The Medieval History Journal Volume 9 Issue 2 2006 (Doi 10.1177/097194580600900206) Sarkar, N. - 'The Voice of Mahmud' - The Hero in Ziya Barani's Fatawa-I Jahandari

The Voice of Mah.
mud
327
The Voice of Mah.mud: The Hero in

Ziya Baran s Fatawa -i Jahandar 1
Nilanjan Sarkar
This article is an initial attempt to study the internal dynamics of the
Fatw-i Jahndr, a Mirrors for Princes text written in the mid-fourteenth
century by Ziya Barani, an ex-courtier, resident in Delhi. It focuses on the
authors use of the voice of Mahmud of Ghazni and, through examples
from the text, tries to understand possible meanings that it may have engendered for the narrative and the reader. As such, the article is both a
methodological and empirical exercise.
This article attempts to study the internal dynamics of a fourteenthcentury Persian text, the Fatw-i Jahndr (lit. Decrees on Ordering
the [Governed] World; hereafter Fatw)2 written in sultanate Delhi by
a disenfranchised courtier, Ziya al-Din Barani. Written in the Mirrors
for Princes tradition, this set of 24 Advice comprise, uniquely, an uncommissioned text, with no known royal or courtly patron. This article focuses
on the employment of the protagonistSultan Mahmud of Ghazniin
This article is extracted from my unpublished doctoral dissertation The Political
Identity of the Delhi Sultanate, 12001400: A Study of Zi al-Dn Barans Fatw-i
Jahndr, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2005. It has
benefited from comments from Monica Juneja, Samira Sheikh, Sunil Sharma and an anonymous reviewer of the journal. Diacritics are used only in Persian references; footnote references for the Fatw follow the order of manuscript folios; edited text; translation. All
references to translation are from Afzal ud-Dins Ph.D dissertation.
2
Barani, Fatw-i Jahndr; trans. into English in Afzal ud-Din, The Fatawa-i
Jahandari of Zia ud-din Barni; partially published in Habib and Khan, The Political Theory
of the Delhi Sultanate. The text is hereafter referred to as Fatw.
1
Commissioning Editor, Taylor & Francis Books India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
E-mail: nilanjansarkar@hotmail.com
*
The Medieval History Journal, 9, 2 (2006)

Sage Publications J New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London
DOI: 10.1177/097194580600900206
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Nilanjan Sarkar
the text, who ruled over another territory in an earlier epoch, and
predeceased the Fatw by more than 300 years.
It was Marilyn Waldman who first drew attention to the internal dynamics of Islamic texts in the eighties, underlining the importance of
studying the authors mind along with the material presented.3 Given
the paucity of sources for the period of the Delhi Sultanate, it seems useful to attempt to re-study available texts in the hope of gaining a better
understanding both of the history of the period, and how histories may
have been written at the time. This is not meant to fracture a certain
unity that all written texts inhere, rather it is an engagement with the
trajectory of the text. It seeks to make a connection between the internal
logic and dynamics of the Fatw and the meanings produced therein,
and their impact on the overall understanding of the text for the reader.
Phillip Wagoners ethnohistorical study of the Ryavcakamu (Tidings
of the King) is an outstanding example of a similar exercise in a premodern, subcontinental text, locating it a century later than was earlier
considered to be, on the basis of examining its internal dynamics.4
In the case of the Fatw the exercise seems to be particularly worthwhilesince its appearance on the academic scene more than 50 years
ago, it has been seen either as a political theory for the Delhi Sultanate,
and/or as a text whose information needs to be substantiated with reference to Baranis more glorified historical chronicle, the Trkh-i
Frzshh.5 So pervasive are these opinions that even very recent writings have been reluctant to study the Fatw independent of the Trkh,
as a sovereign text in its own right, as a source from which any new meanings may be derived.6 This article, and the larger research from which it
is derived, submit that such impressions have led to a partial appreciation
Waldman, Toward a Theory of Historical Narrative: 34.
Wagoner, Tidings of the King. Wagoners study does not derive from Waldmans
internal dynamics, but has methodological similarities.
5
Afzal ud-Din, Fatawa-i Jahandari; Habib and Khan, Political Theory of the Delhi
Sultanate; see also Hardy, Historians of Medieval India: 25: the two works [Trkh-i
Frzshh (hereafter Trkh) and Fatw] form the reverse and obverse of the same
ideological coin. I have discussed my disagreements in Sarkar, Political Identity of the
Delhi Sultanate: 116.
6
Alam, The Languages of Political Islam in India: 32: I have tried here to study
[Baranis political] thought in light of his Fatw-i Jahndr, even though I concede that
without a comprehensive examination of his history and other works an assessment of his
ideas can only be tentative. Habib, Ziy Barans Vision of the State:19: . . . since the
work of Mohammad Habib and Afsar Khan in the 1950s, [Baranis] position as a political
theorist has [. . .] been recognised. The following pages, therefore, represent the revisiting
of explored ground; but such verification always performs a service, even when it merely
confirms what was previously known ... .
3
4
The Voice of Mah.mud
329
of the text as a source in itself, and an incomplete examination of the

information and ideas it contains.
After introducing the author, text and genre of Mirrors for Princes
briefly, the article will focus on examples from the Fatw to argue that
the heroic character of Mahmud in the text is in fact a complex literary
device that should be studied in detail to gain a more nuanced understanding of the text as a whole. The concluding section will tie up the
disparate examples within the larger context of the Islamic political state,
which is the central concern of the text. The select examples are examined
not just literally but through examples of genre, language, tenses, etc. to
suggest how their meanings alter when read against the grain. Although
the examples are from different parts of the text, care has been taken to
ensure that information is not spliced to create meaning; rather, they are
chosen thematically to decipher possible patterns of thoughts and ideas.
The article is therefore both a methodological and empirical exercise,
seeking to problematise and understand ways in which historical texts
were written and composed at the time, and how they may be re-studied.7
Barani and the Fatw

The general historiographical consensus about Baranis year of birth is
A.D. 1285 or thereabouts, coinciding with the last years of the reign of
Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Balban (r. A.D. 126086), in Baran (near modern
Bulandshahr, between Meerut and Aligarh, south-east of Delhi), thus
explaining his affiliation (nisbat), Baran.8 In the Fatw, he refers to
himself quite clearly as Ziy-i Baran, well-wisher of the Sultans
court, thus confirming his name.9 Although Barani came from a family
that had a fairly long history of serving in courtly and official positions,
7
Such studies are more common in European historiography of the early medieval
period; see Wolf, Making History, as one excellent example of authorial intention in altering
the historical fact of Normans as aggressive foreigners into occupiers of legitimate
authority. In the larger Islamic world, see Luther, Islamic Rhetoric and the Persian Historians: 9098; Quinn, Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah Abbas; and more
generally, Meisami, Persian Historiography to the End of the Twelfth Century.
8
His date of birth is deduced from his Trkh: 573 where he refers to himself as being
in the 74th lunar year. There are a number of scholarly writings that summarise his lifestory, but see the fairly comprehensive Barani, Ziauddin Barani: 7681; and Habib,
Ziy Baran: 1923. For the location of Baran, see Habib, An Atlas of the Mughal Empire,
Map 8A, 28+ 77+.
9
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 1b; text: 1; trans.: 1. His name appears twice on the same
folio. See also, Habib, Ziy Baran: 20, n. 2.
330
Nilanjan Sarkar
it is unclear how his ancestors came to Baran.10 Records show that at

