UNIT 6

ZIA-UD DIN BARANI: IDEAL POLITY

INTRODUCTION
Zia–Ul–Barani (1283–1359) was the most important political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate, particularly,
during the reigns of Alauddin Khalji, Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firoz Shah Tughlaq. His ideas have
been considered significant in understanding medieval polity and other strands of thinking that existed
in that period of history. He represented and championed the idea of political expediency in Islamic
history which he conveyed to the ruler by way of his nasihats (advices).
Barani was extensively educated. He was conversant with both Arabic & Persian and was trained in
Muslim theology. He had studied history comprehensively. He was close to the mystic saint Nizamuddin
Auliya and to Amir Khusrau. Later, he spent 17 years with Muhammad Bin Tughlaq with whom he learnt
the art of governance and statecraft, particularly how monarchy functions. Hence, his political theory is
basically a reflection of what he saw firsthand from his proximity to the political power and that is why
he was in such good know of how the internal contradictions exist in issues of governance.

MAJOR WORKS
1. Fatawa-i-Jahandari (Edicts of World Rule), written in 1357, written as nasihat (advices) for the Muslim
kings, is a classic work on statecraft which can be compared with Kautilya’s Arthashastra and
Machiavelli’s Prince. In Fatawa-i-Jahandari, he advised the Sultans and the Kings, through the mouth of
Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, his ideal ruler, as to how an effective system of government could be
established by implementing the Islamic Shari’ah.
2. Tarikh-i-Feroze Shahi -is a dependable source of history from the later times of Ghiasuddin Balban to
the early years of Feroze Shah Tughluq to whom the book is dedicated. It was meant to please Firoz
Shah Tughlaq and regain his lost royal patronage. But it wasn’t simply meant to that end but also
contained other important ideas regarding his political thinking.

THEORY OF KINGSHIP: IDEAL SULTAN (KING); FATWA-I-JAHANDARI: POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF

SULTANATE PERIOD.
The Fatwa-i-Jahandari (hereafter FJ) is unquestionably a continuation of Barani's famous Tarikh-i-Firoz-e-
Shahi. Essentially, it seeks to construct a cohesive system of political philosophy out of the fundamental
principles that Barani has already presented in his earlier work. It provides us with the political
philosophy of the period's second most important political pressure organisation and an explanation of
the critical political objectives of that group. However, these pressure groups were primarily concerned
with preserving their own particular interests, both economic and cultural, and had no theory of
government.
Barani was born into a noble family whose lineage could not be called into question. He was brought up
to believe that aristocratic birth was the most critical factor in determining the social order in which he
lived. However, Both religion and politics are interpreted through the prism of aristocratic privileges, in
his opinion. The free-born or noble Muslims, he believes, should be separated into grades and sub-
grades, and they should be given the exclusive right to hold all government positions as well as all
pensions. Since education makes low born Muslims efficient and capable, he believes that the state
should prohibit Muslim males of the lower ranks from acquiring an education. Anyone who attempts to
educate them should be punished and expelled from his city if he is found guilty. The shopkeeper, as
well as all other classes below them, are considered low-born in his eyes.
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 an 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. The
Sultan was expected to reflect supplication, helplessness, poverty and humility (Advice XXIV) to
compensate for the existence of monarchy which was contradictory to the principles of Islam. 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, for the ideal polity and the political avatar of the Sultan were intertwined. Further, he
argued; he advised the Sultan to achieve the objectives of Islam and possess the attributes of terror,
prestige, pride, high status, domination and superiority. Anyone’s ascendancy over him meant the loss of
his superiority (Advice XX). 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). Similarly,
differentiation between the determination in the enterprises of the government and tyranny/despotism
(Advice IV) was necessary to command faith, fear and prestige among his friends and foes.
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. Counsellors, 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.
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).
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,
one aspect of justice was conspicuously absent from all of Barani's deliberations: the delivery of justice
was to be based on the religious practises of the subjects, even though he made no mention of different
sorts of justice for Hindus and Muslims in his writings. One could counter that when Barani advocated
for Sharia-compliant justice, justice based on religious principles was already implicit in his position on
the subject.
Moreover, his proclamation for all-out war against zimmis made his intention clear. But, as observed
earlier, the growing redundancy of the Shariat in the changed circumstances and the corresponding
importance of Zawabit, emphasized by Barani himself (Advice XIV), explicitly nullified the existence of any
Islamic religious justice as state policy of the Sultanate. The word zimmi refers to followers of
polymorphous religions, like Hinduism.
The important point to be noticed here, however, is that Barani’s conception of justice was strongly tilted
in favour of the rich and powerful. His hatred against the ganwaran and underprivileged and bias in
favour of the noble-born speaks volumes about the basis of his justice.

(can be used as a conclusion) The Fatawa, however, was not bereft of any positive idea to the theory of
statecraft. The notable features were, firstly, the distinction made between the personal and political
domains of the king, and between nobility and others of the ruling elite; secondly, the espousal of the
concept of political obligation, individual and collective, towards the monarch and his administration in
the form of loyalty; thirdly, the recognition of rights of the people which essentially meant the right to life
and property; and, finally, the emphasis on Zawabit which ultimately led to the formulation of incipient
secular state policies reflected either in the context of justice or revenue collection or trade and
commerce, etc. All these aspects were not new to the Indian political society as we find them in the
Arthashastra tradition of political theory also, but Barani’s emphasis on such elements at a time when
rulers of a different religion had acquired political power is really important. In the pre-civil society his
emphasis, for example, on public policy rather than on personal life is worthy of a thinker.

