The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c9.s3.15

c9.s3.15

Thus there was corruption in the army, in civil administration and in the royal mint. Hoarding, black-marketing and bribery were commonly practised. Even the judiciary was not free from corruption, and that too during the reign of a strong and stern monarch like Alauddin. Talking of Qazi Hamiduddin Multani, Ziyauddin Barani cryptically remarks, it would not be proper to write about his qualities in history. He also says that not the godfearing and abstemious but corruptible, greedy and mundane people were appointed as judges.⁵⁶ His one complaint was that judges used to stretch the meaning of the Quranic texts to carry out the wishes of the Sultans.⁵⁷ The indictment by Maulana Shamsuddin Turk of the judiciary of the day is also worth citing. The Maulana who hailed from Egypt, addressed a letter to Alauddin saying that ill-fated wiseacres of black faces sat in mosques with abominable law books and made money by cheating both the accuser and the accused, and the Qazis did not bring these facts to the notice of the king.⁵⁸ It is said that Shamsuddin Turk was opposed to Qazi Hamiduddin, and therefore wrote in such a way, but in *Mutla-i-Anwar*, Amir Khusrau also observes that the Qazis were ignorant of the principles of law. The appointment of Ibn Battuta, who did not know a word of law, as the Qazi of the capital by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, came to him as the greatest surprise.