Mughal Administration c6.s4: § 4. The Wazir or Chancellor.
Mughal Administration c6.s4
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§ 4. The Wazir or Chancellor.
c6.s4.1
'Wazir'* in the Mughal empire meant the prime-minister. It was an honorific title, without necessarily implying the charge of any particular branch of the administration. He was, no doubt, always the head of the revenue department, but it was in his capacity of *diwān*. All *diwāns*, however, were not wazirs, and we read of no Hindu *diwān* being given the high title of wazir. In Akbar's reign, however, the prime-minister was designated as *wakil*, while the finance minister was called *wazir*; there were also a *diwān-i-kul*, and *diwāns* of *jagir*, of *buyutāt*, and of charitable grants (*sadāt*). [*Ain.* i. 260-268.]
c6.s4.2
∗ Scholars derive the word wazir from the Pahlavi root vichir (? Sanskrit vichār), meaning 'to judge'. Under the earlier Khalifs the Secretary of State was called the Kātib,
c6.s4.3
Originally, the wazir was the highest officer of the revenue department, and in the natural course of events control over the other departments gradually passed into his hands. It was only when the king was incompetent, a pleasure-seeker or a minor, that the wazir controlled the army also. Thus, in its origin the wazir's post was a civil one, and his assumption of the supreme military direction was abnormal and a mark of imperial decadence. No doubt, the wazir, like every other high official
c6.s4.4
*i.e.*, writer. But the Abbasides who borrowed much of the Persian administrative system, were the first to style him *wazir*. Gradually the wazir added to his original function of letters that of the head of the Treasury and even the right to decide petitions. Under the Ottoman Turks the number of wazirs varied, sometimes reaching seven. "As a rule, *wazir* in later times was simply a title of the high officials." [*Enc. Isl.* iv. 1135.] This was also the case in the Deccani Sultanates, where any high official (like Shahji Bhonsle or the Abyssinian Yaqut Khan of Janjira) was called a wazir. Not so in North India.
c6.s4.5
of the Mughal Government, was expected to command an army and often did actually lead a short expedition, but the necessity of his constant attendance on the Emperor prevented him from taking charge of military operations for a long time or at a distance from the imperial camp.
c6.s4.6
The wazir's office received all revenue papers and returns and despatches from the provinces and the field armies. He also acted as the king's representative on many ceremonial occasions. He wrote letters "by order" (hasb-ul-hukm) in his own person though under the Emperor's directions. All orders for payment, except for small sums or money previously allotted, had to be signed by the diwān, and the payment (except to the field army and the workmen of the State factories) was made through his department only. So, too, all questions connected with the collection of the revenue were decided by the diwan, who consulted the Emperor in important cases and frequently reported to him the state of the Treasury. Some of the famous wazirs of the Mughal period were also masters of Persian prose and they acted as secretaries in drafting royal letters to foreign rulers on behalf of their masters.
c6.s4.7
It was only under the degenerate descendants of Aurangzib that the wazirs became virtual rulers of the State, like the Mayors of the Palace in mediæval France.