The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c8.36

c8.36

Qāḍī Mughīth was a little too exacting on the question of the sultan’s personal expenditure. He laid before the sultan the ideal of the early caliphs who preferred to live a life of poverty rather than burden the public treasury with heavy expenditure. That ideal had long vanished and was found only in text-books of maxims; very few jurists have laid any great stress on the limitation of the royal expenditure, realizing well that the grandeur of the monarch’s court was a public institution of great value. Nor could ‘Alā-u’d-dīn be justly accused of extravagance, for he is reported to have been one of the most careful monarchs in the matter of economy. “Qāḍī Mughīth! Though I have no learning and have hardly read a book,” protested the sultan, “yet I am a Muslim and a descendant of generations of Muslims.” The sultan then explained that he was ignorant of the law, but his severity was mostly directed against evil-doers in the best traditions of religion.