least till Raziyas reign (A.D . 123640), Baran was not allotted in
administrative capacity to his family.11
For our concern, it is sufficient to mention that both Baranis father
and uncle held imperial appointments, and were particularly close to
Sultan Ala al-Din Khalaji (r. A.D. 12951316), though both seemed to
have died early in the reign of the sultan. His father, Muaiyad al-Mulk,
was appointed nib-o-khwj (officer-in-charge) of Baran, and his uncle,
Ala al-Mulk, would have been appointed wazr (prime minister/privy
counsellor) but for his obesity, and so he was made kotwl (policemagistrate) of Delhi!12 Barani came from an equally established family
from his mothers side; his maternal grandfather, Husam al-Din, had
held a number of important posts.
This privileged background kept Barani in good stead in his life
(education, social standing); it is therefore intriguing that his first (and
only) official appointmentas muqarrab/nadm (boon companion) to
Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq (r. A.D. 132451)came when he was
in his fifties, around A.D. 1325.13 This was an important position indeed,
and one that Barani enjoyed throughout the reign of the sultan, albeit at
the cost of being a pliant yes man. Irfan Habib has suggested that one
of the reasons for Baranis inveterate hatred of the low-born and the nonMuslimsa recurrent motif in the Fatwmay have been because he
had been unable to get a courtly appointment till late in his life despite
having a tradition of royal service in the family.14
All Baranis privileges came to an abrupt end with the death of his
patron sultan in A.D. 1351, and with the accession of Sultan Firuz Shah
Tughluq (r. A.D. 135168) . Not only did he lose his privileged, courtly
position, he was incarcerated in Bhatnair for five months, whereafter he
was released but could not, in the remaining six or seven years of his
life, regain any courtly position despite all efforts. He was reduced to
10
Barani, Ziauddin Barani: 7677 gives a summary of the fortunes of Baran in earlier
periods.
11
Jackson, Suln Raiyya: 18687, mentions that Baran was bestowed on a son of
Hasan Qarluq, whom the queen had welcomed at her court.
12
Barani, Trkh: 272: We have given him the office of kotwl on account of his
obesity, although he has the right to the post of vizrat.
13
Ibid.: 46667, 497, 504, 51617, where he refers to his appointment; Khwurd, Siyr
al-Awliya: 313 says he was appointed nadm. Cf. Steingass, Dictionary: 1292, 1394 for
s.v.v. muqarrab, nadm.
14
Habib, Ziy Baran: 22.
331
utter poverty and, in fact, seems to have been homeless in the last years
of his life since he spent them at the Chishti shaikh Nizam al-din Awliyas
hospice in Ghiyathpur (modern Nizamuddin in central Delhi).15 The exact
date of his death is not known, but Amir Khwurd writes in the Siyr alAwliya that he was buried in the neighbourhood of the grave of Sultan
al-Mashaikh [Awliya], and Syed Hasan Barani identified the depository
of his remains to the south of the grave of his more illustrious friend
Amir Khusrau.16 When I visited the Nizamuddin dargh (grave-shrine)
in September 2001, I was shown an unattended, green-painted grave
almost flattened to the ground as that of Ziya Barani. Only one elderly
person was able to point it out to me confidently; no one knew anything
more about it, or about who was buried there.17
The texts that Barani wrotethere are references to seven texts, with
the Trkh in two recensionswere all written or completed in the last
few years of his life, between his fall from imperial grace and his death
around A.D. 1358.18 Here the focus is on only one text, the Fatw, available through a single, seventeenth-century, copied manuscript now kept
in The British Library in London.
The Fatw is unusual in many ways, especially in the context of the
Delhi Sultanate. For one, it does not mention either the sultanate or any
of its rulers by name even once in the text. However, the frequent mention
of Hindus, and other subcontinental referents like the dominance of
15
Cf. Barani, Trkh: 544 for the reference to his imprisonment at Bhatnair following
the accession of the new sultan. Khwurd, Siyr al-Awliya: 313 maintains that Barani
voluntarily vacated his position and thereafter received a stipend, myatj, from Sultan
Firuz Shah. All evidence seems to suggest otherwise, that in fact he spent the remainder
of his years in utter poverty (Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 246a47a; text: 33840; trans.: 5002).
Although Barani completed his two textsthe Trkh and the Fatwto gain imperial
favour, note (as an important aside) that in the Fatw (Mss f. 223b; text: 306; trans.: 45152)
he says that if a ruler inherits the throne with or without hereditary right, then it is not
possible for [him] to rule, unless he has overthrown the helpers, supporters, households
and the family of the previous king.
16
Khwurd, Siyr al-Awliya: 312; Barani, Ziauddin Barani: 88.
17
Sarkar, Political Identity of the Delhi Sultanate: 53, Plate 7 for a photograph of the
grave.
18
For reasons of space, I have chosen not to dwell upon any of his texts except the
Fatw, which is the focus of this article. A useful summary of all his known works
appears in Barani, Ziauddin Barani; and a listing in Sarkar, Political Identity of the Delhi
Sultanate: 4, n. 8. It should be pointed out that no attempt has ever been made to decipher
the order in which these texts were written, which may be useful for the analysis of the
contents of his various texts. The only textual comparison that exists in modern scholarly
work is to see the Fatw as the obverse of the Trkh, referred to earlier.
332
Nilanjan Sarkar
Brahmans, the sack of the temple of Somnath, references to landed intermediaries (ris, rns), idol worship, etc. coupled with the details we
know of Baranis life and where he spent it, urge us to sensibly consider
it to be written in and about the Delhi Sultanate. It was also the first (and
only) full-scale Mirrors text to have been written in the Indo-Persianate
tradition till that time, making it unique both in genre and style of content.
Part of the larger tradition of homiletic forms of advice/wisdom literature, known more popularly as Mirrors for Princes, texts like the
Fatw are located near the top end of the evolutionary scale of this literary tradition. Mirrors were by their very nature didactic and normative,
seeking to counsel rulers (or prospective rulers) in the art of good governance. They were a visible textual feature of many Islamic polities,
and its genesis, in fact, lies in pre-Islamic, Sassanian times.19 In his brilliant survey of advice literatures, A.H. Dawood has shown that Mirrors
had a tortuous evolution, imbibing elements of earlier genres along the
way, and departing from them in important ways as well.20 It was with
the Sassanians (the Covenant of Ardashir), and later the Umayyads and
Abbasids,21 that texts written for sultans regarding matters of politics
and government by courtiers came to be more personalised by an important change in form, namely epistolary (andarz/risla) literature. Tahirs
famous epistle to his son is a well-known example from many others of
the time, most of which are in the Arabic language.22 Along with the epistolary form was the genre of testamentary (was. ya) literatures.23 It
is useful to note herefrom the plethora of literatures from this genre
Subuktigins testamentary advice to his son Mahmud of Ghazni, which
Barani mentions in the Fatw.24
On the Sassanians and other pre-Islamic influences on Islam, see Yarshater, The
Persian Presence in the Islamic World.
20
Dawood, A Comparative Study of Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes. The
following points are summarised from this dissertation.
21
On the general history of the Umayyad, Abbasid and Seljuk periods, see Hodgson,
The Venture of Islam, vols 1&2.
22
Bosworth, An Early Arabic Mirror for Princes: 2541; for evolutionary changes in
the genre of epistles, see Dawood, A Comparative Study of Arabic and Persian Mirrors
for Princes: 11148. In Mughal India, Mohiuddin, The Chancellery and Persian
Epistolography Under the Mughals focuses on the administrative genre of such documents
in a later period. I am grateful to S.Z.H. Jafri for this reference.
23
Dawood, A Comparative Study of Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes: 14965
for a summary of the development and characteristic features of testamentary forms of
advice literatures.
24
The Pandnma was a text supposedly written by Mahmuds father, Amir Subuktigin,
to his son although it was in fact penned by Abul Fath. See al-Fazli, s. r al-Wuzr:
19
333
With the coming of the Abbasids, as more and more attention began to
be paid to various other aspects of the performance of political rulership
(comportment and personal conduct of rulers, for instance), we see the
rise of the adab genre of advice literature.25 These extremely complex
socio-political manuals of correct behaviour for the ruling group/class
expanded the remit of earlier genres of advice writings to include broader
comments on the performance and execution of kingship. The epitome
of this tradition was Firdausis Shhnma, allegedly presented by the
poet at the court of Mahmud of Ghazni.26
Such textual traditions were not lacking in the subcontinent either: all
the good advice (subhs. it) and policy (nt) literatures, epitomised
by the Arthasstra and the Pacatantra, testify to this tradition. Baranis
Fatw should be seen against the background of all these traditions.27
While no connection is being made here of any direct link between these
landmark texts and Baranis Fatw, there are a number of elements in
the latterits direct form of address, its anecdotal nature, and its immense
breadth of topics covered, all within the prism of good governance and
maintenance of kingly rulethat are similar to or reminiscent of its generic (Islamic) predecessors.
f. 88a; also al-Awfi, Jawm al-H.ikyat: f. 236, where it says that the Pandnma gave
useful counsels and paternal admonition, was. ath-i khb kard va pandh-i pidarne
dd; Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 25b; text: 38; trans.: 54; and M. Nazim, The Pandnamah of
Subuktigin: 60528.
25
Adab is a very complex word to describe. See Steingass, Dictionary: 27, s.v. db
(sing. adab): civilities, good manners, devoirs, politeness. The best study of the concept
and its practice in South Asia remains Metcalf, Moral Conduct and Authority; see especially
the Introduction.
26
Firdausis Shhnma has been edited and translated in many languages; from a vast
list, see (in Persian) Riza, Nigh-be Shhnmah; and Yarshater (ed.), Dstnh-i
Shhnmah; (in English) Robinson, The Persian Book of Kings. There are various stories
about the presentation of the Shhnma by Firdausi to Sultan Mahmud. It is claimed that
Mahmud was unable to see the worth of this classic text, and without sufficient rewards
forthcoming, a disenchanted Firdausi wrote a satire against the sultan who, being the son
of a Turkish slave, did not know a true mans value. The impact of this is captured best in
Jamis verse: Gone is the greatness of Mahmud, departed his glory, and shrunk to he
knew not the worth of Firdausi his story. Cf. Schimmel, A Two-Colored Brocade: 108,
306 n. 3.
27
Sarkar, Political Identity of the Delhi Sultanate: 86111 dwells at length on advice
literature within the indigenous traditions of the subcontinent, and also discusses the
transmission of the ideas and/or texts of the Arthasstra and the Pacatantra to the larger
world through translations and adaptations.
334
Nilanjan Sarkar
But the Fatw was also unique in another significant way, one that
makes it distinct even within the parish of advice literature. While Mirrors were usually written either by a vizier or other adviser to the ruler,
or by a ruler to his heir,28 the Fatw was an uncommissioned text, i.e.,
with no known royal patron. As far as can be deciphered, Barani wrote it
of his own free will, and the very name of the text and comments made
by him towards the end testify to the importance he attributed to this
labour of his wisdom.29 This fact, that it was an uncommissioned text
written by an ousted and disenchanted courtier seeking royal favour from
the new sultan, is an important point to bear in mind while analysing it.
It may be a useful point of departure to understand the use of Mahmud
of Ghazni in the Fatw.
The Voice of Mahmud

