System of Administration under Delhi Sultanate

The system of administration in Dehli Sultanat was a beautiful mixture of best practices
and sound principles of administration and it was the key contribution of the rulers of
that time since then, administration has been an important aspect of study of
governance in the history of sub continent. It is a main discipline studied by modern
historian and experts of governance. Administration was divided in to three tires:
1. Central Administration
2. Provincial Administration
3. Local Administration

1. Central Administration of Delhi Sultanate

Sultan – as Head of Government

Sovereign-The ruler (Sultan) was the supreme sovereign according to the Islamic
theory of sovereignty. All Muslim kings through the world were his subordinates. During
the Sultanate period, the power of the Caliph was at its zenith. Even if a governor
became an independent king, he had to invoke the sanction of the Caliph’s name and
called himself his vassal. In fact, the rulers of the Sultanate period always tried to
maintain a formal relation with the Islamic world.
Agent of Allah-Following the Islamic theory the Sultans of Delhi were considered to be
the agent of Allah, i.e. God and it was his duty to enforce the divine laws expressed by
the Holy Quran. He was thus the chief executive.
As head of Administration-The real head of the administration of Delhi Sultanate was
the king or Sultan himself. The Sultan at his death bed could also nominate his heirs
and that was recognized by all other nobles.
Succession-There was no hereditary principle of succession. Theoretically the office of
the Sultan was open to all but in practice the Sultanate was restricted to the immigrant
Turkes. Later on it became restricted to a smaller oligarchy and at last to the members
of the royal family only. During the 15th and 16th centuries the Arab and Afghan people
also could become the Sultan.
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As head of Judicial Administration of Delhi Sultanate

The Sultan was the highest judicial authority of Delhi Sultanate. He was a perfect
autocrat with wide powers and unfettered authority. His power was based on two
pillars–religion and military. He enjoyed enormous and supreme power. Of course, the
entire matter depended on the personality and military strength of Sultan himself. There
were no constitutional devices to remove a Sultan from the throne peacefully. The only
way to remove him was rebellion and civil war. The Sultans of Delhi were not only the
kings, they were also the religious head of the Muslim people in India.

As head of Military Administration

The Sultan was also the head of the Military Administration of Delhi Sultanate. He was
the commander--in-chief of the army as well. The Sultan of Delhi was thus a military
despot having all powers of the State concentrated in his hands.

Nature of Government
Central-The Sultanate government was essentially a centralized one though it had the
original democratic nature of an Islamic State. In fact, the circumstances had forced
them to become a centralized one. There was the danger of repeated Mongal invasion.
In view of this the Sultans were compelled to keep a large army and a centralized
government.

Cabinet of Ministers
The Sultan in his administration had to keep a good number of ministers the member of
which varied from time to time. During the rule of the slave dynasty there were four
ministers—
(1) the wazir,
(2) the ariz–i–mamalik,
(3) the diwan–i–insha
(4) the diwan–i–rasalat.
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naib–i–mamalik -Sometimes there was also the post of naib or naib–i–mamalik. He was
superior to the wazir and next only to the Sultan. During the normal period he remained
merely a deputy Sultan much inferior to the Wazir. But when the Sultan himself became
weak and inefficient, this naib used to wield great authority later on, the posts of Sadr–
us–Sudur and diwan–i-qaza was raised to the status of ministers. Thus, there were
altogether six ministers during the prime period of Sultanate administration though
sometimes the post of the comptroller of the royal household used to exert greater
power than the other ministers.

