1.

Land Revenue System of Akbar

Bibliography
W.H.Moreland, Agrarian System of Moslem India, 1929. Reprint. 1988. espChapter III: The Reign
of Akbar, pp. 79-123.

Satish Chandra, Medieval India Part II, Chapter 6.

Noman A.Siddiqi, Land Revenue Administration under the Mughals 1700-1750.

Irfan Habib, “Land Revenue and Agrarian Relations: North India” in The Cambridge Economic
History of India, Vol. I, edited by Irfan Habib and Tapan Raychaudhuri, pp. 235-49.

Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India 1556-1707, Revised Edition, Chapter VI: The
Land Revenue, pp. 230-97.

Shireen Moosvi, The Economy of the Mughal Empire c. 1595: A Statistical Study, Chapter 4: Land
Revenue Demand, and Chapter 5: Land Revenue Realisation

2. Zamindars:

Bibliography
Satish Chandra, Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals, Part II: Mughal Empire (1526-
1748), Chapter 13: Society – Structure and Growth, Section on “Rural Gentry or Zamindars”, pp.
385-387.

S.Nurul Hasan, “Zamindars…”, in Subrahmanyam and Alam, eds, The Mughal State.

Also in

I. Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, (Revised Edition, 1999) Chapter V: The Zamindars, pp.
169-229.

Muzaffar Alam, “The Zamindars and Mughal Power in the Deccan, 1686-1712”, The Indian
Economic and Social History Review, Vol. xi (1), 1974, pp. 74-91.

Shireen Moosvi, “The Zamindars’ Share in the Peasant Surplus in the Mughal Empire: Evidence
of Ain-i-Akbari Statistics”, IESHR, vol. XV (1978), pp. 359-75.

Shireen Moosvi, The Economy of the Mughal Empire c. 1595: A Statistical Study, Chapter 7: The
Zamindars’ Share in the Surplus, pp. 174-89. This is almost the same as the same author’s essay
in IESHR mentioned above.
3. Agrarian Relations and Land Rights

Bibliography
Irfan Habib, “Agrarian Relations and Land Revenue: North India”, in The Cambridge Economic
History of India, edited by Habib and Raychaudhuri.

B.R.Grover, “Nature of Land Rights in Mughal India”, in Indian Economic and Social History
Review (hereafter IESHR), No. 1, 1963.

Irfan Habib, “The Social Distribution of Landed Property in Pre-British India”, in Enquiry, 1965.
This article is reproduced in the more accessible book of Irfan Habib, Essays in Indian History:
Towards a Marxist Perspective, pp. 59-108.

Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, new revised edition. Particularly relevant are
the Chapters IV and V, pp. 123-229.

Irfan Habib, “Evidence for Sixteenth Century Agrarian Conditions in the Guru Granth Sahib”,
IESHR, vol. 1, 1963, pp. 63-72.

S.Nurul Hasan, Thoughts on Agrarian Relations in Mughal India.

Tapan Raychaudhuri, “State and Economy: north India”, in The Cambridge Economic History of
India 1200-1750, vol. I, eds, Habib and Tapan Raychaudhuri.

4. Revenue Assignments and Jagirdari under the Mughals.

Bibliography
Iqtidar Alam Khan, “The Mughal Assignment System during Akbar’s Early Years, 1556-1575”, in
Irfan Habib, ed., Medieval India 1: Researches in the History of India, 1200-1750, pp. 62-128.

I. Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, (Revised Edition, 1999) Chapter VII: Revenue
Assignments, pp. 298-341.

Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb, Chapter III: The Jagirdari System and the
Nobility, pp. 74-94 (First Edition, 1968).

5. Evolution of Akbar’s religious ideas and policy.

Bibliography
Satish Chandra, Mughal Religious Policies: The Rajputs and the Deccan, especially the
introductory chapter

Satish Chandra, Medieval India Part II, Chapter 7: Akbar’s Religious Views, pp.166-85. n
 S.R.Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors.

Khaliq A.Nizami, Akbar and Religion. (Particularly relevant is Chapter VII of Part I, Section D of
Part II, and Section XV of Part III.)

S.A.A.Rizvi, Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar’s Reign with Special
Reference to Abu’l Fazl, 1556-1605.

Iqtidar Alam Khan, “The Nobility under Akbar and the Development of His Religious Policy”, in
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1968, pp. 29-36.

Douglas E.Streussand, The Formation of the Mughal Empire, Chapter 6: The Akbari Constitution,
pp. 123-153. (This is also relevant for Abu’l Fazl’s ideas of sovereignty )

Athar Ali, “Sulh-I Kul and the Religious Ideas of Akbar” Proceedings of Indian History Congress,
1967.

*Athar Ali, “Akbar and Islam (1581-1605)”, ….

Shireen Moosvi, “The Road to Sulh-i Kul: Akbar’s Alienation from Theological Islam”, in Religion
in Indian History, edited by Irfan Habib. New Delhi: Tulika: 2007, pp. 167-176.

