Muslim Rule in Medieval India

Power and Religion in the Delhi Sultanate

Fouzia Farooq Ahmed

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781786720825
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

The Delhi Sultanate ruled northern India for over three centuries. The era, marked by the desecration of temples and construction of mosques from temple-rubble, is for many South Asians a lightning rod for debates on communalism, religious identity and inter-faith conflict. Using Persian and Arabic manuscripts, epigraphs and inscriptions, Fouzia Farooq Ahmad demystifies key aspects of governance and religion in this complex and controversial period. Why were small sets of foreign invaders and administrators able to dominate despite the cultural, linguistic and religious divides separating them from the ruled? And to what extent did people comply with the authority of sultans they knew very little about? By focusing for the first time on the relationship between the sultans, the bureaucracy and the ruled Muslim Rule in Medieval India outlines the practical dynamics of medieval Muslim political culture and its reception. This approach shows categorically that sultans did not possess meaningful political authority among the masses, and that their symbols of legitimacy were merely post hoc socio-cultural embellishments.Ahmad's thoroughly researched revisionist account is essential reading for all students and researchers working on the history of South Asia from the medieval period to the present day.

CHAPTER 1

TRADERS, ADVENTURERS, RAIDERS AND SETTLERS: THE ARAB EXPERIENCE IN INDIA

When a seventeen-year-old Umayyad general conquered Sind…

Long before the advent of Islam, India was a major trading partner with the Arab world.¹ Although there are no pre-Islamic historical sources that elaborate the nature of connections between the regions,² India features in the historical discourses of Arabs with reference to the epoch of Muslim conquests and expansions into Asia, Africa and Europe.

Muslim political domination in India coincides with the military expeditions under the Rāshidūn and early Umayyad caliphs. This political domination, however, was primarily confined to western India.³ These areas remained under Muslim control through the governors appointed either by the central caliphate or in the form of regional Muslim dynasties which held sway over particular regions of Sind, Multan, Gujarat and Makran. Many of these dynasties were able to survive until Maḥmūd of Ghazna invaded India. Despite the sparseness of historical records, the sequence of events and political developments provide insight into the Umayyads’ policies of expansion and how its influence persisted in succeeding dynasties. The primary recorded accounts of Arabs in India are Fūtūh ul-Buldān⁴ and Chachnāmah, supplemented by accounts of Arab geographers and travellers.⁵ For Arab-Muslim historians, geographers and travellers who mentioned South Asia in their writings, the regions of al Hind and Sind were not synonymous.⁶ Ruled by autonomous local Rajas, these regions rarely demonstrated administrative uniformity.⁷ Very little is known about the nature and dynamics of relationship between the rulers, the ruling elite and the ruled and the extent of regional kingdoms’ political sway. The sources do not delve into the difference between the Muslim administration and the Hindu/Buddhist administration, the public reputation of the non-Hindu rulers and the need to legitimise the political authority on the rulers’ end. Despite the problem posed by the dearth of sources with reference to the internal workings of these political structures, it is possible to understand these states’ cycles of regime formation, regime perpetuation and regime disintegration.

Sind under Umayyad and Abbasid Rule

The Muslim invasions of Sind under Rāshidūn caliphs were mostly reluctant, perfunctory and abortive ventures. Earliest raids on Makran date from the times of Caliph ‘Umar in c.23/644. The date of the first expedition to India is a matter of dispute, being assigned to either the 15th or 23rd year of Hijrah (636 AD or 644 AD).⁸ The ninth-century Persian historian Balāzari claims that this expedition was executed via Bahrain (Oman) towards Daybul and Thānah (present-day Mumbai).⁹ The details about the aftermath of this expedition are provided by his contemporary al-Ṭabrī, who reports that this successful expedition was nevertheless unauthorised by the caliph, who had forbidden the armies to penetrate further in India because of the uncertainty of its prospects for future development. At the end of Caliph ‘Umar's reign, an expedition dated around 23/644 under al-Muhallab b. abi Ṣufrah reached Bannāh and al-Ahwār (Lahore), towns situated between Multan and Kabul.¹⁰ The caliph Uthmān also prohibited his forces from invading Sind for logistic and strategic reasons.¹¹

