Administration, Society & Economy under the Delhi Sultanate

Why This Chapter Matters

SSC and RRB papers rarely ask a direct "who ruled when" question from this chapter. Instead they test the machinery behind the rulers you already met in Chapters 3 and 4: the iqta system, the coins a sultan struck, the taxes a peasant paid, and the market rules Alauddin Khalji enforced. Expect 2-4 questions from Medieval India GA sets to come from exactly this pool, mostly matching-type: term to meaning, coin to metal, official to function.

The sub-topics that repeat most are Alauddin Khalji's market control system (the four markets and their officers), the iqta and its holder (iqtadar/muqti), Sultanate coinage (tanka, jital, dam), and the jizya tax. Sufi and Bhakti roots are mentioned here only briefly since Chapter 7 covers that ground in full. Read this chapter as the "system" chapter that ties every Sultanate ruler you learned earlier into one administrative picture.

1. Central Administration

The Sultan sat at the top of the Delhi Sultanate's government, combining executive, judicial, and military power in one office. There was no fixed law of succession, so the throne often changed hands through force, and the ulama (Muslim religious scholars) gave the Sultan's rule its formal religious sanction.

The Sultan ran the government through a set of central departments, each headed by a minister. These four stand at the top and get asked most:

• Wazir headed the Diwan-i-Wizarat, the finance department. He was the Sultan's chief minister and kept records of revenue and expenditure.
• Ariz-i-Mumalik headed the Diwan-i-Arz, the military department. He recruited, paid, and inspected the army; Alauddin Khalji's Ariz-i-Mumalik ran the horse-branding (dagh) system.
• Dabir-i-Khas headed the Diwan-i-Insha, which handled royal correspondence and official records.
• Sadr-us-Sudur headed religious and charitable grants and also often held the post of Qazi-ul-Mumalik, the chief judge, together called the judicial department.

Below these, smaller departments existed for specific work: the Diwan-i-Riyasat (market control, prominent under Alauddin Khalji), the Diwan-i-Bandagan (slaves, under Firoz Shah Tughlaq), and the Diwan-i-Khairat (charity, also a Firoz Shah creation). Balban's court introduced strict Persian-style court ceremonial, including sijda (prostration) and paibos (kissing the Sultan's feet), to project unquestioned royal authority after the loose, noble-dominated politics of early Sultans.

2. Provincial and Local Administration

The empire was divided into iqtas (provinces), each governed by a muqti or wali. This iqta system is the single most-asked term from this chapter, so learn it carefully.

The Iqta System

An iqta was a territorial assignment given by the Sultan to a noble or army commander, not private ownership of land. The muqti (or iqtadar) collected the land revenue of his iqta, used part of it to pay and maintain his troops, kept a portion as personal salary, and sent the rest (fawazil, the surplus) to the central treasury. In return, the muqti had to supply troops to the Sultan on demand.

Iltutmish is credited with organising the iqta system on a wide scale to pay his nobles and soldiers without a fully cash-based treasury. Under Balban, iqtas were closely audited. Alauddin Khalji tightened control further, confiscating iqtas of nobles he distrusted and enforcing strict revenue assessment through his own agents (mustakharaj) to check the muqti's accounts, since old, loose assessments (kham) had let revenue leak away.

The iqta was transferable: a muqti could be moved from one iqta to another, or recalled, at the Sultan's will. This kept provincial governors from building permanent, hereditary power bases, at least in theory. Firoz Shah Tughlaq later made iqtas and offices more hereditary, which weakened central control and is cited as one cause of the Sultanate's later decline.

Below the Iqta

Each iqta/province was further divided into smaller units:

Unit	Approximate level	Head official
Shiq	Sub-province/district	Shiqdar
Pargana	Group of villages	Amil (revenue), Chaudhari (local zamindar-type head)
Village	Smallest unit	Muqaddam/Khut (headman), Patwari (accountant)

Village-level administration in the Sultanate period stayed largely in the hands of local hereditary intermediaries: the khut and muqaddam (village headmen) and chaudhari (pargana-level chief), who collected revenue from the peasantry and passed it up. Alauddin Khalji is remembered for cracking down hard on these intermediaries, cancelling their tax-free perks and forcing them to pay revenue on the same terms as ordinary peasants, in order to break their power to withhold revenue from the state.