Functions of Ministers

a.The Wazir or the Prime Minister

In fact, the wazir “stood midway between the sovereign and the subjects.” He had great
authority and often exercised the Sultan’s power and prerogatives though with some
restrictions. All important officers of the state were appointed by him in the name of the
Sultan. He used to hear complaints against all officials of the administration. During the
illness or absence of the Sultan or when he was a minor, the Wazir acted for the king.
He was the adviser of the Sultan in the affairs of administration and always kept him
informed about the sentiments and needs of the subjects.
Head of Revenue-The Wazir was also the head of the finance department. He used to
lay down the rules and regulations of revenue settlement, fixed the rate of other taxes
and controlled the expenditure of the empire.
As chief Secretary- He was the superintendent of the civil servants and controlled the
military establishment. All the requirements of the army were to be referred to him. The
duty of his subordinates was to keep the accounts and disburse the salary of the military
officers and troops. He was also to look after the stipends and subsistence allowances
to learned men and the poor people. He was to look after every branch of public
administration. As he had wide power he also enjoyed great prestige and was
handsomely paid the revenue of a large estate. His office was called the diwan-i-
-wazarat. The in-charge of the office was naib wazir. There was also the other staff like
the mushrif-i-mamalik (accountant general), mustauf—i—mamalik (auditor general). It
was the duty of the accountant general to enter all accounts received from the provinces
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and various departments. The auditor general used to audit them. During Firoz
Tughluq’s reign there was, however, a change while the accountant general used to
deal with income and the auditor general with that of expenditure. The accountant
general was assisted by a Nazir while the auditor general too had his assistants. Both
the offices had many subordinate clerks.

Diwan-i-ariz or diwan-i-arz or the army master

The post of Diwan-i-ariz was next to the Wazir. He was the controller general of the
military establishment. It was his duty to recruit troops and to maintain the descriptive
rolls of men and horses. He was also to arrange to held review in order to inspect the
forces. The Sultan was the commander—in—chief of the army. So the Ariz—i—mamalik
was not to command the royal troops generally, but sometimes he had to do it, at least
a part of the army. He particularly looked after the discipline of the army, their
equipments and their dispositions on the battle field. It was a very important department.
Sometimes the Sultan himself performed some of its tasks. Alaud—din—Khilji often
paid personal attention to it.

Diwan-i-insha or the in-charge of royal correspondence

Diwan-i-insha was the third important minister. He was in charge of the royal
correspondence. A member of Dabir (writers) assisted him. They were all masters of
style. This department used to make all correspondences, even of the confidential
matters made between the Sultan and the rulers of other states or of the important
vassals and officials of the kingdom. They drafted the important royal orders and sent to
the Sultan for his sanction. They were then copied, registered and dispatched. Thus the
department performed very confidential nature of work. Naturally the head of the
department was always a very trusted person of the Sultan.

Diwan-i-risalat or the minister for foreign affairs

There is, however, a controversy about the function of this officer. Dr. I.H. Qureshi told
us that the minister used to deal with the religious matters and also look after grant and
stipends to scholars and pious men. Dr. A. B. M. Habibullah, on the other hand, said
that he was the minister for foreign affairs and was the in-charge of diplomatic
correspondences and the ambassadors and envoys sent to and received from the
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foreign rulers. It seems that Dr. Habibullaha’s view was correct. The diwan–i–rasalat
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was an important officer as all the Sultans of Delhi were always eager to maintain
diplomatic relations with the Central Asian powers and other powers of the country.

Sadr-us-Sudur or Minister of the department of religion

The Sadr-us-Sudur was the minister of the department of religion, religious endowment
and charity. It was the duty of the chief Sadr (Sadr-us-Sudur) to enforce the Islamic
rules and regulations and to look after that the Muslims strictly follow those regulations
in their daily life. He also disbursed money in charity and rewarded the learned Muslim
divines. He also paid the grants of subsistence allowances to scholars and men of piety.

Diwan-i-Qaza or the Chief Qazi

The chief Qazi was the head of the judicial department. He supervised the
administration of justice in the kingdom. Very often, only one man was appointed to
carry on the works of both the departments of the religious endowment and charity and
the department of justice.
All these ministers were not of the same rank or importance. Only the Wazir enjoyed
higher status and privileges. The other ministers were like secretaries to the Sultan and
very ordinary in status. There was no council of ministers. The Sultans often appointed
and dismissed the ministers at his own sweet will.

