The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c11.155.4

c11.155.4

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.