The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c12.173

c12.173

The ministry for religious affairs was under the ṣadr-u’ṣ-ṣudūr who, throughout the period, was also the qāḍi-i-mumālik, or the chief judge of the empire.¹ His activities as the ṣadr will be discussed later; it is necessary first to describe the organization of justice. The sultan as the chief enforcer of the Law and head of the state exercised three functions which touched the administration of justice in several respects. He was the defender of the Faith and the arbitrator in the disputes of his subjects: he was the head of the bureaucracy; he was the commander-in-chief of the forces.² In his first capacity he dispensed justice through the dīwān-i-qaḍā; in his second capacity through the dīwān-i-maẓālim; while he himself or his military commanders sat as a court-martial to try rebels, though it was considered necessary to obtain a ruling from qualified lawyers.³ Muḥammad bin Tughluq, who probably had more men executed than all the other sultans of Dehlī put together, had to organize a separate department called dīwān-i-siyāsat, for the number of cases was so large that special jurists had to be employed.⁴ It is significant that even he did not condemn a man to death until he had overcome the jurists with his arguments. The lawyers would have had a better chance against a less learned monarch.