f.Advisor to the Sultan

The Sultan had a large number of non-official advisers. This circle of advisors was
known as Majlis–i–Khalwat. They consisted of the Sultan’s personal friends, trusted
officials and ulemas. Though the Sultan was not bound to accept their advices yet often
they exerted great influence on him. There were some other departmental heads as well
like – barid–i–mamalik (head of the intelligence and posts department) diwan–i–amir
kohi (department of agriculture), diwan–i–mustakhraj, diwan–i--khairat (department of
charity), diwan–i–istihqak (department of pension), Sar–i–jandar (Chief of the royal
bodyguards) and diwan-i-bandagan (chief of the slaves). The latter two chiefs had great
influences on the Sultans.

The art and architecture of the Delhi Sultanate period was a happy blending of Indian
and Islamic styles as is noticed in certain other aspects of the culture of the time. Sir
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John Marshall observes that the Indo-Islamic art was not a local variety of the Islamic
art, nor is a modified form of the Hindu art. The Indo-Islamic architecture, he points out,
derives its character from both Indian and Islamic sources though not always in equal
degree. It has to be mentioned as in India at that time there were Brahmanical, Buddhist
and Jaina styles, so also in Islamic style there were Arabian, Persian and Turkish
characteristics. The mingling of these diverse styles and influences gave rise to the
Indo-Islamic style of architecture during the period. While in the Delhi architecture
Islamic influences predominated, the styles of architecture in provinces had their local
variations. Thus there were Jaunpur, Bengal, Bijapur, Gujarat styles.

Administration of Military
a. Sultan as head
b. Each province to maintain military strength assigned by center
c. Construction of cantonment boards and other
d. Risala-Modern Company
e. Cavalery
f. Elephants as war vehicles
g. Spy system
h. Use of gunpowder
i. Paid Military

Sources of Revenue
i. Agri -Tax (Lagan)
a. Usher 10 % of yield from Muslims
b. Khiraj 20 % of yield from non-Muslims
Measuring the yield by land or by estimation of production
ii. Zakat
iii. Jizia per head tax at non muslim
iv. Customs- At trade at borders.
v. Booty-obtained during war
vi. Evacuee land, mines, buried wealth
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vii. Gifts
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Summary Features of Central Administrations of Dehli Sultanat
 King as supreme ruler and fountain of power
 Strong central governance
 Cabinet form of Government
 Strong military Administration
 Division of Work
 No law of succession
 Presence of department of External affairs
 Patronage of Art
 Authentication of rule by Caliph at Baghdad to embrace Islamic outlook of the
rule
 Sultan has control over Ulema and Religious elements

