Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/192

 154 MOHAMMAD TAGHLAK AND FIROZ SHAH Gujarat to Sikandar Khan, and Bihar to Bir Afghan. All these nobles were expected to defend their frontiers and manage their internal affairs. Another deduction which must be considered in estimating the revenue was due to the Sultan's system of allowing his great fief -holders so much for every well-grown, good-looking, and well-dressed slave, a captive in war, whom they furnished for the service of the court. When the feu- datories, that is, most of the high officers of the state, came to pay their annual visit to the capital, they brought not only presents for the Sultan, of horses, elephants, camels, mules, arms, gold and silver vessels, and the like, but also from ten to a hundred slaves apiece, for whom a corresponding deduction was allowed from their taxes or rents. The chief who brought the most valuable contribution was held in most esteem, and thus the system of annual presents to the king, which became so onerous a tax under the Moghul em- perors, began to prevail. The slaves were well educated at court, and trained either for the army, for palace employment, or for mechanical trades. There were forty thousand of them on guard at the palace, and twelve thousand artisans in Delhi, and altogether not less than 180,000 slaves were supported by the govern- ment. They had a department of their own, with a treasury, muster-master, and distinct officials. When the Sultan went abroad he was escorted by thousands of these slaves archers, swordsmen, halberdiers, and packmen mounted on buffaloes. Never before had slaves been so largely employed, though it is true that