3. Army Organisation

The Sultanate's army rested on cavalry, and control of army quality varied sharply from ruler to ruler.

• The early Sultans depended heavily on iqta-holding nobles to supply troops, which meant uneven army quality and loyalty tied to individual nobles rather than the state.
• Alauddin Khalji built the first genuinely large standing army paid in cash directly from the central treasury, alongside iqta-based troops. To keep this affordable he controlled market prices (see Section 5). He introduced the dagh (branding of horses) and chehra (descriptive roll of soldiers) systems to stop nobles from padding muster rolls with poor-quality horses or ghost soldiers.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq kept a large standing army too, which strained his treasury and is one reason historians link to his token currency experiment (Chapter 4).
• Firoz Shah Tughlaq reversed cash payment for much of the army, paying soldiers through revenue assignments again, which loosened central control and contributed to military decline.

The core of the army was cavalry (sawar), supported by infantry (paik) and war elephants (pil), important both for prestige and in battle. Artillery (gunpowder weapons) became significant only later, from the late Sayyid-Lodi period onward, and features more in Babur's 1526 victory at Panipat (Chapter 8) than in the earlier Sultanate.

4. Coinage of the Delhi Sultanate

Sultanate coinage moved decisively toward a standardised, state-controlled currency, replacing the older, more localised coinage of pre-Sultanate India. This is a favourite match-the-pair area.

Coin	Metal	Approx. weight/notes	Associated with
Tanka	Silver (also gold tanka)	Main high-value coin	Iltutmish standardised it; used through the Sultanate
Jital	Copper (sometimes silver-mixed)	Lower-value coin, used for daily transactions	Common coin across the Sultanate
Dam	Copper	Later low-value coin	More associated with Sher Shah Suri/Mughals but rooted in Sultanate copper coinage

Iltutmish is generally credited as the ruler who put Sultanate coinage on a proper standardised footing, issuing the silver tanka and copper jital with his name and title inscribed, along with the Caliph's name for legitimacy in the early years.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq's token currency experiment (introduced around 1330) belongs here as much as in Chapter 4: he issued bronze/copper coins meant to circulate at the value of silver tanka, an idea inspired by the paper/token currency used in Kublai Khan's China and Il-Khanid Persia. The scheme failed in India because the state could not stop widespread forgery (ordinary people cast their own copper token coins at home), and the Sultan finally withdrew the token currency, redeeming it from the treasury at heavy cost. Exam questions often frame this as "the Sultan who introduced token currency" and pair it with Kublai Khan.

5. Alauddin Khalji's Market Control System

This is the single most detailed and most-asked economic topic in the entire Sultanate section, introduced by Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296-1316) mainly to run a large standing army on a fixed, affordable budget and to check hoarding and profiteering.

Alauddin fixed prices for a wide range of goods, food grains, cloth, horses, slaves, and cattle, and enforced them through strict state machinery rather than leaving prices to the market.

The Four Markets (Shahana-i-Mandi)

Historians, following the chronicler Ziauddin Barani, describe four separate regulated markets:

1. Grain market (Mandi) — regulated by the officer Shahna-i-Mandi. Alauddin ensured a steady grain supply to Delhi by ordering farmers of crown lands (khalisa) around the capital to sell surplus grain directly to the state at fixed rates, and by maintaining state granaries stocked against famine and hoarding.
2. Cloth and general merchandise market (Sarai Adl) — a separate market for costly cloth, sugar, and other goods, where prices were fixed and multani merchants were given advances to bring goods.
3. Horse, slave, and cattle market — prices of horses (needed for the army) were fixed by quality/grade so that army recruitment costs stayed predictable, checked by the officer in charge of the dagh and chehra systems.
4. General/miscellaneous goods market — everyday small goods for the common people of Delhi, also under price control.

