“Unraveling the Myths: The Surprising Reality of Medieval Monarchical Power Revealed!”
The original owners of the land in question legally maintained their property, but paid the kharaj to the officer who had received the Iqta grant. The officer pocketed the kharaj, then paid a smaller tithe to the Caliph, keeping the balance as his salary.
Now, the Abbasid armies, however well funded, were largely composed of mercenary troops. Which might pose a risk in themselves to the absolute rule of the monarch. What if they asked for a pay raise? What if they become too powerful, an empire in their own right? Better keep them under control!
For this reason, the Abbasid Caliph devolved part of his military power to a newly instituted official, the ‘shahna’, translated as ‘commissary’ or ‘military governor’, who also had
‘The duty of keenly watching the moves of the game on the part of [the Caliph’s] rivals’
To be precise, Abbasid forces were not entirely in the palm of the Caliph or his ‘shahna’.
Large, peripheral regions could be entrusted to a specially appointed ruler, a Sultan. Sultans had almost total sovereignty over their territory, so much so that their title could be inherited. They could also raise and command armies on their own, and even wage war as they saw fit. A well-known example is the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin: while formally subordinate to Al-Nasir,, had the agency to initiate numerous wars against European Crusaders and rival Muslim dynasties.
Besides military authority, Al-Nasir and his predecessors also devolved part of their executive power to the ‘Wazir’ or Minister, often rendered in the west as ‘Vizier’.
