The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s3.2

c8.s3.2

The administrative system of Islam had evolved gradually. In Arabia, in its earliest stages, the problem was to provide the new converts made by Muhammad with subsistence. They were indigent and poor, and to help them, poor tax (*zakat*), voluntary contributions, and war-booty (*ghanaim*) formed the revenue of the state at the start. Muhammad was followed (632 C.E.) by a succession of Caliphs at Medina.⁷⁷ According to Mawardi (who wrote in the fifth century of Islam), the Imamate, or Caliphate, was divinely ordained and the Khalifa inherited all the powers and privileges of the Prophet.⁷⁸ The four Schools of Islamic jurisprudence also made the Khalifa ecclesiastical as well as secular head of the Muslim world. The title of *Amir-ul-Mauminin* indicated and emphasised the secular, that of Imam the religious leadership of the Caliph.⁷⁹ His name had a hallow and a charm, and the institutions which developed under his rule became models of governance in the world of Islam. The Caliph Muawiyah (66189 C.E.) transformed the republican Caliphate into a monarchy and created a governing class of leading Arab tribes.⁸⁰ These two institutions - kingship and nobility became an integral part of Islamic polity. After the Umayyad came the Abbasid Caliphs. They established their capital in the newly built city of Baghdad situated on the borders of Persia. The Abbasids were more religious and devoted to the mission of Islam, but they came under the irresistible influence of superior Persian culture and Persian institutions. The Abbasid dynasty lasted for full five centuries (752-1258 C.E.), and under it different branches of administrative machinery were greatly elaborated and new departments and offices created. If the Quran contained almost nothing that may be called civic or state legislation, Persian theories and practices filled the lacuna. Persian court etiquette, Persian army organisation,⁸¹ administrative system, postal service, conferment of robes of honour, and many similar institutions were all adopted and developed under the Abbasids.