The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.37

c7.37

Legally the sultanate of Dehli was a part of the Eastern Caliphate; even when the line of Baghdād caliphs came to an end, the fiction of allegiance to a khalīfah was kept alive for a short while when Quṭb-u’d-dīn Mubārak Shāh assumed the caliphate. Muḥammad bin Tughluq acknowledged the supremacy of the Egyptian Abbasids; Khiḍr Khān, the first Sayyid ruler, was a vassal of Tīmūr and Shāh Rukh; subsequent sultans maintained the tradition of owning allegiance to a nameless caliph. In actual practice the sultanate was an independent empire exercising all the authority of a sovereign state. The form of the government was despotic; the sultan was the head of the state and its chief military commander. He was, legally, subordinate to the Muslim Law, which it was his duty to protect and enforce. He had no authority to alter the Law in its essentials, though he had a limited right to interpret it. With this reservation, his power was absolute, though it was checked by various political factors, which will be discussed later. The sultan was the pivot of the administration; his court was the very centre of the political and social life of the empire. Majesty surrounded itself with an elaborate ceremonial; etiquette was exacting; a numerous staff was necessary to maintain the splendour of the court; there was a large force of household troops. The sultan was the greatest patron of learning and art; he was the fountain-head of honour and patronage. These factors made the royal household an important department whose head was the wakīl-i-dar. Proximity to the sultan being a source of pride and power, the household embraced some of the greatest dignitaries of the state; it also maintained a large number of kārkhānahs which supplied the court as well as departments of the government with provisions, stores and equipment.