There are however religious leaders in Islam, termed Imams, men of piety and scholarship, who lead the prayer in mosques. The other prominent socio-religious functionaries in Islamic society are Mullahs (religious scholars), Pirs (spiritual guides), Sheikhs (tribal patriarchs), and above them all the Caliph (the supreme authority over all Muslims of his sect everywhere in the world, in temporal as well as spiritual matters). But all these functionaries, even the Caliph, hold their posts by their personal merit recognised by their community, not by ordination. The role of the Caliph was similar to the role of the sultan, except that the sultan’s power was confined to his kingdom, while the Caliph had, in theory at least, authority over all Muslims of his sect everywhere in the world, though often he was just a figurehead.
ISLAM, LIKE ANY other religion, has a number of sects, the most prominent of which are Sunnis, Shias and Sufis. The difference between Sunnis and Shias is primarily in organisational matters. These two sects initially emerged out of their difference over the mode of succession to the Caliphate—while Shias preferred hereditary succession to the office through the descendants of Ali, prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Sunnis wanted succession to be decided by the consensus of the Muslim community. Later other differences also arose between the two sects, and the gap between them widened. The Sunni is the predominant sect in the Muslim world, including the Indian subcontinent, while Shias are mostly in Iran.
Shia and Sunni, despite their differences, are both orthodox sects. Sufis are on another religious plane altogether; they are mystics and are regarded as heretics by many orthodox Muslims. Even al-Biruni, though he was generally quite broadminded, was censorious about Sufism, and condemned it for its flighty mysticism and lack of intellectual rigour and sophistication. Sultan Ghiyas-u-din Tughluq also disapproved of Sufis. A rigidly orthodox Muslim, he once summoned Nizamuddin Auliya, the great Sufi sage of medieval India, to the court to appear before a jury of orthodox theologians, and forced him to acknowledge, at least outwardly, the error of his ways.
Sufis hold that god realisation cannot be achieved through conventional religious practices, but only though obsessive, passionate devotion to god, and by awakening one’s intuitive faculties through intense meditation. Such meditation, Sufis believe, would enable the devotee to gain insights into the true nature of god, and that this knowledge would liberate him from all worldly bonds, so that he becomes one with god. Typically, Khwaja Moinuddin, the founder of the Chishti sect in India, claimed: ‘For years I used to go around the Kaaba, now the Kaaba goes around me.’
Many of the peculiar beliefs and practices of Sufis arose out of their conviction that doomsday, the end of the world—the day of final divine judgement and the arrival of Mahdi, the redeemer—was at hand, and that man should prepare himself earnestly for that day by ridding himself of all his temporal concerns, and thus transcend the human condition. Sufis therefore detached themselves from society, lived in seclusion, practised self-mortification, and indulged in dervish practices like rapturous singing and dancing, to induce in themselves spiritual ecstasy and to fall into a trance, and thus disengage themselves totally from the mundane world. Often they spoke in a cryptic language, not so much to say anything, as to create an otherworldly ambiance.
The beliefs and practices of Sufis were in many ways similar to those of the Bhakti cults of Hinduism, but while the Bhakti sages usually functioned within society, Sufis usually functioned outside society. In that they were rather like yogis. And yogis evidently did have some influence on some Sufi sects in India, whose members took to performing yogic exercises, particularly controlled breathing. Some Indian Sufi leaders even called themselves rishis, as the Hindu sages did. And some of them took Hindus as disciples.
Sufis in medieval India were divided into three major orders: Chishti (popular in Delhi and the Doab, and had poet Amir Khusrav as one of its distinguished followers), Suhrawardi (of Sind), and Firdausi (of Bihar). The best known Sufi sage of the early medieval period was Nizamuddin Auliya of the Chishti order, who had a large number of followers among the ruling class in Delhi. But the followers of Sufism, compared to the general Muslim population in India, were quite small even at the height of the movement’s short-lived popularity, because the renunciatory and asocial character of the sect was not suited for the common people.
