Mughal Administration

But in the case of the other sources of State income the Quranic law and the practice of older Islamic States outside India exercised their full influence and we find in Indo-Muhammadan history repeated attempts to adjust the actual practice of the Government in the revenue department to the theory of the Canon Law of Islam in this matter.* Thus the entire revenue sytem of the Mughal empire [...] Where the Government is absolute the supreme authority concentrated in one man's hand the territory large the means of communication between the districts slow and difficult the transfer of local officers frequent and no political life or local initiative left to the people —there the natural consequence is the multiplcation of official correspondende and the growth of a vast mass of writt [...] According to the theory of the Quranic law the sovereign is only the commander of the true believers (amir-ul-mumnin) and is responsible to the general body (jamait) of the Muslims for the proper discharge of his duties. [...] The punishment of the heretical opinions blasphemy against the Prophet and neglect of the five daily prayers and the fast of Ramzän by Muhamadans also lay within the province of the Censor. [...] He signed the papers of distribtion of jägir (taqsim.) His seal was impressed on the rooms of the Public Treasury and the bags of money [in them] on the abstracts of the reports (waqia) on the acknowledments (qabz) of the monthly salary of the ahadis *The procedure will become clear from the full description of it given in the Ain (i.