THE 13ta AND 1l4tH CENTURIES 29 
also Reserved (khdlisa) land! that is to say, land adminis- 
tered directly by the Revenue Ministry for the benefit of the 
treasury. The King thus drew revenue from two principal 
sources, the receipts from the Reserved lands, and the 
surplus-income? remitted from the provinces. 
Something can be added to this vague outline by arguing 
back from the reforms of Alauddin to the system which he 
changed. It is clear that, at the end of the thirteenth 
century, the Hindu Chiefs were sufficiently numerous and 
important to dominate the political outlook, and con- 
sequently they must have been of great importance from the 
agrarian standpoint also. As remuneration for their 
services to the kingdom, they were allowed a portion of land 
free from assessment, and the income from this source, 
described as their “right” or “perquisite” (hagq), was 
intended to suffice for their maintenance; but they were 
suspected—and the suspicion is at least probable—of taking 
more from the peasants than they paid to the State, so that 
“the burden of the strong fell upon the weak,” to use a 
phrase which occurs more than once in the discussions. 
Clearly then the arrangements for assessment and col- 
lection from the peasants were in the hands of the Chief, 
where one was recognised. 
Now the course of events in the thirteenth century was 
not, on the whole, favourable to an increase of the Chiefs’ 
authority: despite occasional periods of weakness, there 
was a considerable extension and development of the King’s 
power, and it is probable that the Chiefs, regarded as a whole, 
were at least as strong in the middle of the century as at its 
close. and that they were stronger at the beginning than in 
! From the nature of the case we hear very little of this topic, but a 
Superintendent of Reserved Lands is mentioned in T. Nasir (p. 249) 
before the middle of the century. The word khdlisa means * pure” or 
‘‘free,” hence, ‘‘unencumbered,’’ and its use in this special sense would be 
natural in the Revenue Ministry, but *“ Reserved gives the actual position 
more clearly, because, at any moment, certain lands were kept apart for 
the Treasury, while the remainder were assigned. The common rendering 
“Crown lands” is, I think, misleading, because in modern use the phrase 
carries with it the idea of permanence, while throughout the Moslem period 
there was no permanence whatever, reserved land being assigned, and 
assigned land being reserved, at the will of Ruler or Minister: the dis- 
tinction between the two classes was permanent, but a particular area 
might pass from one to the other at any moment. 
! Surplus income is denoted by the word fawazi! (Barni, 164, 220, &c.).