Osamu Kondu, “Akbar and the Theologians’ Declaration (Mahzar) of 1579”, in Religion in Indian
History, edited by Irfan Habib. New Delhi: Tulika, 2007, pp. 158-166.

6. Theories of Kingship under the Mughals.

Bibliography
R.P.Tripathi, Some Aspects of Muslim Administration. The chapter titled ‘Turko-Mongol Theory
of Kingship’, pp. 105-121. This is reproduced in The Mughal State, edited by Subrahmanyam and
Alam, pp. 115-25.

I.A.Khan, ‘Turko-Mongol Theory of Kingship’, in Irfan Habib, ed., Researches in the History of
Medieval India: A Miscellany, vol. 2.

J.F.Richards, ‘The Formulation of Imperial Authority under Akbar and Jahangir’, in Kingship and
Authority in South Asia, pp. edited by J.F.Richards. This article too is reproduced in The Mughal
State, edited by Subrahmanyam and Alam.

Athar Ali, ‘Towards an Interpretation of the Mughal Empire’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
of Great Britain and Ireland, 1978, pp. 38-49. This essay is easier to access in The State in India
1000-1700, edited by Hermann Kulke, pp. 263-77.
 Iqtidar Alam Khan, ‘Akbar’s Personality Traits and World Outlook – A Critical Appraisal’, in Akbar
and His India, edited by Irfan Habib.

Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Witnessing Transition: Views on the End of the
Akbari Dispensation’, in The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib, edited by
K.N.Panikkar, T.J.Byres and U.Patnaik, pp. 104-140.

7. Mansabdari system

Bibliography
W.H.Moreland, “Rank (mansab) in the Mughal State Service”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1936. (This article is more accessibly reproduced in The
Mughal State, edited by Subrahmnyam and Alam.)

A.Jan Qaisar, “A Note on the Date of the Institution of Mansab under Akbar”, in Proceedings of
Indian History Congress, 1961, pp. 155-62.

Shireen Moosvi, “Evolution of the Mansab System under Akbar until 1596-97”, in Journal of
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1981, No. 2, pp.178-85.

Irfan Habib, “The Mansab System, 1595-1637”, in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress,
1967, pp. 221-42.

Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb, Chapter II: Organisation of the Nobility –
Mansab, Pay, Conditions of Service, pp. 38-73.

8. Nature of Mughal state.

Bibliography

M.Athar Ali, “Towards an Interpretation of the Mughal Empire”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 1978, pp. 38-49. This article is reproduced in The State in
India 1000-1700, edited by H.Kulke, pp. 263-277.

J.F.Richards, “The Formulation of Imperial Authority under Akbar and Jahangir” in Kingship and
Authority, edited by Richards himself. This article is also published in The Mughal State, edited
by Subrahmanyam and Alam.
 Stephen P.Blake, “The Patrimonial Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals”, in Journal of Asian
Studies, vol. 39, 1979, pp. 77-94. This article may also be consulted in The State in India 1000-
1700, edited by Hermann Kulke.

Douglas E.Streussand, The Formation of the Mughal Empire, Chaper 8: Conclusions, especially
the section titled, “The Nature of the Mughal Polity”, pp.178-181.

Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “The Mughal State – Structure of Process? Reflections on Recent

Western Historiography”, in Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. XXIX (3), 1992, pp.
291-321.

Alam and Subrahmanyam, The Mughal State, Introduction, pp. 1-71.

Alam & Subrahmanyam, “Witnessing Transition: Views on the end of Akbari Dispensation”, in
The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib, edited by K.N.Panikkar, T.J.Byres & Utsa
Patnaik.

9. Decline and fall of the Mughal Empire:

Bibliography

R.P.Tripathi, Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire.

Satish Chandra, Medieval India: Society, Jagirdari Crisis and the Village. The most relevant
chapter (‘Review of the Crisis of the Jagirdari System’) of this book is also reproduced in The
Mughal State, edited by Subrahmanyam and Alam, pp.347-360.

M.Athar Ali, “The Passing of Empire: The Mughal Case”, in Modern Asian Studies, vol. IX, No. 3,
1975, pp. 385-96.

Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, new revised edition. Particularly useful is the
Chapter IX: The Agrarian Crisis of the Mughal Empire.

Irfan Habib, “The Agrarian Causes of the Fall of the Mughal Empire”, Enquiry, Nos. 2 and 3, 1959.

Symposium: Decline of the Mughal Empire, in Journal of Asian Studies, vol. XXXV, No. 1, pp. 221-63. This
issue of the JAS carried three extremely useful articles, which you can try and locate if you have the
time:

(i) M.N.Pearson, ‘Shivaji and the Decline of the Mughal Empire’.

(ii) J.F.Richards, ‘The Imperial Crisis in the Deccan’.
(iii) P.Hardy, ‘Commentary and Critique’.