The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c8.34

c8.34

Great importance is attached by several scholars to ‘Alā-u’d-dīn’s conversation with Qāḍī Mughīth.³ An analysis of what the sultan has been alleged to have said will show that there was no difference of opinion between the qāḍī and his royal patron on the question of the necessity of following the *shar‘*. The sultan protested that in certain respects expediency had led him in the same direction as the law; in certain other matters he had enforced the *shar‘* as an act of devotion. The fundamental difference arose on the questions of punishments, ‘Alā-u’d-dīn’s appropriation of the booty he had won in the Deccan campaign before he came to the throne, and the extent of the sultan’s private expenditure. The sultan attributed his harshness in enforcing orders to the unnecessary contumacy of his people, nor can it be said justifiably that the *shar'* is at all partial to those who disobey their legitimate rulers and obstruct them in running the administration, particularly when the lands of Islam have to be defended against odds. There could be room for difference of opinion on the question of the treasures which the monarch had brought from Deogīr as a prince, for the expedition was undertaken neither at the instance of the sultan, Jalāl-u’d-dīn Fīrūz, nor with the resources of the state. ‘Alā-u’d-dīn argued that he had won this booty by his personal endeavour unaided by the state, and, therefore, was entitled to its possession.