of the exact grading. An elaborate bureaucratic administrative set up tends to be top-heavy and slow-moving. But the Turkish and Mughal administrative system was not so. Decision making was quick and so was action. It did not mean that the administration was all good. For example, if the theory of taxation was clear there were just four taxes-*Kharaj*, *Jiziyah*, *Khums* and *Zakat*-and collection rates and procedures clearly defined.¹⁰⁵ But the taxes actually levied far exceeded these. Many *abwabs* (cesses) were cropping up from time to time so that, in spite of the measures taken by Alauddin Khalji, Firoz Tughlaq, Sher Shah and Akbar to increase and also keep control over the income of the state, no system of assessment and collection could be discovered that was satisfactory both to the cultivator and the state.¹⁰⁶