BARANI’S IDEAL POLITY: FOR BEING A GOOD SULTAN (ELEMENTS OF THE STATE)

 NOBILITY
The nobility was the a component of the monarchy. The nobles were the chosen individuals
whom the Sultan assigned ‘the right to levy the revenue in particular territories’ which was
known as iqta. It was the basic unit of landed property whose holders formed the main class of
landed proprietors. The iqtas were frequently transferred from one person to another, which
made them nonhereditary.
Since the basic function of the Sultanate was revenue collection, and which could not have been
performed by the king alone, a set of people existed to collect the revenue and advice or
formulate administrative policies for it. The criteria for selection were two (Advice XIX). :
1. the people to be selected should be noble-born with loyalty, both personal and political,
towards the Sultan;
2. they must possess the quality of sound political judgement and render advice to the monarch
while taking into account the prospects and contradictions of the impact of the policies to be
undertaken.
While the first was explicit, he prescribed nine conditions (Advice III) for the second to test the
political quality of the counselors. From fear of god, knowledge of history, lack of greed to
practical knowledge of state affairs, all must be present in the advisers. Further, he suggested
the grading of nobility as per their birth and merit.
Thus, it was in such a social milieu that Barani expressed himself in favour of noble birth and
personal loyalty, about the security of life and tenure of nobility, of their gradation, etc., to keep
the ‘upstarts’ at the lower echelons of bureaucracy, to check them from the intricacies of the
administration.

 BUREAUCRACY
The bureaucracy was another necessary component of the Sultanate whose basic function was
to measure the land, fix and collect the taxes for its disbursement among its beneficiaries; 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 (the head of revenue and finance, also known as
the prime minister) and assisted by a naib, Musharif-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 walls. At the local (sarkar, village) level were the Muqaddam (the headman
of the village), Chaudhari, etc., who were in charge of the collection and fixation of revenue with
the patwari as the village accountant and keeper of records. Almost throughout the Sultanate,
the revenue amount collected was half of the produce of the peasants which was levied
separately on their land holdings.
  ARMY
After the Mauryas, the Sultanate was the largest (in terms of territorial extent) and most
powerful state (in terms of centralization of power) 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 main pillars of the administration, the army was the
preeminent one which was based on the Turkish-Mongol model. It was divided into four parts,
viz., infantry (foot soldiers or payaks), cavalry (horsemen), war elephants and auxiliary, viz.,
boats, engineers, transporters, scouts, spies, etc. The cavalry was further divided into three
wings.
As the Sultanate ultimately rested on the power of the army, whose basic functions were the
security and expansion of the state, Barani advised the king to take greater care in its efficiency,
checking corruption and conspiracies within it and so on.
The monarch also maintained personal troops called qalb for his safety and ultimate reliability in
case of rebellion occurring from within the nobility.

 JUSTICE
Justice was the third 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. 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
or 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, and the fountain-head of justice and highest court of appeal. The
king in dealing with the religious cases was assisted by the mufti and the Sadr-us-Sadur while in
secular cases he was assisted by Qazi-ul-Quzat.Though the panchayats continued with their
customary modes of dispensing justice based on status, caste, property, etc.

WELFAE AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY-ASK

CRITICISMS
He was misunderstood and some scholars labeled him a fundamentalist, an orthodox and a bigot for
promoting Islam and discriminating against Hindus. . He consistently upheld the interests and values of
the traditional Muslim (Turk) aristocracy who he thought were intrinsically superior to any other section
of society. Even the Justice was intended to serve the pecuniary interests of the state rather than to
fulfil the politico-economic needs of the masses. Barani’s conception of justice was strongly tilted in
favour of the rich and powerful. His hatred against the underprivileged and bias in favour of the noble-
born speaks volumes about the basis of his justice. Barani’s theory also suggested the banning of
education among the lower classes in order to check their individual mobility; for education acted as
catalyst in providing opportunity to individuals in their vocations.
All of this was a result of his often conflicting writings on the surface. Secondly, the charge of being
fundamentalist also heightens in comparison to Abul Fazal who was definitely much more secular and
reasonable in his argumenta and world view. It is an irony that while Barani spent so many years at the
service of the Sultan, he was left on the streets of Delhi and spent his life in penury during the old days.
CONCLUSION
Barani’s eminence lies in his theory of history and its constant application in different aspects of society
of his time resulting in his theory of statecraft which made him unique and enigmatic. In fact, it won’t be
wrong to say that he marshalled all his knowledge and experiences from the past and the events of his
time to serve the interests of the Sultanate.
Zawabit rather than the Shariat therefore finds more prominence in his theory. Justice likewise was
intended to serve the interests of the state rather than to fulfill the politico-economic needs of the
masses. He consistently upheld the interests and values of the traditional Muslim (Turk) aristocracy who
he thought were intrinsically superior to any other section of society.
Thus, 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 lies the consistency of his interest–the protection,
consolidation and expansion of the Sultanate, the methods applied to achieve these aims
notwithstanding. Essentially a conservative aristocrat in his outlook, he yearned for stability. However,
as luck would have it, he was surpassed by the changing circumstances of his time, and sidelined by the
class whom he desired to represent.