Firuzshah Tughlaq: Reverse of Alauddin Khilji

The greatest success of the reign of Firuz was the promotion of agriculture through the construction of canals by the state, bringing fresh lands under cultivation along the banks of those canals, introduction of superior crops and lying out of more than 1200 state-managed fruit gardens. He built twin canals to bring water from Ganga and Yamuna to Hissar. This canal was later repaired by Akbar and extended up to Delhi by Shah Jahan. The British repaired it again in the 19th century and this canal became the feeder to the western Yamuna canal. Firoz also built a number of dams for irrigation.

However, Firuz’s progressive measures for agriculture proved counter-productive to some extent mainly because he made Iqtas hereditary basis of civil and military officers and even to ordinary troopers. Not only this, he did not streamline the state machinery in matters of revenue assessment and gave the collection work to the bidders, contractors and middlemen. He made the civil and military posts hereditary. 80% of the soldiers were paid by the grants of village.

The implication of making Iqtas hereditary was that they went into hands of the pensioners who had lost all military qualities.