Introduction

Zia Barani (1283-1359) was the most important political thinker of the Delhi
Sultanate, particularly during the reigns of Alauddin Khilji, Muhammad Bin
Tughlaq and Firoz Tughlaq. He has been regarded as one of the most important
historian and political theorist of Medieval India. His writings are invaluable
source for acquiring the knowledge of nearly hundred years of the Delhi
Sultanate. His importance lies not only in composing the history of this period but
also in writing on the nature of kingship, its rationale, duties and obligations. He
represented the idea of political expediency in the Islamic history. His Fatawa-i-
Jahandari, written as nasihat (advices) for the Muslim kings, is a classic work on
statecraft which can be compare with Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Machiavelli’s
Prince. However, he has been called a conservative, a fundamentalist and a bigot
as compared to relatively liberal thinkers like Abul Fazl.

Ideal Sultan
Barani made a distinction between the personal life of the Sultan and his political
role (Advice II). In both aspects, however, he envisaged in him an ideal person-
noble born, preferably belonging to the family of the monarch, having innate
sense of justice, wise enough to understand the deception and conspiracies of the
wicked (Advice XXIV), understanding the importance of his time and dividing it
judiciously between his personal needs and political requirement (Advice X) and
following the path of the Shariat, which laid down that he was an agent of god on
earth to do the ‘welfare’ of the people. As far as following the Shariat was
concerned, Barani conceded that in the personal realm the Sultan may choose to
be lax but he opposed the idea of laxity in the political sphere as it might lead to
disease in the administration.
He advised the Sultan to achieve the objectives of Islam and possess the
attributes of terror, prestige, pride, high status, domination and superiority.
Courage to react to any idea or anyone’s wishes at the appropriate time was to be
the essential ingredient of his political existence. Nonetheless, he must desist
from five mean qualities such as falsehood, changeability, deception,
wrathfulness and injustice (Advice XXIII).
As people were influenced by the character and actions of the monarch, it was
necessary for him to maintain all the regalities associated with kingship.
Counselors and army and intelligence officers were indispensable parts of these
royal functions. Their selection, gradation, etc. were obviously the duty of the
Sultan and required careful attention. It was on the basis of their advice and
reporting, either on policy matters or about conspiracies, corruption, the
condition of people, etc. that the administration could function harmoniously. It
was the king’s responsibility to protect the old political families, to check their
possible usurpation of power and to ensure they are not left to live in material
deprivation (Advice XXII). Barani’s intimate knowledge about such affairs, and the
fact that he was himself a victim of such circumstances, might have compelled
him to pen down such advice.
The supremacy of the Sultan and the safety of his Sultanate, however, couldn’t
have been secured without delivering justice to the subjects. ‘The real justification
for the supremacy of the kings and of their power and dignity’, Barani had
remarked, ‘is the need for enforcing justice’ (Advice V). Accordingly, the first act
had to be the appointment and gradation of judges, with the king himself being at
the apex, and the functions delineated for them were ‘protection of money,
property, women and children of the weak, the obedient, the helpless, the young,
the submissive and the friendless (Advice V). Further, it was to ‘prevent the strong
from having recourse to oppression in their dealings with people’ (Advice V)
without which ‘there would be a complete community of women and property’
(Advice V), leading to anarchy in the ruling class.
While delivering justice, ‘however, the king should know the appropriate
occasions for both forgiveness and punishment’ (Advice XII). Punishment to the
rebellious, cruel, mischievous, etc. had to be combined with mercy and
forgiveness for those who accepted their sins and were repentant (Advice XIII).
However, in all these deliberations on justice, one aspect was conspicuous by its
absence, i.e., the deliverance of justice was to be according to the religious
practices of the subjects, though Barani nowhere mentioned separate kinds of
justice for Hindus and Muslims.

