Mughal Administration c13.s6.4

c13.s6.4

The information at our disposal does not enable us to distinguish between the limits of work of the *Bait-ul-mal* and those of the other charity fund which the Emperor used to place in the hands of the *Sadar* or Civil Judge and Almoner. The *zakat* or tithe of 2½ per cent on the incomes of Muslims had to be devoted solely to pious works, such as maintaining Islamic scholars, students of theology, monks and beggars, giving dowries to maidens, &s. Strictly speaking, the *zakat* ought to have been paid into the treasury of the *Bait-ul-mal*, because the king could not lawfully touch any portion of it for his own use. Manucci tells us that in the closing years of Aurangzib's reign, when the Deccan war had exhausted his treasury and he was beset by financial embarrassment, the Emperor at first wished to open and use the contents of the great storehouses filled with goods left by deceased persons, or with property collected in Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan's time from the men, great or small, who had been servants of the State. But afterwards he ordered these storehouses not to be opened—lest the officials should steal more than half of the things in his absence from his northern capitals. (*Storia*, ii. 255.)