References to, and the invocation of, Mahmud of Ghazni are so obviously
frequent in the Fatw that it would be futile to make a count of it to
underline the point. In terms of personages, the protagonist and hero of
the Fatw is, without any doubt, Mahmud, the glorious ruler of Ghazni
and the legendary progenitor of the second phase of Islamic political
presence in the Indian subcontinent starting from the eleventh century.30
Mahmuds admonitory voice peppers the text: he appears as a father addressing his sons; as a perfect political administrator; as an ideal
Islamic ruler; as a devout Muslim; as an upholder of the Faith; as a just
Hajib, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutdgu Bilig): 4.

Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 246a46b; text: 33940; trans.: 5012 for Baranis admiration
of his own text. Also, the fact that he calls it fatw (legal decrees) shows the seriousness
with which he wished it to be seen/known. Taking the title literally, Eth, Catalogue of
Persian Manuscripts in the India Office Library: 1377, #2563, lists it under Theology
and Law. On religio-legal fatw literatures of the period, see Islam, Fatw Literature
of the Sultanate Period.
30
Note that in Barani, Fatw, Introduction: 3943, Khan (the editor) referred to
Mahmud as the eponymous hero of the text. But her reason for assuming so was that
Sultan Mahmud in the orthodox medieval Muslim circles was viewed as the popular
hero of jihd and ghaz and due to such achievements he alone could extend credence to
Baranis picture of a religiously orthodox and administratively efficient king. The
justification of his political doctrines could best be established through the figure of
Mahmud. The purpose of this article is to look at the manner in which Mahmud was
employed as a hero. Elsewhere, I have disagreed with Khans broader judgement about
Baranis orthodoxy vis--vis the Fatw; see Sarkar, Political Identity of the Delhi
Sultanate: 24154 for a summary discussion.
28
29
335
ruler; etc. Baranis employment of Mahmud is neither patterned nor

predictable: he appears not only at the beginning of every Advice, but in
fact anywhere in the text, randomly, sometimes in the first person, as
part of alleged conversations, as an example for other rulers to emulate,
and so on. And everywhere, he is the ideal ruler embodying the best of
all actions and virtues.31 Undoubtedly, Mahmud is the axis of the Fatw,
surrounding and around whom the entire text is organised, and the readers
attention drawn.
Given this texture, it would be interesting to elaborate on the intercalated meanings that are engendered through the use of Mahmud, and
his voice.
The Hero of Somnath
The most pervasive historical image of Mahmud of Ghazni in the Indian
subcontinent has been his (in)famous military raids, just as, within Islamic
politics, his greatest reputation is of being a successful military
commander. Both in and outside Ghazni, the success of his military campaigns (especially in the Indian subcontinent) were legendary, the economic returns being a core component of it. Loot was the primary reward
of these expeditions since his political interests lay in Central Asia, north
of Ghazni.32 A landmark campaign was the raid and alleged destruction of
the temple of Somnath in western India in A.D. 1026.33 In texts like the
Fatw, written more than three centuries later, this event is dramatised
by the identification of Somnath as the temple of the pre-Islamic Arabian
pagan goddess Manat (Manat, which is nowadays called Somnath, mant
ke dar n waqt-i nr somnt mguyand),34 which is then connected to
the establishment of Islamic political rule in India, such that the economic
31
The latter part of this article will argue how Mahmuds idealism was sustained in
some very human ways, alongside the many virtuous statuses that he was accorded in
the text.
32
On Mahmud of Ghazni, see Habib, Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznin; and Nazim, The Life
and Times of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna; and for the larger picture Bosworth, The
Ghaznavids.
33
The material impact of this attack is described best in Davis, Lives of Indian Images:
88112, especially 99109. The attack itself finds mention in all standard historiography:
see Habib, Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznin: 4855; Pandey, Early Medieval India: 17; Thapar,
A History of India, Vol. 1: 229f; and idem, Somanatha: 116.
34
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 38b; text: 58; trans.: 83. Manat, representing fortune, is one
of the many female deities allegedly worshipped by the pagan Meccans. Qurn 53:20 says:
Have you thought on Al-Lat and Al-Uzza, and on Manat [...] They are but names which
336
Nilanjan Sarkar
and political angles of Mahmuds raids are innately entwined with a religious act (He has overthrown Manat, the false god of all Hindus and
Sindhis, for the pleasure of Allah).35 Thus, Mahmuds literary status
was of a magnificent, sword-wielding political warrior glorifying the
cause of the faith in the land of idolaters.36
Barani sets the tone for it early in the Fatw: passion for the faith,
not greed for booty was the main reason for Mahmuds campaigns,
especially in the subcontinent:
From his childhood until the present time, the main question in the sanctuary
of Mahmuds bosom has been as to how and through what means all the opponents and molestors of the Faith may be overthrown, and how the leaders
of infidelity such as Brahmans and philosophers [...] may be put to sword,
and the light of Islam shine and illuminate the inhabited globe.37
Barani paints in broad strokes here. He locates the desire for glorification
of Islam and martyrdom in Mahmuds childhood; logically, then, the entirety of his life would be spent in pursuing that desire (Sultan Mahmud
has spent his life in holy wars, sulan mamd umr dar jihd-i rh-i
khud s. arf karde ast)38 and forms the basis of his being the classic religious warrior, ghz. Mahmuds failure to complete his missionto overthrow all the opponents and molestors of the Faith in the subcontinent
albeit on the advice of Ahmad Hasan Maimandi (according to the Fatw),
you and your fathers have invented: God has vested no authority in them. The unbelievers
follow but vain conjectures and the whims of their own souls although the guidance of
their Lord has long since come to them. Cf. The Koran with a Parallel Arabic Text: ix,
525 & n. 5, and see Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry. Shahrastani, in his Ar al-Hind, provides
a sophisticated analysis of idol-worshippers in the subcontinent, seeing Vishnu and Shiva
as angels whose spiritualism, runiyat, makes them persons [sic.] associated with
creation (who have) become intermediaries in the law; he also differentiates between
idol-worshippers and mere idolaters, the latter being clearly condemned. Cf. Lawrence,
Shahrastani on Indian Idol Worship: 6173; see also Friedmann, Medieval Muslim
Views on Indian Religions: 21421.
35
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 152a; text: 209; trans.: 306.
36
Cf. Thapar, Somanatha: 6061 for a useful summary: Mahmud being represented
as a raider [...] was now being superceded by another image, that of the man who laid the
foundation of Islamic rule in India [.. .] the concern of the new historians of the fourteenth
century was with seeking continuity for political power and with Turkish connections
[.. .] There was therefore a change of tack and the glorification of plunder, although not
discarded was nevertheless secondary to the glorification of the ideal Islamic ruler. This
perspective becomes apparent [.. .] in the writings of two among the more influential
historians, Barani and Isami.
37
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 9b; text: 1415; trans.: 19.
38
Ibid.
337
allowed the text to command the rulers of Hindustan or otherwise to fulfil that task:
Now, O sons of Mahmud (farzandn-i mamd) and kings of Islam
(padshhn-i Islm), set your heart upon the realisation of these important
religious undertakings with your heart and soul. Mahmud was unable to attain
this [...] wealth, but may be that you are exalted unto it. God willing!39
The Fatws identification of the temple of Somnath with that of

