Over the large portion of the empire land was assigned to certain classes of persons of whom the jagirdars were the most important. The jagirs, however, were temporary assignments. Certain other grants were of a permanent nature, such as the madad-i-ma’ash (also called sayurghal) or grant for subsistence.
Jahangir introduced the altamgha grant on the Central Asian model. Such a grant could be annulled only by order of the emperor. Another type of grants, namely aimma grant of land, was made to Muslim religious leaders.
These grantees belonged largely to the Muslim theological and scholarly classes; they also comprised pensioned- off officials, widows and other women belonging to families of some status. Being more or less permanently installed, the grantees often sought to acquire zamindari rights within their grants and elsewhere.