How will you define iqta? What changes were introduced in the iqta system by Muhammad Tughlaq and Firuz Tughlaq?

 Iquta was an assignment of reventies of a defined area of land in return of services rendered. The system of assessment in iquta as it prevailed in the provinces might be called a mixture of farming and several other systems compounding systems. Because in this system the chaudharis and muqaddams used to contact a sum with the muqti (governor) and then realised more from the peasants, and the peasants agreed to pay a certain amount of the revenues.

In the early phase of Turkish rule in Bengal, iqutas were granted to the individual. Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq continued the system and Tughlaq Iquta was synonymous with jagir or tuyul in the Mughal period. Probably the system of assignment in return of service was also known in Bengal before the coming of the Muslims.

When the sultanate was established in Delhi and in Bengal, the easy way of bringing new dominions under proper control was to carve them out into iqtas. Iquta was frequently used in the histories of Delhi and Bengal during the early sultanate period. Land subject to the iqmāæ was originally owned by non-Muslims and thus was subject to a special property tax, the kharaj. 

While the land remained legally the property of its owner, the iqmāæ was a grant of appropriation to a Muslim officer entitling him to collect the kharāj from the owner. Out of this the officer was expected to pay the smaller æushr, or tithe, on income, but was allowed to keep the balance as his salary.

However, it proved difficult for the government to extract any payments from the officers, and the Buyids, an Iranian dynasty (reigned 932-1062), made the iqmāæ a grant of usufruct by which the muqma (recipient officer) collected taxes from the land-calculated to approximate his usual pay.

As the officer usually lived in a city remote from his iqmāæ, he had little interest in the land or its cultivators. The grant was merely a wage, and as soon as the land or its people were depleted, it was exchanged for a more productive area.

By the time that the Seljuq regime (1038-1194) ended, the iqmāæ had been introduced into the provinces and the number and size of igmat had proliferated drastically, accounting for as much as half the land of the state, while the term of ownership also had grown, occasionally leading to hereditary succession.

With this new permanence mugma;s began to show an interest in the land and its maintenance, buying up neighbouring territory and binding the peasants to the soil by refusing to let them leave without having paid their taxes. Iqtadar (or Agtadar) was the holder of the assignment. He performed the duties of controlling the areas, establishing peace, collecting revenues etc. Under Iqta System, the land of the empire was divided into several large and small tracts called Iqta and assigned these Iqtas to his soldiers, officers and nobles.

In the beginning, an Iqta was based upon salary. Later, under Firoz Shah Tughlaq it became hereditary. Literally, Igta means land or land revenue assigned to an individual on certain conditions.  The holders of these latas were the trustful agents of the Sultan. There were two kinds of Iqtas viz. Large Iqtas and Small Iqtas. The holders of large Iqta were the provincial governors, who had some administrative responsibilities also.

On the other hand, the holders of the small Iqtas were the small troops holders who had no administrative responsibilities. The small Iqta holders held and appropriated all the income obtained from the cultivators but as guid pro quid, they were bound to present themselves with horses and arms whenever called upon by the Central Government. These small Iqta holders were called Khuts and Muqaddams. Amir Khusarau, for the first time, referred to Khuts as Zamindars.

Under Muhammad Tughlaq Sultanate as already indicated was spread in large areas with a core and outlying provinces. The large extent of the sultanate necessitated the evolution of administrative apparatus separately for the centre and the provinces. Therefore, it is useful to study the administrative institutions of the Delhi Sultanate at the centre and provincial areas separately. Those at the centre were the areas of direct administration.

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