The Officers Who Ran It

Officer	Role
Shahna-i-Mandi	Superintendent of the grain market; ensured supply and enforced fixed prices
Diwan-i-Riyasat	Central department/officer overseeing overall market control
Barid (intelligence officers/spies)	Reported secretly on actual prices charged, catching profiteers and hoarders

Punishments for violating price controls were severe, including confiscation of goods and corporal punishment, meant to deter cheating. Alauddin also banned hoarding of grain by merchants and forced grain merchants (banjaras, the traditional grain-transporting community) to register with the state and sell only through approved channels.

The market control system did not survive Alauddin's death; his successors abandoned it, and it remains, in exam terms, a unique one-ruler experiment rather than a lasting Sultanate institution. Remember the trio: fixed prices to afford a large army, four markets, Barani as the source.

6. Land Revenue System

Land revenue was the Sultanate's main income and the base on which iqtas and salaries rested.

• The standard land tax was kharaj, generally taking a substantial share of the produce, often cited around one-fifth to half depending on the ruler and period, paid mostly in kind (grain) in the early Sultanate and increasingly demanded partly in cash later.
• Alauddin Khalji raised the state's revenue demand on Doab peasants to about half of the produce, assessed by measurement of cultivated land (masahat) rather than guesswork, a much harsher and more efficient system than before. He also withdrew revenue-collecting privileges of village headmen, as noted in Section 2.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq raised taxes further in the Doab region during a famine period, causing peasant flight and revolt, one of the several missteps that damaged his reign (paired with the capital shift and token currency in Chapter 4).
• Firoz Shah Tughlaq eased the harsh assessments of his predecessors, abolished several petty cesses not sanctioned by Islamic law, and introduced organised irrigation canals to expand cultivation, along with a tax on irrigation (haqq-i-shirb) for land watered by his canals.
• Additional levies existed alongside kharaj: zakat (a religious charity tax on Muslims), khums (a share, one-fifth in state's favour by classical rule though sultans often took four-fifths in practice, of war booty), and jizya, covered separately below.

7. Jizya and the Position of Hindus

Jizya was a tax levied on non-Muslim subjects (zimmis) of an Islamic state, in Sultanate India levied mainly on the Hindu population, in place of military service and as a condition of protection under Islamic law. It is one of the most exam-relevant single terms in this chapter, so remember it is distinct from kharaj (land tax, paid by all peasants) and zakat (paid only by Muslims).

Jizya was not applied identically by every Sultan:

• Early Sultans levied jizya but its collection was uneven, depending on how firmly a region was controlled.
• Firoz Shah Tughlaq is specifically remembered for imposing jizya as a separate tax even on Brahmins, who had earlier been exempted by convention, provoking Brahmin protest that he did not fully reverse.
• Practice on jizya later became a recurring theme across medieval Indian history: Akbar abolished it (Chapter 9), and Aurangzeb reimposed it in 1679 (Chapter 11), a contrast question SSC likes to build across chapters.

Beyond taxation, the general position of Hindus under the Sultanate varied by ruler and region. Hindu chiefs and rajas who accepted Sultanate overlordship were often left in charge of local administration and revenue collection in their own areas as tributaries, while temple destruction and forced conversions occurred at various points, particularly during conquest campaigns, but were not a constant, uniform state policy across every reign. Hindus continued to serve in Sultanate administration in various capacities, especially at the local revenue level (as patwaris, muqaddams, and amils), since the Sultanate needed local expertise to run day-to-day revenue collection.

8. Society under the Sultanate

Sultanate-era society was layered along religious, ethnic, and occupational lines.

