Government of the Mughal Empire
The government of the Mughal Empire was a highly centralised bureaucracy, most of which was instituted during the rule of the third Mughal emperor,
Provinces
The empire was divided into a number of subahs (provinces), each of which was headed by a provincial governor called a subahdar. The structure of the central government was mirrored at the provincial level; each subah had its own bakhshi, sadr as-sudr, and finance minister that reported directly to the central government rather than the subahdar.
Subahs were subdivided into administrative units known as sarkars, which were further divided into groups of villages known as parganas. The government at the pargana level consisted of a Muslim judge and a local tax collector.[1][3]
Capitals
The Mughals had multiple imperial capitals, established over the course of their rule. These were the cities of
The imperial camp, used for military expeditions and royal tours, 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.[6]
After Aurangzeb, the Mughal capital definitively became the walled city of
Law
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.[8]
Legal ideology
The Mughal Empire followed the Sunni
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.[8]
Courts of law
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).[8] Qadis were usually appointed by the emperor or the sadr-us-sudr (chief of charities).[8][10] The jurisdiction of the qadi was availed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.[11]
The
Self-regulating tribunals operating at the community or village level were common, but sparse documentation of them exists. For example, it is unclear how
List of Mughal Emperors
See also
- Mughal dynasty
- Mughal emperors
- Economy of the Mughal Empire
- Foreign relations of the Mughal Empire
- Islam in South Asia
Further reading
- Blake, Stephen P. (November 1979), "The Patrimonial-Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals", Journal of Asian Studies, 39 (1): 77–94, S2CID 154527305
- Habib, Irfan. Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps (1982).
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-530513-5, retrieved 28 March 2022
- , retrieved 31 March 2022
- ^ , retrieved 28 March 2022
- ^ JSTOR 42928323.
- JSTOR 42928323.
- JSTOR 42928323.
- )
- ^ , retrieved 13 December 2021
- ^ Khalfaoui, Mouez. "Mughal Empire and Law". Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
- , retrieved 25 March 2022
- S2CID 143513602.
- OCLC 1243310832.