The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c14.1.1

c14.1.1

MUSLIM jurists classify governorships into two broad divisions: *imārat-i-‘āmma* or *tafwīḍ* and *imārat-i-khāṣṣah*. The former carries limited and the latter unlimited authority. If unlimited governorship has been acquired by force as the result of successful rebellion, it is called *imārat-i-istīlā*. The *amīr*, as the jurists call the governor, exercised, if his powers were unlimited, all the authority of a semi-independent monarch within his dominions. He organized and posted the army; he appointed the judicial officers, raised the taxes, managed the finances and enforced the *shar‘*; he was the protector and defender of the Faith. The governor with limited powers was entrusted only with the supervision of the troops, the punishment of criminals and rebels, and home defence. He was not allowed to intervene in the administration of justice or the levy of taxes. Nor was he given the right to lead prayers or act as the spiritual head of the people. The *qāḍīs* and the revenue officials were appointed by the sovereign.¹ The sultanate of Dehlī possessed governors of all three types in the course of its history. Lakhnautī, because of its inaccessibility and distance, was for a long time in the hands of an almost independent governor, and then became the capital of independent Bengal.