Muhammad Tughluq ( 1325-1351 )

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Muhammad bin Tughlaq led campaigns in the NW against Kalanur, Peshawar
aimed at securing the frontiers against future Mongol attacks.
1332 planned an expedition of Qarachil in Himachal under Khusrau Malik, disaster led to waste of resources and erosion of Tughlaqs authority
Khurasan expedition was also a disaster, recruited about 370,000 soldiers and paid them a year salary in advance but they were later disbanded.
Barani - GT and MBT were highly ambitious
Under MBT direct control extended to Warangal/ Telangana, Mabar/ Coromandal, Madurai/ TN, Dvar Samudra/ Karnataka
MBT strictly observed prayers and made others also follow
Deep understanding of Philosophy, mathematics, medicines, religion
Barani - was rationalist wanted logical proof, accuses of combining spiritual and political authority
Respected sufi saints, visited Tomb of Muinuddin Chisti
Associated w/ Jain Saints, visited temples, gave grants

Rebellions under MBT

1324-35 - engaged in consolidation, Crushed Gurhasp’s rebellions, conquered Kampil in South Karnataka
1336-45 - Rebellion in Mabar, famine in Doab, loss of all Southern states and Bengal, Rebellion by Nobles in Daulatabad including Ainul Mulk
- Called foreigners Aziz/friends gave great patronage to them
- Approach towards Nobility not based on racial or religious considerations
- Inducted Sufis into adm they resented it MBT had them killed - Ulemas etc issued fatwa making rebellions against him legal
- Got formal rescript from Caliph to make his rule legal
- Rebellions in Kara and Bidar
1346-51 - rebellions at Gulbarga, Malwa, Gujarat, Bidar
- Daulatabad lost to Bahmani kingdom
Rash, Hasty temperament; Suspicious nature, excessive punishment
Steps towards composite ruling class consisting of Hindus and Muslims

MBTs Analysis as a Ruler

Sultan was imaginative in his schemes but lacked practical wisdom
Lacked patience and wanted quick success, minor failure enraged him and abandoned schemes in haste
Not a good judge of men and circumstance
Not a successful leader

MBTs theory of Kingship

#todo

https://www.historydiscussion.net/history-of-india/tughluq-dynasty/biography-of-muhammad-bin-tughluq-tughluq-dynasty-indian-history/6578#:~:text=The%20theory%20of%20kingship%20of , to%20interfere%20in%20his%20administration.

Major Projects

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Administrative Reforms

Transfer of Capital 1328

Reasons

Devagiri/Daulatabad centrally located, pleasant climate
Ibn Batuta - wanted to teach people of Delhi lesson for writing abusive letters Woolseley Haig has accepted this verison. Isami says that MBT wanted to break the power of the citizens
Gardner Brown and AL Srivastava says that reason was Mongol threat
Revolt in Mabar, Bubonic plague outbreak soldiers perished, rumour of MBT’s death - Mabar, Dwar Samudra, Warangal became independent
Poets like Khusrau had created a beautiful picture of Devagiri
Sultan wanted to create another administrative, cultural centre for Muslim in the Deccan as per Habibullah and Mahdi Hussain
KA Nizami says that he wanted to have both Delhi, Daulatabad as capital
Barani exaggerates - led to ruination of Delhi
Ferishta - more familiar w/ it, already one of the great cities
Effects largely felt by upper sections,

Reasons for Failure :

People had to cover a distance of 1500km. Barani says it left Delhi in complete ruins
He should have shifted only his court
Isami says that Delhi was to be set on fire.

Khorasan Expedition

Raised a large army of 380,000 people, paid them in advance
Make Sindh-Punjab free from M(Chagtai) invasion
Barani - no care to enforce branding of horses or huliya, testing their swordmanship,
Kept idle for 1 yr then disbanded

Qarachil/Kullu Kangra Region of Himacha; Expedition

Soon after Khorasan
Ferishta says this was to conquer China
Almost entire army perished
Barani wrongfully said - aimed to get horses from Turkistan
Not total failure, local ruler accepted overlordship

Deccan Policy

Wanted to annex Deccan, was very oppressive
Dwarsamundra of the Hoyasalas was devasted and caused discontent among Hindu population

