Government of the Mughal Empire

The territory of the empire was divided into provincial level administrative units known as Subahs (provinces), each was controlled by official governor called subahdar.{{cite book |author1=y George Clifford Whitworth |title=An Anglo-indian Dictionary: A Glossary Of Indian Terms Used In English, And Of Such English Or Other Non-indian Terms As Have Obtained Special Meanings In India |year=2016 |publisher=Palala Press |isbn=978-1354764114 |page=301 }} Subahs were subdivided into administrative units known as Sarkars, which further divided into smaller administrative units known as Pargana. The government at the Pargana level consisted of a Muslim judge (Qadi) and a local tax collector official. Each Pargana has contained more smaller administrative units which called Tarafs, which in their turn consisted of several villages plus some uninhabited mountain and forest land.{{cite book |title=The Making Of British India - 1756-1858 |year=2006 |publisher=Read Books |page=289 |author1=Ramsay Muir |author-link=Ramsay Muir |id={{ASIN|1406723789|country=in}} }}

Mughal administrative divisions were not static, as these territories were often changed and reconstituted to suit the evolving physical territories, and to facilitate the better administration of the land cultivation. For example, a sarkar could change its status into a subah, and Parganas often transferred into another Sarkars. However, hierarchical authority of each division could fall under multiple overlapping jurisdictions. Administrative divisions were also vague in their geographical mapping, as the Mughal state did not have enough resources or authority for detailed survey of land; hence the geographical limits obstructed the empire to formalise the mappings of their territories. The empire instead relying on recorded statistic details about each division to assess the territory's revenue, based on more simple form of land surveys.{{cite book |last=Michael |first=Bernardo A. |title=Statemaking and Territory in South Asia |year=2012 |pages=69, 75, 77–78 |publisher=Anthem Press |doi=10.7135/upo9780857285324.005 |isbn=978-0-85728-532-4}}

The structure of the central government of the empire resembles those Subah provincial units government; To facilitate to government control, each subah had its own bakhshi, sadr as-sudr, and finance minister that reported directly to the central government rather than the subahdar.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} The empire also established "Dastur-ul-Amal", an office responsible for the administration of land revenue. Each cultivator of the land which assigned was known as "Patta", and "Qabuliyat", a status of agreement regarding the said land's revenue.{{cite book |author1=I.A. Khan |title=Medieval History (Emergence of Islam to downfall of mughal empire) |year=2022 |publisher=Blue Rose Publishers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLB4EAAAQBAJ |access-date=26 July 2024 |language=En}}

The Mughals had multiple imperial capitals, established over the course of their rule. These were the cities of Agra, Delhi, Lahore, and Fatehpur Sikri. Power often shifted back and forth between these capitals.{{Cite journal|last=Sinopoli |first=Carla M.|date=1994|title=Monumentality and Mobility in Mughal Capitals|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42928323|journal=Asian Perspectives|volume=33|issue=2|pages=294–295|jstor=42928323|issn=0066-8435}} Sometimes this move was due to necessary political and military demands, while also due to ideological reasons; such as Akbar's establishment of new capital in Fatehpur Sikri; Another reason was because the marginal cost of establishing a new imperial capital.{{Cite journal|last=Sinopoli |first=Carla M.|date=1994|title=Monumentality and Mobility in Mughal Capitals|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42928323|journal=Asian Perspectives|volume=33|issue=2|pages=304–305|jstor=42928323|issn=0066-8435}} There were occasions where two imperial capitals existed simultaneously, in Mughal history. Certain cities also served as temporary provincial capitals, such as when Aurangzeb shifting his central government to Aurangabad in the Deccan.

The imperial camp are used for military expeditions and royal entourage which 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.{{Cite journal|last=Sinopoli |first=Carla M.|date=1994|title=Monumentality and Mobility in Mughal Capitals|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42928323|journal=Asian Perspectives|volume=33|issue=2|pages=296 & 298|jstor=42928323|issn=0066-8435}}

After Aurangzeb, the Mughal capital definitively became the walled city of Shahjahanabad (modern day Old Delhi).{{Cite book|last=Edmund.|first=Bosworth, Clifford|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/231801473|title=Historic cities of the Islamic world|date=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-15388-2|pages=127|oclc=231801473}}{{cite book |author1=Catherine B. Asher |title=Architecture of Mughal India, Volume 4 |year=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521267285 |page=292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ctLNvx68hIC |access-date=27 July 2024 |language=En |chapter=7}}

File:Police Chuprasi, Delhi.png

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.{{Citation|last=Chatterjee|first=Nandini|title=Courts of law, Mughal|date=2019-12-01|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/*-COM_25171|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE|publisher=Brill|language=en|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_25171|access-date=2021-12-13|url-access=subscription}}

The Mughal Empire followed the Sunni Hanafi system of jurisprudence. In its early years, the empire relied on Hanafi legal references inherited from its predecessor, the Delhi Sultanate. These included the al-Hidaya (the best guidance) and the Fatawa al-Tatarkhaniyya (religious decisions of the Emire Tatarkhan). During the Mughal Empire's peak, the Al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyya was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb. This compendium of Hanafi law sought to serve as a central reference for the Mughal state that dealt with the specifics of the South Asian context.{{Cite web|last=Khalfaoui|first=Mouez|title=Mughal Empire and Law|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t349/e0066|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213062301/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t349/e0066|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 December 2021|website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online}}

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.

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). Qadis were usually appointed by the emperor or the sadr-us-sudr (chief of charities).{{Citation |last=Conermann |first=Stephan |title=Mughal Empire |date=2015-08-04 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-early-modern-history-online/*-COM_024206 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/2352-0272_emho_com_024206 |access-date=2022-03-25|url-access=subscription }} The jurisdiction of the qadi was availed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.{{Cite journal|last=Chatterjee|first=Nandini|title=Reflections on Religious Difference and Permissive Inclusion in Mughal Law|date=2014|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2014.20|journal=Journal of Law and Religion|volume=29|issue=3|pages=396–415|doi=10.1017/jlr.2014.20|hdl=10871/15975|s2cid=143513602|issn=0748-0814|hdl-access=free}}

The jagirdar (local tax collector) was another kind of official approached, especially for high-stakes cases. Subjects of the Mughal Empire also took their grievances to the courts of superior officials who held more authority and punitive power than the local qadi. Such officials included the kotwal (local police), the faujdar (an officer controlling multiple districts and troops of soldiers), and the most powerful, the subahdar (provincial governor). In some cases, the emperor themself dispensed justice directly. Jahangir was known to have installed a "chain of justice" in the Agra fort that any aggrieved subject could shake to get the attention of the emperor and bypass the inefficacy of officials.{{Cite book|last=Eaton|first=Richard M.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1243310832|title=India in the Persianate Age : 1000-1765|publisher=University of California Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-520-97423-4|pages=272|oclc=1243310832}}

Self-regulating tribunals operating at the community or village level were common, but sparse documentation of them exists. For example, it is unclear how panchayats (village councils) operated in the Mughal era.

{{Main|Mughal emperors}}

• Mughal dynasty
• Mughal emperors
• Economy of the Mughal Empire
• Foreign relations of the Mughal Empire
• Islam in South Asia

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• {{Citation |last=Blake |first=Stephen P. |title=The Patrimonial-Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals |date=November 1979 |journal=Journal of Asian Studies |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=77–94 |doi=10.2307/2053505 |jstor=2053505|s2cid=154527305 }}
• Habib, Irfan. Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps (1982).

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