Overview | |
---|---|
Established | 21 April 1526 |
Dissolved | 21 September 1857 |
State | Mughal Empire |
Leader | Mughal emperor |
Ministries | Vakil / Grand vizier Ministry of finance Ministry of the military Ministry of law/religious patronage Ministry of the imperial household and public works |
Headquarters | Agra Delhi Lahore Fatehpur Sikri |
The government of the Mughal Empire was a highly centralised bureaucracy, most of which was instituted during the rule of the third Mughal emperor, Akbar. [1] [2] The central government was headed by the Mughal emperor; immediately beneath him were four ministries. The finance/revenue ministry was responsible for controlling revenues from the empire's territories, calculating tax revenues, and using this information to distribute assignments. The ministry of the military (army/intelligence) was headed by an official titled mir bakhshi , who was in charge of military organisation, messenger service, and the mansabdari system. The ministry in charge of law/religious patronage was the responsibility of the sadr as-sudr, who appointed judges and managed charities and stipends. Another ministry was dedicated to the imperial household and public works. [1] [3]
The territory of the empire was divided into provincial level administrative units known as Subahs (provinces), each was controlled by official governor called subahdar . [4] Subahs were subdivided into administrative units known as Sarkars, which further divided into smaller administrative units known as Pargana . The government at the Pargana level consisted of a Muslim judge (Qadi) and a local tax collector official. [1] [3] Each Pargana has contained more smaller administrative units which called Tarafs, which in their turn consisted of several villages plus some uninhabited mountain and forest land. [5]
Mughal administrative divisions were not static, as these territories were often changed and reconstituted to suit the evolving physical territories, and to facillitate the better administration of the land cultivation. For example, a sarkar could changed its status into a subah, and Parganas often transferred into another Sarkars. However, hierarchial authority of each division could fall under multiple overlapping jurisdictions. Administrative divisions were also vague in their geographical mapping, as the Mughal state did not have enough resources or authority for detailed survey of land; hence the geographical limits obstructed the empire to formalise the mappings of their territories. The empire instead relying on recorded statistic details about each division to assess the territory's revenue, based on more simple form of land surveys. [6]
The structure of the central government of the empire resembles those Subah provincial units government; To facillitate to government control, each subah had its own bakhshi , sadr as-sudr, and finance minister that reported directly to the central government rather than the subahdar.[ citation needed ] The empire also established "Dastur-ul-Amal", an office responsible for the administration of land revenue. Each cultivator of the land which assigned was known as "Patta", and "Qabuliyat", a status of agreement regarding the said land's revenue. [7]
The Mughals had multiple imperial capitals, established over the course of their rule. These were the cities of Agra, Delhi, Lahore, and Fatehpur Sikri. Power often shifted back and forth between these capitals. [8] Sometimes this move was due to necessary political and military demands, while also due to ideological reasons; such as Akbar's establishment of new capital in Fatehpur Sikri; Another reason was because the marginal cost of establishing a new imperial capital. [9] There were occasions where two imperial capitals existed simultaneously, in Mughal history. Certain cities also served as temporary provincial capitals, such as when Aurangzeb shifting his central government to Aurangabad in the Deccan. [8]
The imperial camp are used for military expeditions and royal entourage which also served as a kind of mobile, "de facto" administrative capital. From the time of Akbar, Mughal camps were huge in scale, accompanied by numerous personages associated with the royal court, as well as soldiers and labourers. All administration and governance was carried out within them. The Mughal Emperors spent a significant portion of their ruling period within these camps. [10]
After Aurangzeb, the Mughal capital definitively became the walled city of Shahjahanabad (modern day Old Delhi). [11] [12]
The Mughal Empire's legal system was context-specific and evolved over the course of the empire's rule. Being a Muslim state, the empire employed fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and therefore the fundamental institutions of Islamic law such as those of the qadi (judge), mufti (jurisconsult), and muhtasib (censor and market supervisor) were well-established in the Mughal Empire. However, the dispensation of justice also depended on other factors, such as administrative rules, local customs, and political convenience. This was due to Persianate influences on Mughal ideology, and the fact that the Mughal Empire governed a non-Muslim majority. [13]
