22 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM IMDIA

partly on his personal qualities, and partly on the force he
could command; but in the absence of any record of facts
it is useless to carry conjecture further.
The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries form a wellmarked
 period in the history of India. During it, the Kings
of Delhi ruled with something like continuity from the
[ndus to Bihar, and from the Himalayas to the Narbada,
with temporary extensions of authority further tc the
South and East; but by the end of the fourteenth century
this large kingdom was disintegrating, and it was soon to be
replaced by a number of independent States. The principal
first-hand authorities for the period are three. Minhaj-ul
Siraj, who was Chief Qazi of Delhi in the middle of the
thirteenth century, recorded the history compendiously from
the days of Adam down to his own times: nearly a hundred
years later Ziya Barni, a retired official, took up the story
where Minhaj-ul Siraj had left off, and carried it down to the
early years of Firliz; while Shams Afif, also an official,
writing soon after the year 1400, essayed to complete Ziya
Barni’s unfinished work. So far as regards the agrarian
system of the period, practically everything which is found
in later chronicles can be traced to one or other of these
writers; and, while I have referred to the condensed accounts
given by Badaini, Firishta, and others, I do not think it
necessary to cite them as authorities. Of the three contemporary
 chroniclers, the first was apparently little interested
 in agrarian topics, but the second and the third had
personal connections with the Revenue Ministry, and furnish
much relevant information. It is given in the official jargon
of the period, which was soon to become obsolete, and is
consequently at times difficult to interpret; but it is undoubtedly
 authoritative, and, so far as I can see, is not
vitiated by prejudice or flattery, two characteristics which
are in evidence occasionally in the accounts of political or
dvnastic affairs.
Some description of the administrative organisation of
this large kingdom is necessary for our present purpose.
From the outset we find it broken up into regions which I
shall describe as Provinces, in charge of Governors': by
! The position of the Governor at this period is discussed in Appendix B.