History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.139

c12.139

Ibn Batūṭah, whose evidence is more reliable because he himself held the office of Qazi at the capital writes that twice a week on Monday and Thursday the Sultan held his court of justice in the Hall of Audience (Dīwān-i-Khānah), when only four *amirs* were allowed to be present near him.⁴⁴ These were *amir-i-Ḥājib*, Khās Ilōjib, *Sayyid-al-Ḥujjāb*, and *Sharaf-al-Ḥujjāb*. The Sultan knew that the aggrieved persons would find it difficult to obtain access to him and therefore he posted four amirs at the four gates and ordered them to record the complaints of the public. If a complainant could not get his complaint recorded at the first gate, he went to the amir at the second gate, and if he failed there also then to the third and lastly to the fourth, if the former refused to admit his complaint. In case the last refused, the complainant was permitted to go to the Sadr-i-Jahan and failing him he could approach the Sultan. A great many men must have been denied justice in this system of checks and counterchecks, but it illustrates the Sultan's solicitude for justice and his readiness to redress grievances. The Sultan used to examine all these records in the evening, and if any case in which an officer refused to do his duty was brought to his notice, he strongly reprimanded him.