Wilāyat al-Maẓālim in Mughal India: Institutions, Access and Accountability

Abstract

This paper examines the Wilāyat al-Maẓālim, the jurisdiction by which a ruler hears and redresses complaints against officials and powerful persons that the ordinary qāḍī courts cannot remedy, as it was understood and practised under the Mughal Empire from Akbar to Aurangzeb (1556–1707). It first outlines the classical Islamic background of the institution and its inheritance by Muslim rulers in India. It then considers the Mughal conception of justice, in which the redress of wrongs was a duty of the ruler and a basis of his authority, and the impartiality that the chroniclers attribute to the emperors in dealing with nobles, princes and kinsmen. Next it describes the organisation of the judiciary, from the Royal Court and the Chief Qāḍī to the provincial governor and the district courts, and locates the Maẓālim jurisdiction within it. Finally it studies the means by which subjects could reach the emperor, namely the jharoka-i-darshan, Jahangir's Chain of Justice, the emperor's reading of petitions and the weekly Dīwān-i-Maẓālim, together with the limits of these arrangements. The paper argues that the Mughal Maẓālim combined a real judicial practice with a statement of the ideals by which the emperors wished to be judged, and that its effectiveness depended heavily on the presence and attention of the emperor.