The agrarian system of Moslem India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804119261

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-188010

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Moreland, William Harrison http://d-nb.info/gnd/172263670

Title:: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Edition:: 2. ed. Reissue (d. Ausg. Cambridge) 1929; [Reprint]

Place of publication:: Delhi

Publisher:: Oriental Books, Munshiram Manoharlal

Year of publication:: 1968

Scope:: XVII, 296 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter II. The 13th and 14th centuries

Collection:: Economics Books

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 well- marked 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 con- temporary chroniclers, the first was apparently little in- terested 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 un- doubtedly 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.

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