16 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
Assignments were made regularly by the Afghan kings in 
the twelfth century; and the Chief of Ghiir paid revenue 
(khardj) to Ghazni, before he attained the status of an 
independent king! 
Thus the system which Moslem conquerors brought with 
them from Afghanistan to India was substantially identical 
with the system which they found in operation. They came 
prepared to claim a share of the produce of the soil, and 
they found the peasants accustomed to pay a share to 
whoever might be in a position to take it : they were 
prepared to assess either by Sharing or by Measurement, 
and they found that both methods were known in the 
country; they knew of Chiefs paying revenue for their 
territories, and they found Chiefs ready to do so; they were 
familiar with Grants and Assignments, institutions already 
known in India, as well as with Farming, which was probably 
practised there; and there can have been no great obstacle 
to a fusion of two systems so nearly identical, when once 
the Moslems had established their rule by force of arms. 
Two differences only require to be noticed. In the first 
place, the Moslem claim to the full economic rent was at 
variance with the arithmetical limitation to one-sixth (or 
some other fraction) of the produce recognised by the Hindu 
Sacred Law; but, as we have seen, the limitation was some- 
what elastic, and it would present no very serious obstacle 
to conquerors sufficiently strong to enforce their demands. 
In the second place, there was a difference in regard to the 
scale of the revenue-demand. If I understand the authori- 
ties correctly, the scale laid down in the Sacred Law was 
aniform, that is to say, the same proportion of the produce 
was claimed from all crops alike, while the Moslem scales 
were differential, making allowance for variations in the 
cropping and in the source of irrigation. To take one 
example, Abi Yisuf suggests (pp. 74-76), the following 
charges: Wheat and barley, 2 when naturally watered, 
fo when watered by wheels; dates, vines, green crops, 
and gardens, 4; and summer crops. + Whether any 
! T. Nasiri. For assignments outside India and before the establishment 
of the Delhi kingdom, see pp. 86, 87, 107, 121, 1 32. For Ghiir as a revenue- 
paying chiefship, see pp. 40-49: we are told that when the Chief rebelled 
against Sabuktigin, he withheld the Akard; which was due.