Manat enhanced the ghz image of Mahmud in the text within a local,
subcontinental context, at the same time giving it a broader Islamic appeal.
Barani dwells at length upon it, in typical dramatic imagery and with
graphic details, and locates Mahmuds success in his prayers. Note also
(in the following quote) that Barani remembers to mention that the overthrow of Manat was a long-held ambition of Mahmud: before attaining
his years of discretion [Mahmud had taken oath] that if he became king,
he would overthrow Manat. And so, upon becoming king, Mahmud rallied his forces and started from Ghazni by way of Multan, and from there
with his large armies he reached Nahrvala. He plundered and ravaged
the city of Nahrvala and the territory of Gujarat, and the army got enormous spoils. It being winter at the time and because of the putridity of
the sea, there arose a great hailstorm, as Mahmud camped himself some
40 karohs from Somnath.40 The local headmen and landlords (from Sind)
who had come to support the sultans army, got worried:
Manat is a venerable God; she is worshipped by thousands and thousands of
Hindus and idol-worshippers of these territories. This darkness [re. the hailstorm and the loss of sunlight] has been cast by the idol on the army, so that
it may be warned and return from this place. If in spite of this symbol Mahmud
39
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 12a; text: 18; trans.: 2425. For Maimandis obstruction of
Mahmud from fulfilling his dream, see ibid., f. 166b; text: 230; trans.: 338.
40
Ibid., Mss f. 38b; text: 58; trans.: 83. 1 karoh = 1.5 miles approx. Cf. Raychaudhuri
and Habib, The Cambridge Economic History of India: 65, n. 4; Steingass, Dictionary:
1025, s.v. kuroh (under karwa) calculates it at about two miles. Mahmuds activities in
Multan, en route to Somnath, are relevant as well: cf. Durrani, Sultan Mahmud and
Multan: 1924; and Friedmann, The Temple of Multan: 17682. Mahmuds preparations
for the campaign seem to have been immense: cf. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids: 114: For
the Somnath expedition of 416/102526 Mahmud took with him 30,000 regular cavalry
plus the volunteers, and these latter were allotted 50,000 dinars from the state treasury for
weapons and equipment.
338
Nilanjan Sarkar
and his army do not wake up, Manat will not even leave one of them alive by
next week.41
Upon hearing these rumours in his army, Mahmud gave no reply. Rather,
he
offered two rakats42 of prayer in solitude, and placed his forehead on the
ground in humility and helplessness before God, the Absolute [...] Before
Mahmud was able to finish his prayers, the hailstorm slowed down. After an
hour or two the sky cleared, the sun rose, the world was illuminated, and dust
was thrown into the mouths of mushriks, idolaters and those weak in Faith.
He then set out for Somnath, and upon arrival did to the idol and to the
idol-worshippers what will be remembered till the Day of Judgement.43
Barani presents this as an example in an Advice on the kings virtue of
right resolve.44
A comparison with Ibn Asirs eleventh-century Arabic account of the
same raid in his Kaml ut-Tawrkh (from which most later texts have
derived more embellished narratives of the same event) is useful in this
context. Note, very importantly, the absence of any identification of
Somnath with Manat.
When Mahmud was gaining victories and demolishing idols in India, the
Hindus said that Somnat was displeased with these idols, and that if he had
been satisfied with them no one could have destroyed or injured them. When
Mahmud heard of this he resolved upon making a campaign to destroy this
idol, believing that when the Hindus saw their prayers and imprecations to
be false and futile, they would embrace the faith [of Islam ...]. A dreadful
slaughter followed at the gate of the temple [... the idol] had no appearance
of having been sculptured. Yamin ud-daula [Mahmud] seized it, part of it he
burnt, and part of it he carried away to Ghazni, where he made it a step at the
entrance of the Jami Masjid [...] The worth of what was found in the temple
41
Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 38b-39a; text: 58; trans.: 84; Thapar, Somanatha: 1837
suggests that the veneration of the idol at Somnath was connected to the busy sea-borne
trade traffic at the nearby port of Veraval.
42
Steingass, Dictionary: 585, s.v. rakat: A sacred inclination of the head, so that the
palms of the hands rest upon the knees (in prayer).
43
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 41a; text: 61; trans.: 85. As an aside, note the similarities between this and the anecdote of Yaqub and Umru Lais and Ismail in ibid., ff. 4b5a; text: 7;
trans.: 8.
44
Ibid., Advice 4, Mss ff. 32b43b; text: 5065; trans.: 7193.
339
exceeded two millions of dinars, all of which was taken. The number of the
slain exceeded fifty thousand.45
Asirs account makes it amply clear that Mahmud was already carrying
out raids in the subcontinent, and rumours of Somnaths alleged potency
and peoples belief in it were the reasons for Mahmud to launch an
attackso that when the Hindus saw their prayers and imprecations to
be false and futile, they would embrace Islam. The narrative is singularly
military in tone, where the loot and slaughter (of Hindus) is part of a
usual, successful medieval military campaign, the result of a battle between defenders and attackers. The religious angle is only incidental,
and not the driving force behind the attack. Most importantly, Somnath
is identified as masculine, and so not with Manat!46
By comparison, Baranis rendition of it in the Fatw is dramatically
different. The entire campaign is presented as a successful part of an
unfulfilled task of Mahmud in the subcontinent, namely the destruction
of the temple of Manat (and the attendant annihilation of Hindus in the
subcontinent). He locates Mahmuds desire of waging holy war, particularly the destruction of Manat, in his childhood, which he is then devoutly
diligent to fulfil upon becoming king. The act of launching a military
campaign is combined innately with the virtue of being a ghz such
that its politico-military character is lost. And finally, he remembers to
mention that Mahmud was not particularly desirous of spoils and wealth
in war.47
45
Elliot and Dowson, The History of India, vol. 2: 46871; emphasis mine. See ibid.:
47178 for other accounts of Mahmuds expeditions derived from this narrative; and Nainar,
Somnath: 20912, where too the connection between Somnath and Manat is absent in his
discussion of writings by Arab geographers. The impression that a lot of booty was gained
in this campaign is pervasive in Ghaznavid histories as well; Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:
78 increases the booty ten-fold, when compared with Asirs account: From the temple of
Somnath he is said to have got twenty million dinars worth of spoil.
46
Note how the most important chronicle for the history of Gujarat (albeit written
much after Mahmuds campaign), the Mir-i Amad, records the story of Mahmuds
attack on Somnath with some doubt and a feeling of strangeness (ikyat-i ajb-o gharb);
Ali Muammad Khan, Mir-i Amad, vol. 1: 33. I am grateful to G.A. Nadri for
confirming this reference.
47
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 9a; text: 1314; trans.: 19. The MahmudSomnath event has
loomed large in poetic imagination even in the twentieth century, as evident in these lines
by Muhammad Iqbal: Love appears as the Mahmud who destroyed Somnath, the Idol
Temple of Intellect, quoted in Schimmel, Two-Colored Brocade: 131.
340
Nilanjan Sarkar
The Fatw contains many examples of the killing of Hindus and

destruction of temples, almost always in the context of the military exploits of Mahmud.48 Unsurprisingly, in no anecdote or example are the
Hindus shown as fighting back, or gaining an upper hand. When one looks
deeper into the text, the imagery of the killing of Hindus emerges quite
frequently, along with a larger, generally negative pictureas regraters,
as morally bankrupt people, those not to be trusted or given important
assignments and positions, etc.49
At the time when Mahmud went to Gujarat to overthrow the idol of Manat,
he heard there that there was a group of men called Sewra [...] and all of
them were materialists, they seduced the wives of grocers, and led people towards the false faith of materialism [dahriyat]. Mahmud ordered all of them
to be put to the sword.50
Here slaughter takes the form of a sociomoral corrective, buoying the

