The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c22.13

c22.13

*The Centre.* This division was known either by the Chaghatāe word *qūl* (P. de C. 433) or the Arabic words *qalb*, literally “heart”, and *ghol*, “troop”, “assemblage”. For example, Khāfī Khān, ii, 876 uses *qūl* and the *Risālah-i-Mḥd. Shāh*, fol. 113*b*, uses *ghol*. *Qūl* also means slave in Chaghatāe. Perhaps the centre was called by this name, because it was formed out of the personal retainers or slaves of the leader or sovereign. Another name for the centre is *qamargah*, *Mirāt-i-Aḥmadī* (circa 1170 H.) fol. 177*b*. This word is more usually applied to the circle within which game was driven by troops used as beaters. It was also a term of fortification (see farther on under “Sieges”). It was in the centre that the leader took up his station with his standards displayed.