Economic Reforms

Use of Token Currency 1329-30

Copper and Brass coins (Tanka)
To raise a huge army, shortage of silver/gold coins (Jital)
Reform coinage
Dr Ishwari Prasad - unequalled in artistic perfection in design
China under Mongols/ Kublai Khan and Iran’s Qai Katu had intro paper currency
Barani - recruit huge army to capture world, supplement treasury
Muhammad Habib - Broze coins had inscription in Persian, Arabic; people could not distinguish b/w these and forged ones

Mistakes

Did not employ measures to check faking, could not prevent forging
Barani mention that house of every Hindu became a mint.
People started hoarding silver and gold coins
Withdrawing caused exchange of fake coins too causing loss to treasury but most fake coins were not accepted
Large amounts accumulated, their value depreciated
Trade Commerce disrupted

Historiography

Irfan Habib has blamed citizens for not being able to distinguish b/w original and fake
Mahdi Hussain has called it to be successful and decision statesmanlike
Other historians have blamed the sultan

Bribing the Mongol

General Tarmashirin was bribed 500 dinars
Shows his weakness
Might not be true but it shows that Mongols were unchecked in region

Agrarian Measures

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Agrarian Reforms

Mohammed bin Tughlaq introduced new abwabs/ cesses and revived the older ones like charai, gharai etc but did not tamper the rate fixed by Alauddin.
@ assessment carried out not on actual yield but on officially decreed yields called wafa-i-farmani and mirkh-i-farmani were used.
extended sys of revenue collection to Gujarat, Malwa, Deccan, South India and Bengal.
Cattle were branded.
demand for revenue inc led to revolt around Delhi and doab.
@ introduced the practice of giving agricultural loans named sondhar.
new minister called Diwan-i amir-i Kohi was estd for promote agriculture
Intro a register of the revenue and expenditure of each Iqta
Brief Experiment for reclamation of barren land through rotation of crop - estd of Diwan in Kohi
- 60 sq miles area designated, 70 lakh tanka allocated
- Funds misappropriated, dept wound up after 3 yrs

Heavy Taxation of the Doab

To raise a strong army, People were rich and could pay more taxes.
$ Per Barani it was 20x the normal. Ferishta says 3-4 times. Gardner Brown says it was normal. AL Srivastava says about 5-10 percent. JL Mehta says 20%.
Rains had failed during the time and there were famine like conditions. Barani says many perished, Brown doesn’t.
Farmers suffered, left their land, riots and rebellions broke out.
! Suppression was ruthless, later recalled and paid reparations. AL Srivastava says that it came too late.
! Charai and Gharai were already unpopular their collection became rigorous, usual revenue collected also decreased, made MBT unpopular; new cesses were also levied.
For assessing yield standard yield was taken not actual produce, Price were not actual but decided by officials - destruction of Peasantry
$ Barani : enforcement was so rigorous that feeble and low among riyaya were wiped out, rich ones became rebellious.
- Bitterly criticises Sultan for this but never tells the actual amount by which it was inc, account of suffering of peasants in exaggerated
- Confuses principal points in story by over emphasising relationship b/w Doab, Spread of famine and widespread revolt.
Famine occurred during the same time, MBT advanced loans to dig wells, buy seed implements.
Diwan I Amir I Kohi set up to extend cultivation, bring barren land under cultivation not uncultivable land aka Usar, improve crops.
Total 70 lakh tankhas advanced as loans, Afif says 2cr.
$ Barani - Entire scheme failed, person to implement were incompetent
$ MBT died and FST wrote off the loan
Not total failure -> helped evolve agri policy that fully matured under Mughals

Bureaucracy

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Nobility/Ruling Elite

Nobility was based on racial and religious lines
@ Lower borns like barbers, cooks, etc were accepted into nobility. Barani has criticised this Composition
Turks were the ruling elites
Foreigners who were from Afghanistan, Mongols etc were patronised
@ Indian converts like Aziz ud din Khammar was made Governor of Malwa
Hindus like Bhiran Rai, Sai Raj Dhara were nobles. Barani mentions Kishan Bazran as governor of Sehwan
Religious classess and artisans etc were also inducted
@ First steps towards a composite/heterogenous ruling classes constituting Hindus and Muslims. It failed.

