What is the most recent reference to Alauddin Khilji you know of in the entertainment industry? Comment.
Answers
Answer:
In the early 14th century, the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296-1316) instituted price controls and related reforms in his empire. He fixed the prices for a wide range of goods, including grains, cloth, slaves and animals. He banned hoarding and regrating, appointed supervisors and spies to ensure compliance with the regulations, and severely punished the violators. The reforms were implemented in the capital Delhi, and possibly, other areas of the Sultanate.
Alauddin's courtier Amir Khusrau states that Alauddin's objective was the welfare of the general public. However, Ziauddin Barani (c. 1357), the main source of information about the reforms, states that the Sultan's objective was to subjugate the Hindus and to maintain an unprecedentedly large army (the low prices would make low salaries acceptable for the soldiers). The reforms changes were revoked shortly after Alauddin's death, by his son Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah.
Explanation:Background
The main source of information about Alauddin's reforms is Ziauddin Barani, a Delhi Sultanate chronicler who wrote around half-a-century after Alauddin's death.[1] Barani provides a numbered list of Alauddin's regulations, but his account does not contain the verbatim text of the royal orders. Barani's has reproduced the regulations from his memory, organizing them in a logical sequence.[2]
Barani's account, at least his narration of Alauddin's price control measures, is corroborated by other writers who mention the reforms with lesser detail.[1] Alauddin's courtier Amir Khusrau mentions the price control measures, attributing these to Alauddin's desire for public welfare.[3] The 16th century chronicler Firishta also describes the reforms, and besides Barani, his account seems to be based on Shaikh Ainuddin Bijapuri's now-lost Mulhiqat-i Tabaqat-i Nasiri. While Bijapuri was not a contemporary of Alauddin, he may have had access to other lost works that described these reforms.[4]
Objective
Alauddin's courtier Amir Khusrau, in his Khazainul Futuh (1311), states that Alauddin reduced and fixed prices because of his "great regard for general prosperity and abundance, and for the happiness and comfort of the select as well as the commons."[3] A later anecdote also states that Alauddin implemented his price control measures for the welfare of the citizens. This anecdote was mentioned by the 14th century writer Hamid Qalandar, and is originally said to have been narrated by Malikut Tujjar ("Prince of Merchants") Qazi Hamiduddin to the Sufi saint Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi, during the early reign of Firuz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351-1388). Hamiduddin told Nasiruddin that he once entered Alauddin's chamber, and found him engaged in deep thought. Alauddin told Hamiduddin that he wanted to do something for the benefit of the common people, because the God had made him the leader of these people. Alauddin stated that he considered giving away all his treasures and property, but then realized that the benefits of such a distribution would not reach all the people. He then got the idea of lowering and fixing the price of grains, which would benefit all the people.[5]
Contrary to these accounts, Barani states that Alauddin (who was a Muslim) introduced these reforms to be able to maintain an unprecedentedly large army, and to subjugate his Hindu subjects.[1] According to Barani, the 1303 Mongol invasion of Delhi prompted Alauddin to raise a large army to deal with the Mongol threat. However, such a large army would be a drain on the state treasury, unless the soldiers' salaries could be lowered substantially. Alauddin was the first Sultan of Delhi to pay all his soldiers in cash.[6] He determined that the maximum salary he could pay to a well-equipped cavalryman as 234 tankas,[a] with an additional 78 tankas for a cavalryman with two horses.[7] It appears that the cavalryman was expected to maintain his own horse and equipment from this salary.[6] An increase in this salary would exhaust the treasury in 5–6 years. Alauddin's ministers told him that such low salaries would be acceptable to the soldiers, if the prices of necessary commodities were reduced.[7] Alauddin then asked his counsellors for ways to reduce the prices without resorting to tyranny, and on their advice, decided to regulate the market prices.[8]
Barani also states that the Hindu traders indulged in profiteering, and Alauddin wanted to punish the Hindus. However, much of Delhi's overland trade with Western and Central Asia was controlled by Khorasani and Multani merchants, many of whom were Muslims, and were impacted by Alauddin's reforms. Moreover, the cheap prices resulting from Alauddin's price control measures benefited the general public, which included the Hindus.[9]