The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.50
The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehlī c7.50
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c7.50.1
Too much importance cannot be attached to the treatises on politics, statecraft and law. The hold of the shar‘, the Islamic law, on the Muslim mind was profound, and the rulers took care to follow its tenets in public affairs. Even the slightest disregard led to unpopularity. Suggestions that some rulers ignored the *sharʿ* should be treated with great caution; Baranī was exceedingly strict in his notions of legal propriety and the slightest lapse on the part of the monarch condemned the ruler in the historian's eyes. The structure of the government and the functions of the officials were essentially based on legal sanctions; besides, the *sharʿ* had come to embrace a great deal of Abbasid tradition which was deeply ingrained in the administrative notions of the sultanate. Aspiring politicians and administrators studied, as an essential part of their training, the treatises on politics and the art of government. Besides, the large number of foreigners who continued to be engaged for government service kept up the Muslim tradition of administration in the sultanate. The political and legal writings of the period, therefore, form a necessary background to the history of the administration. In this respect one can transgress the limits of time and space on account of the universality of Muslim legal and political theory, though much discretion is necessary in distinguishing between the universal and abiding on the one hand and the particular and incidental on the other.
c7.50.2
A good rule is to rely mainly on the authorities recognized either universally or in India during or before our period; though one should be permitted to use information regarding an institution which is known not to have undergone a change even if that material is contained in a work written after the end of the sultanate. To take the law books first, there are the famous *Hidāyah* and *Wiqāyah* with their various commentaries. Greater interest, however, attaches to the *Fiqh-i-Fīrūz Shāhī*, a legal compendium compiled by Yaʿqūb Kirāmī and enlarged and revised under Fīrūz Shāh’s patronage, which embodies the orthodox legal view on various problems, some of administrative importance. Another book on Muslim law compiled during the period is the *Majmūʿ-i-Khānī* dedicated to Bahrām Khān who has now been identified with Muḥammad bin Tughluq's tutor, Qutlugh Khān. This work is not important, for it is really a compilation made from previous well-known books. In the sphere of statecraft, the most important works are the *Ādāb-u'l-mulūk wa kifāyat-u'l-mamlūk* and *Fatāwā-i-jahāndārī*. The first book is by Fakhr-u'd-dīn Mubārakshāh alias Fakhr-i-Mudabbir, the author of one of the histories discussed above. This work, which is also called *Ādāb-u'l-ḥarb wa'sh-shujā'ah*, was presented to Sulṭān Shams-u'd-dīn Īltutmish; it describes in great detail a number of political, administrative and military institutions. As a contemporary picture of government, its value is considerable.
c7.50.3
Although other authors mention it, an extensive use of the book has been made for the first time in this treatise. The *Fatāwā-i-jahāndārī* is by the historian Baranī who, as internal evidence shows, wrote it under Muḥammad bin Tughluq. It reveals Baranī's ideals and notions of government with clarity besides throwing light on several institutions. The *Tadhkirat-u'l-khulafā fī tawṣiyat-i'l-mulūk wa'l-umarā* is anonymous and without date but it was written in India and mentions 'Alā-u'd-dīn Khaljī and Baranī among others. The of the writers outside India, the most important is Abū-'l-Ḥasan 'Alī al-Baghdādī al-Māwardī, generally known as Imām Māwardī, who in his main work *Al-aḥkām-u's-sulṭāniyah* gives a detailed picture of the administration as he found it during the last days of the Abbasids. As he was writing from the jurist's point of view, his book had a profound influence on the subsequent development of Muslim polity. Ghazzālī wrote as a political philosopher and mystic; it was through him that Greek political ideas gained popularity in Muslim countries. Though a wazīr under the Saljūqs, Abū 'Alī Ḥasan ibn 'Alī Ṭūsī Niẓām-u'l-mulk was long regarded in Muslim lands as a master statesman and his *Siyāsat-nāmah* was the bible of Muslim administrators. So great was his influence that even the spurious *Naṣā'iḥ* enjoyed popularity; it should, however, be admitted that it is useful in throwing light on the spirit of the government in those days.
c7.50.4
'Unṣur-u'l-Ma'ālī's Qābūs-nāmah was also studied with respect by nobles and princes. Ibn Khaldūn's famous Prolegomena, Jurjī Zaydān's A't-tamaddun-u'l-Islāmī and Von Kremer's Culturgeschichte des Orients give an excellent insight into the origins of Muslim institutions and their working. For the Hindu antecedents, there are the famous nīti-shāstras besides the invaluable Arthashāstra by Kautilya.