Problems

Old nobles resented this
Incompetent people were also patronised
Led to lack of cohesion and loyalty
$ Keen to tone up adm bring uniformity, issued large nos of orders - Ibn Batuta

Govt and Adm under Delhi Sultanate

![[Medieval-India#Administration under the Delhi Sultanate]]

Derived from Abbasid, Ghaznavid and Seljukic sys.
@ Adm was lose structure of military commands, no single direction, busy subduing Hindu chiefs initially changed under Khaljis.
Muqtis commander of mil and adm tracts called iqtas to maintian army, meet his own expenses and make fin contribution to Sultan.
- During AK’s reign had to follow system of rev assessment
- Appointed his own troops, Naib Ariz rep him at centre.
@ Pargana; Sadis (unit of 100) and Chaurasis (84) were collection of villages a Chaudhari, Amil, Patwari etc was posted in them.
Lower Bureaucracy divided into 2
- Judicial and religious - Muftis, Qazis, also dealt w/ criminal justice; Muhtasib checked open violations of Sharia, Imams Muezzins,
  - Ulemas were teachers -> bridge b/w Ruling class and ordinary Muslims, united them.
Revenue and administrative on the other : Dad Bak responsible for checking arbitray exaction of taxes also supervised record keepers;
- Muharrirs were accountants, Amils rev collectors.

Sultan

Head of all, centre of society and politics
Prestige, power - gave them divine attributes
$ Barani - heart of monarch was mirror of God
Religion was major check on misuse of power
Major institutional check was hereditary nobility
Slavers augmented power especially during Early times

Minsiters

Number not fixed; Wazir most powerful
$ RP Tripathy : Wazir under Tughlaqs had high authority and high salary
Until T rule W did had both civil, mil duties
Mushrif - supervised expenditure, Mustaufi incharge of income, Ariz I Mamalik under Balban head of Mil, all acted as check and balance.
Diwan I Arz - headed By Ariz I Mamalik not commander in chief
Diwan I Insha - communications, headed by Dabir I Khas,
Diwan I Risalat - grant rent free lands to Muslim scholars, chief was Sadr I Jaha
- Qazi ul Qazzat head of Judicial Dpearment
Wakil I dar controlled royal household
Mir I Imarat under FST
Amir i hajib controlled attendance of nobles at court aka Barbek
Provincial and Local Gov
- Lose structure headed my mil commanders aka Walis, Muqtis
- Maintained army at his own cost, also made fin contribution to Sultan
- Their control inc w/ time ex collection of revenue, appt its own troops, Naib Ariz rep him at centre
- Separate revenue farming gov during MBT failed removed by FST
- Sadis(100), Chaurasis(84) were villages under a Pargana
- & Amil : rev collector, Chaudhary : hereditary land holder, Khuts : zamindar of villages, Muqaddams - headman, Patwari - examined account books.

PYQs

Muhammad Tughluq: Major projects, agrarian measures, bureaucracy of Muhammad Tughluq

Do you agree with the view that Muhammad Tughluq was ‘transcendent failure’? Why did he fail to achieve the ideals he had set for himself? [1984, 60m]

Major Projects

Was the state in the Sultanate period a theocracy? Discuss the new orientation of state policies and administrative principles under Muhammad bin Tughluq. [1988, 60m]

Muhammad Bin Tughlaq’s contradictory qualities were beyond the grasp knowledge and commonsense. Evaluate the significance of his dministrative measures and policies in the light of this statement. [1992, 60m]

Write a short essay on: “Experiments of Muhammad Tughluq”. [2003, 20m]

Write a short essay on: “The Token Currency System introduced by Muhammad Tughluq.” [2004, 20m]

Write a short essay on: “Muhammad Tughluq as an agrarian innovator.” [2009, 20m]

Do you agree that the schemes of Muhammad bin Tughluq were correctly conceived, badly executed and disastrously abandoned? Discuss. [2017, 15 Marks]

“The policy of creating heterogeneous nobility by Muhammad Tughlaq started the process of disintegration of Delhi Sultanate”. Explain. [2018, 20 Marks]