• Ruling class: Turkish, Afghan, and (from the Khalji-Tughlaq period onward) increasingly Indian Muslim nobles, along with the Sultan's household and the ulama.
• Hindu population: the overwhelming majority, organised through the existing caste system, largely engaged in agriculture, crafts, and trade, governed at the local level as described in Section 2.
• Position of women: elite Muslim and Hindu women largely stayed within restricted, home-centred roles (purdah practice spread more widely in this period among both communities in northern India), though notable exceptions occurred, most famously Razia Sultana (r. 1236-1240), the only woman to rule as Sultan of Delhi in her own right (covered in Chapter 3). Practices such as sati among some Hindu communities and slavery of women continued through this period.
• Slavery: an accepted institution; enslaved people (including the Sultans of the Slave/Mamluk dynasty themselves, originally slave-soldiers who rose to power, Chapter 3) served as soldiers, administrators, and household staff. Firoz Shah Tughlaq kept an unusually large number of slaves, organised under the Diwan-i-Bandagan.
• Urban life: cities like Delhi grew as centres of trade, craft production (textiles, metalwork), and Indo-Islamic learning, with karkhanas (state workshops) under rulers like Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firoz Shah Tughlaq producing goods, especially cloth and arms, for the state.

9. Language, Learning, and the Roots of Syncretic Culture

Persian was the official court language throughout the Sultanate, used for administration, chronicles, and elite literature. Arabic remained the language of religion and law among the ulama. Regional and vernacular languages, including early forms of Hindavi (an ancestor of Hindi/Urdu), developed alongside Persian, especially in Sufi circles and popular poetry.

Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), poet and scholar at the Khalji-Tughlaq courts, is the towering literary figure of this period, credited with experimenting in both Persian and Hindavi and with contributions traditionally associated with the development of qawwali and certain musical forms, alongside his historical Persian works (such as accounts of Alauddin Khalji's reign). He is remembered as a disciple of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya of the Chishti order.

The Sultanate period saw the early growth of Sufi silsilahs in India, most prominently the Chishti order (associated with Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer and later Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi) and the Suhrawardi order, which built a following among ordinary people of both faiths through their emphasis on personal devotion rather than ritual, laying early ground for the broader Bhakti-Sufi syncretic culture that Chapter 7 covers in full detail. Do not confuse this brief mention with the full saint-by-saint table you need for Chapter 7; here, only remember that Sufi orders were already active and influential during the Sultanate period itself, not only later under the Mughals.

10. Architecture as a Marker of Administrative Change

Sultanate building activity often mirrors administrative priorities and is worth linking to this chapter rather than treating as a separate art-history topic:

• Qutb Minar (begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, completed by Iltutmish) and the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque mark the early establishment of Sultanate authority in Delhi.
• Alai Darwaza, built by Alauddin Khalji, shows the arrival of true arch-and-dome construction techniques in Indo-Islamic architecture, alongside his administrative reforms covered above.
• Tughlaqabad fort, built by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, reflects the defensive, security-focused administration of the early Tughlaqs against the Mongol threat.
• Firoz Shah Kotla, associated with Firoz Shah Tughlaq, along with his canal-building noted in Section 6, reflects his reign's focus on public works and irrigation over military expansion.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• The Wazir headed the Diwan-i-Wizarat, the finance department, and was the Sultan's chief minister.
• The Ariz-i-Mumalik headed the Diwan-i-Arz, the military department.
• The Dabir-i-Khas headed the Diwan-i-Insha, the department of royal correspondence.
• The Sadr-us-Sudur headed religious/charitable grants, often doubling as chief judge (Qazi-ul-Mumalik).
• Iqta was a revenue assignment to a noble/officer (muqti), not private land ownership.
• Iltutmish organised the iqta system widely to pay nobles and soldiers.
• Iqta surplus revenue sent to the treasury was called fawazil.
• Firoz Shah Tughlaq made iqtas more hereditary, weakening central control.
• Village-level heads were called khut/muqaddam; pargana-level heads were chaudhari.
• Alauddin Khalji withdrew the tax-free privileges of village headmen.
• Tanka was the standard silver (and gold) coin; jital was the common copper coin.
• Iltutmish standardised Sultanate coinage with the tanka and jital.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq introduced token bronze/copper currency around 1330, inspired by China's paper currency, and it failed due to forgery.
• Alauddin Khalji ran four regulated markets in Delhi: grain, cloth/general goods, horses/slaves/cattle, and miscellaneous goods.
• The grain market officer was called the Shahna-i-Mandi.
• Barid (spies/intelligence officers) reported secretly on actual market prices to catch cheating.
• Alauddin Khalji's market reforms mainly aimed to maintain a large standing army at low, fixed cost.
• The chronicler Ziauddin Barani is the main source for Alauddin's market control system.
• Dagh (horse branding) and chehra (descriptive roll) systems stopped fraud in army musters.
• Kharaj was the general land revenue tax, paid mainly by peasants.
• Alauddin Khalji raised land revenue demand in the Doab to about half the produce, assessed by measurement (masahat).
• Jizya was a tax on non-Muslim subjects (mainly Hindus), distinct from kharaj and zakat.
• Firoz Shah Tughlaq extended jizya to Brahmins, who had earlier been exempt.
• Zakat was a religious tax paid only by Muslims; khums referred to the state's share of war booty.
• Razia Sultana (1236-1240) was the only woman to rule as Delhi Sultan in her own right.
• Persian was the official court language of the Delhi Sultanate; Arabic remained the language of religion/law.
• Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) was the leading Persian-Hindavi poet of the Khalji-Tughlaq period, disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya.
• The Chishti and Suhrawardi Sufi orders were already active in India during the Sultanate period.
• Qutb Minar was begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak and completed by Iltutmish.
• Alai Darwaza, built by Alauddin Khalji, introduced true arch-and-dome technique in Indo-Islamic architecture.
• Firoz Shah Tughlaq built irrigation canals and levied haqq-i-shirb, a tax on irrigated land.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Central Departments and Their Heads

