100 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA
and the language addressed in the orders to local officials,
suggest that, in practice, grantees were subject to inter-
ference by subordinate authorities also.
While, however, a Grant might be summarily with-
drawn or modified, there is reason to think that its con-
ferment created in the mind of the recipient some sort of
expectation that he and his family would continue to benefit
by the liberality of the State Apart from the published
documents which have been quoted above, I have heard of
quite a number of others, in libraries or in private hands,
the survival of which suggests that they were considered
to be worth keeping. Such documents cannot be regarded
as title-deeds to a particular area, or to a stated income;
but they constitute evidence that at some period in the past
the family possessing them had benefited by the King’s
favour, and in the Moslem period that fact probably counted
for something when a new request was put forward.
4. THE COLLECTORS
The account given in the last section of the appointment
of collectors throughout the northern provinces follows the
official version, which, in my opinion, is correct as far as
it goes, but is in some respects incomplete. In this section
I propose to examine the account contained in the chronicle
written by Abdul Qadir Badaini, which at first sight con-
flicts seriously with Abul Fazl’s story. In considering
Badatini’s version, it must be remembered that he wrote
as a disappointed man, for he had not received the pre-
ferment he expected, while his religious feelings were out-
raged by Akbar’s attitude towards Islam; he was therefore
definitely on the opposition side. I should myself be
inclined to describe his chronicle as reminiscences, or even
journalism, rather than history. He selected his topics
less for their intrinsic importance than for their interest
to himself; he did not, so far as I can judge, indulge in
romance; but he presented the facts he selected, as coloured
by his personal feelings or prejudices, in bitter epigrammatic
language which presumably gave him satisfaction, but which
