The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c11.155.1

c11.155.1

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;