140 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
crops such as sugarcane. In the same way, the farman 
stresses the distinction between tithe-land and tribute-land, 
which, as we have seen in Chapter I, lies at the root of the 
Islamic system; but I have failed so far to find a single case 
of tithe-land existing in India, and, if any existed, it was 
certainly unimportant in extent. We must not then read 
the order as recognising peasants’ proprietary rights, or as 
indicating the existence of an important date-growing 
industry, or as necessarily implying the prevalence of tithe- 
land; and in a few other cases the question arises whether 
the provisions of the farman were really required, or whether 
they are mere surplusage, introduced by the conditions 
in which it was drafted. 
The only one of these questions which requires discussion 
relates to the distinction drawn throughout the order 
between two forms of tenure, denoted by the words 
muqdsama and muwazzaf. These words are not defined in 
the order itself, but the distinction between them is brought 
out clearly in the fatwa, which shows that, under the 
former, land paid revenue only when cultivated, while, 
under the latter, it paid whether it was cultivated or not. 
The same distinction appears in the order (H. 2) and its 
provisions show that muwazzaf was a form of what I have 
described as Contract-holding, where a fixed sum is paid 
for the occupation of land, independent of cropping or 
produce; while the term mugasama is sufficiently wide to 
cover both Sharing and Measurement, applying in all cases 
where the amount of the revenue-Demand depends on the 
produce of the season. Now up to the date of this order, 
I have found no definite evidence to show that Contract- 
holding existed as a tenure in Moslem India, and the 
question arises whether the references to it are mere sur- 
plusage, or were in fact required by Indian conditions. 
On this question two considerations suggest themselves. 
The first is that Contract-holdings were quite common in 
! Payment of wazifa, i.e. muwazzaf-tenure, is mentioned in the Ain 
(i. 294), but in a disquisition on the general Islamic revenue-system, and 
with no suggestion that wazifa was paid in India. In the Indian chronicles 
the word wazifa occurs frequently, but in none of the passages noticed 
does it refer to peasants’ tenure; the usual meaning is an allowance 
granted, ordinarily in cash, by the Emperor to a learned man or some other 
claimant on his liberality