The Mughal Empire followed the Sunni Hanafi system of jurisprudence. In its early years, the empire relied on Hanafi legal references inherited from its predecessor, the Delhi Sultanate. These included the al-Hidaya (the best guidance) and the Fatawa al-Tatarkhaniyya (religious decisions of the Emire Tatarkhan). During the Mughal Empire's peak, the Al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyya was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb. This compendium of Hanafi law sought to serve as a central reference for the Mughal state that dealt with the specifics of the South Asian context. [14]
The Mughal Empire also drew on Persianate notions of kingship. Particularly, this meant that the Mughal emperor was considered the supreme authority on legal affairs. [13]
Various kinds of courts existed in the Mughal empire. One such court was that of the qadi. The Mughal qadi was responsible for dispensing justice; this included settling disputes, judging people for crimes, and dealing with inheritances and orphans. The qadi also had additional importance with regards to documents, as the seal of the qadi was required to validate deeds and tax records. Qadis did not constitute a single position, but made up a hierarchy. For example, the most basic kind was the pargana (district) qadi. More prestigious positions were those of the qadi al-quddat (judge of judges) who accompanied the mobile imperial camp, and the qadi-yi lashkar (judge of the army). [13] Qadis were usually appointed by the emperor or the sadr-us-sudr (chief of charities). [13] [15] The jurisdiction of the qadi was availed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. [16]
The jagirdar (local tax collector) was another kind of official approached, especially for high-stakes cases. Subjects of the Mughal Empire also took their grievances to the courts of superior officials who held more authority and punitive power than the local qadi. Such officials included the kotwal (local police), the faujdar (an officer controlling multiple districts and troops of soldiers), and the most powerful, the subahdar (provincial governor). In some cases, the emperor themself dispensed justice directly. [13] Jahangir was known to have installed a "chain of justice" in the Agra fort that any aggrieved subject could shake to get the attention of the emperor and bypass the inefficacy of officials. [17]
Self-regulating tribunals operating at the community or village level were common, but sparse documentation of them exists. For example, it is unclear how panchayats (village councils) operated in the Mughal era. [13]
Awadh, known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a historical region in northern India, now constituting the northeastern portion of Uttar Pradesh. It is roughly synonymous with the ancient Kosala region of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain scriptures.
Nawab is a royal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the western title of Prince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of the Kings of Saxony to the German Emperor. In earlier times the title was ratified and bestowed by the reigning Mughal emperor to semi-autonomous Muslim rulers of subdivisions or princely states in the Indian subcontinent loyal to the Mughal Empire, for example the Nawabs of Bengal.
The Sultanate of Golconda was an early modern kingdom in southern India, ruled by the Persianate, Shia Islamic Qutb Shahi dynasty of Turkoman origin. After the decline of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Sultanate of Golconda was established in 1512 by Quli Qutb Shah, as one of the five Deccan sultanates.
RajaTodar Mal was an Indian minister, economist, and military commander who served as the Finance Minister (Diwan-i-Ashraff) of the Mughal empire during the reign of Akbar I. He was also the Vakil-us-Sultanat and Joint Wazir. He was one of the premier nobles in the Mughal Empire and was a Mansabdar of 4000. He was one of the Navaratnas in Akbar's court. Under Todar Mal, there were 15 other Dewans nominated for 15 Subahs of Akbar.
Fatawa 'Alamgiri, also called Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Fatawa-e-Alamgiri or Al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyya, is a 17th-century sharia based compilation on statecraft, general ethics, military strategy, economic policy, justice and punishment, that served as the law and principal regulating body of the Mughal Empire, during the reign of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Muhiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir. It subsequently went on to become the reference legal text to enforce sharia in colonial South Asia in the 18th century through early 20th century, and has been heralded as "the greatest digest of Muslim law during the Mughal India".
Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal Empire times and British Raj, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent. Each parganas may or may not be subdivided into pirs. Those revenue units are used primarily, but not exclusively, by Muslim kingdoms. After Indian independence the parganas became equivalent to Block/ Tahsil and pirs became Grampanchayat.