heros profile as a righteous ruler. The reward of all these actions (and
many such examples of supine Hindus being killed or degraded) of
Mahmudthe pious acts of a ghz was not to be missed either: the
Almighty God, with His great power and extreme mercy, did not allow
any enemy to molest or gain ascendancy over (any of) the territories of
Mahmud or to obtain supremacy over his kingdom.51 In other words,
48
For instance Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 69b70a; text: 102; trans.: 14243: ... and so
many thousand temples, which were the places of worship of the idolaters, became the
mosques of Mussulmans.
49
Ernst, Eternal Garden: 24 has suggested that the emergence of the Hindu as supine
and antagonistic to the Muslims in the subcontinent became proverbial in Persian
historical works written in India, especially after the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth
century.
50
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 11a; text: 16; trans.: 2122. Afzal ud-Din, Fatawa-i Jahandari:
513, n. 75 says: I have been unable to identify this group or caste or tribe. No reference
to it is found in the Ghaznavide historians; Barani, Fatw , Introduction: 16, n. 4 simply
says that Ghaznavide historians do not refer to this tribe. Interestingly, the only document
unquestionably surviving from the period of the Delhi Sultanate, a farmn (royal order)
issued in A.D. 1325 on the order of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq by his vice-regent
Ulugh Naib-i Azam Barbak Qutlugh Firuz Malik asks to ensure good treatment of the
Sewra community in recognition of their loyalty. An officer named Shams al-Din Abdallah
is charged with the execution of the royal order. Last known (1982), the farmn was part
of the Keir Collection in Switzerland. It seems possible to suggest that one of the reasons
why Barani may have mentioned this little-known community in the Fatw was precisely
because he was witness to this favour to them from the sultan. Cf., Husain, Tughluq
Dynasty: 363f.
51
341
Mahmuds success and infallibility is derived from his devoutness and

moral rightness, a personality which needed to be enacted on earth as
part of the responsibility of having been chosen to rule. In return, he and
his kingdom were protected by none less than God himself. He was not
only assured for the Day of Judgement, but the benefits of his pious acts
were visible in his own lifetime in his kingdom never being overthrown!52
Obviously then, if the rulers to whom Mahmud speaks to in the text were
to emulate his actions, they too would be rewarded similarly by God.
Father and Sons
Of the 24 Advice that comprise the Fatw, 19 open with the following line, or a variation of it: O sons of Mahmud and kings of Islam,
ay farzandn-i mamd va ay pdshhn-i islm. And there are innumerable instances within the text where the author addresses the sons
of Mahmud.
It seems pertinent to wonder why Barani chose a putative father-son
relationship between his text and its addressed audience, especially when
a dynamic, heroic, pious, God-fearing, devout image of Mahmud was
already available to him as a motif for the text. Why did Barani feel the
need to embed that heroic image in a textual filial relationship?53
Within the Mirrors genre, the use of paternal admonition was not a
new form of speech. In fact (and as referred to earlier), the development
of this genre was often organised around paternal advice from fathers to
sons, either in the form of commissioned texts or through epistles/testaments. To take a contextually relevant example, the s. r al-Wuzr states
that the Pandnma was a text written by Subuktigin for his son Mahmud:
Amir Subuktigin wrote the Pandnameh for his own son Sultan Mahmud,
pandnmeh ke amr subuktigin be pisar-i khud suln mamd nivishte
ast.54 Here, the father-son relationship was actual, and the possibility of
52
Note, however, the following statement which, ironically, does not sound like a
reward at all: The year Mahmud returned from Somnath, most of the horses and camels
of the army had perished; ibid., Mss f. 171a; text: 238; trans.: 350.
53
Barani, Fatw, Introduction: 10, n. 1 says that Barani addresses all the Muslim
kings as the (spiritual) sons of Mahmud. This seems difficult to accept because the Fatw
is a pragmatic, hard-core political text with no hint of spirituality (howsoever understood),
and Khan provides no supporting explanation for what she means by this statement. As
this section will elaborate, it is perhaps more useful to search for other possible reasons
for this motif.
54
See n. 24 supra.
342
Nilanjan Sarkar
giving admonitory advice was enabled through this natural relationship.

Separately, it underlines the importance of hereditary and dynastic rule,
another abiding concern of the Fatw.55
Barani appropriated this paternal position, and seemed aware of the
powerful latitude that such a textual device would allow to the author.
But the SubuktiginMahmud kind of straightforward relationship could
not be drawn between Mahmud and the target audience of the Fatw,
the rulers of Hindustan(?). Not only was the hereditary connection absent,
the dynastic geneaological tree could also not be established since the
contemporary rulers of Delhi(?) came from varied ethnic and tribal stock,
and were from among both slaves and freemen. Part of this problem was
addressed in the Fatw by not mentioning any ruler (of the Delhi
Sultanate) by name, thus containing them in one homogenous category of
kings of Islam serving the same purpose, namely, ruling over Hindustan;
simultaneously, it gave a more general, Islamic appeal to the text. In
terms of audience, therefore, the text remained in an abstract, intermediate
and anonymous zone, directed to one and all at the same time.
Further, since the Fatw was an uncommissioned text, and Barani an
ousted courtier, he could not possibly have written from the position of
his personal identity; that would hardly have been pragmatic for someone seeking royal favour. It was thus sensible to seek another voice, a
double, through which he could express his opinions frankly.56
The use of another person to legitimise ones own ideas was not new
to the Arabo-Persian traditions of writing; it was, in fact, a common
device employed by scribes across the ancient and early medieval courtly
world, including the non-Muslim. Abdelfatteh Kilito has drawn attention
to this tendency in classical Islamic Arabic writings where speech was
attributed not to imaginary characters but to real persons of unquestioned
historical existence or to mythical figures no less present and real to
the culture than the personalities of history. A number of characters
from the Fatw would qualify to act as a double: Alexander, Aristotle,
Nausherwan, Buzurgmihr, Kaimurs, Jamshed, Umar, and most definitely
Mahmud. The resulting apocryphal discourse, according to Kilito, is
Habib, Baranis Theory of the Delhi Sultanate: 99115 shows how dynastic and
hereditary rule was central to Baranis political thought, given the cyclical nature of political
fortunes in the Delhi Sultanate.
56
See Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 246b; text: 340; trans.: 502, where Barani says: ... what
I have said in the form of open allusions and through hidden insinuations, in spite of
speaking through a double, highlighting the care required from the scribe.
55
343
not the same thing as fiction at all; rather, it is shorn of any feature
that might inspire doubts on the readers part.57
From amongst these names, Umar was probably the only other person
(apart from Mahmud) who could have been Baranis double. However,
as caliph in Baghdad, Umar ruled over a very different kind of polity, at
a time of relatively more pristine belief, being closer to the time of the
Prophet; also, the historical context of Umar was far removed from that
of the subcontinent where, in comparison, by the fourteenth century, the
texture of Islamic polities was very different, and more heterogeneous.
Mahmud was historically known, and from whom direct connections
(like Somnath) could be drawn. Also, with Mahmud as the central figure,
Barani could, for instance, urge and command the contemporary rulers
to complete an unfinished task, in a way that would not have been possible if Umar had been the organising axis of the text. The reality of
Mahmuds historical presence, in fact, allowed Barani to create a fictional,
metaphorical filial relationship between Mahmud and the rulers of the
Delhi Sultanate(?) by tying them in a bond of pious political tasks, ringfenced in the same geographical terrain, with a similar target polity. The
choice of Mahmud as a father addressing his sons in the Fatw was
thus politically, culturally and literarily iconic. He was easily identifiable
within the Islamic political universe of the Indian subcontinent as hero,
ideal, paladin and warrior.
It seems worthwhile to point out over here, in passing, that the Fatw
notes that one of the features of an anarchic society, of times of political
misruleone without a just ruler, and a situation that the Fatw is
constantly warning againstis disobedience to parents. Such unrelated
examplescommendation of an obedient sonwhen read along with
other references to father-son relations uphold the larger tone of the text
and its relational construct more seriously.
Other interesting, if infrequent, examples lie in the choice of words
that Barani uses in the text. Whenever and wherever he is referring to
the kings of Islam as the sons of Mahmudand there are many such
instanceshe always uses farzand (and not the more direct pisar, also
meaning son). This is interesting from a literary perspective where, by
usage, pisar is used more commonly for biological relations, while
farzand is used in more general (metaphorical) references.58 Similarly,
57
Kilito, The Author and His Doubles: 4. See also Davidson, Father-Son Dioscurism:
14255; and Renard, The Hero as Father: 18591.
58
As an illustrative example, the abaqt-i Ns. r quotes Sultan Muizz al-Din of Ghur
as referring to his slaves as his thousand sons, hazr farzand. Juzjn, abaqt-i Ns. r,
344
Nilanjan Sarkar
Barani uses khudwand in one instance to play on its dual meanings:

