INDIA UNDER THE DELHI SULTANATE : Medieval Indian History

Administration

The Delhi Sultanate had a highly organized and effective administrative system right from the start. There was no time wasted in setting up this administration, as it arose out of the chaotic conditions that prevailed in north India after the Muslim conquest.

One of the main tasks of an empire is to collect revenue for its sustenance and governance. Keeping this in mind, the sultans established their control over the people of India through an efficient network of officials. The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic state with its religion Islam.

The Sultans considered themselves as representatives of the Caliph. They included the name of the Caliph in the khutba or prayer and inscribed it on their coins.

Although Balban called himself the shadow of God, he continued to practice of including the name of Caliph in the khutba and coins.

Iltutmish, Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firoz Tughlaq obtained mansur or letter of permission from the Caliph.

There was no clear law of succession during this period. All the sons had equal claim to the throne. Iltutmish even nominated his daughter in preference to his sons.

Central Government

The post of Naib was the most powerful one under Sultanate. He had general control over all the departments, but his powers were limited to civil administration matters only.

Next to him was the Wazir who was heading the finance department called Diwani Wizarat. A number of fiscal agents were responsible for collecting taxes from provinces through Ain-i-Akbari system.

The military department was called Diwani Ariz. It was headed by Ariz-i-mumalik. He was responsible for recruiting the soldiers and administering the military department.

He was not the commander-in-chief of the army. The Sultan himself was the commander-in-chief of the army. The military department was first set up by Balban and it was further improved by Alauddin Khalji under whom the strength of the army crossed three lakh soldiers.

Alauddin introduced the system of branding of the horses and payment of salary in cash. Cavalry was given importance under the Delhi Sultanate.

Diwani Rasalat was the department of religious affairs. It was headed by chief Sadr. Head of the judicial department was the chief Qazi

Muslim personal law or sharia was followed in civil matters. The Hindus were governed by their own personal law and their cases were dispensed by the village panchayats.

The criminal law was based on the rules and regulations made by the Sultans. The department of correspondence was called Diwani Insha

Local Administration

The muqta was the civil and military chief of the district. He looked after the collection of land revenue, the appointment of qazis and imams, and regulated public grants.

The muqta enjoyed a high rank and a large salary. There were a number of administrative departments under him.

The provinces were divided into shiqs and the next division was pargana. The shiq was under the control of shiqdar.

The pargana comprising a number of villages was headed by amil. The village remained the basic unit of the administration. The village headman was known as muqaddam or chaudhri. The village accountant was called patwari

Economy

A distinction was made on the basis of soil quality and the kind of crops grown on it. The lands were classified into three categories:

1. Iqta land — lands assigned to officials as iqtas instead of payment for their services.
2. Khalisa land — land under the direct control of the Sultan and the revenues collected were spent for the maintenance of royal court and royal household.
3. Inam land — land assigned or granted to religious leaders or religious institutions. The peasantry paid one third of their produce as land revenue, and sometimes even one half of the produce.

Sultans like Muhammad bi Tughlaq and Firoz Tughlaq took efforts to enhance agricultural production by providing irrigational facilities and by providing takkavi loans.

They also encouraged the farmers to cultivate superior crop like wheat instead of barley. Firoz encouraged the growth of horticulture.

During the Sultanate period, the process of urbanization gained momentum.

Lahore, Multan, Broach, Anhilwara, Laknauti, Daulatabad, Delhi and Jaunpur were important among them. Delhi remained the largest city in the East.

India exported a large number of commodities to the countries on the Persian Gulf and West Asia and also to South East Asian countries.

Overseas trade was under the control of Multanis and Afghan Muslims. Inland trade was dominated by the Gujarat Marwari merchants and Muslim Bohra.

Cotton textile and silk industry flourished in this period. Paper industry had grown and there was an extensive use of paper from 14th and 15th centuries

The system of coinage had also developed during the Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish issued several types of silver tankas. One silver tanka was divided into 48 jitals during the Khalji rule and 50 jitals during the Tughlaq rule.

