The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.40

c7.40

The head of the civil administration was the wazīr; his special domain was financial organization and administration. He was assisted by a nā’ib wazīr, the mushrif-i-mumālik and the mustaufī-i-mumālik. The first was a general assistant, the second the accountant-general and the third the auditor-general of the realm; later the mushrif was the accounts officer responsible for income and the mustaufī for expenditure. The nāẓir supervised the agency for collecting revenue; the waqūf, who was added later, controlled the expenditure. The barīd-i-mumālik was in charge of the royal post and news agency. The qāḍi-i-mumālik was the chief justice; he was responsible for the enforcement of the shar‘; in addition he was usually the ṣadr-u’ṣ-ṣudūr, and as such he controlled the department of religious affairs, pious foundations and education. The amīr-i-dād enforced the decisions of the judges and brought culprits before the qāḍis; he presided over the maẓālim court in the absence of the sultan. The kotwāl was the head of the police. The muḥtasib was the censor of public morals; he stopped flagrant breaches of decency or law, prevented actions tantamount to a public nuisance, and controlled prices and markets. The muḥtasib, the kotwāl and the amīr-i-dād worked in close co-operation.