master of household (father) and king.59
The father-son relationship is also upheld in some other, more significant, choices: in at least three instances, all unmissable, Barani refers to
the Fatw as a testament, was. ya. This is important for a number of
reasons, not least because it transforms the character of the Fatw, howsoever momentarily, from being a series of legal decrees to a more personalised, testament. Here Mahmud is the bearer of a genre as well, for
good reason. Two instances appear as the opening lines of two Advice
(numbers 6 and 15 respectively):
Sultan Mahmud has given you a testamentary advice, O sons of Mahmud
and Kings (on) Earth, you are to know and know for certain, that [...], suln
mamd was. yat karde ast ke ay farzandn-i mamd va ay pdshhn-i
rye zamn, mlum va muqarrar-i shum bd, ke [...]60
Sultan Mahmud has said in his testament, O sons of Mahmud and kings of
Earth, you should know that [...], suln mamd dar wayat-i gufte ast, ay
farzandn-i mamd va ay pdshhn-i rye zamn, be-dnd ke [...]61
And the third example refers to Mahmud and his father Subuktigin,
although Barani does not mention the Pandnma by name:
Amir Subuktigin gave Mahmud enormous advice and said, mamd r amr
subuktigin bisyr was. yat kard va guft 62
The implications of such references to another genre of Mirrors literature may be understood better if they are set in relief against the functions that they may potentially perform for the reader. Within homiletic
forms of literature, testament was a very direct, confidential and sovereign mode of giving advice, always from a biological father to his son(s).
vol. 1: 41011. The quote is particularly useful in its use of farzand both for biological
sons, and slave-sons. Of course, farzand may be used to refer to actual sons; I am only
referring to some general textual patterns, especially in early Indo-Persianate accounts.
59
Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 79b80a; text: 116; trans.: 163: ... just as the master
(khudwand) of a house [...] similarly the king ....
60
Ibid., Mss f. 54b; text: 82; trans.: 112.
61
62
345
It seems possible to suggestbearing in mind earlier examples of testamentary advicethat the occasional choice of the was. ya referent
would underline the paternalistic tone and relationship between Mahmud
and his sons in the Fatw. The chronic use of Mahmuds name, and the
sons of Mahmud, coupled unexpectedly with a reference to a was. ya,
could be a useful embellishment in the text, albeit a subtle one.
The intended impact of these were conditioned by references to testaments elsewhere in the text, especially the Sassanian king Nausherwans
testament to his son Hurmuz, which the Fatw mentions on a number
of occasions. The form of Nausherwans address (O Son, know and
beware ...), in fact, reads quite similarly to those of Mahmud quoted
above, and blends well with the general tenor of the text. Further,
Nausherwan is also said to refer to previous testaments on at least two
occasions, drawing attention not only to the genre of the was. ya and its
historicity but also to the ancient tradition of giving advice to future
political rulers. Thus Nausherwan says to Hurmuz: I am writing this
testament to you in accordance with the testament-giving traditions of
the sultans, va n chand was. yat bar rasm-i was. yat-i salan jnab-i t
nivishtam.63 Here, it may be useful to bear in mind a couple of points:
one, that Subuktigins Pandnma (referred to earlier) also used a similar
form of advisory address; and two, that the Fatw says that Mahmud
acted in accordance with his fathers testamentary advice, va mamd
nz bar hukm-i was. yat-i pidar ...64
What is interesting in these instances, despite their relative uncommonness in the text, are the meanings that they engender (when placed
in the larger context of the Fatw) in the minds of the reader. Their employment within the text may not be individually determining, but such
tactful insertions formatted more elaborately the nuanced, historically
constructed, discursive, authoritative tone of the text by substantiating
the primary narrative through the supporting evidence of similar homilies, thereby adding a legitimising cohesion to a commanding narrative.
The obvious similarity in the form of address that is used in the cases of
Nausherwan, Subuktigin and Mahmudthat of addressing their heirapparent son(s)urges the reader to see the gamut of advice-giving as
a historical tradition, through similarly composed (father-son) chains
of transmission, command and authority from the pre-Islamic jahliya
63
64

Ibid., Mss f. 25b; text: 39; trans.: 54, and also discussed earlier (n. 24 supra).
346
Nilanjan Sarkar
(Time of Ignorance) to Ghazni to Delhi(?), through the paternal voices

of Nausherwan (to Hurmuz), Subuktigin (to Mahmud) and Mahmud (to
his sons). In other words, it allows the Fatw to amplifythrough
historical and generic categoriesthe father-son dioscurism that it is in
the constant process of articulating.
The Human King
The dominant image of Mahmud discussed in the Fatw is of the ideal
ruler who is the perfect embodiment of all kingly virtues. But this was
not the only image of Mahmud that Barani presented to the readers. In
fact, a close look at the text reveals a number of references that make
Mahmud a very human hero. Of course, there was the presumed
acknowledgement that he was Chosen, as all rulers are; but beyond that,
Mahmuds personality was a combination of positives and negatives,
virtues and vices. This tactful interweave functions at two levels in the
text: at the level of Mahmuds own personal self; and in his attitude
towards his subjects.
Early in the text, Barani suggests that the just and pious actions of the
king, as the relentless Upholder of the Faith, secured certain lenient (unIslamic) spaces for himself. When one compared the good deeds and
prayers which his justice, beneficence, power and glory, adl o isn o
quwwat o shaukat-i made possible for the people of God, what do the
sins of a single soul matter, guna-i yek nafs-i kuj baryad?65
Similarly, at another place Barani says that it was enough for kings to
have inborn justice, and they had not been created exclusively for worship (like the Prophets). Consequently, sometimes worship is witnessed
from them and sometimes sins are observed.66
Barani was therefore quite clear that the king was, like other mortals,
human enough to violate the strict adherence to religion. He goes further,
and makes comments directly about Mahmud. While elaborating on the
proper utilisation of time by the ruler, Barani says that Mahmud has
still not totally prohibited all enjoyment and pleasure to you, O sons of
Mahmud .... For Mahmud himself in his youth and middle age has enjoyed
much of luxury and pleasure, and he has indulged in sensual pleasure
and enjoyment in numerous ways.67 This statement is more significant
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 7b; text: 11; trans.: 14. This protection of the Faith meant that
the kings own sins were all washed; ibid.
66
67
Ibid., Mss f. 109a; text: 153; trans.: 220.
65
347
in the larger scheme of the Fatw than appears to be at first sight. A few
folios earlier, Barani quotes a conversation between the Sassanian
ruler Kaikhusrau and the mythical progenitor of kingly rule, Kaimurs,
where the latter says that kingship and governance were duties which, if
done sincerely, would leave time for nothing else: I am not free from
the affairs of the kingdom even for a single moment. And so, I have
said good-bye to the sensual self [...] I am afraid lest any part of my time
be spent in worthless things, frivolity or sin ....68
The comparisons with Kaimurs (and Alexander) show clearly that
Barani did not imagine a purist salvation for Mahmud, and did not recommend it for his sons either; they would be rewarded by God if they
were just.69 More specifically, this comparative background allowed
Barani to differentiate between the purist, mythical hero (Kaimurs) and
the more earthly, human hero (Mahmud), making the latter more attractive, real and accessible.
As an elaboration of this real-life, human hero, Barani gives more
details. According to him, Mahmuds court was famous for pleasure
parties, majlises [...] and many humorous and witty things were uttered
in front of him ... Boon companions, music, chess, nard, wit and humour
there was a superabundance of these things in the pleasure parties of
Mahmud ... there was nothing lacking in them. Other details of these
gatherings further underline this earthly heroking: he would drink alcohol, though never so much as to miss his prayers; he would give priority
to religious and governmental affairs if anything were to come up during
these majlises; and, interestingly, most of the time in these parties was
spent listening to the histories of earlier sultans.70 The significant idea
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 105a; text: 148; trans.: 213. Two folios later, he quotes
Alexander speaking with Aristotle: I have attained to salvation [...] not wasting my time
uselessly and frivolously, or in the satisfaction of my sensual desires. Cf. ibid., Mss f.
107a; text: 151; trans.: 216.
69
I have discussed elsewhere in detail that the generally religious tone of the Fatw in
fact hides Baranis dynamic, if agonised, understanding of the Islamic political state in
the subcontinental context, and this text is testimony to his political knowledge, acumen
and genius. Cf. Sarkar, Political Identity of the Delhi Sultanate: 11375.
70
Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 110ab; text: 15455; trans.: 22123. Note, very interestingly,
the very similar description of Ala al-Din Khalajis majlises in his Trkh: 198200; also
ibid.: 165 where he refers to his own days of frivolity ... spent with the most high-souled
and high-spirited personalities of the time. I am grateful to Sunil Sharma for cross-checking
some of these references. On majlises, see also Ahmad, The Imperial Majlises in the
Early Sultanate Period: 322. The last part of the quote (listening to histories of earlier
kings) is significant because it draws attention to the virtue of learning from the wisdom
of earlier rulers, which was the intended function of the Fatw. This ideaof invoking
68
348
Nilanjan Sarkar
in these statements is the ideal of the balanced personality of the king