Ideal State
1) Laws- Barani categorized laws into two kinds, the Shariat and the Zawabit.
While the shariat meant the teachings and practices of the Prophet and of the
pious Caliphs, the Zawabit were the state laws formulated by the monarch in
consultation with the nobility to cater to the new requirements which the shariat
was unable to fulfill. It was ideal for the king, nobility and the personnel of
administration to follow the Shariat, both in personal domain and in public
policies. The state laws, however, were also to be formulated in case of the
inability to follow/apply the Shariat. But, he cautioned simultaneously that the
law- makers must take into account the practices of the past and contemporary
socio- political conditions while formulating the laws. The Zawabit, he said, must
be in the spirit of the Shariat and enumerated three conditions for its formulation
as guidelines. First, the Zawabit should not negate the Shariat; secondly, it must
increase the loyalty and hope among the nobles and common people towards the
Sultan; and finally, its source and inscription should be the Shariat and the pious
Caliphs.

2) Army- After the Mauryas, the Sultanate was the largest and most powerful
state in India. Obviously, the administration played varied roles, from revenue
collection to maintaining law and order, and from public works to dispensing
‘justice’. Out of the three main pillars of the administration, the army was the
prominent one which was based on the Turkish- Mongol model. It was divided
into four parts, viz., infantry, cavalry, war elephants and auxiliary. The cavalry was
further divided into three wings, viz., soldiers without horse, soldiers with a single
horse and soldiers with two horses. The monarch also maintained personal troops
called qalb for his safety and ultimate reliability in case of rebellion occurring from
within the nobility. The army, apart from performing its basic functions of security
and expansion of the state, acquired importance for another reasons as well. It
acted as a facilitator in the expansion of Islam since the ruling class of the
Sultanate came as invaders and immigrants and it needed a large support base.

3) Bureaucracy- The bureaucracy was another necessary component of the

Sultanate whose basic function was to measure the land and fix and collect the
taxes and in its absence the very existence of the ruling class would have become
redundant and neither would have the army sustained itself. It operated at three
levels, viz., centre, province and village. The Diwan-I Wazarat headed by a wazir
and assisted by a naib, Musharif-i-Mamalik, Mustawfi-i-Mamalik and dabirs, was
at the apex of the revenue department. Corresponding to it at the provincial level,
the administration was headed by muqtis or walis. Below him was the Diwan the
counterpart of the central wazir. The revenue was collected on the basis of the
estimate prepared for each loyalty, based on their revenue- paying capacity; and
the salary of the staff was paid from this revenue as per their status.
4) Justice- Justice was an essential element of the administration, which to
Barani was all encompassing, from remission of land tax to supply of commodities
to buyers at production cost and from dispensing civil and criminal cases to
granting monetary help to the needy from the state treasury. For instance, he
suggested that the Diwan-i-Riyasat, the controller general of the market, the
Shahana-i-Mandi, the superintendent of the grain market, and other officials
should control irregularities in the market such as checking the weight and
measures, deliberate hike in prices, hoarding etc. The reasons behind this
suggestion were two fold; first, a hike in the prices of commodities would affect
the army, particularly the subaltern rank, directly, and, second, it might lead to
discontentment among the general populace. Therefore, in order to avert it, the
need for such justice was imperative. Another aspect related with justice and
consequently with the security of the state was remission of taxes. At least during
calamities, Barani suggested, the king should remit and reduce taxes and extend
monetary help from the treasury till the time it was possible and necessary. To
dispense justice the courts were divided into civil and criminal categories and they
operated at central and provincial levels. The judges were to be appointed by the
king, with himself at the apex of the judicial structure. Below him were Chief
Judges, Provincial Judge, Central Judicial Officers, Judicial Officers at Provincial
Level, Municipal Officers and Moral Censors and so on in the respective order.
The king in dealing with the religious cases was assisted by Qazi-ul-Quzat. Justice
had two operational levels: one, operating in rural areas, another, operating in
the urban- administrative centers. But in both cases there was one common
factor- there was no discriminatory justice rather it was differential justice based
on the merits of the cases and on the religion of the individuals.

Conclusion
Barani’s Fatawa-i-Jahandari and Tarikh-i-Feroz Shahi are considered the greatest
works of middle ages. The entire theory of Barani had a definite interest. On the
surface, his Fatawa or Tarikh may look like a bundle of contradictions, but
beneath it lays the consistency of his interest- the protection, consolidation and
expansion of the Sultanate. Essentially a conservative aristocrat in his outlook, he
craved for stability but was surpassed by the changing circumstances of his time,
and sidelined by the class whom he desired to represent.