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Mughal Jagir Fiefs
The jagir was the Mughal fief system granting revenue rights in land to mansabdars, who did not own the land but received a temporary allocation of t…
Timeline
- c. 1526–1556Delhi · DelhiMughal founding rulers granted jagirs to accompanying nobles and officers; fief revenues maintained cavalry and retainers. The system inherited the iqta/jagir tradition of the Tughluq and Lodi eras but was not yet fully tied to mansab ranks.
- 1571–1580Fatehpur Sikri · Fatehpur SikriAkbar standardized mansab ranks and jagir allocation, determining fief size and cavalry obligations by rank, regularly rotating jagirs to prevent local power from solidifying, and introducing a pay system combining cash salary (naqdi) with land fiefs (jagir).
- c. 1600–1700Lahore · LahoreIn the 17th century, the scale of jagir allocation expanded; exhaustion of assignable land led to 'jagir vacancies' (jagir-dar khali), declining fief-system efficiency, and sowed the seeds for the decline of Mughal central authority in the 18th century.
Sources
- The Mughal Empire — John Fland Richards (1993)
- Akbar and His India — Irfan Habib (1997)