HISTORY-I

BOOK REVIEW

ON

“MUSLIM SLAVE SYSTEM IN MEDIEVAL INDIA” by Dr. K.S LAL

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Ms. Sreemoyee Rupali Goyal

Faculty, History Sem: III-B
NUSRL, Ranchi Roll No. 709

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY AND RESEARCH IN LAW

2017
 BOOK REVIEW: MUSLIM SLAVE SYSTEM IN MEDIEVAL INDIA” by Dr. K.S LAL

 Paperback: 204 pages

 Publisher: Aditya Prakashan; 2016 edition (1 September 1995)
 Language: English
 ISBN-10: 8185689679
 ISBN-13: 978-8185689678

The book “Muslin Slave System in Medieval India” by Dr. K.S Lal highlights how Slavery was
widely spread in Islam. The early Turkish invaders and rulers of India have been slaves or scions
of slaves. It mentions about how Mahmud of Ghazni turned into the son of a purchased slave,
Subuktigin. Subuktigin once more have been bought by one Alptigin who himself changed into a
purchased slave. The book points how Alptigin become the first Turkish slave-warrior-ruler who
carried his fingers into Hindustan. His profession and resourcefulness are the indication of him
being of the Turkish slaves as an entire.

Alptigin changed into purchased through Ahmad bin Ismail, the Samanid king of Khurasan and
Bukhara. The Samanid rulers had observed the Abbasid custom of enrolling slaves. The practice
of slavery was very common and they used to shop for small Turkish children and impart to
them education in fingers and non-secular schooling. In path of time these slaves were appointed
to diverse places of work however by and large as bodyguards to Amirs and sentinels of
frontiers.

The book also mentions that under the Khaljis and Tughlaqs (14th century) the nobles lived
beneath constant worry of the Sultan. They in no way did not do anything nor did they utter a
single phrase that can challenge them to retributive punishment. The Afghan nobles, who were
taken into consideration to be difficult of manage and therefore fairly impartial, were no higher.
Whenever a farman turned into sent to a district officer through Sultan Sikandar Lodi (fifteenth
century), the former received it with the maximum respect. Sikandar decreased the highest
nobles to the position of slaves in order that he could boast that.

It is notable that under the Mughals, the nobles loved a masses quantity of respect however in
principle their repute changed into not modified. In truth, all nobles took delight in calling
themselves ghulams of their superiors or the king. This indeed became a part of Muslim etiquette
and lifestyle. This explains how from time to time poets, physicians, musicians and students all
have been bracketed collectively as slaves. In reality, they all have been. It is genuine that some
of them have been not captured in conflict or bought in slave markets. But there have been
positive conditions of slavery which have been relevant to them as to the meanest of slaves. They
were prohibited from touring each other or protecting get-together parties without the permission
or as a minimum the understanding of the king. Further, they were prohibited from contracting
any matrimonial alliances without permission of the king or the grasp. Hence there ought to be
no misgivings about the fame of nobles and slaves. They were all slaves, whether excessive or
low. As pointed out with the aid of Pelsaert, their ranks, assignments, wealth, position, self-
belief, the whole lot hangs via a thread. The king should dispose of everything at any time. A
trifling mistake may additionally convey a person to the intensity of distress or to the scaffold.
The role of the highest noble becomes as uncertain as that of any slave.

The first actual issue the Muslim Sultanate of Delhi commenced with becomes production of
superb homes. It targeted at overawing the human beings of the land with the greatness and
might of the new Islamic regime. This could be done with the aid of building large Muslim
edifices with the wealth obtained from warfare and substances from Hindu homes after
destroying them. Architecture became considered as the visible image of Muslim political power
with which the Turks needed to impress and overawe the conquered human beings. It denoted
victory with authority. Wherever the Muslim conquerors marched or dominated in Central Asia
or India, they built edifices both gigantic and delicate. The critical truth to note in this connection
is that slaves had been drafted to construct the homes.

