The wonder that was india

The Arabs in Sind and the neighbouring Hindu princes of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty were at war with each other. Unlike them, the southern princes, the Ballahras (Vallabh-rajas) of the Rastrakuta dynasty (who in turn were fighting the northern Hindu princes) encouraged Arab merchants and travellers to settle in their territories. Consequently there are few works by Arabs on north or central India, most being on the south.

A most comprehensive and authoritative description of Indian religions, beliefs, and social customs was given by al-Biruni (d. after 1086) of Khwarazm (Alberuni's India in E. Sachaus's English translation, London, 1887). Al-Biruni did not travel much in India, but he wrote his magnum opus on the basis of translations from the Sanskrit classics and oral information which he obtained from brahman scholars who, like him, had been taken captive.

An encyclopaedic work on the geography, history, and social and economic condition of all the Islamic countries of the fourteenth century was written by Shihabu'd-Din al-'Umari (d. 1348) of Damascus. His work, entitled Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar, is in twenty-two volumes. His description of India, like that of other countries, is based on the accounts of contemporary merchants and travellers. 'Umari's masterly selection of the material he obtained has made this work indispensable for students of fourteenth-century India. On the basis of' Umari's work, the Egyptian scholar al-Qalaqashandi (d. 1418) wrote his monumental Subhu'l-A 'sha,

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published in Egypt in fourteen volumes. An English translation of the chapters on India from both works was made by Otto Spies.

In 1441 Kamalu'd-Din 'Abdu'r-Razzaq was sent on a political mission to south India by Timur's son, Shah Rukh (1405-47). There he visited the Zamorin of Calicut and the King of Vijayanagara, returning to Hlrat in 1444. His historical work, entitled Matla'-i Sa'dain in Persian, gives a detailed account of his travels. A. Galland translated this into French, but it was not published; the manuscript is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Excerpts giving an account of these travels were translated into English by William Chambers and published in the Asiatic Miscellany, Volume I, Calcutta, 1785. R. H. Major re-edited the work, and the Hakluyt Society published it in London in 1859. Russian translations were also published.

European Travellers

In Europe after the ninth century Venice began to emerge as a trade centre. Marco Polo (1254-1324), who left Venice on his travels in 1271, took Europe by storm with his account of commercial, religious, and social conditions in the East, particularly in India. He was followed by a series of adventurers and missionaries.

The narratives of the stream of travellers who poured into India go a long way to making the history of urban growth in India from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries reliable and perspicacious. In 1419 Nicolo de' Conti, a Venetian, set put from Damascus upon his travels in the East, returning to his native city in 1444. He dictated his adventures to the secretary to Pope Eugene IV, and his account of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara, and its wars with the Muslim Bahmanid kingdom of the Deccan, is of considerable importance. In 1468 Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian, left his native town of Tver. He travelled through Iran and Central Asia, arrived at Gujarat, and stayed for four years at Bidar, which he calls 'Beuruk'. Nikitin vividly describes the Bahmani kingdom. His account of Vijayanagara, which he did not visit, is based on second-hand evidence.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries innumerable Portuguese travellers visited India. The most important work to have resulted is A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, by Duarte Barbosa. It is said to have been written by the voyager Magellan. Both visited India in the early days of Portuguese rule. Magellan returned to Europe in 1512, and Barbosa five years later. Some scholars ascribe this work

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to several authors. Be that as it may, it reflects acute observation and analysis.

Fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century travellers mainly visited Gujarat, the west coast, the Deccan, and Bengal. The number of books on exploration and travelogues by Europeans mushroomed, as did the visitors, due to Akbar's interest in the religion and culture of different parts of the world and the commercial ramifications of the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French. It is impossible even to list all these works; only those which made a real contribution to the history of the period are mentioned.

