The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c8.2

c8.2

THE sultanate of Dehlī, though legally a part of the Eastern Caliphate for a considerable part of its history, was always an independent state for all practical purposes. Even Khiḍr Khān’s acknowledgment of Tīmūr’s supremacy was merely apparent and formal. To understand the nature of this state, it will be useful if we examine contemporary political thought and ideology embodied in the writings of Muslim thinkers and jurists. It will also be worth while to discover how far these ideas conformed to Hindu notions, for any similarity between them would provide the psychological common ground without which the sultanate could not endure in the midst of an overwhelmingly Hindu population.