Department	Head Official	Function
Diwan-i-Wizarat	Wazir	Finance, revenue records
Diwan-i-Arz	Ariz-i-Mumalik	Military recruitment, pay, inspection
Diwan-i-Insha	Dabir-i-Khas	Royal correspondence/records
Diwan-i-Rasalat (judicial/religious)	Sadr-us-Sudur / Qazi-ul-Mumalik	Religious grants, justice
Diwan-i-Riyasat	Officer under Alauddin Khalji	Market control
Diwan-i-Bandagan	Firoz Shah Tughlaq's creation	Management of slaves
Diwan-i-Khairat	Firoz Shah Tughlaq's creation	Charity

Table 2: Key Reforms by Ruler

Ruler	Key Administrative/Economic Reform
Iltutmish	Standardised tanka/jital coinage; organised iqta system
Balban	Strict court ceremonial (sijda, paibos); tightened iqta control
Alauddin Khalji	Four-market price control system; masahat-based land revenue; dagh/chehra army checks
Muhammad bin Tughlaq	Token currency (bronze/copper, c. 1330); raised Doab taxes during famine
Firoz Shah Tughlaq	Made iqtas hereditary; jizya on Brahmins; irrigation canals and haqq-i-shirb tax; large slave department

Table 3: Sultanate Coinage at a Glance

Coin	Metal	Value level	Key association
Tanka	Silver/gold	High value	Standardised by Iltutmish
Jital	Copper	Low value, daily use	Common coin across the Sultanate
Token currency coin	Bronze/copper	Meant to equal silver tanka in value	Muhammad bin Tughlaq, c. 1330, withdrawn after failure

Practice MCQs

Q1. Which official headed the Diwan-i-Wizarat, the finance department of the Delhi Sultanate? (a) Ariz-i-Mumalik (b) Wazir (c) Dabir-i-Khas (d) Sadr-us-Sudur

Q2. The territorial revenue assignment given to a noble or officer in the Delhi Sultanate, in return for maintaining troops, was called: (a) Jagir (b) Iqta (c) Zamindari (d) Watan

Q3. Which Sultan is credited with standardising Sultanate coinage by introducing the silver tanka and copper jital? (a) Balban (b) Alauddin Khalji (c) Iltutmish (d) Firoz Shah Tughlaq

Q4. Alauddin Khalji's market control system is described in detail by which contemporary chronicler? (a) Amir Khusrau (b) Ziauddin Barani (c) Ibn Battuta (d) Minhaj-us-Siraj

Q5. The officer who superintended the grain market under Alauddin Khalji's price-control system was called: (a) Shahna-i-Mandi (b) Muqti (c) Shiqdar (d) Amil