Social Life

Traditionally a Brahmin was a person who participated in post-Vedic rituals and sacrifices by offering his own knowledge or collected from other Brahmin families through oral renditions of the sacred Vedas.

The Brahmin, being the highest caste, were the religious leaders as well as warriors of India at that time.

They were also credited for bringing about good governance within their kingdom by maintaining law and order. In addition, they controlled the economy by collecting taxes and even regulating trade activity.

Arabs and Turks brought the purdah system into India and it became widespread among the Hindu women in the upper classes of north India.

During the Sultanate period, the Muslim society remained divided into several ethnic and racial groups. The Turks, Iranians, Afghans and Indian Muslims developed exclusively and there were no intermarriages between these groups. Hindu converts from lower castes were also not given equal respect.

The Muslim nobles occupied high offices and very rarely the Hindu nobles were given high position in the government. The Hindus were considered zimmis or protected people for which they were forced to pay a tax called

Art and Architecture

A lot of attention and money was spent on the decoration and fashioning of buildings. Apart from employing Persian and Turkish architects, due to the prominence is given to architecture in the Islamic religion, many Indian artisans were also involved in developing the Delhi Sultanate style.

A number of Sufi saints and amirs contributed by building madrasas, tombs, and mosques or embellishing pre-existing ones with frescoes, glazed tiles, and marble latticework.

Turks introduced arches, domes, lofty towers or minarets and decorations using the Arabic script. In the beginning, they converted temples and other structures demolished into mosques. For example, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque near Qutub Minar in Delhi was built by using the materials obtained from destroying many Hindu and Jain temples.

But later, they began to construct new structures. The most magnificent building of the 3th century was the Qutub Minar which was founded by Aibek and completed by Iltutmish. This seventy one metre tower was dedicated to the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakthiyar Kaki

Later, Alauddin Khalji added an entrance to the Qutub Minar called Alai Darwaza. The done of this arch was built on scientific lines.

The buildings of the Tughlaq period were constructed by combining arch and dome. They also used the cheaper and easily available grey colour stones. The palace complex called Tughlaqabad with its beautiful lake was built during the period of Ghyasuddin.

Music

The Sultans were patrons of literature and music. Several forms of musical instruments developed during this period.

The Gharana system developed during the Delhi Sultanate era. It was a combination of five ragas with similar tonal structure but different themes, and was designed to set the mood during storytelling.

The Qawalis form was developed in Sufi shrines in India, when Sufis would tell stories from the holy books in a musical way.

The invention of sitar was also attributed to him. The Indian classical work Ragadarpan was translated into Persian during the reign of Firoz Tughlaq. Pir Bhodan, a Sufi saint was one of the great musicians of this period.

Raja Man Singh of Gwalior was a great lover of music. He encouraged the composition of a great musical work called Man Kautuhal.

Literature

The development of Persian literature in the sub continent entered a new era in the writings of Amir Khusrau. The court chronicles were an important feature of the literature during the period of the Delhi Sultanate.

Ziauddin Barani made the most important contribution to Persian literature during this period. The Tarikh-I Firozshahi and the Fatwa-I Jahandari are his important works.

Ziauddin Barani was bitter critic of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-iNasari, a general history of Muslim dynasties up to 1260.

There are numerous books written on the history of Delhi under the Sultanate. Barani’s Tarikh i-Firoz Shahi contains the history of Tughlaq dynasty. Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-iNasari, a general history of Muslim dynasties up to 1260.

Amir Khusrau (1252-1325) was the famous Persian writer of this period. Created a new style of Persian poetry called Sabaq i- Hind or the Indian style. He also wrote some Hindi verses Amir Khusrau’s Khazain-ul-Futuh speaks about Alauddin’s conquests. His famous work Tughlaq Nama deals with the rise of Ghyiasuddin Tughlaq

Zia Nakshabi was the first to translate Sanskrit stories into Persian. The book Tutu Nama or Book of the Parrot became popular and translated into Turkish and later into many European languages.

The famous Rajatarangini written by Kalhana belonged to the period of Zain-ul-Abidin, the ruler of Kashmir. In Arabic, Alberuni’s Kitab-ul-Hind is the most famous work.