SOME OF THE Muslim mystic sects were quite weird in their practices, like some of the Hindu mystic sects. The oddest of them was the Qalandar sect, a loosely organized group of antinomian wandering dervishes. Their early history is obscure, but they probably originated in Iran or Central Asia, from where they entered India around the twelfth or thirteenth century. Qalandars were contemptuous of all social and religious conventions, habitually used psychedelic drugs, and considered themselves above all laws, including the Sharia laws. Unlike most Sufis, they shaved their head and face, even their eyebrows, wore iron rings on their ears and fingers, and went about clad in coarse, hip-length woollen blankets. Some members of this sect fitted a short iron rod transversely into their penis, to prevent any possibility of sexual intercourse by them.
Ibn Battuta once saw a performance by Qalandars at Amroha in Uttar Pradesh. ‘Their chief,’ he reports, ‘asked me to supply him with firewood so that they might light it for their dance, so I charged the governor of that district … to furnish it. He sent about ten loads of it, and after the night prayer they kindled it, and at length, when it was a mass of glowing coals, they began their music recital and went into that fire, dancing and rolling about in it. Their chief asked me for a shirt and I gave him one of the finest texture; he put it on and began to roll about in the fire with it on and beat the fire with his sleeves until it was extinguished … He then brought me the shirt showing not a single trace of burning on it, at which I was greatly astonished.’ In Maldives too Battuta once saw the dervishes perform this fire rite; they, he reports, went into a fire, ‘treading it with their [bare] feet, and some of them ate it (the embers) as one eats sweetmeats.’
The early medieval period was the age of bizarre religious movements in India, in Hinduism as well as in Islam. Firuz Tughluq in his autobiography describes some of these sects, and the action he took to suppress them. One such heretic leader of the age was Rukn-ud-din, who claimed to be the Mahdi; Firuz set the rabble on him and had him killed—‘the people rushing in tore him to pieces and broke his bones into fragments,’ he writes with approbation. Firuz also mentions a heretic in Gujarat who ‘used to say “Ana-l-Hakk” (I am god), and instructed his disciples that when he said these words they should say, “Thou art, thou art!” … He was put in chains and brought before me … I condemned him to punishment …’
ISLAM WAS AN aggressively proselytising religion, but there is no evidence of any extensive use of violence by Muslim rulers in India to force conversions. Though there were many instances of sultans converting Hindus into Islam by force, most of them were incidental to military campaigns. The sultans did not actively seek conversions, for their object in conquering India was to gain power and wealth, not to spread religion, though religion did subserve their other goals.
The greatest number of Hindu coverts to Islam came from the under-classes, who sought to gain socio-economic emancipation through conversion, by freeing themselves from the bondage of the Hindu caste system. As Muslims, their careers were no longer confined to their old degrading caste functions, so they could rise to whatever position they merited by their aptitudes and skills. And, more than anything else, conversion radically transformed their social status, from that of the underclass to that of the upper class.
‘The heathens of these parts daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers,’ writes Barbosa about what he observed in Bengal. Sometimes there were mass conversions, following clan or tribal decision. This was fairly common in north-east and north-west India, the predominantly tribal regions of the subcontinent. But most of the individual conversions were in urban areas—in rural areas there was very little for Hin
dus to gain by becoming Muslims, while in urban areas conversion opened up a whole new world for them, for economic as well as social advancement.
There were a few conversions to Islam from the Hindu upper castes also, of men who sought to advance their careers by becoming Muslims. Even some rajas and chieftains became Muslims, so as to retain their power. Conversion also freed Hindus from the obligation to pay jizya, though this does not seem to have been a major factor. Sufis too played a role, though only a small role, in attracting Hindus to Islam. In several cases, Hindu converts to Islam continued to observe their old sectarian socio-religious practices. Thus it was reported that Hindu converts to Islam in Punjab continued to worship their old village deities even after their conversion. Such practices were fairly common in other regions of India also.
