The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c11.155
The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehlī c11.155
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Assignments. Hieun Tsang mentions that all ministers of state and common officials were paid by assignments.⁵ This shows that the system of granting the produce of a defined area of land in return of services was common in India before its conquest by Muslims, who themselves had developed it fully under the Abbasids and the dynasties which arose as the result of the weakening of the caliphate.⁶ The Ghaznavids as well as the Ghorids adopted it widely, and when the sultanate of Dehlī was established, the easiest method of bringing the new dominions under proper control was to carve it out into aqṭā's. The assignment system continued throughout the period, though it was restricted considerably by some sultans. 'Alā-u'd-dīn Khalji refrained from giving many assignments, for he thought they encouraged the nobles to rebel.⁷ Quṭb-u'd-dīn Mubārak Shāh was too generous in giving *aqṭā‘s*.¹ The founder of the next dynasty, Ghiyāth-u’d-dīn Tughluq, though anxious to keep tax-farmers away from the ministry, does not seem to have interfered with assignments. As regards the next reign, we know definitely that the personal salaries of all high officials were paid by assigning to them the revenue of “towns and villages.”² Such grants became even more numerous under Fīrūz Shāh;
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with the increase of power away from the centre, assignments changed in nature and grew bigger, for every chieftain with some following could carve out a domain for himself.³ When the Sayyids established some sort of order, the Lodīs and other Afghāns gained in power and importance and became holders of large areas. Under their own government the Afghāns divided the whole empire into large assignments. There had occurred a profound change in the nature of assignments. When the earlier sultans gave only partially conquered areas to their nobles, or the nobles, of their own accord, extended their domain and conquered new regions for themselves, it is obvious that these nobles must have possessed practically independent power. Indeed the conquest of Bengal by Muḥammad bin Bakht-yār Khaljī and his previous conquest of Bihār show that the central government had little share in these exploits.⁴ As late as Balban’s time, assignments seemed to be in the possession of the holders. Baranī relates that Balban ordered the resumption of the assignments of certain soldiers who were too old to fight. Fakhr-u’d-dīn, the *kotwāl*, interceded successfully, and these men were left in possession of the villages. These soldiers were members of the central corps, the *qalb*; and the assignments had been given by Īltutmish. The picturesque details recorded by Baranī show that these men were in actual possession and did not merely receive a fixed amount from the local officials;
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in fact they had come to regard these villages as their hereditary property.¹ Subsequently the nature of the assignment changed and the holder was only entitled to the revenue of the area; he had no right to manage it.² This was certainly the position under Muḥammad bin Tughluq and his successor.³ It is not possible to date the change precisely, but it was probably due to ‘Alā-u’d-dīn Khaljī who curbed the power of the nobles in so many ways. He probably did not confiscate assignments, but took over their management. This reform, however, was swamped in the anarchy after Tīmūr’s invasions; Farīd, the future Sher Shāh, found it difficult to persuade Afghān nobles that the parganah under his control was not hereditary property but an assignment from the emperor and, therefore, could not be divided among his brothers like personal belongings. This happened in spite of Sikandar Lodī’s efforts; in the royal communication granting an aqṭā‘ to the successor of an Afghān noble, it is clearly mentioned that the grant was made in the assignee’s personal capacity, not because he was a relation of the late noble.⁴ We also know that Farīd managed the assignment and the entire control rested in his hands.⁵ There can be little doubt that the Afghāns had brought a good many notions from Roh. In the matter of assignments the trooper was not different from the noble except in the size of his holding.
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After the close of the dynasty of Shams-u’d-dīn Īltutmish, on whose assignments light is thrown by Baranī’s story already quoted, the granting of assignments to troopers was looked upon with disfavour; it was only under Fīrūz Shāh that the practice once again became common.⁶ The Sayyids adopted the method of paying even merchants by giving them payment orders on some parganahs. Dā’ūdī mentions an instance when an order drawn by Sulṭān Muḥammad, Khiḍr Khān’s grandson, was not honoured.¹ The land reserved to produce cash income for the central government was called *khāliṣah*.² No assignments were granted from this land. The assignees cannot be called middlemen even when they collected the revenue themselves, for they were expected to collect only the state demand. They acted as agents of the sultan, and were not intermediaries.