The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c10.23

c10.23

The Ādāb-u’l-mulūk gives the normal functions of a wazīr in the following passage: “The kings know well how to lead expeditions, conquer countries, give rewards and shine in the assembly or the battlefield; but it is in the domain of the wazīr to make a country prosperous, to accumulate treasures, to appoint officials, to ask for accounts, to arrange the stock-taking of the commodities in the kārkhānās and the census of the horses, camels, mules and other animals, to assemble and pay the troops and artisans, to keep the people satisfied, to look after the men of piety and of fame and to give them stipends, to take care of the widows and the orphans, to provide for the learned, to administer the affairs of the people, to organize the offices and look after their efficiency, in short, to transact the business of the state.”⁴ An analysis of this passage will show that the wazīr was the head of the entire machinery of the government. The central finance office was his immediate concern; but he was also responsible for the other offices at headquarters. He appointed and superintended the civil servants, and organized the agency for the collection of the revenue; he also exercised complete control over the various channels of expenditure. His assistants examined all the accounts submitted by the various departments of the government; it was in his office that the statements were compared, checked and passed. The wazīr took measures—sometimes humiliating and unpleasant—to recover money illegally spent by local officials. All the requirements of the military department had to be referred finally to him; his office kept accounts, disbursed salaries and allotted assignments. His department paid the stipends to deserving scholars and men of learning and distributed doles to the poor and needy. No branch of public administration was outside his purview, and every subject from the mightiest governor to the lowliest peasant in the land had dealings with him or his assistants.