Most Muslims in medieval India were in the regions under Muslim rule, but there were a good number of them even in Hindu kingdoms. These were mostly migrants from Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, though there were also some local converts there. Battuta in the fourteenth century found numerous mosques in Kerala, evidently built by Muslim traders from the Middle East who had peacefully settled there and prospered. According to Barbosa, even a Kerala king became a convert to Islam.
2. FOR GOD AND MAMMON
1 Nine centuries later, an invading British Indian army was confounded by a similar snowstorm in Afghanistan.
4. PEOPLE’S SULTAN
1 That thwarted the princess, but only for a while. Some years later she would make yet another attempt to seize power for her son, this time by plotting to assassinate Firuz, but that conspiracy too failed. She was then imprisoned, her husband banished, and their vast wealth confiscated by the state.
2 See Part IX, Chapter 2
1. THE LAST HURRAH
1 For the details of Babur’s invasion of India, see The Last Spring, Chapter 2.
2. THE SNAKE PIT
1 More on Begarha in Part VII, Chapter 1
1 For details of the battle, see the next chapter
3. WARS FOREVER
1 See Part 5, Chapter 5
3. IDEAL AND REALITY
1 For Indian dietary practices, see The First Spring, Part VII, Chapter 3
2 See Part VII, Chapter 3
3 See The First Spring Part VI, Chapter 3 for Battuta’s description of sati.
2. DUPLEX CULTURE
1 For more on Indian music, see The First Spring, Part XI, Chapter 1
2 This is a Gupta age iron pillar, which the builders of the mosque had the good sense not to tamper with. Most remarkably, the pillar has not rusted even after the passage of some sixteen centuries of exposure to weather.
The height of the pillar is 7.21 metres, of which 1.12 metre is below ground; its diameter at the bottom is 420 millimetres, and it tapers to 306 millimetres at the top. Its weight is estimated to be over six tons.
There is a common belief that anyone who can encircle the pillar with his arms while standing with his back to it and makes a wish, will have that wish granted.
3 See Part VIII, Chapter 1, for Mughal chronicler Lahauri’s description of the fort.
4See also Part V, Chapter 4
4. ZILLION CREEDS
1 For Upanishadic Hinduism, see Gem in the Lotus, Part III; for Puranic Hinduism, see The First Spring, Part XII.
2 For a detailed account of the Bhakti movement, see The First Spring, Part XII, Chapter 7.
Incidental Data
Part II: Prelude
The Arabic word islam means ‘submission’, which, as applied to religion, means ‘submission to god’. An adherent of Islam is called Muslim, meaning ‘one who is submissive’ to god.
Orthodox Indians, according to Chach-nama, scorned Arabs as ‘outcaste cow-eaters’.
Buddhism was the dominant religion of Afghanistan before the region became Islamised.
Mahmud Ghazni was a ruthless military adventurer, but he had, according to medieval chronicler Khondamir, a weakness for fair-skinned young boys. At one time he became enamoured of the ‘beauty of a boy of Turkistan … who was as white as silver … [and] looked as beautiful as a virgin of paradise.’ Mahmud demanded the boy from the amir who owned him, and on the amir refusing, the sultan had him plundered and tortured to death.
Mahmud Ghazni, according to medieval chronicler Siraj, ‘was the first Muhammadan king who received the title of sultan from the Caliph.’
Ibrahim, a grandson of Mahmud Ghazni and one of his successors, was physically rather frail, but had ‘36 sons and 40 daughters,’ reports Siraj. He was ‘a great king—wise, just, good, god-fearing and kind, a patron of letters, a supporter of religion, and a pious man.’ He ‘reigned happily for 42 years, and died in 1098, at the age of 60.’
Part III: Slave Sultans
Aibak’s lavish generosity earned him the epithet Lakh-bakhsh: Giver of Lakhs. But he could not stand presumptuous fools. Thus when a court poet recited to him a poem full of obscenities, expecting to be rewarded with a gold coin for each line, all the sultan is said to have given him was a bowl of donkey’s urine.