Q6. Which Sultan introduced a token currency of bronze/copper coins around 1330, inspired by the currency system of Kublai Khan's China? (a) Alauddin Khalji (b) Muhammad bin Tughlaq (c) Firoz Shah Tughlaq (d) Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq

Q7. Jizya, as levied in the Delhi Sultanate, was a tax on: (a) All peasants regardless of religion (b) Muslim traders only (c) Non-Muslim subjects (d) War booty shared among nobles

Q8. Which Sultan is specifically remembered for extending jizya to Brahmins, who had earlier been exempted by convention? (a) Iltutmish (b) Alauddin Khalji (c) Firoz Shah Tughlaq (d) Balban

Q9. The systems of dagh (horse branding) and chehra (descriptive roll) were introduced to: (a) Increase land revenue collection (b) Prevent fraud in army musters (c) Regulate cloth prices (d) Record village boundaries

Q10. Who was the only woman to rule as Sultan of Delhi in her own right? (a) Chand Bibi (b) Raziya Sultana (c) Nur Jahan (d) Durgavati

Q11. Match the following officials with their departments and choose the correct combination:

1. Wazir A. Diwan-i-Arz
2. Ariz-i-Mumalik B. Diwan-i-Insha
3. Dabir-i-Khas C. Diwan-i-Wizarat (a) 1-C, 2-A, 3-B (b) 1-A, 2-B, 3-C (c) 1-B, 2-C, 3-A (d) 1-C, 2-B, 3-A

Q12. Which of the following statements about the iqta system is correct? (a) It gave the muqti permanent, hereditary ownership of land (b) It was a revenue assignment, transferable at the Sultan's will, in return for military service (c) It applied only to Hindu chiefs, not Muslim nobles (d) It was abolished by Iltutmish and revived only under the Mughals

Q13. Arrange the following in chronological order of their reigns: (i) Firoz Shah Tughlaq's canal and irrigation works (ii) Iltutmish's standardisation of coinage (iii) Alauddin Khalji's market control reforms (iv) Muhammad bin Tughlaq's token currency (a) (ii), (iii), (iv), (i) (b) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) (c) (iii), (ii), (iv), (i) (d) (ii), (iv), (iii), (i)

Q14. Amir Khusrau, the noted Persian-Hindavi poet of the Khalji-Tughlaq period, was a disciple of which Sufi saint? (a) Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (b) Nizamuddin Auliya (c) Baba Farid (d) Shaikh Salim Chishti

Q15. Which of the following correctly pairs a monument with the ruler under whom it was built? (a) Qutb Minar (completed) — Balban (b) Alai Darwaza — Alauddin Khalji (c) Tughlaqabad Fort — Firoz Shah Tughlaq (d) Firoz Shah Kotla — Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(b)	Wazir headed the Diwan-i-Wizarat, the finance department.
2	(b)	Iqta was a transferable revenue assignment tied to military service.
3	(c)	Iltutmish standardised the silver tanka and copper jital.
4	(b)	Ziauddin Barani is the main chronicler for Alauddin's market reforms.
5	(a)	Shahna-i-Mandi superintended the grain market.
6	(b)	Muhammad bin Tughlaq introduced token currency around 1330.
7	(c)	Jizya was levied on non-Muslim subjects, mainly Hindus.
8	(c)	Firoz Shah Tughlaq extended jizya to Brahmins.
9	(b)	Dagh and chehra checked fraud in horse quality and soldier rolls.
10	(b)	Raziya Sultana (1236-1240) was the only woman Delhi Sultan.
11	(a)	Wazir-Diwan-i-Wizarat, Ariz-i-Mumalik-Diwan-i-Arz, Dabir-i-Khas-Diwan-i-Insha.
12	(b)	Iqta was a transferable state assignment, not hereditary private land.
13	(a)	Iltutmish (coinage) precedes Alauddin (markets), then Muhammad bin Tughlaq (token currency), then Firoz Shah (canals).
14	(b)	Amir Khusrau was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya.
15	(b)	Alai Darwaza was built by Alauddin Khalji.