A Subah was the term for a province (state) in the Mughal Empire. The term was also used by other polities of the Indian subcontinent. The word is derived from Arabic and Persian. The governor/ruler of a Subah was known as a subahdar, which later became subedar to refer to an officer in the Indian Army and Pakistan Army. The subahs were established by badshah (emperor) Akbar during his administrative reforms of the years 1572–1580; initially, they numbered 12, but his conquests expanded the number of subahs to 15 by the end of his reign. Subahs were divided into Sarkars, or districts. Sarkars were further divided into Parganas or Mahals. His successors, most notably Aurangzeb, expanded the number of subahs further through their conquests. As the empire began to dissolve in the early 18th century, many subahs became de facto independent or were governed by the Marathas or the British.
The Berar Subah was one of the Subahs (provinces) of the Mughal Empire, in Central India from 1596 to 1724. It bordered Golconda, Ahmandagar, Kandesh and Malwa provinces as well as the independent and tributary kingdoms to the east.
Murshid Quli Khan, also known as Mohammad Hadi and born as Surya Narayan Mishra, was the first Nawab of Bengal, serving from 1717 to 1727.
The Province of Sira, also known as Carnatic-Balaghat, was a subah of the Mughal empire in South India that was established in 1687 by conquering emperor Aurangzeb and lasted until 1757. The province, which comprised the Carnatic region south of the Tungabhadra river, had its capital in the town of Sira. It was composed of seven parganas (districts): Basavapatna, Budihal, Sira, Penukonda, Dod-Ballapur, Hoskote and Kolar; in addition, Harpanahalli, Kondarpi, Anegundi, Bednur, Chitaldroog and Mysore were considered by the Mughals to be tributary states of the province.
The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India.
The Bengal Subah, also referred to as Mughal Bengal, was the largest subdivision of Mughal India encompassing much of the Bengal region, which includes modern-day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and some parts of the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha between the 16th and 18th centuries. The state was established following the dissolution of the Bengal Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world, when the region was absorbed into the Mughal Empire. Bengal was the wealthiest region in the Indian subcontinent.
The Anglo-Mughal war, also known as the Child's war, was the first Anglo-Indian war on the Indian subcontinent.
Persian people were one of the major ethnic groups, who accompanied the ethnic Turco-Mongol ruling elite of the Mughal Empire after its invasion of the Indian subcontinent. Throughout the Mughal Empire, a number of ethnic Persian technocrats, bureaucrats, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, poets, artists, theologians and Sufis migrated and settled in different parts of the Indian Subcontinent.
The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselves, were in the cavalry-based armies of central Asia, its essential form and structure was established by the empire's third emperor, Akbar. The regular forces were mainly recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.
The Gujarat Subah was a province (subah) of the Mughal Empire, encompassing the Gujarat region. The region first fell under Mughal control in 1573, when the Mughal emperor Akbar defeated the Gujarat Sultanate under Muzaffar Shah III.
Sa'adullah Khan, also spelled Sadullah Khan was the Grand Vizier and Vakil-I-Mutlaq of the Mughal Empire during the reign of Shah Jahan I.
Hyderabad Subah, also known as Golconda Subah, was a province of the Mughal Empire encompassing the eastern Deccan region of the Indian subcontinent. It was created in 1687, during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, by the annexation of the Golconda Sultanate. Hyderabad Subah later began to secede in the 18th century, as the Mughal Empire declined, and became fully independent as part of the Nizam-administered Deccan.
The Bakhshi in the Mughal Empire denoted a number of hierarchical government officials, typically involved with military administration and intelligence. The offices were introduced during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar. Bakhshis were found in both the central and provincial administration; the most notable kind of bakhshi was the mir bakhshi, one of the empire's four ministers, broadly in charge of administering the mansabdari system. The mir bakhshi was the second-highest official in the Mughal Empire, after the imperial wazir.
Mir Bahadur Dil, known by the title Jan Sipar Khan, was a noble of the Mughal Empire. He was active during the reign of emperor Aurangzeb, and held offices in the Deccan region of the empire. His most notable position was in the Mughal province of Hyderabad Subah, where he served as its first permanent subahdar (governor) for twelve years, dying in office.
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