The government established by the Turks was a compromise between Islamic political

ideas and institutions on the one hand and the existing Rajput system of government on
the other. Consequently many elements of the Rajput political system with or without
changes became part and parcel of the Turkish administration in India. Most of the
Sultans kept up the pretence of regarding the caliph as the legal sovereign while they
themselves were the caliph's representatives. Most of them included the name of the
caliph in the Khutba and the Sikka and adopted titles indicative of their subordination to
the caliph. Three rulers emphasised their own importance. Balban used to say that after
the Prophet the most important office was that of the sovereign and called himself the
Shadow of God. Muhmmad bin Tughlaq assumed this style during the early years of his
reign and although Balban had retained the name of the caliph in the Khutba and Sikka,
he made no mention of caliph anywhere. Despite all this neither of them had the power to
call himself the caliph. The only person who had done this was Qutubuddin Mubarak
Khalji. Only three Sultans sought and secured a mansur or letter of investiture from the
caliph. The first among them was Iltutmish. Next Muhmmad bin Tughlaq tried to pacify
the ulema by securing an investiture from the Abbasid Caliph in Egypt.

After him Firoz also sought and secured it twice. According to Islamic ideals essential
attributes of a sovereign required that he should be a male adult suffering from no
physical disability, a freeborn Muslim having faith in Islam and acquainted with its
doctrines and he should be elected by the people. There were several violations of the
prescribed criteria as Raziya was raised to throne despite her being a woman. Minority
proved no bar in the case of Mohammad bin Tughluq. Alauddin Khalji admitted his
ignorance of the Sharia but nobody questioned him. In the framing of new rules and
regulations the authority of the Sultan was circumscribed and every ruler could not
govern the kingdom in complete disregard of the advice of the ulema or theologians as
Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq had been able to do. The power of the nobility
also blunted their authority to some extent. When there was a weak ruler on the throne
the nobles and the ulema particularly dominated him but during the reign of Balban,
Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq these checks proved ineffective. The sultans
were not powerful enough to rule the land in complete disregard of the sentiments of the
Hindus.

The Sultan dominated the central government as he was the legal head of the state and
acted as the chief executive and the highest court of appeal. The Sultan was assisted by
number of ministers. The slave dynasty sultans constituted four ministers at the top level
these were held by Wazir, Ariz I mamalik, the diwan -i-insha and the diwan-i-risalat.
After sometime an extraordinary officer of the state styled as naib-ul-mulk or malik naib
the regent came into existence. When the sultanate was well established two more
departmental heads were raised to the status of central ministers sadr-us-sadur and the
diwan-i-qaza. The commander of the royal army next after the sultan, the crown prince
and above mentioned ministers constituted the nucleus of the council of advisers called
majilis-i-am or majilis-i-khawat which comprised the most trusted and the highest
officers of the state. The wazir also styled as vakil was the prime minister and his
department was called the diwan-i-wizarat. He was head of the finance dept and usually
held overall charge of the entire administrative set up. The head of the army
establishment or the ministry of defence was the diwan -i-arz. He was responsible for the
organization and maintenance of the royal army and exercised disciplinary control over
it. The department of correspondence and records of the royal court was called diwan-i-
insha; it was held under the charge of central minister known as dabir-i-mamlik, dabir-i-
khas or amir munshi. The diwan-i-risalat constituted the fourth pillar of the imperial
administration of the sultanate. Under slave dynasty the head of the dept was sadr-us-
sadur who was primarily a minister for ecclesiastical affairs. During the time of Alauddin
Khalji diwan-i-risalat dept was taken out of the hand of the sadr and renamed diwan-i-
riyasat. Its primary function was to implement the economic regulations issued by the
sultan and control the markets and prices. Barid-i-mamalik; vakil -i-dar, amir-i-barbak,
amir-i-hajib, amir-i-majlis, amir-i-shikar, kotwal etc were other important officials of the
time.

Provincial Government
The provincial government of the sultanate was not well developed. The provincial
governors of the region were usually called walis or muqtas. The provincial government
was an exact replica of the central government. In some provinces the sultan appointed an
imperial officer called sahib-i-diwan for controlling the provincial revenues and he
exercised a sort of check on the powers and activities of the governor. The provinces
were further divided into shiqs or districts which were governed by shiqdars. Each shiq
comprised a few parganas which was an aggregate of villages. At the lowest ladder were
the villages which were governed by their local panchayats.

Judicial System
The sultans implemented shariat or the Islamic law of crime and punishment the main
sources of which were the Quran, the Hadis and Ijma. The ecclesiastical cases were
separated from the criminal and civil suits. The durbar of the sultan constituted the
highest civil and criminal court of justice which took original as well as appellate cases.
Below the sultan there was the court of qazi-i-quzat or the chief justice of the empire.
Muhtasib the censor of public morals acted as police cum judge in the observance of the
canon law by the Muslims. The village panchayats enjoyed the sanction of the state to
administer justice according to the local tradition, customs and the personal law of the
populace. The penal code was severe, physical torture and capital punishment constituted
an essential part of it.
Military organization
The sultanate was military dictatorship; it owed its genesis to the military victory of the
Turks over the Indian rulers in the 12th and 13th centuries and its strength and stability
depended primarily on its strong and efficient army. The army organization of the sultans
was based on feudal principles which carried all the inherent defects of the system with it.

Revenue System
The revenue structure of the empire followed the Islamic traditions inherited from the
Ghaznavids. Only in the details of agrarian administration was it modified in accordance
with local needs and practices. The state depended on agricultural produce. Three
methods of assessment were sharing, appraisement and measurement. The first was
simple crop division; the second was appraisal of the quantity or value of the state
demand on the value of probable crop yield; and the third was the fixation of the demand
on the basis of actual measurement of land. Revenue was taken from the people in the
form of cash or kind. Jazia was due on the non-Muslims. Women, children, old, mentally
and physically disabled people, monks and priests were exempt from Jazia

Though five dynasties ruled during the era that is considered as the Sultanate Period, yet
the administrative set up during these 320 years was very similar. In the central
administrative system, the following were the key slots:
1. Sultan: The Sultan was the head of the state. Though he owed nominal allegiance to
the Abbasid Caliphs, yet for all practical purposes, he was totally independent. The chief
responsibilities of the Sultan were the protection of the state, the settlement of disputes,
the defense of the realm of Islam, the enforcement of laws, the collection of taxes, and
the welfare of people. The nobility, civil services and ulema supported the Sultan. In
most cases, a predecessor either nominated the Sultan, or he had to fight a war of
succession.
2. Wazir: The most important post next to the Sultan was that of the Prime Minister, or
the 'Wazir'. He was in charge of the entire fiscal administration of the realm and all
matters relating to income and expenditures. He had the powers to appoint the revenue
officials, organize and collect revenue, and control the state expenditure. His department
was known as the Diwan-i-Wazir.
3. Musharraf-i-Mumalik: This post was equal to the present-day Accountant General.
This office was used to maintain the accounts of the state.
4. Mustauf-i-Mumalik: This post was equal to the present day Auditor General. The
duties involved auditing the accounts.
5. Sadr-us-Sadar: The appointee was also known as Qazi-i-Mumalik. Qazi-i-Mumalik's
role was to deal with religious affairs and immunities to scholars and men of piety.
6. Munshi-i-Mumalik: This post dealt with the entire state correspondence.