Idea of Kingship and State Organization in Delhi Sultanate

In theory the Muslim state was theocracy, i.e. the head of state was also the religious head and derived his position and authority from god. Thus the caliph was the supreme head of the whole Muslim world. Although the sultans of Delhi professed formal allegiance to the Caliphate, the sultanate was always in independent state for all practical purposes. Further, the political need and the ignorance of the sultans about the Shariat had resulted in a division of the functions of the head of state. The religious side was looked after by the ulema and the administrative side was managed, organized and supervised by the sultan.

The ideal of Kingship

The ideal of kingship in the Delhi sultanate was derived from the Islamic world whereby the rulers claimed divine origin for themselves. The ruler was the representative god and was endowed with Farr, thus he was to be obeyed and respected due to divine origin of kingship. During the reign of IItutmish, the position of the sultan was not considered much higher than that of an exalted noble. He treated the great Turkish nobles as his equals and professed his shyness to sit on the throne. However, Balban was fully aware of its dangerous implications. He had, therefore, to place the monarchy at a higher level than the nobility. He proclaimed himself as the vice-regent and the shadow of god on earth. He believed that the king’s heart is the mirror of divine attributes.

The same idea was followed by Alauddin Khilji also. He also dreamt himself to be another prophet but his advisors brought him back to reality. Nevertheless, he assumed the title of Sikander-i-sani (the second Alexander) and kept away Ulema from his decision making periphery.

However, this trend was softened by Ghiyasuddin Tughluq, who was soft on Ulema and extremely social with nobles. The same was reversed by Firuz shah, who strictly worked in guidance of Ulema and weakened the monarchy.

Under Lodis, kingship assumed the racial basis. They believed in superiority of their races and this lowered the dignity of the Sultans.

The sultan was a despot and bound by no law. He was not subject to any ministerial or other checks. The people had no rights but only obligations. Only two pressure groups existed with varying impacts in various times viz. nobility and Ulema.

Central / Provincial Government

Sultan was on apex of the central government who worked with imperial Diwans. The four Diwans viz. Diwani-I-Wizarat, Diwan-I-Arz, Diwan-I-Insha, Diwan-I-Risalat served as four pillars of central government.

The Delhi sultanate was divided into smaller units called Wilayat or Iqlim or Iqtas. The number of Iqtas changed, for instance, under Alauddin Khilji, there were 12 Iqtas.

Each Iqta was under a Wali, Muqti or Naib and was divided into Shiqs (districts) under a Shiqdar. Each Shiq was further divided into Pargana under an Alim and then further into a village under Khuts and Muqaddams.

Military, Police and Justice

The military organization of Delhi sultanate was based on Turkish model. The survival of the government was based on military, it got maximum importance.

Iltutmish, a Turkish ruler had thought of organizing the army of sultanate as King’s army, which is centrally recruited and centrally paid. What he organized was called “Iqta army”. However, usually army ranks would be disbanded as soon as a campaign was over. Balban increased the number of soldiers in army. It was Alauddin Khilji, who took more interest in army than any other Sultan. He was the first sultan to set up a permanent standing army of Delhi Sultanate. He did not disband the soldiers after a campaign was over and he recruited directly and paid them in cash from public treasury. The same policy was followed by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq but Firuz Shah adopted granting hereditary assignments of land to the soldiers. This particular decision ruined the army’s position. During Lodi regime, too much emphasis was on tribal traditions and army of the Sultanate was turned into a tribal militia.

As far as Police organization is concerned, the head of the police was a Kotwal, who were responsible for maintenance of law and order in towns. The judicial department was headed by Qazi-ul-Quzzat. Sultan was the supreme or highest court of justice and he sat in a court called Mazalim.