Umayyad military campaigns towards India were calculated and strategic. It was under the caliphate of Amīr Mu'āwiyāh (40–60/661–680) that Makran was conquered and colonised.¹² The next wave of significant military invasions is reported in the times of Ḥajjāj b. Yusuf (74–95/694–714),¹³ an influential administrator under the Umayyad caliphs Abd-al Malik b. Marwān (66–86/685–705) and his son al-Walīd (86–96/705–715). Ḥajjāj as governor of Persia was indirectly responsible for the Umayyad expansion under al-Walīd since he selected generals such as Musā b. Nuṣayr, who consolidated Muslim rule in North Africa; Ṭariq b. Zayād, who conquered Spain; and Qutaybā b. Muslim, who conquered Turkistan.

After two unsuccessful military campaigns in Sind, Ḥajjāj b. Yusuf assigned the task of conquest to his cousin Muḥammad b. Qāsim. This third and final invasion under Muḥammad b. Qāsim won the Umayyads a foothold in India. Historicity of this invasion is debatable, since, some historians take the final invasion as an actual historical event, but sceptics characterise it as a ‘historical romance’.¹⁴ Although the invasion might have been a veracious event in history yet its accounts are not based on contemporary records. Whatever we know about this incursion is an outcome of the historical consciousness of Arabs and Sindhi Muslims. Different narratives of the event reflect more accurately the context of the person writing the account, rather than fact. For Arabs this invasion was one of the many expansions of that era.¹⁵ Balazārī devotes few pages to describe this invasion while al-Ṭabrī confines himself to a few lines only. Sources produced in Sind like Chachnamāh and Tārīkh-i-Ma'sumī provide an elaborate description of the compassionate, military genius Muḥammad b. Qāsim.

The protagonist of the invasion saga Muḥammad b. Qāsim is sketchily depicted in the Arab sources but his rise and fall reveals personality-centric power dynamics under the Umayyads. From these accounts, a story emerges of a youth of tender age¹⁶ who achieved the rank of a general bypassing all recruitment regulations, training requirements and normal paths of promotion. Two positions are available on his consanguinity with Ḥajjāj: one states that he was a cousin while the other suggests that he was a nephew. No matter what the relationship was Muḥammad's rise to power was connected to his propinquity with Ḥajjāj. Similarly there are multiple accounts of his fall from grace, reasons for dismissal from office and circumstances in which he breathed his last. While it cannot be determined whether he died while being transported to the caliph after arrest from Sind or in prison after a predisposed trial under the Umayyad court, one thing is certain: neither his success nor his military talents could ensure his survival in the system once his patrons Caliphs Walīd and Ḥajjāj were gone.

Long-term aims of Muḥammad b. Qāsim's invasion were to secure the trade route between Arabia and Ceylon and to enact the expansion policy of Caliph al-Walīd (86–96/705–715), in whose reign the Umayyad Empire stretched visibly. The plunder of Arab ships by pirates, Raja Dāhir's refusal to support the Arabs against pirate raids, as well as the need to capture the ‘Alāfī rebels of Makran taking refuge in Daybul formed three immediate catalysts for the invasion. This invasion was far more complex than unilateral application of Muslim power over local populations since regional powers worked as allies as well. The Umayyad military contingent comprised of only 6,000 Syrian troops and local groups, including local Jāts and Mīds who fought from the Arab side. Muḥammad b. Qāsim benefited from constant reinforcements, including six catapults and soldiers, from Syria. Ḥajjāj superintended the conquest from Kufā, and received fatahnamās (reports of conquests).¹⁷