In 1579 a group of three priests set out from Goa: Father Rudolph Acquaviva, newly ordained and aflame with zeal for a martyrdom he was later to meet, Father Monserrate, and Father Francis Henriquez, who was to act as interpreter. The mission was involved in religious debates; it was allowed to build a chapel, and discussed theological points privately with the Emperor. Akbar admitted an interest in Christianity but he was more interested in philosophy and the sciences. The Fathers were filled with frustration when they failed to convert him to their religion. In April 1582 Akbar allowed Father Monserrate to accompany an embassy which he proposed to send to Philip II, King of Spain and Portugal, but it never left the shores of India. Father Monserrate wrote the Commentarius in Latin to keep his seniors in touch with the situation. It provides illuminating details about Fathpur-Sikri, which was not yet complete, and describes court life and the customs and manners of the people. The letters written by the Fathers to Goa discuss their own reactions to the interest shown by Akbar and his favourites in Christianity.

In 1591 a second mission arrived at Akbar's request, but, finding a strong court faction opposed to Christianity, the Fathers returned to Goa. In May 1595 the third Jesuit mission arrived at Akbar's court in Lahore. After Akbar's death, Father Jerome Xavier of the third mission continued to live at court for the first twelve years of Jahangir's reign (1605-27). Unlike his father, Jahangir was not an ardent seeker of truth. During his reign the Jesuit mission assumed to all intents and purposes the character of a political agency.

The letters of Father Xavier are the main source for the study of the third Jesuit mission. The Histoire of Father Pierre du Jarric (1566-1617) describes the sixteenth-century Jesuit missions. The Relations by Father Fernao Guerreiro deals with Jesuit activity in the seventeenth century. Akbar and the Jesuits and Jahangir and the Jesuits, translated into English by G. H. Payne, comprise valuable notes from original letters and secondary sources and are very

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useful for studies of the Jesuit missions at the courts of Akbar and Jahangir.

The Itinerario de las missions del India Oriental, by Sebastian Manrique, an Augustine friar who, around 1612, was sent by the Portuguese with other missionaries to propagate Christianity in Bengal, merits special attention for its richness of narrative and acuteness of observation. For thirteen years Manrique travelled widely. He visited Chittagong, Arakan, Agra, Lahore, Multan, Bhakkar, and Thatta and even met such high dignitaries at Jahangir's court as the Emperor's brother-in-law, Asaf Khan. He comments on all aspects of contemporary life.

The European travellers who visited India from the end of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries were motivated by commercial interests. Their works are written to explore trade potential in India, and they describe the towns and villages critically. The contrast between the extravagance and luxury of the emperors, their household, and dignitaries and the dismal poverty in the villages bewildered them. They tend to exaggerate both extremes; nevertheless, their narratives are indispensable for the study of the social and economic history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century India.

The pioneer among the English travellers to India was Ralph Fitch (1583-91). He sailed from London with a small party in February 1583. At Hurmuz (Ormuz) they were arrested and sent to Goa. The English Jesuit Father Thomas Stephens (1579-1619) and some other officials intervened on their behalf, and they were released on bail. In April 1584 Fitch and the jeweller, Leeds, escaped to Bijapur. From there they moved to Golkonda, seeking and procuring jewels. From Golkonda they made their way through Ujjain and Agra to Akbar's court at Fathpur-Sikri. Leeds entered Akbar's service. Fitch, however, travelled extensively in India from Agra to Bengal, and voyaged to Pegu in Malacca, before returning home via Goa and Hurmuz. He landed in London at the end of April 1591.*

Ralph Fitch's accounts discuss the . apparently inexhaustible possibilities of trade with India and Hurmuz. Fitch pays glowing tribute to the prosperity of Bijapur and praises the diamonds from Golkonda. He says: 'Agra and Fatepore are two very great cities, either of them much greater than London and very populous.' At Prage (Prayaga, near Allahabad) the sight of naked beggars disgusted Fitch. He gives a detailed description of idol worship in Banaras, and remarks that cloth, particularly for turbans, was

*W. Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India, 1583-1619, London, 1921, pp. 1-8.

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produced there in large quantities. He describes the technique of gold-mining at Patna, and the cotton and sugar trades in the town. There he also saw a Muslim saint whom he described as a 'lasie lubber', although the people 'were much given to such prating and dissembling hypocrites'.