2. Provincial Administration

No homogenous division-The Sultanate of Delhi was never divided into homogeneous

provinces with uniform administrative system. The Sultanate of Delhi was a centralized
monarchy and no Sultan of Delhi ever thought of rearranging the provinces on a uniform
basis. During the thirteenth century, the entire Sultanate was consisted of military
commands. These were known as the Iqtas.
Iqta means part or share, of a land and land revenue given to a person by the ruler, the
Sultan. The system was introduced by Sultan Iltutmish who had distributed Iqtas in a
wide scale among his Turkish followers. Each Iqta was under a powerful military officer
known as Muqti. During the time of the slave kings of Delhi, the important Iqtas were
Mandawar, Amraha, Sambhal, Badaun, Baran (Bulandshahr), Koli (Aligarh), Awadh,
Kara, Manikpur, Bayana, Gwalior, Nagpur, Hansi, Multan, Uch, Lahore, Samana,
Sunam, Kluhram, Bhatinda and Sanhind.
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When Alaud-din-Khilji conquered practically the whole of the country including the
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Deccan, he had allowed the big and small provinces to remain as they were.
Thus during his time there were two types of provinces – that is, the lqtas which he had
inherited from his predecessors and the new areas which he had conquered. Alaud-din
retained the old Iqtas.
To the newly acquired provinces he appointed new military governors. As all these
provinces had been big and flourishing states before they were conquered, they were
naturally larger in area and income. The principalities or some vassals were also
reduced to the position of governors. Thus from the time of Sultan Alauddin Khilji there
were three kinds of provinces in the Sultanate. The officers-in--charge of an lqta
continued to be known as the Muqti and those appointed in-charge of the new military
provinces were called walis or sometimes the amirs. These walis or amirs obviously
enjoyed higher status and powers than the muqtis. Thus the muqtis were the governors
of their respective jurisdictions and enjoyed great powers. The size or the administrative
system of the Iqtas were never uniform and even the degree of the political and military
power of the muqtis differed from Iqta to lqta.
However, the Muqti was free to carry on his own administration though, of course, he
had to follow the local traditional usages.
Duties- It was his duty to employ his own officials, to collect the revenues, to defray the
expenditure of his own administration. He was also to pay the surplus revenue to the
central government. Though in theory, he was subjected to the central audit, in practice
he was practically fully independent. His principal duty was to maintain law and order in
his province and to carry out the king’s commands. It was also his duty to furnish a
contingent of troops to the Sultan of Delhi whenever the latter asked him to do so.
Perks-The Muqti enjoyed a high salary which was charged on the revenue of his
province. He had a big army of his own and a big official establishment as well. He was
also required to collect revenues from the Sultan’s vassals whose kingdoms were
situated within his province. These vassals were required to pay Kharaj or land revenue
and also the Jizyas. Suzerainty of Sultan-Though the muqtis acknowledged the
suzerainty of the Sultan of Delhi they were otherwise independent in their own Iqtas.
Both the muqtis and walis were required to do the same task. They were required to
keep powerful military establishments, to maintain law and order in their jurisdiction and
to punish the refractory Zamindars. They were also required to furnish an account of
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their income and expenditure and to pay the residue to the central government. They
were advised to protect and enforce the Muslim laws, to protect the Ulemas, to arrange
for the administration of justice, to enforce the decisions of the courts, to keep the high
way free from robbers and to encourage trade and commerce.
Staffing-In each province there were the staffs to collect the revenues known as Nazirs
and Waqufs. There was also a higher officer known as Sohib-i-diwan or Khwaja
appointed by the Sultan to keep accounts. There were also a Quazi and other
subordinate officers. The most important provinces during the Sultanate period were
Bengal, Gujrat, Jaunpur, Malwa, Khandish and the Dakhin.

Features of Provincial Administration

 Clearly defined duties
 Administration of all modern function
 Law and order as provincial subject
 Provinces had military under them
 Revenue Generation

Local Government:

Division-The provinces were divided into shiqs or district under a shiqdar. Each shiq
comprised of a few parganas or kasba. Government officials of a pargana, after shiqdar
were Amil, who collected revenues. The mushrif kept accounts at the pargana level and
the khazandar was incharge of the treasury.
Village as Basic Unit-The village remained the basic unit of administration and
continued to enjoy a large measure of self- government. The most important official in
the village was the headman known as muqaddam or Chaudhari.
Traditional Authority-Local administration was vague and undefined and basically
traditional system. The provinces were divided into 6 parts headed by shiqdars with
main functions to maintain law and order and protect people against oppression of
zamindars and had to perform military obligation. The shiqs were further divided into
parganas and had different officials-
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Administration
 Amil- collected land revenue and other taxes
 Mushrif
 Hazamdars- treasurer
 Qazi-Civil officials
 Shiqdar-Criminal official
 Kotwal-Police head under shiqdar
 Faujdar-Military official in charge of fort along with their adjoining territories
 Amin-Measure land
 Qanungo-Maintained previous records of produce and assessment
 Patwari-Village record keeper
 At panchayat level khuts,muqaddam,chaudhary collected taxes and in lieu of
their services they were exempted from the taxes.

Salient Features of Local Governance in Dehli Sultanat

 Speedy disposal of cases
 Local as head of admin
 Village as basic unit of administration
 Community policing and Pehradari
 Loyalty with provincial admin

Conclusion
Model of administration was built according to culture and traditions of the masses. This
proved as base for Sher shah Suri and Akber 10
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