The term ‘Forty’, used to describe the clique of top nobles of the Delhi Sultanate at one time, was merely a conventional term. The actual number of the members of the group varied from time to time.
Part of the reason for the opposition of nobles to the reign of Raziya was that she seemed to be intimate with Yaqut, an Ethiopian slave. According to Isami, a fourteenth century chronicler, Yaqut ‘used to stand by her side when she mounted her horse. With one hand he used to hold her arm and help her to mount her horse … When the grandees of the state noticed the liberties he took openly, they felt scandalised and said to one another privately, “From the way this demon has made himself more powerful in the State than all other servants, it would be no wonder if he found his way to seize the royal seal.”’
The nobles opposing Raziya, according to Isami, grumbled: ‘All women are in the snare of the devil; in privacy, all of them do Satan’s work. No confidence should be placed in women … At no time can faithfulness be expected of women. Faithfulness is masculine; expect it only from men … When passions of a pious woman are inflamed, she concedes to intimacy even with a dog. If a man places confidence in a woman, she makes him a laughing stock. A woman is a source of danger wherever she be, since she is of devilish disposition … A woman cannot acquit herself well as a ruler, for she is essentially deficient in intellect … A woman who seeks pleasure and is at the same time ambitious, can be hardly free from the sway of passion.’
Barani: Balban was a man of ‘fierce temper and implacable resolution.’
Part IV: Khaljis
According to Cambridge historian Wolseley Haig’s calculation, Ala-ud-din in his Devagiri campaign seized ‘17,250 pounds of gold, 200 pounds of pearls, 58 pounds of other gems, 28,250 pounds of silver, and 1000 pieces of silk.’
The murderers of Jalal-ud-din Khalji soon met with divine retribution, states Barani. Many of the chief conspirators died in a short time. ‘The hell-hound Salim, who struck the first blow, was a year or two afterwards eaten up by leprosy. Ikhtiyar-ud-din, who cut off the head, very soon went mad, and in his dying ravings cried out that Sultan Jalal-ud din stood over him with a naked sword, ready to cut off his head.’
Barani: When Ala-ud-din on his accession distributed vast sums as largess among the people, ‘they gave themselves up to gaiety and pleasure, and indulged in wine and all kinds of revelry. Within the city they erected several wondrous pavilions, where wine, sherbet, and betel were distributed gratis, and in almost every house an entertainment was held. The maliks, amirs, and all the other men of note and respectability invited one another to feasts; wine, music and mirth became the order of the day.’
Barani: In the first year of Ala-ud-din’s reign, because of this generous scattering of money, ‘folks of all classes, both high and low, lived in such ease and affluence, that I cannot recollect seeing any age or period of such perfect happiness and contentment.’
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br /> From where did Ala-ud-din get his reform ideas? Some of his administrative measures ‘were startlingly like that of Arthasastra,’ comments modern historian Kosambi, and he goes on to speculate that it is possible ‘that the sultan found someone to tell him of the Mauryan regulations.’
Part V: Tughluqs
Once, on the way back to Delhi from Deccan, Muhammad Tughluq suffered from severe toothache and had to have a tooth extracted. He then erected, over the spot where the extracted tooth was buried, a domed tomb which later came to be called the Dome of the Tooth.
The earliest use of paper money anywhere in the world was in China around the close of the eighth century CE. In the beginning it was more like a bank draft than a currency note. It enabled merchants to deposit gold and silver money in one town, receive a certificate of the deposit, and cash it in some other town. Shortly thereafter the Chinese government used this mode of transaction to transfer the tax collected in the provinces to the imperial capital.
Marco Polo, medieval Venetian world traveller, noted the use of paper currency in China, and wrote about it: ‘All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece [of paper currency] a variety of officials … have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is duly prepared, the chief officer deputed by the Khan smears the Seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper … The money is then authentic. Anyone forging it would be punished with death.’
The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate Page 58