ABSTRACT

Compared to the political affairs information on social life under the Sultanate of Delhi is scanty because the contemporary writers preferred to write only about the Sultan and his nobility. People from different social backgrounds could become nobles if they could attract the eye of the Sultan. The lower officials of the government like the revenue collectors or amils and accountant or muhurir also came from the same social base. The social base of the new recruits is not known but it is presumed that some of them were converted Muslims and some others came from the ulema class. Ziauddin Barani had referred to the rich Multani merchants most of whom were Hindus and also the Sahus of Delhi. They became rich by lending money to the nobles. Ibn Battuta states that Delhi had become the largest city in the eastern Islamic world. Daulatabad had become almost equa.