ARMY ORGANISATION OF DELHI SULTANATE
Hasham-i-qalb
The contingents stationed at Delhi were called Hasham-i-qalb and included among others royal slaves and guards.
hasham-i-atraf
Provincial contingents were called hasham-i-atraf..
Ghazis
It was a section of the army which was distinct from the contingents of iqta dars and the royal army. It consisted of the volunteers for jihad. Thousands of such volunteers joined Mahmud in his Indian campaigns and they remained a factor of some importance in the early days of the sultanate. They were not registered in Diwan-i-Arid.
Garrisons
Garrisons are mentioned in the time of Qutbuddin Aibak which were placed under Kotwals.
Cavalry
Cavalry was composed of murattab, sawar and do-aspah (men with 2 horses, single horse and no horses of their own respectively) (The Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi,
I.H. Qureshi, p. 250-253).
Elephant establishment at Delhi was supervised by the Shahnah-i-fil.
The infantry
The infantry or foot soldiers were referred to as paiks (generally Hindus,
slaves or persons of low origin).
The decimal system (multiples of 10) was the basis of army organisation under the Ghaznavids and Mongols. Sultans of Delhi followed a similar system. Barani in his Tarikh-I-Firoz Shahi discusses the army organization:
“A sarkhail commands 10 chosen horsemen; a sipah-salar 10 sarkhails; an amir 10 sipha-salars; a malik 10 amirs, a khan 10 maliks, and a king should have at least 10 khans under his command .( Barani)
Barani also refers to amiran-i-sada (centurians) and amiran-i-hajara (commanders of one thousand). The hierarchy comprised of Sarkhail at the bottom (with 10 horse men subordinate to him), a sipah-salar (had 10 sarkhail under him), amir (10 sipah-salars below him), malik (had power over 10 amirs), Khan’s troops (were equal to troops under 10 maliks)
Barani in Tarikh-I-Firoz Shahi says that Muhammad Tughlaq told the governor ofDhar (Malwa) “ I hear that everyone who rebels does so owing to the support of the amiran-i-sadah (Sadah amirs: commanders of one hundred) and the amiran-i-sadah support him owing to their anger (at the imperial policy) and love of plunder.”(Medieval India Quarterly, Prof. M. Habib, p.288.)
The masalik-ul-absar (An Arabic source of the 14th century) gives an estimate of the salaries of officers: Khan: 1 lakh tankhas, malik: 50 to 60 thousand tankhas, etc. Soldiers were directly paid in cash by the central government during the time of Khaljis and Tughlaqs. The nobles were given assignments of revenue in lieu of salary. The standing
army comprised of regular troops called wajhis and irregular called ghair wajhis.Sometimes soldiers were also paid through itlaq (drafts).
The king or Sultan was the commander in chief of the forces but with the expansion of the empire and the growth of the military side of the government the importance of the Arid increased immensely. Arid acted as the chief recruiting officer and also functioned as the General of the Army sometimes. Commissariat was also under him and Diwan -i –Arid disbursed salaries to the troops. The sultan named the generals for different campaigns.