The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c8.80

c8.80

No feudal lord in Europe exercised a greater check on royal power than the nobles in India.⁴ The Muslim state had to exist in the midst of an alien population which was only gradually reconciled to its sway. Its doors were battered by Mongol hordes who reached the very walls of the capital. In the midst of these difficulties the sultan could not offend the powerful nobles without grave consequences, specially when some of them were heads of clans and thus had a permanent following. It was not easy to impose the royal will on them, for they considered themselves the peers of the monarch and quite capable of founding royal dynasties themselves.⁵ Their relationship to the throne varied according to the character and capabilities of the monarch. If the wise Buhlūl could at need humble