History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c11.128

c11.128

(4) It appears that they were employed as officers to collect revenue and also served as military men to keep order, for there was no clear line of demarcation in those times between the civil and military departments. Ibn Batūṭah speaks of the " *hazārah* " (thousand) of Amroha which included 1,500 villages and which was placed in charge of 'Aziz Khummār (III, p. 436) and in another place speaking of the revenue organisation of the country he says that a group of 100 villages is called *sadi* (صدی) in Hindustan which is placed under a *chowdhri* who is generally a Hindu and a treasurer (*muṭṣarrif*) who collects the revenue (III, p. 388). He also speaks of *amirs sadi* and *amirs Hazāri*. Hājji-ad-Dabīr in one place speaks of them as *Umrah Māliyah*. When the *Khirāj* was enhanced in the Doab, the same authority writes that the *Umrah Sadah* employed great rigour in the collections. It makes it quite clear that one of the duties of these *amirs* was to collect the taxes.