Mughal Farmans and Administrative Orders

The Mughal Empire, a highly centralized administration, used Farmans and a host of other administrative orders as its primary instruments of governance, acting as the ultimate authority and source of law throughout the empire. A Farman (Persian for "order" or "decree") was the most authoritative and irrevocable royal proclamation issued directly by the Mughal Emperor. It was equivalent to a supreme legislative and executive order.

Key Features

• Function: Farmans were used to announce new imperial policies, grant titles (mansabs), assign revenue rights (jagirs) and religious grants (Madad-i-Ma'ash), confer special privileges (like trade exemptions), and issue high-level judicial judgments.
• Procedure: A Farman ....