Chapter II. 
The 13th and 14th Centuries. 
{. 
THE MOSLEM KINGDOM OF DELHI 
THE Moslem Kingdom of Delhi dates from the year 1206, 
when Qutbuddin, the Governor appointed by the King of 
Ghazni, assumed the title of Sultan and ascended the 
throne. At this time, however, India had already obtained 
some experience of Moslem rule. Apart from the episode 
of Arab rule in Sind, Afghan Kings had maintained governors 
in Hindustan! for more than a century; and, since the col- 
lection of revenue was an essential part of administration, 
we must assume that contact between the Hindu and Islamic 
agrarian systems was established during this period. Of the 
details of this contact 1 have found no record, and the nature 
of the arrangements for collecting revenue can only be 
guessed. The position of the Moslem governors was at 
times precarious, and the force at their disposal can scarcely 
have been sufficient for the effective subjugation of the 
country nominally in their charge; the conditions suggest 
rather centres of authority at Multan, Lahore, and (later) 
Delhi, and a sphere of influence round each fortress, varying 
in extent with the personality of the Governor and the other 
circumstances of the time. Reading back from the facts 
of the next century, we may infer that the Hindu Chiefs 
were the dominant factor in the situation, and that the suc- 
cess of a Governor depended on the relations he could 
establish with his neighbours, relations which would depend 
1 “Hindustan in the chronicles is a word of fluctuating meaning, but 
at this period the general sense is the country to the South and East of 
the centre of Moslem power, wherever it might at the moment be located. 
When, for instance, the King of Ghazni in 1098 confirmed a Governor of 
Hindustan (T. Nasiri, 22), his charge was merely a corner of North-West 
India; but about 1250 the King of Delhi marched to Kanauj on his way to 
Hindustan (id. 210). In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the word 
usually points to the country beyond the Ganges, or, less commonly. to 
Rajputana and Central India.