Provincial Government under the Memeluke Sultans of Delhi

Summary

In this study of provincial administration under the early Delhi Sultans, the author analyses how the so‑called Slave or Mamlūk rulers organised their territories through the institution of the iqṭāʿ. Contemporary chroniclers use iqṭāʿ and wilāyat interchangeably for administrative divisions. The muqṭī or governor held an iqṭāʿ not as a hereditary fief but as a bureaucratic appointment; he could be transferred or dismissed at the sultan’s will and was responsible for military defence, law and order and revenue collection. The muqṭī enjoyed latitude in assessing land revenue and maintaining troops and often struck coins in his own name, but his authority was balanced by obligations such as reciting the khuṭba and sending troops or surplus revenue to the centre. The article argues that translating iqṭāʿ as ‘fief’ is misleading because the muqṭīs were not autonomous feudal lords; rather, they were officers of a centralised regime whose privileges depended on their loyalty and performance. Drawing on Niẓām al‑Mulk’s Siyasatnama and later Indo‑Islamic chronicles, the author summarises regulations governing muqṭīs: they were forbidden to harm subjects or obstruct appeals to the sultan; they were to transfer posts periodically to prevent the growth of local power; and they maintained provincial armies at their own expense. The paper situates these arrangements within the broader context of Turkic and Seljuq administrative traditions from which the Delhi sultans borrowed. It concludes that the balance between central control and provincial autonomy shaped the political stability of the Delhi Sultanate and that later dynasties adapted but did not abandon the iqṭāʿ system.