The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.63

c7.63

In the eastern lands of Islam the legal position of the Abbasids was unquestioned. It almost became an article of orthodox belief to recognize their supremacy, for the Fatimids identified themselves with the Shī‘ahs. No orthodox Muslim could think of owning allegiance to the Fatimids without abjuring his sect. The Sunnī jurists could not help exaggerating the claims of the Abbasid caliphs in fighting the vigorous propaganda of the Bāṭinīs. Writers like Ibn Khaldūn emphasized the religious aspect of the caliphate by rejecting the idea of its rational necessity and basing it entirely on the shar‘.¹ So great was the prestige of the Abbasid caliphs that a powerful ruler like the Buwayhid ‘Aḍud-u’d-dawlah, made a pretence of complete submission and reverence before the puppet caliph Ṭā‘ī‘ whose name he used to maintain his own authority. That ‘Aḍud-u’d-dawlah being a Shī‘ah could not believe in Ṭā‘ī‘s legal sovereignty is obvious.² Maḥmūd of Ghaznah could threaten the caliph, but he also sought recognition from him.³ Even the mighty Saljūqs, who ruled the largest empire of their day, could not ignore the caliph’s legal position. In short no monarchy considered itself legally established without recognition by the Commander of the Faithful. Niẓāmī-i-‘Arūḍī has put the legal position well when he explains that a monarch is a lieutenant of the caliph to administer the outlying parts of the commonwealth which cannot be easily governed by one authority from the centre. Just as the Prophet is the vicegerent of God and the caliph the vicegerent of the Prophet, the monarch is the vicegerent of the caliph.⁴ Thus it would appear that no area where the caliph was recognized could be legally independent. Even the rulers of states on whom he was politically dependent were legally subordinate to him. *De jure* he was the sovereign, no one could rule without his consent. Writing as late as the middle of the fifteenth century Khalīl bin Shāhīn aẓ-Ẓāhirī says about the caliph that no king of the east or the west can hold the title of sultan unless there be a covenant between him and the khalīfah.¹