Mughal Administration c10.s5.13

c10.s5.13

∗ In strict legality, the death sentence for highway robbery could be pronounced only by a qazi and not by the king or any of his civil officers independently. Aurangzib, soon after his accession, beheaded five hundred robbers as a warning to all lawless men. (*Storia*, ii. 4.) But towards the end of his reign he changed his opinion about his powers and regulated his conduct in strict conformity with the Quranic law. He, therefore, severely censured one of his highest generals, who had put a highway robber to death, and urged him to place all such cases before the qazi in future. (*Ahkam*, § 34.) See § 8 below.