220 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
Ministry; I will submit them to the Throne.” On this, the King 
excluded the affairs of Multan from the Revenue Ministry, and 
Ainulmulk duly took up the appointment. The language of the 
passage shows the position of a Muqti as purely administrative. 
3.. It was the Mugqti’s duty to maintain a body of troops 
available at any time for the King’s service. The status of these 
troops can best be seen from the orders which Ghiyisuddin 
Tughlaq issued! to the nobles “to whom he gave iqtis and 
wilayats.” “Do not,” he said, ‘“covet the smallest fraction of 
the pay of the troops. Whether you give or do not give them 
a little of your own rests with you to decide; but if you expect a 
small portion of what is deducted in the name of the troops, then 
the title of noble ought not to be applied to you; and the noble 
who consumes any portion of the pay of servants had better 
consume dust.” This passage makes it clear that the strength 
and pay of the Mugqti's troops were fixed by the King, who 
provided the cost; the Muqti could, if he chose, increase their 
pay out of his own pocket, but that was the limit of his dis- 
cretionary power in regard to them. 
4. The Mugqti had to collect the revenue due from his charge, 
and, after defraying sanctioned expenditure, such as the pay of 
the troops, to remit the surplus to the King’s treasury at the 
capital. To take one instance (Barni, 220 ff.), when Alauddin 
Khalji (before his accession) was Muqti of Karra and Awadh, 
and was planning his incursion into the Deccan, he applied for a 
postponement of the demand for the surplus-revenue of his 
provinces, so that he could employ the money in raising additional 
troops; and promised that, when he returned, he would pay the 
postponed surplus-revenue, along with the booty, into the 
King’s treasury. 
5. The Mugqti’s financial transactions in regard to both re- 
ceipts and expenditure were audited by the officials of the 
Revenue Ministry, and any balance found to be due from him 
was recovered by processes which, under some kings, were re- 
markably severe. The orders of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, quoted 
above, indicate that under his predecessors holders of iqtas 
and wildyats had been greatly harassed in the course of these 
processes, and he directed that they were not to be treated like 
minor officials in this matter. Severity seems to have been 
re-established in the reign of his son Muhammad, for Barni 
t Barni, 431. For a full translation of the passage, see Appendix C.