Nearly twenty years after the visit of Ralph Fitch and his companions, John Mildenhall or Midnall (1599-1606), a self-styled ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to Akbar, visited India twice. In a letter dated 3 October 1606 he gave an account of the trade concessions he had obtained from Akbar despite Jesuit intrigue. Modern scholarship has, however, rejected his claims. The real battle for trade concessions from the Mughal emperors commenced after the establishment of the East India Company in 1600. In August 1607 Captain William Hawkins (1608-13) landed at Surat, but Portuguese hostility made life difficult for Hawkins and his colleague, William Finch. Leaving Finch to look after the goods at Surat, Hawkins made his way to Agra, arriving in the middle of 1609. Jahangir received him graciously and listened attentively as King James's letter was read to him by a Jesuit priest. Hawkins's fluency in Turkish prompted Jahangir to invite him to stay at court as a resident ambassador. He gave him the rank of 400 horse, 'a post in the imperial service that was nominally worth over three thousand pounds a year sterling'. Hawkins's repeated attempts to obtain a royal farman (edict) for trade concessions were, however, unsuccessful. We receive from his narrative a full account of Jahangir's temperament and propensities. He describes the hierarchy of imperial officials, known as mansabdars, the income and expenditure of the Mughal emperors, and the magnificence of their court.

William Finch (1608-11), who was left at Surat by Hawkins, arrived at Agra in April 1610. He travelled to Bayana, and around the Panjab, but his enterprise when buying indigo involved him in considerable difficulties. Even his superiors became suspicious of him. He left for London but died en route at Baghdad. He had Carefully maintained his diary, which gives a detailed description of the towns he visited and the people and curiosities he observed. Historically, his journal is more important than Hawkins's narratives.

Until 1612, the year Hawkins sailed away from Surat, the prospects for English trade in India were bleak. Captain Thomas Best, who arrived at Surat in September 1612, obtained a spectacular victory over the Portuguese fleet off Swally. The Mughals of Gujarat were impressed and decided to enter into trade negotiations with the English and the court at Agra. Early in 1613 a royal

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farman was obtained from the Emperor. Nicholas Withington (1612-16), who had learnt arabic in Morocco, was sent to Agra. He then went to Ahmadabad to assist in the purches of indigo. His adventurous career in Cambay and Thatta in Sind began from that time He escaped death in Sind only to be incarcerated in Ajmir. He failed to convince the Surat factors of his innocence and was forced to sail for England in February 1617. Withington's journal describes his vicissitudes at length, but also provides a lively account of Sind, the banians (Hindu merchants) and the Baluchis.

The most interesting character among the seventeenth-century English to write about India was Thomas Coryat (1612-17), a courtier of James I. In October 1612 he left on his Eastern journey, intending to write a book about his observations. He was neither a merchant nor a sailor. Travelling through Constantinople, Syria, and Iran, he arrived at Agra via Multan, Lahore, and Delhi. From Agra he visited Ajmir in order to call on the Emperor. Sir Thomas Roe, who will soon be discussed, avoided his company in the interests of British trade, for Coryat frequently offended Muslims by his indiscreet remarks about Islam, though no one harmed him. Coryat travelled widely in northern India and visited even the Hindu pilgrimage centres of Haridvar and Jwalamukhi in northeast Panjab. He spoke both Hindustani and Persian fluently. The common people called him a half-witted English fakir. He died at Surat in December 1617.

Coryat's eccentricity coloured his cynical observations, but they are very informative. Unfortunately for us, his detailed descriptions of his Indian tours have not survived; his letters, though few, are very valuable historical documents. Like all other contemporary travellers, Coryat was baffled by the extremes in Jahangir's character. He describes his cruelties and his compassion. To him Jahangir was a true patron of the poor, who readily conversed with them and offered them gifts.

Coryat's friend Edward Terry (1616-19) joined Sir Thomas Roe at Ujjain in February 1617 and served as his chaplain. He accompanied Roe to Mandu and from there to Ahmadabad. In September 1618 he left India. His account owes something to Coryat, to the gossips of the ambassador's suite and to the Surat merchants, but his own observations play no mean role.

