The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.143

c7.143

Fīrūz Shāh proudly records his belief in the necessity of obtaining recognition from the Abbasid caliphs as well as the fact that he received letters patent granting him “absolute authority and the lieutenancy of the caliphate” with the title of ‘the chief of the sultans’.³ Fīrūz received the emissaries with great humility and prostrated himself in the direction of the caliph’s capital when he received the standards and robes for himself, the heir-apparent and the prime minister.⁴ He sent appropriate presents in return to the caliph.⁵ This auspicious event, in Baranī’s opinion, was the cause of the peace and prosperity of the sultan’s reign and of the loyalty of his people.⁶ Fīrūz did not go to the extreme of excluding from the *khuṭbah* the names of the sultans who had not received a similar recognition in the past and gave orders that they should once again be mentioned.⁷ His coins bear the names of Abū-’l-‘Abbās Aḥmad and Abū-’l-Fatḥ al-Mu‘taṣid-bi’llāh,