ICSE Class 8 Answered

The term ‘mansab’ means an office or a rank and a person who occupied this office or held the rank came to be known as a ‘mansabdar’. A mansabdar maintained horsemenor soldiers depending upon his rank in the court. Some of the important features of this system were:

1. An official in the royal service was given a rank or a mansab depending upon the nature of hos work. While a mansabdar of a lower level could maintain up to ten horsemen, the mansabdar of the highest level could keep seven thousand horsemen.
2. The mansabdars were appointed by the king. The king had the power to promote or dismiss them.
3. The king paid his mansabdars in form of jagirs. The revenue collected from the jagir could be used to pay his horsemen.