Terry's narrative describes the Mughal empire, the most remarkable examples of art and nature it contained, the people of India, their habits and diet, women, language, learning, arts, riding, games, markets, arms, valour, mosques, and Hindu and Muslim rites and ceremonies. It gives an interesting account of potato and tobacco cultivation. Terry was impressed by Indian

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gunpowder, but was critical of 'lesser gunnes made for footmen who are somewhat long in taking their ayme, but come as neere the marke as any I evere saw'.*

The growing intrigues against the East India Company by the Portuguese, in the wake of their declining commercial and economic influence, prompted the Company's directors to urge King James to send Sir Thomas Roe as a special plenipotentiary to Jahangir's court. Leaving England in February 1613, Roe arrived at Ajmir on 23 December 1613 and presented his credentials to the Emperor. Roe ceaselessly tried to persuade Jahangir to enter into some kind of trade agreement with the English. He travelled with the Emperor as far as Ahmadabad, until finally, at his request, the Emperor allowed him to return home, giving him a letter for King James. Although Roe had failed to obtain a formal treaty, he secured substantially improved terms, under which the English factory at Surat was maintained, and various branches opened. In February 1619 Roe left India.

Throughout his stay, Roe had tried to restore English prestige, which had been eroded by the disorderly behaviour of English officials. In his Journal and correspondence Roe gives vivid descriptions of the magnificent Mughal court and the Naw Ruz (New Year's Day) festivities. The Emperor's birthday weighing ceremony is given in minute detail. The Journal also discusses the influential Empress, Nur Jahan, and the indifference displayed by her brother, Asaf Khan, towards the British. Roe also refers to Jahangir's insatiable appetite for gifts and European novelties, as well as his extremes of character.

Among the stream of seventeenth-century European visitors to India, Francisco Pelsaert (1620-7) of Antwerp, a factor with the Dutch East India Company, deserves special mention. He worked in Agra from 1620 to 1627. His Remonstrantie, written in 1626, highlights the flourishing trade at Surat, Ahmadabad, Cambay, Broach, Burhanpur, Agra, Lahore, Multan, and Srinagar. Muslims and their sectarian beliefs and festivals are described at considerable length. John de Laet was permitted to draw upon the Remonstrantie, which he summarized in his De Imperio Magni Mogulis, published at Leyden in 1631.

A traveller who visited India to enrich his knowledge of the world was John Albert de Mandeslo, a German who landed at Surat in 1638. He gathered his information mostly from secondary sources and left India after only a short stay. Other notable European travellers were the Frenchmen Tavernier, Thevenot,

*Ibid p 314.

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Bernier, and Chardin. During his first voyage in 1631 Tavernier stopped' at Iran. On his second voyage he visited India briefly in 1640-1. In 1645 he came again and stayed for three years. In 1664 he made his sixth and last voyage and landed in India for the fourth time, carrying £30,000 worth of stock. In 1665 he had an audience with Aurangzib. He also met Bernier, with whom he travelled to Bengal. In 1667 he sailed for Bandar 'Abbas. The publication of Six Voyages, the story of his travels, made him famous, but Thevenot and Bernier ignored him, while Chardin and Careri abused him. Tavernier did not retaliate.

Tavernier's historical accounts are not original. Like Bernier he did not examine facts in the light of historical or social philosophy, but he described what he saw vividly, from the Taj Mahal to the caravanserais. Most valuable are his notes on cotton cloth, indigo, cinnamon, and jewels, particularly diamonds.

Jean de Thevenot landed at Surat in January 1666. He travelled through Ahmadabad and Cambay, and across the Deccan peninsula through Burhanpur, Aurangabad, and Golkonda, visiting the rock-cut temples of Ellora. He was the first European to describe them; his notes on commerce and industry are welded into history. In the autumn of 1667 he left for Iran and died in a small town there.

Francois Bernier was a French physician and philosopher, who arrived in India in 1656 and stayed for twelve years. Danishmand Khan (d. 1670), one of Aurangzib's leading nobles, was his patron, and Bernier referred to him as 'my Nawwdb or Agah'. Bernier translated for Danishmand Khan the medical works of European scientists such as William Harvey (1578-1657), Jean Pecquet (1622-74), and Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), and the works of the great philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Unlike other travellers, Bernier had a good perception of the Mughal administration, but his prejudices clouded his conclusions.

