The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c16.s3.4

c16.s3.4

The reading of the first sentence, in my opinion, is wrong. Blochmann translates the sentence as, "Of the first two kinds of land, there are three classes: good, middling and bad. They add together the produce of each sort and a third of this represents the medium produce, one-third of which is exacted as the royal dues." Abū-'l-Faḍl is speaking of the classification of land by Akbar into polaj, parautī, chāchar and banjar. Blochmann's reading would imply that the first two kinds of land were further subdivided into three classes to calculate an average. This is too complicated a system and does not seem to have been adopted. I think the text should be read without a stop after زبون as follows:—