a combination of virtues and vicesa recurrent template for worldly
kingship in the Fatw.
The most intriguing comment about the earthly Mahmud says, And
in his love for the beautiful, no king has obtained a reputation like
Mahmud.71 It may be useful to ponder briefly over this reputation of
Mahmud, to decipher possible underlying meanings of this statement.
What reputation does Barani have in mind? What (or who) was the beautiful, love of/for whom had given Mahmud a reputation?
In Persian textual traditions, Mahmud has three dominant reputations:
as a successful military warrior and ruler; as a patron of the literary world,
epitomised by the submission of the Shhnma by Firdausi; and as a
lover of Ayaz, his beautiful, favourite slave-boy. Annemarie Schimmel
has shown that from the eleventh century onwards, the MahmudAyaz
relationshipthe most unusual loving couple in Persian poetry
became staple in Persian literary traditions. Mahmud and Ayaz are one
of several pairs which necessarily belong together, so that when one is
found in the verse the other can also be expected.72
Barani makes no mention of this duo in his Fatw but given his educated background, it is not impossible to imagine that he was perhaps
well aware of this literary motif, irrespective of its historic accuracy.
His decision to refer to it indirectlyon the presumption that the reference to the beautiful is indeed to Ayaz, since the other two reputations
seem improbable in the contextmay be for other reasons. First, Barani
would definitely have been aware of the homoerotic liaison between the
Delhi sultan Mubarak Shah Khalaji (r. fl. A.D. 131620) and Khusrau
Khan (a convert at the court who eventually usurped the throne after
having the sultan murdered).73 Second, there are references in the Fatw
the authoritative position of Historyis underlined in many other instances throughout
the text; as an early example, see Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 3a; text: 45; trans.: 4 where
Barani says Sultan Mahmud has read in the Tarkh-i Smnin .... Elsewhere Barani
refers to historical texts that are, in fact, figments of his imagination (such as the oftquoted Trkh-i Khulf-i Abbs, amongst others).
71
72
Schimmel, Two-Colored Brocade: 39, 131. On Ayaz, see Bosworth, Mamd of
Ghazna: 9092; Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2e, vol. 1: 780, s.v. Ayz. As a good literary
example of this motif, see Zulalis mid-seventeenth-century illustrated mathnav (narrative
poem in rhymed couplets, with a heroic, didactic theme), Mamd o Ayz; and for an
overview of the MahmudAyaz motif in later times, Kugle, Sultan Mahmuds Makeover:
3046.
73
Saleem Kidwai, who has identified strains of same-sex love in Baranis Trkh
(focusing on the Khalajis), says that Baranis condemnation of male-male attachments
349
to suggest that sodomy was known, visible and practised in the streets of
the capital city (Delhi?), and in army camps.
At the beginning of the text, Barani says that the ruler should aspire to
cleanse at least the capital city of all vices, and prevent sodomy: the
sodomists (makhns) [should] be prevented, by being flogged, from
behaving like women (be-aurat).74 A reference in a supporting anecdote
much later in the text seems to suggest that Barani accepted this practice
as endemic to urban life, a vice that would emerge in the absence of a
just ruler.75 But most important is a reference that occurs while advising
the king on how to deal with soldiers on long and distant campaigns:
[the King] ought not to investigate into the possession of [...] handsome
slave boys. He adds that in order to ensure that the soldiers do not desert
the army camp during campaigns, all things (which) are needed by Gods
creatures or which their hearts thrive for, and which they can find in the
capital, ought to be available in the army camp. These include, amongst
other things, beer, wine and hemp. The king should also provide what is
required by religion, worldly life, desire and passion, so that the soldiers
will imagine the army camp to be the capital.76
Thus, the admission of sensual/sinful pleasure for Mahmud and his
sons,77 and the prescription for future rulers to be considerate and accepting of it regarding their subjects buoyed Mahmuds human and real
heroic image in the text, whose commands and actionslaid out in the
Fatwshould be obeyed and emulated.
was not on the grounds of either shara or zawbit, rather the loss of better judgement
associated with same-sex love which led to the surrendering of crucial instruments of
powerfear, grandeur and majesty; cf. Kidwai and Vanita, Same-Sex Love in India:
13135. On zawbit, see n. 85 infra.
74
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 8b; text: 13; trans.: 1617. Steingass, Dictionary: 1198, s.v.
makhns explains it as low people, but in the context of the sentence it seems correct to
read it as sodomists, as read by Afzal ud-Din, Fatawa-i Jahandari: 1617.
75
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 125b; text: 174; trans.: 250. Barani says that after the death of
Haroun al-Rashid, in Baghdad ... adultery and sodomy became widespread. Male
prostitutes and sodomites fixed their rates and sat openly in places meant for sinning.
76
Ibid., Mss ff. 175ab; text: 24142; trans.: 35556; emphasis mine.
77
Given Islams official forbiddance of same-sex relations, Barani understandably refers
to sodomy as sinful. But its fairly common practice within pre-modern Arabo-Persian
traditions is very complex. An interesting study is Murray and Roscoe, Islamic
Homosexualities; also Wright, Jr and Rowson, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic
Literature; and Kidwai and Vanita, Same-Sex Love in India.
350
Nilanjan Sarkar
Conclusion
Starting from the eleventh century, Mahmud had already become the
archetypal hero in a number of normative political texts, as a ruler upon
whom the princely audiences should model themselves.78 He emerged
as an iconic figure with whom ideals could be identified in different
Islamic politico-textual contexts. Note, for instance, how his being Sunni
made him a particularly appropriate hero for the Seljuks who were threatened by Ismailism and radical Shiism.79 It strikes a chord with Barani
as well: in Mahmuds dominions, only the Orthodox Sunni scholars
(ulam-i sunnat) and the men of attainment (jamit-i hunarmandn)
have been allowed to live.80Afsar Salim Khan says that for historians
who till now drew upon the Khosroes and the Caesars, Mahmud was a
perfect model for their compositions.81
What is significant in the Fatw are the multiple ways in which the
heroic Mahmud has been employed. He is not treated as an ideal located
in a long gone, golden and glorious past only; rather, he functions through
multiple registers within the text to compose a commanding treatise on
kingship and governance. In at least three instances he is actually brought
alive in the present: It is 36 years to this day that Mahmud has been
carrying on the affairs of his government....82 This dislocation from the
legendary past, otherwise central to Mahmuds status as a hero, is a particularly interesting because the Fatw mentions no dates anywhere
and so the textual arena is created in part through its grammatical forms.
Authorial gestures that dislocate the protagonist in time and spaceand
thus locate them in multiple time-framescreate, according to Paul
Ricoeur, a parallel capacity of being divided into the time of the act of
narrating and the time of the things narrated.83
Davis, Lives of Indian Images: 97.
Ibid.
80
Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 10b; text: 16; trans.: 21 from many available examples in the
text.
81
Afzal ud-Din, Fatawa-i Jahandari: lxilxii; see also Hardy, Mahmud of Ghazna
and the Historian: 136.
82
The two other, perhaps minor, instances are: until the present time; and ... how
very careful Mahmud has been in consulting the well-wishers of the kingdom .... Cf.,
Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 158b, 9b, 25a; text: 219, 1415, 38; trans.: 320, 19, 53 respectively;
emphasis mine.
83
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vol. 2: 5. There is very little work on the idea of time in
Indian history: see Thapar, Time as a Metaphor of History; and Hardy, Pre-Modern Concepts of Time in Indo-Muslim Historical Writing, vol. 1: 5980.
78
79
351
Baranis Fatw is unique in being able to do so. Meaning is rendered

