The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s3.11

c8.s3.11

Just as the administrative system implanted in India had evolved in Iran and adjoining Islamic countries, important administrators also came from these regions to run it. With the establishment of Muslim rule, batches of Muslims began to arrive in Hindustan from Central Asia, Persia, African Muslim countries and what is now called Afghanistan. India was rich and fertile as compared with their own lands and with the extension of Muslim political power in India, many emigrants - soldiers and administrators - attracted by the abundance of wealth in cash and kind - began to flock to Hindustan. Minhaj Siraj says that people from Persia (and adjoining countries) came to India in various capacities.¹⁰⁷ Fakhr-ul-Mulk Isami, who had been Wazir at Baghdad for thirty years, but then had suffered some disappointment, arrived in India and was appointed Wazir by Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish.¹⁰⁸ Qazi Hamiduddin Nagori had also come from abroad. Thus from Wazir downwards the foreign Muslim elite filled all important offices in administration. Because of the Mongol upheaval twenty-five princes with their retinues from Iraq, Khurassan and Mawaraun Nahr arrived at the court of Iltutmish. During the reign of Sultan Balban fifteen more refugee princes came from Turkistan, Mawaraun Nahr, Khurasan, Iran, Azarbaijan, Rum and Sham.¹⁰⁹ From among these hundreds of officials must have been appointed to administrative positions in the Sultanate of Delhi. The Abbasid tradition thus gained a firm footing in the administration of the Sultanate of Delhi.¹¹⁰