Ḥajjāj's initial orders to Muḥammad b. Qāsim were to extend amnesty to all the inhabitants of Sind except those of Daybul, who had been sheltering ‘Alāfī rebels.¹⁸ The massacre of the conquered city Daybul continued for three days¹⁹ and included destruction of the Buddhist temple along with its worshipers. Daybul possibly marks the first Muslim settlement in Sind, since it hosted the first Muslim garrison colony comprising 4,000 soldiers and also housed a mosque.²⁰ Some among the local population also converted to Islam including the chief of the Hindus of Daybul and received the elevated post of supervisor of the revenue officials under the Arab superintendent.²¹ The capture of Daybul was followed by the conquest of other towns in the north, including Nirūn and Sadusān. These conquests were not accomplished by military ventures exclusively; victories also occurred in the form of a grant of protection on the condition of capitulation (sulh, ahd-i wāsiq and amān).²² Mosques cropped up in conquered towns and a steady stream of wealth flowed from Sind to Ḥajjāj and the caliph. Allied towns that had brokered treaties with the invaders gained special privileges, such as patronage and exemption from taxation.²³ It was through the support of Jāts and the Mīds that Muḥammad b. Qāsim succeeded in killing Raja Dāhir in the battle. Muḥammad b. Qāsim remitted the spoils of war, including slaves and fatahnamās, to Ḥajjāj, who exhibited these proofs of victory in the congregation mosque and read fatahnamās in a sermon delivered in Kūfā.²⁴

Within a few years of his governorship of Sind, Muḥammad b. Qāsim consolidated his hold on Brahmanābād, Alōr, Multan, and the areas surrounding them.²⁵ He even led an expedition to the foothills of Kashmir.²⁶ Although details about the Umayyads’ political domination established under Muḥammad b. Qāsim are unavailable, sources²⁷ suggest that Muslims did not form an exclusive Arab ruling class in Sind at that time. Power was shared with the native administrative class under indigenous legal and political systems. The Ummayads’ exercise of power over conquered towns was fluid and limited to tax collection. The Umayyad conquerors did not treat the vanquished populations as a monolithic group, distinguishing between different groups with varying policies. Only the ahl-i ḥarb (the fighting men) could be killed in battle, with the rest of the population becoming enslaved.²⁸ Instances of coerced conversion were seldom reported in the sources. When the conversions occurred, the converts were not enslaved and were not liable to pay jazyā (the protection tax on non-Muslims under Muslim rule).²⁹ According to Fūtūh ul-Buldān and Chachnāmah, many non-Muslim population groups were given amān (amnesty followed by protection); these included Brahmans, who could enter into the ruling elite and help the Muslim conquerors to administer and exercise authority. Traders, artisans, cultivators, common and poor people were usually allowed to carry on with their trades and occupations.³⁰

Around 96/715 Muḥammad b. Qāsim was dismissed and later executed by Ṣāliḥ b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, the fiscal manager of Iraq, as a result of the internal politics of the Umayyad ruling family. Ṣālih had been appointed by Caliph Sulaymān, the recent ascendant to the Umayyad throne.³¹ According to Balāzarī, Muhamad b. Qāsim's demise saddened the locals, who p...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Transliteration Key
• Glossary
• Introduction
• 1. Traders, Adventurers, Raiders and Settlers: The Arab Experience in India
• 2. Maḥmūd of Ghazna: Plunderer, Strategist or Iconoclast?
• 3. The Master who Conferred his Empire upon his Slaves: Shihāb al-Dīn Ghūrī
• 4. The ‘Mystic Prince’: Shams al-Dīn Iltutmish
• 5. The Tale of the ‘40 Slaves’: The Post-Iltutmish Interregnum
• 6. Blood and Iron, Poison and Dagger: Balban’s Prescription for Successful Rule
• 7. When History Repeated Itself Repeatedly: Wealth, Betrayal and Success under the Khaljīs
• 8. From Megalomania to Chaos: The Tughluqs
• 9. Vacillating between Order and Disorder: Amir Temür, Sayyids and Lodhis
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Back Cover