on the one hand by locating Mahmud in the past, one that is connected to
the present through traditions that command respect exclusive of any
criticism and hence of any upheaval;84 and on the other, by bringing
him into the present and giving him a human, imperfect feel, he is projected as an ideal who is real and accessible. The epic distance that is
the product of this authorial creativity sustains the potency of the hero
and all that he commands. Thus, Mahmud appears in many hues: he
speaks from the past; he lives in the present; he commands and admonishes to act righteously; he is himself an example to emulate; he arches
backwards and forwards across centuries to address and participate with
various audiences; he makes statements, asks questions, and provides
answers. Through all this, the text contains a sense of being located in
the present instant, and stretching into posterity, whose meanings may
be understood in isolation and in cumulation.
Other elements of the text sustain this complex scenario: the absence of
any ruler by name allows the text to be read as one directed towards an
unspecified yet targeted audience; the father-son motif gives the feeling
of being addressed both individually and collectively, producing both
direct communication and historicised wisdom. At no point is the intended
audience clear about their distance from the text: the legendary hero is
also the father.
The progressive academic interest in the Delhi Sultanate has mostly

been political (statist) in nature, peculiarly dependent on court chronicles
and narrativised forms of history-writing. The resultant histories have
therefore been determinedly monochromatic, concerning themselves
with political and administrative institutions and structures. Predictably, sources that deal with political history in the conventional sense
have received more attention (Juzjanis Tabaq-i Ns. ir, and Baranis
Trkh-i Frzshh to name the two most prominent ones), while other
textual/non-textual genres (malfz, inscriptions, epigraphs, coins, architecture, etc.) are used and understood to support or complement the
principal political narrative of history. The content of the Fatw being
decidedly political has made it conspicuous to modern scholars. But its
unusual naturebeing a Mirrors for Princes text, normative and anecdotal, and not a narrativised chronicle of eventsmade it less easy to
84
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vol. 2: 155.

352
Nilanjan Sarkar
handle as a source, and it came to be seen as affirming ideas addressed

elsewhere in more useful historical texts! The provenance of a political
court chronicle by Barani himselfthe Trkhdealing with the history
of the Delhi Sultanate, seemed to make the marginalisation of the Fatw
to the status of a supportive text almost un-questioned.
Texts like the Fatw are located at the intersection of historic and
normative realties. As didactic political treatises, such texts are by their
very motives disciplinary, seeking to establish political stability. Central
to this concern is the performance of kingship and the maintenance of
the state. Towards that end, rulers have often wished to pass on their political wisdom to their successors, with reference to their respective
polities. In the case of the Fatw, its primary faultline lay in that it
was not the wisdom of any ruler but of an ex-courtier.
The Fatw is, in essence, concerned with the creation, establishment
and maintenance of the political state, with kingship as its central, performative act. Contrary to the religious, ghz image of Mahmud elaborated
earlier, Barani (in the Fatw)despite his personal conservatisms
clearly leans towards a pragmatic, dynamic political state, the caveat of
zawbit being an important case in point.85 But to recover the various
meanings embedded in it, it may be useful to re-examine our own impressions of what the political state may have been at the time. As the
Fatw ably demonstrates, the political state did not comprise politicoadministrative acts alone; majesty and grandeur, for instance, were two
primary mainstays of kingship, maintaining and asserting which would
contribute significantly to the successful establishment of the state. The
performance of kingshipwhich was the primary component of the coagulation of the political stateshould be seen as a two-way street between politics and the polity, being mutually constitutive of one another.
In his own lifetime, Barani had found himself in a sultanate and a court
where non-Muslims and converts were ever-visible, and increasingly
occupying important, responsible offices. His tirade against these two
groups, particularly the former, may well be the outcome of his own
frustrations of first, not getting any imperial appointment till a ripe age,
85
Zawbit (sing. zab) is a brilliant example of Baranis political acumen. They refer
to a set of state laws which may be practised even if it entails contravention of Islamic
law. This would be particularly useful in the context of the Indian subcontinent where the
majority of the subject population was non-Muslim, and refusing to convert. See Barani,
Fatw, Mss fols 158a59a; text: 21820; trans.: 31922; and Sarkar, Political Identity
of the Delhi Sultanate: 16668.
353
and then losing it all in his dotage.86 Political change had meant a complete
loss of all privileges for this established courtier, a concern that finds
mention in the Fatw in a number of ways: the value of the king taking
counsel, the preservation of the privileges of the old aristocratic classes,
the forbiddance of employing the low born (and even converts), etc.87
Baranis knowledge of the history of the subcontinent and the challenges to political rule there, his personal participation in it as boon companion to an energetic, innovative and experimental sultan, his experience
of courtly politics and intrigue, and his familys long history in imperial
service had convinced him of the worth of his political wisdom. But if
he hoped for any favour from the court, this wisdom would have to be
textualised very creatively. This ambition lies at the heart of the need for
a double, a real, formidable character who would mouth the authors
script. As such, Mahmuds heroic and exemplary reputationslocated
at the crossroads of the religious and the politicalprovided Barani
with the ideal image of a life valued and admired not merely [...] for its
practical achievements, but for the moral or ethical or social truths or
values which [he was] perceived both to embody and, through force of
example, to impress on the minds of others.88
This article is an exploratory exercise in attempting to reopen a text
on its own terms to gain a more nuanced understanding of both the rhythm
and meanings that it engenders. In its entirety, the Fatw is an outstanding treatise on the agonised relationship between religion and politics in
Islam; and any seeming contradictions should perhaps be seen as attempts
to apprehend the complex realities of political Islam in Baranis life and
times.
86
These feelings seem common with Isami, Futh-us Saln: 515 where he asks for
Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluqs death for the crime of appointing Hindus. For an
overview, see Siddiqui, Hindus in the Administrative Apparatus of the Delhi Sultanate:
1728.
87
Note, however, that Mahmud being the son of a slave seems to matter little to Baran.
See Barani, Fatw, Mss ff. 71a72a; text: 1046; trans.: 14648 for the advantages/
disadvantages of keeping slaves. There is an entire Advice devoted to the inadmissibility
of the low born; cf. ibid., Mss ff. 216a222b; text: 295304; trans.: 43649; see also ibid.,
Mss f. 206b; text: 301; trans.: 444: [...] time reveals the ingratitude, lack of wealth,
disloyalty to salt, and the wickedness of the mean, the low, the worthless and the ignoble,
from other scattered references. On converts, see especially ibid., Mss f. 72a; text: 105;
trans.: 147: [Hindu slaves] ... though they may grow up for years from childhood to
maturity among the Mussulmans, the smell of hereditary Islam and the fear of God, with
which the veins and tendons of the bodies of the Mussulmans are imbued, are not found
in them. Also Singh, Muslims of Indian Origin During the Delhi Sultanate.
88
Cubitt and Warren, Heroic Reputations and Exemplary Lives: 2.
354
Nilanjan Sarkar
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The Voice of Mah.

The Voice of Mah.mud: The Hero in

The Medieval History Journal, 9, 2 (2006)

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The Voice of Mah.mud

of the text as a source in itself, and an incomplete examination of the

Barani and the Fatw

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it is unclear how his ancestors came to Baran.10 Records show that at

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The Voice of Mah.mud

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The Voice of Mah.mud

The Voice of Mahmud

Hajib, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutdgu Bilig): 4.

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The Voice of Mah.mud

ruler; etc. Baranis employment of Mahmud is neither patterned nor

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The Voice of Mah.mud

The Fatws identification of the temple of Somnath with that of

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The Voice of Mah.mud

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The Fatw contains many examples of the killing of Hindus and

Here slaughter takes the form of a sociomoral corrective, buoying the

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The Voice of Mah.mud

Mahmuds success and infallibility is derived from his devoutness and

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giving admonitory advice was enabled through this natural relationship.

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The Voice of Mah.mud

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Barani uses khudwand in one instance to play on its dual meanings:

The Voice of Mah.mud

Barani, Fatw, Mss f. 59a; text: 87; trans.: 120.

(Time of Ignorance) to Ghazni to Delhi(?), through the paternal voices

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The Voice of Mah.mud

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in these statements is the ideal of the balanced personality of the king

The Voice of Mah.mud

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The Voice of Mah.mud

Baranis Fatw is unique in being able to do so. Meaning is rendered

The progressive academic interest in the Delhi Sultanate has mostly

Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vol. 2: 155.

handle as a source, and it came to be seen as affirming ideas addressed

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The Voice of Mah.mud

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The Voice of Mah.mud

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