52 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
Empire in that it represented only personal salary, and not 
the cost of maintaining troops; the pay of the provincial 
troops was separately provided, and had to be accounted 
for, as the orders of Ghiyasuddin show; and Alauddin’s 
decision to pay his troops in cash still represented the 
working rule at this period. The statement that the 
Assignments “bring in much more than their estimated 
value” is of particular interest, because, so far as I can find, 
it is the first reference in the literature to the Valuation of 
the kingdom, a topic which comes into prominence in the 
next reign. The extent to which Assignments were given 
cannot be deduced from this account, but facts recorded 
incidentally by Ibn Batfita! show that officials were, at 
least normally, paid in this way; and, since the salaries were 
very high, the area on which they were charged must have 
been extensive. Farming and Assignment may thus be 
regarded as the most prominent agrarian institutions of 
the reign. 
6. FIRUZ SHAH (1351-1388) 
Muhammad Tughlaq was succeeded by his cousin, Firiiz, 
a man of mature age, who had been for some time employed 
in the administration of the kingdom. There is some little 
difficulty in estimating the value of the contemporary 
authorities for this reign. Apart from a brief memoir 
written by the King himself, we are dependent on the 
records left by Ziya Barni and Shams Afif. The former 
deals only with the first six years of the reign: it is clear that 
this period was a far happier one, at least for the bureaucracy 
at headquarters, than the later years of Muhammad 
Tughlaq; and I think that the closing chapters of the 
chronicle show definite signs of failing powers. Ziya 
Barni died at an advanced age before his self-chosen task 
could be finished, and what he wrote regarding this reign 
consists largely of loose and rhetorical eulogy, the language 
of which must be discounted at a rather high rate. The 
other chronicler, Shams Afif, grew up under Firtiz, by whom 
! See especially iii. 400-402, where details are given of the salaries 
allotted to Ibn Batiita and his companions; in each case an appropriate 
Assignment was made.