Question

Compare and contrast between Muhammad bin tughluq and ala ud din khilji

Answer 1

Administration of Alauddin Khalji

Administration of Muhammad Tughlaq

He increases his large standing army to protect from invasion (defensive measure) because Delhi was attacked twice, in 1299/1300 AD and 1302-03 AD.

He increased his large standing army to attack on Transoxiana.

He constructed a new garrison town named Siri for his soldiers.

He evacuates four oldest cities of Delhi (Dehli-i Kuhna) and made soldiers garrison. The residents of the old city were relocated to the new capital of Daulatabad in the south.

Soldiers were fed from the tax collected from the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna. Tax was fixed at 50 per cent of the produce.

The tax collected from the area between Ganga and Yamuna was used to feed the army. But to meet the need of the large number of soldiers the Sultan levied additional taxes, including those areas which were suffering from famine.

He paid his soldiers salaries in cash rather than kind. The soldiers were to buy their supplies from the local market. To stop the fear of price rise, he controlled the prices of goods. Prices were carefully monitor by officers, and if merchants did not sell at the prescribed rates were punished.

He paid salary in cash to the soldiers but never controlled the prices. He introduced the token system without royal verification somewhat like present-day paper currency, but made out of cheap metals, not gold and silver.