The 

government of the Mughal Empire was a highly centralised bureaucracy, most of which

was instituted during the rule of the third Mughal emperor, Akbar The central government was
headed by the Mughal emperor; immediately beneath him were four ministries. The
finance/revenue ministry was responsible for controlling revenues from the empire's territories,
calculating tax revenues, and using this information to distribute assignments. The ministry of
the military (army/intelligence) was headed by an official titled mir bakhshi, who was in charge of
military organisation, messenger service, and the mansabdari system. The ministry in charge of
law/religious patronage was the responsibility of the sadr as-sudr, who appointed judges and
managed charities and stipends. Another ministry was dedicated to the imperial household and
public works.[1][3]

Provinces[edit]
The empire was divided into a number of subahs (provinces), each of which was headed by a
provincial governor called a subahdar. The structure of the central government was mirrored at
the provincial level; each subah had its own bakhshi, sadr as-sudr, and finance minister that
reported directly to the central government rather than the subahdar.

Subahs were subdivided into administrative units known as sarkars, which were further divided
into groups of villages known as parganas. The government at the pargana level consisted of a
Muslim judge and a local tax collector.[1][3]

Capitals[edit]
The Mughals had multiple imperial capitals, established over the course of their rule. These
were the cities of Agra, Delhi, Lahore, and Fatehpur Sikri. Power often shifted back and forth
between these capitals.[4] Sometimes this was necessitated by political and military demands,
but shifts also occurred for ideological reasons (for example, Akbar's establishment of Fatehpur
Sikri), or even simply because the cost of establishing a new capital was marginal.[5] Situations
where there were two simultaneous capitals happened multiple times in Mughal history. Certain
cities also served as short-term, provincial capitals, as was the case with Aurangzeb's shift
to Aurangabad in the Deccan.[4]

The imperial camp, used for military expeditions and royal tours, also served as a kind of
mobile, "de facto" administrative capital. From the time of Akbar, Mughal camps were huge in
scale, accompanied by numerous personages associated with the royal court, as well as
soldiers and labourers. All administration and governance was carried out within them. The
Mughal Emperors spent a significant portion of their ruling period within these camps.[6]

After Aurangzeb, the Mughal capital definitively became the walled city
of Shahjahanabad (today Old Delhi).[7]

Law[edit]

Police in Delhi under Bahadur Shah II, 1842

The Mughal Empire's legal system was context-specific and evolved over the course of the
empire's rule. Being a Muslim state, the empire employed fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and
therefore the fundamental institutions of Islamic law such as those of
the qadi (judge), mufti (jurisconsult), and muhtasib (censor and market supervisor) were well-
established in the Mughal Empire. However, the dispensation of justice also depended on other
factors, such as administrative rules, local customs, and political convenience. This was due to
Persianate influences on Mughal ideology, and the fact that the Mughal Empire governed a non-
Muslim majority.[8]

Legal ideology[edit]
The Mughal Empire followed the Sunni Hanafi system of jurisprudence. In its early years, the
empire relied on Hanafi legal references inherited from its predecessor, the Delhi Sultanate.
These included the al-Hidaya (the best guidance) and the Fatawa al-Tatarkhaniyya (religious
decisions of the Emire Tatarkhan). During the Mughal Empire's peak, the Al-Fatawa
al-'Alamgiriyya was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb. This compendium of Hanafi law
sought to serve as a central reference for the Mughal state that dealt with the specifics of the
South Asian context.[9]

The Mughal Empire also drew on Persianate notions of kingship. Particularly, this meant that
the Mughal emperor was considered the supreme authority on legal affairs.[8]

Courts of law[edit]
Various kinds of courts existed in the Mughal empire. One such court was that of the qadi. The
Mughal qadi was responsible for dispensing justice; this included settling disputes, judging
people for crimes, and dealing with inheritances and orphans. The qadi also had additional
importance with regards to documents, as the seal of the qadi was required to validate deeds
and tax records. Qadis did not constitute a single position, but made up a hierarchy. For
example, the most basic kind was the pargana (district) qadi. More prestigious positions were
those of the qadi al-quddat (judge of judges) who accompanied the mobile imperial camp, and
the qadi-yi lashkar (judge of the army).[8] Qadis were usually appointed by the emperor or
the sadr-us-sudr (chief of charities).[8][10] The jurisdiction of the qadi was availed by Muslims and
non-Muslims alike.[11]

The jagirdar (local tax collector) was another kind of official approached, especially for high-
stakes cases. Subjects of the Mughal Empire also took their grievances to the courts of superior
officials who held more authority and punitive power than the local qadi. Such officials included
the kotwal (local police), the faujdar (an officer controlling multiple districts and troops of
soldiers), and the most powerful, the subahdar (provincial governor). In some cases, the
emperor themself dispensed justice directly.[8] Jahangir was known to have installed a "chain of
justice" in the Agra fort that any aggrieved subject could shake to get the attention of the
emperor and bypass the inefficacy of officials.[12]

Self-regulating tribunals operating at the community or village level were common, but sparse
documentation of them exists. For example, it is unclear how panchayats (village councils)
operated in the Mughal era.[8]

List of Mughal Emperors[edit]

Main article: Mughal emperors
 Titular Birth
Portrait Birth Reign Death Notes
Name Name

Zahir-ud-
din 20 April 26
14
Muhamm 1526 – Decemb
Bābur February
ad 26 er 1530 Founded the Empire
‫بابر‬ 1483, Andij
Decemb (aged
‫ظہیر الدین‬ an
er 1530 47)
‫محمد‬

26
Decemb
er
1530 –
17 May Humayun was
Nasir-ud- 1540 overthrown in 1540
din 27 by Sher Shah Suri of
Muhamm 9 years January the Suri dynasty but
Humayun 6 March
ad 4 1556 returned to the throne in
‫ہمایوں‬ Humayun 1508
months (aged 1555 after the death
‫نصیر الدین‬ 21 days 47) of Islam Shah
‫محمد ہمایوں‬ 22
Suri (Sher Shah Suri's
son and successor).
February
1555 –
27
January
1556

27
January
Jalal-ud- 1556 –
din 27 27
Akbar-i- October October His mother
Muhamm 14 October
Azam 1605 1605 was Persian Hamida
ad 1542
‫اکبر اعظم‬ ‫جالل الدین‬ 49 years
(aged Banu Begum.[13]
63)
‫محمد اکبر‬ 9
months
0 days

15
October
Nur-ud- 1605 – 8
din 28
October
Muhamm 20 October His mother
Jahangir 1627
ad Salim September 1627 was Rajput princess Ma
‫جہانگیر‬ 1569 21 years (aged riam-uz-Zamani.[14]
‫نور الدین‬
11 58)
‫محمد سلیم‬ months
23 days

8
Novemb
Shahab- er
ud-din 1627 – 2 22
Shah- Muhamm August January His mother was Rajput
ad 5 January
Jahan 1658 1666 princess Jagat Gosaini.
Khurram 1592
‫شاہ جہان‬ 30 years
(aged [15]
 Built Taj Mahal.
‫شہاب الدین‬ 74)
8
‫محمد خرم‬ months