History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.214

c12.214

Besides the land revenue the state had other sources of income. In the matter of taxation the Sultan adopted a policy which was in marked contrast with the orthodox tradition. The exponents of this school sanctioned only four taxes—*Khirāj*, *Zakāt*, *Jeziyah* and *Khams*, which are permitted by the sacred law. The recognised practice of the time was—and the orthodox jurists of the Hanafi School strongly advocated it—that the Hindus should be taxed heavily as they had been in the reign of ‘Ala-al-Din. The Jeziya seems to have been levied, for it was demanded when the emperor of China sought the Sultan’s permission to repair a Buddhist shrine near Sambhal.⁸⁸ The Sultan did not submit to the advice of the ‘Ulama and continued to levy a number of taxes. Ibn Batūṭah writes that after his acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the Egyptian Khalifah in 741 A.H. the Sultan abolished all taxes except ‘*Ushr* and *Zakāt*.⁸⁹ The statement of Ibn Batūṭah is partially corroborated by ‘Ain-al-Mulk Multani, a contemporary writer, who in one of his letters makes mention of the abolition of certain taxes by Sultan Muhammad among which he names the *mandavah*, *takah*, *māl maujūd*, *Chahār bāzār*, *Zarāyab*, *Guzrahā* and *Khirāj mutharfah*. It does not appear that these taxes were abolished for ever, for the author of the *Sirat* gives a long list of taxes which were abolished by Firuz after his accession to the throne, and his statement is corroborated by the Sultan himself who in his autobiographical memoir, the *Fatuhat-i-Firuz Shahi* takes credit for abolishing a number of unlawful taxes. The taxes mentioned by the author of the *Sirat* are⁹⁰ :—