History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c7.63.3

c7.63.3

He had raised the land tax to 50 per cent and levied in addition to this a house tax and a grazing tax.³⁸ Ghiyas seems to have maintained this rate, but he was especially careful to avoid inequitable enhancement, for the Hindus were treated severely, and Barani writes that only a bare subsistence was left to them.³⁹ Muhammad had no capable minister like Sharaf Qai to carry out thoroughly the work of assessment, nor was his scheme of revised taxation enforced at an opportune moment. He felt that the Doab did not contribute enough to the revenues of the state, and therefore decided to enhance the taxes. Mr. Gardner Brown's statement that the new taxation was not heavy, indeed, lighter than was subsequently levied is not justified by facts, for Firuz levied 1/10th as the right of Sharb or irrigation with the advice of the doctors of the law in addition to the Khiraj allowed by the orthodox school. The Fawāyad-i-Firuz Shahi, a work on Muslim law, written during the reign of Firuz Shah, divides Khiraj into two classes—the Khiraj-i-Wazifah, i.e., the fixed tribute in the shape of money or grain which was taken from the conquered and the Khiraj-i-muqāsimah which ranged from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, the last rate being the maximum allowed.⁴⁰ There is no evidence in the contemporary works to the effect that the maximum was ever reached under Firuz. On the contrary, we read of the cheapness of prices and of the abolition of as many as 23 taxes during his reign.⁴¹