Mughal Administration c12.s1.2

c12.s1.2

It found an easier lodgement in the Islamic State. That State is a theocracy, and its sovereign, in strict theory, is God's representative on earth. He is the commander of the faithful in the battlefield and the public prayer alike. He is the only Khalifa of the time, and if he is worthy of his position then the mantle of the Arabian Prophet has descended on him, and he ought to be not only the leader of the national army but also the highest living exponent of the faith (*mujtahid*) and leader in prayer (*Imam.*) Only the military type of the State and exigencies which made a rude unlettered soldier instead of a deeply-read theologian the only successful sovereign in most Islamic lands throughout the middle ages, prevented this claim from maturing. The actual experience of a long series of centuries gradually disabused the public mind of the idea that the Sultan was necessarily also the Mujtahid or Imam. But he might be so.