The Mughal Empire followed the Sunni Hanafi system of jurisprudence. In its early years, the empire relied on Hanafi legal references inherited from its predecessor, the Delhi Sultanate. These included the al-Hidayah (the best guidance) and the Fatawa al-Tatarkhaniyya (religious decisions of the Emire Tatarkhan). During the Mughal Empire's peak, the Fatawa 'Alamgiri was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb. This compendium of Hanafi law sought to serve as a central reference for the Mughal state that dealt with the specifics of the South Asian context. [98] The Mughal administration emphasised agrarian reform, which began under the non-Mughal emperor Sher Shah Suri, the work of which Akbar adopted and furthered with more reforms. The civil administration was organised in a hierarchical manner on the basis of merit, with promotions based on performance. [123] The Mughal government funded the building of irrigation systems across the empire, which produced much higher crop yields and increased the net revenue base, leading to increased agricultural production. [103] Richards, John F. (1995), The Mughal Empire, Cambridge University Press, p.xv, ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2, archived from the original on 22 September 2023 , retrieved 1 July 2019 Quote: "By the latter date (1720) the essential structure of the centralized state was disintegrated beyond repair." a b Roy, Tirthankar (2010). "The Long Globalization and Textile Producers in India". In Lex Heerma van Voss; Els Hiemstra-Kuperus; Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (eds.). The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650–2000. Ashgate Publishing. p.255. ISBN 978-0-7546-6428-4. Archived from the original on 2 July 2023 . Retrieved 15 August 2017. Parthasarathi, Prasannan (2011), Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850, Cambridge University Press, pp.39–45, ISBN 978-1-139-49889-0, archived from the original on 4 April 2023 , retrieved 9 August 2017

Technological Dynamism in a Stagnant Sector: Safety at Sea during the Early Industrial Revolution" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 December 2019 . Retrieved 3 August 2017. Conan, Michel (2007). Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity: Questions, Methods and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective. Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-329-6. Archived from the original on 22 September 2023 . Retrieved 13 June 2019.a b c d e Colin McEvedy; Richard Jones (1978). Atlas of World Population History (PDF). New York: Facts on File. pp.184–185. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2020 . Retrieved 7 August 2017. Ballhatchet, Kenneth A. "Akbar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023 . Retrieved 17 July 2017.

The jagirdar (local tax collector) was another kind of official approached, especially for high-stakes cases. Subjects of the Mughal Empire also took their grievances to the courts of superior officials who held more authority and punitive power than the local qadi. Such officials included the kotwal (local police), the faujdar (an officer controlling multiple districts and troops of soldiers), and the most powerful, the subahdar (provincial governor). In some cases, the emperor themself dispensed justice directly. [97] Jahangir was known to have installed a "chain of justice" in the Agra Fort that any aggrieved subject could shake to get the attention of the emperor and bypass the inefficacy of officials. [101] Pagaza, Ignacio; Argyriades, Demetrios (2009). Winning the Needed Change: Saving Our Planet Earth. IOS Press. p.129. ISBN 978-1-58603-958-5. Alter, Joseph S. (May 1992). "The sannyasi and the Indian Wrestler: The Anatomy of a Relationship". American Ethnologist. 19 (2): 317–336. doi: 10.1525/ae.1992.19.2.02a00070. ISSN 0094-0496. Celestial globe". National Museums Scotland. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020 . Retrieved 15 October 2020.S. R. Sharma · (2014). Life, Times and Poetry of Mir. Partridge Publishing. p.4. ISBN 978-1-4828-1478-1. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023 . Retrieved 19 May 2023. The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was textile manufacturing, particularly cotton textile manufacturing, which included the production of piece goods, calicos, and muslins, available unbleached and in a variety of colours. The cotton textile industry was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade. [103] India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century. [131] Indian cotton textiles were the most important manufactured goods in world trade in the 18th century, consumed across the world from the Americas to Japan. [132] By the early 18th century, Mughal Indian textiles were clothing people across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. [86] The most important centre of cotton production was the Bengal province, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka. [133] Alter, Joseph S. (1992). The Wrestler's Body: Identity and Ideology in North India. University of California Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-520-07697-6. Wrestling in modern India is a synthesis of two different traditions: the Persian form of the art brought into South Asia by the Moguls, and an indigenous Hindu form. a b Bose, Sugata; Jalal, Ayesha (2004). Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (2nded.). Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-203-71253-5. Dyson, Tim (2018). A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day. Oxford University Press. pp.70–71. ISBN 978-0-19-256430-6. We have seen that there is considerable uncertainty about the size of India's population c.1595. Serious assessments vary from 116 to 145 million (with an average of 125 million). However, the true figure could even be outside of this range. Accordingly, while it seems likely that the population grew over the course of the seventeenth century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a good idea of its size in 1707.