Firuz’s building and gardening activities indirectly benefitted the people. He had a great passion for building new cities and renaming old ones. He himself says: ” Among the many gifts which God bestowed upon me, His humble servant, was a desire to erect public buildings. So I built many mosques and colleges and monasteries, that the learned and the elders, the devout and the holy, might worship God in these edifices, and aid the kind builder with their prayers. ” He founded the town of Jaunpur, Fatehabad, Hissar, Firuzpur near Badaun, and Firuzabad, at a distance of ten miles from his capital. During his Bengal campaigns, he renamed Ikdala “Azadpur” and Pandua “Firuzabad. He constructed or restored a number of mosques, palaces, sarais, reservoirs, hospitals, tombs, baths, monumental pillars and bridges. The chief architect of the State was Malik Ghazi Sahana, who was helped by ‘Abdul Huq. The Sultan’s interest in gardening led him to lay out 1,200 new gardens near Delhi and restore thirty old gardens of ‘Ala-ud-din. He also removed two inscribed monoliths of Asoka to Delhi-one from a village near Khizrbad on the upper Jumna and the other from Meerut.
While conforming to the principles of the Quranic law in the administration of justice, Firuz tried to make the judicial system more humane than before. We have in his own words: “In the reigns of former kings . . . many varieties of torture were employed. Amputation of hands and feet, ears and noses; tearing out the eyes, pouring molten lead into the throat, crushing the bones of the hands and feet with mallets, burning the body with fire, driving iron nails into the hands, feet, and bosom, cutting the sinews, sawing men asunder; these and many similar tortures were practised .The great and merciful God made me, His servant, hope and seek for His mercy by devoting myself to prevent the unlawful killing of Mussalmans, and the infliction of any kind of torture upon them or upon any men.” Some benevolent measures were also adopted by him for the general welfare of the people, who, according to all contemporary writers, held him in great respect. He tried to solve the unemployment problem by starting an employment bureau, and providing employment for as many as possible after a thorough enquiry into each man’s merit and capacity. He further established a charity bureau (Diwan-i-Khairat), through which pecuniary help was distributed for the marriage of girls of needy Muslims chiefly of the middle class, and for the benefit of widows and orphans. He founded a charitable hospital (Dar-ul-Shafa), where medicines and diet were supplied by efficient physicians at the cost of the State.
Firuz did not issue absolutely new varieties of coins. The coins prevalent during his reign had already been in circulation in the time of Muhammad bin Tughluq. Even the Shashghani or six-jital piece, which is especially attributed to him by ‘Afif, has been referred to by Ibn Batutah. But credit must be conceded to him for having introduced two fractions of mixed copper and silver coinage-half and quarter jitals, described as adha (half) and bikh respectively. These mixed pieces facilitated the transactions of the common people and gave the coinage considerable metallic strength. But much of their utility was spoiled by fraud and peculation in the working of the mint.
The army of the State was organised on a feudal basis. The regular soldiers of the army received grants of lands, sufficient for their comfortable living, and the irregulars (ghairwajh) were paid direct from the royal treasury. Those who did not get their salaries in either of these ways, were supplied with transferable assignments on the revenue. The last method of payment proved to be a source of great abuse. The assignments were purchased in the capital by some middle-men at one-third of their value, and they sold them to the soldiers in the districts at one-half. Thus a class of people made clandestine gains, without any labour on their part, at the expense of the soldiers. The State army consisted of eighty or ninety thousand cavalry, which could be reinforced by the retainers of the nobles. But it is doubtful if the army was really efficient. Its strength must have been greatly undermined by the Sultan’s unwise generosity towards the soldiers. He passed a new regulation to the effect that when a soldier became incapable of service in the field through old age, his son, or son-in-law, or slave, should step into his place. The recognition of this hereditary claim in military services, irrespective of any considration of fitness, was undoubtedly a pernicious practice.
The reign of Firuz was marked by an unprecedented rise in the number of slaves, for whom the State maintained a separate establishment. The fief-holders in different parts of the kingdom made presents of slaves to the Sultan, for which corresponding deductions were made from the taxes payable by them to the Government. Thus the institution of slavery entailed a heavy loss on the central exchequer.
Though generally opposed to gorgeous display, Firuz, like his predecessors maintained a magnificent and luxurious court, which was, as Shams-i-Siraj ‘Afif says, especially decorated during the Id and Shabrat festivals. There were also thirty-six royal establishments, each having a separate staff of officers to look after its affairs. The expenses for the maintenance of the court and the house-hold establishments of the Sultan must have been considerable.
Firuz’s minister, Khan-i-Jahan Maqbul, exercised a potent influence in the affairs of the State. He was originally a Hindu of Telingana but subsequently embraced Islam and had an official career under Muhammad bin Tughluq before he rose to this eminent position in the reign of Firuz. He died in A.D. 1370 and was succeeded in his office and emoluments by his son, Juna Shah, who also received his title. On the death of Zafar Khan, the governor of Gujarat, in the next year, his son, Darya Khan, succeeded him in his office. Later the Sultan received a severe shock from the death of his eldest son, Fath Khan, on the 23rd July, 1374. This gravely affected both his mind and body.
As was the case with most of the Sultans of Delhi, the last days of Firuz were far from peaceful. His judgment failed as he advanced in age, and the efficiency of the government declined. He committed a blunder in trying to share authority with his eldest surviving son, Muhammad Khan, an incompetent youth, who gave himself up to pleasures instead of looking after the administration of the State. A civil war ensued even during the lifetime of the Sultan, and Muhammad Khan fled towards the Sirmur hills. Firuz then conferred the royal title, and the position held by Muhammad Khan, on his grandson, Tughluq Khan, son of the deceased Fath Khan, before he died on the 20th September, 1388.
Contemporary Indian writers are unanimous in admiring the virtues of Firuz Shah. In their opinion, no king, since the time of Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, had been “so just and kind, so courteous and God-fearing, or such a builder” as Firuz was. Firuz indeed possessed excellent qualities of heart, such as affection and benevolence; and his reign was marked by peace and prosperity. But his indiscriminate generosity and concessions contributed in no small degree to the dismemberment of the Delhi Sultanate in the long run. His revival of the jagir system also produced a tendency towards decentralization to the prejudice of the integrity of the State.