Niccolao Manucci ran away from his native city, Venice, at the age of fourteen in 1653 and three years later arrived at Surat. Although he was only sixteen years old, he obtained work as an artilleryman in the army of Dara Shukoh, whose succession to his father Shahjahan (1628-58) was challenged by his three brothers. Manucci accompanied Dara to Multan and Bhakkar but, after Dara's execution by Aurangzlb in 1659, he worked on different occasions as a quack doctor, an artillery captain, an ambassador, and finally a foreign correspondent and interpreter for his English masters. He died at Madras in 1717. His adventurous career and .diverse experiences made his Storia do Mogor, written in a mixture of Italian, French, and Portuguese and translated into English, a mine of information on seventeenth-century India.

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John Fryer, an English traveller who was in Iran and India during the nine years ending in 1681, vividly describes Bombay and Surat. What has made his narratives indispensable to the Mughal historian is his analysis of the circumstances of Shivaji's rise and the problems of Bijapur.

Gemelli Careri, an Italian, was familiar with Thevenot's works. Landing at Daman, he visited the Mughal camp at Galgala to the south of the ruins of Bijapur in 1695. Although the Marathas had been subdued, their guerrilla raids posed a threat to the unwieldy Mughal camp. Careri was admitted to the court of the ageing Emperor, now verging on his eightieth year. His remarks on the Emperor's military organization and administration are important.

The Dutch travellers Wouter Shouten and Nicholas de Graaf, and the Englishman Sir William Hedges, an East India Company agent in Bengal from 1681 to 1688, discuss the Mughal administration in Bengal and European commercial activity. Many other Europeans, including missionaries, merchants, and travellers, also wrote about seventeenth- arid eighteenth-century India, usefully supplementing the Persian chronicles.

Mystical Literature

Modern works in Islam in the Indian subcontinent have not made adequate use of sufi literature in analysing the political, social, and economic history of medieval India. The enormous collection of this literature, largely in Persian, may conveniently be divided into the following categories:

(1) Treatises written by sufis on the theory and practice of sufism.

(2) Letters written by sufis.

(3) Discourses by sufi leaders called malfuzat.

(4) Biographical dictionaries of the sufi orders.

(5) Collections of sufi poetry.

The Hindi devotional literature was composed in the local dialects and throws considerable light on the religious movements and the manners and customs of the people. Only a few of the works by sufis and Hindu sages have been translated. Sufi works have been discussed, however, in the introductions to Volumes I and II of A History of Sufism in India, by S. A. A. Rizvi.

Other significant works in different categories are mentioned in the bibliography.

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I THE ARABS AND THE TURKS

EARLY ISLAM

Islam literally means 'submission'. It calls for the total surrender of the whole self to God. Those who give their heart and mind to God's will are Muslims. The Qur'an says:

Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.1

Islam's birthplace and spiritual centre is Mecca in the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Although Mecca is only a city in a rocky and infertile valley, its location at the intersection of busy commercial routes had made it, in the sixth century, exceedingly affluent. There was a brisk circulation of capital in Mecca, and even the humblest citizen could invest in the caravan trade. Usury at 100 per cent interest and speculation, mainly Concerning exchange rates, were rampant there. The rich Meccans owned huge capital, and even the small shopkeepers, brokers, and traders were wealthy. The commercial importance of Mecca was enhanced by the annual pilgrimage to the cube-like sanctuary called Ka'ba, whose deities were worshipped by both tribesmen and town-dwellers. The ninth day of the last month of the lunar year was kept for pilgrimage, and the first, eleventh, and twelfth months of each year formed the period of holy truce when all tribal wars were abandoned.

The summer resort of the Meccan aristocracy was Ta'if, famous for its fruit, roses, honey, and wine. Some three hundred miles north of Mecca was Yasrib, later known as Medina, which was rich in agriculture and oases. The wealthy Judaized clans of Arabia had settled in Medina and half a dozen villages near by. About 542-3 the non-Jewish Aws and Khazraj tribes of al-Yemen also migrated to Medina.