Administrative and Revenue Terminology of the Delhi Sultanate

Four ministers ran the Delhi Sultanate’s day-to-day government, from tax collection to army pay to royal correspondence. This article covers those four departments, and the real tax terms every one of them touched.

Four Ministers, One Sultanate

MedHist0029

REVENUE

Diwan-i-Wizarat

Headed by the wazir; tracks land revenue, income and expenditure

MILITARY

Diwan-i-Arz

Headed by the Ariz-i-Mumalik; recruits and pays the army

CORRESPONDENCE

Diwan-i-Insha

Manages royal letters, to other rulers and to own officials

RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

Diwan-i-Rasalat

Funds mosques, madrasas and stipends for scholars

The design: money, soldiers, words and faith, each with its own dedicated department.

⬇ Download as image

The Four Departments Need to Know

• The Delhi Sultanate’s central government ran through four main departments: Diwan-i-Wizarat (revenue), Diwan-i-Arz (military), Diwan-i-Insha (correspondence), and Diwan-i-Rasalat (religious affairs).
• The wazir headed the Diwan-i-Wizarat. He tracked land revenue collection and kept records of state income and expenditure.
• The Ariz-i-Mumalik headed the Diwan-i-Arz. He recruited soldiers, branded army horses, and maintained war provisions.
• Land revenue collected under this system wasn’t always kept entirely by the central treasury. It was often assigned out to nobles through the Iqta system, in exchange for military service. See MedHist0033 — The Iqta System for how that worked.

Core Revenue Terms: Kharaj, Jizya, Khams Need to Know

• Kharaj was the general land tax on cultivated land. Rates varied by ruler and period, sometimes reaching as much as half the produce.
• Jizya was a tax on non-Muslim subjects, paid in exchange for protection and exemption from military service.
• Khams was one-fifth of war booty, claimed by the state as its share of any campaign’s spoils.
• These three terms, along with Ushr below, cover most of the Sultanate’s core tax vocabulary, the terms most likely to appear together in exam questions.

Ushr, Zakat, and Khalisa Land Good to Know

• Ushr was a lower-rate parallel tax that applied specifically to Muslim landowners. It was one-tenth of produce on naturally irrigated land, or one-fifth where irrigation required artificial means.
• Zakat was a separate religious obligation on Muslims, set at 2.5% of qualifying wealth above a minimum threshold (nisab), collected for charitable use. This is a fixed, standard rate, distinct from the variable land-produce rates of Kharaj and Ushr.
• Khalisa land was territory under the Sultan’s direct control. Its revenue funded the royal court and household directly, rather than passing through a noble’s Iqta assignment.
• For the later Sayyid and Lodi period’s own administrative structure, see MedHist0006 — Sayyid, Lodi and Sultanate Administration.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Which Delhi Sultanate department handled revenue collection and was headed by the wazir?

Diwan-i-Arz

Diwan-i-Wizarat

Diwan-i-Insha

Diwan-i-Rasalat

 Loading…

 

Legacy Great to Know

• The four-department structure separated money, soldiers, words and faith into distinct chains of command. That kind of specialisation, rather than one official handling everything, marks a developed bureaucracy for its era.
• Revenue terms split cleanly along religious lines. Kharaj and Jizya applied differently to Muslims and non-Muslims. Ushr applied to Muslim landowners specifically. The tax system itself became a record of the state’s religious categories.
• Khalisa land mattered because it bypassed the noble class entirely. Revenue assigned to nobles under the Iqta system supported military service instead. Khalisa revenue went straight to the Sultan, a real structural difference in who controlled the money.
• Much of this terminology outlived the Delhi Sultanate itself. Later Indian administrations, including the Mughals, kept using Kharaj, Jizya and related terms, adapting an existing revenue vocabulary rather than inventing a new one.