The incidences have also been highlighted, one such is of the imperial camp in which there was
employment between 2000 and 3000 servants further to a guard of cavalry; there has been one
tent specifically which required a thousand guys for a week for its erection. As quoted above, in
Akbar’s time each camp status quo required for its shipping a hundred elephants, 500 camels,
400 carts and a hundred bearers. It changed into escorted through 500 troopers. Besides, there
have been one hundred farrashes, 500 pioneers, 100 water carriers, 50 carpenters, tent makers,
and torch bearers, 30 workers in leather-based, and one hundred fifty sweepers. Akbar’s zanana
contained greater than 5000 girls, every of whom had separate residences; they were attended
through an adequate group of workers of servants, and watched in successive circles by means of
female guards, eunuchs and porters.

The author also mentions many other techniques had been employed by means of them and their
nobles in making slaves in India. The phenomenon and its utility became stunning to the Hindu
mind; the Muslims, but, idea otherwise. According to Ibn Khaldun, the captives have been
introduced from the House of War to the House of Islam beneath the rule of slavery, which hides
in itself a divine providence; cured by using slavery, they input the Muslim religion with the
company remedy of true believers. Muslims took satisfaction in enslaving humans; the emotions
of Hindu victims had been simply the opposite.

All sultans were eager on making slaves; however Muhammad Tughlaq have become infamous
for enslaving people. He seems to have outstripped even AlauddinKhalji and his popularity on
this regard spread far and extensive. Shihabuddin Ahmad Abbas writes approximately him
accordingly: The Sultan by no means ceases to show the finest zeal in making battle upon
infidels Everyday heaps of slaves are offered at a totally low rate, so first rate is the wide variety
of prisoners. Muhammad Tughlaq did not most effective enslave people all through campaigns,
he was also very fond of buying and accumulating overseas and Indian slaves. According to Ibn
Battuta one of the reasons of estrangement between Muhammad Tughlaq and his father
GhiyasuddinTughlaq, while Muhammad changed into nevertheless a prince, became his
extravagance in buying slaves. Even as Sultan, he made big conquests. He subjugated the us of a
as far as Dwarsamudra, Malabar, Kampil, Warangal, Lakhnauti, Satgaon, Sonargaon, Nagarkot
and Sambhal to give only few outstanding location-names. There were 16 major rebellions in his
reign which had been ruthlessly suppressed. In some of these conquests and rebellions, slaves
have been fascinated with remarkable gusto.

The overseas nobles created from Turks, Arabs, Mughals, and Persians. The others have been
Hindustanis (Indian-born), Deccanis, Blacks and Muwallads (offsprings of African fathers and
Indian mothers). In some measure overseas Muslim scorn for blacks is showed with the aid of a
comparable mindset towards the brown Indians. Black slaves did not receive any schooling, so
blacks got here to be appeared as silly. Amir Khusrau talks of Hindus in a comparable vein;
Barani shows that Indians should not take delivery of extra than fundamental schooling. Still
compartmentalization turned into now not that entire. Instances of gratitude to a benefactor or
compromise with self-hobby have been now not unknown, but had been no longer common.
Party spirit too become stronger than patriotism. If the overseas Turks and Persians felt advanced
and monopolized better positions, a Black ought to observed a ruling kingdom at Jaunpur and a
Hindu convert a ruling dynasty in Gujarat. But all nobles, foreign or Indian, exerted in the
motive of Islam, undertook campaigns and captured captives. These captives have been hired on
all forms of government and private jobs.

The author also adds that the want for converting so many boys and guys into eunuchs and
additionally obtaining them from outside is apparent. The safety of a huge wide variety of lovely
girls within the seraglio could not be left simplest to woman matrons. And normal healthy men
could not be relied on to serve in the harem in which resided so many sex-starved younger girls.
The cruelty entailed in this system became no person’s situation in a despotic regime. On the
opposite hand, it turned into very wonderful to the master. Once a person changed into made
eunuch, his sensibility for manhood became dwarfed, his spirit of assertiveness destroyed, and he
became perforce turned into a devoted and committed slave; it did no longer matter to the master
if his loyalty and devotion were culmination of compulsion. So the exercise of creating eunuchs
went on and on beneath Muslim rule. If eunuchs have been denied the best pleasures doable on
this international, they have been compensated by using sometimes acting great feats of bravery,
by showing brilliant loyalty to the grasp or via just piling up awesome wealth.

The book lacks the comparative analysis of such practices in other religions and other time
periods, which is important so as to understand the context of the practices and its reflection in
the present times. The book also lacks the translation of the urdu terms that has been used in the
book which makes it difficult for the reader to co-relate and understand. Otherwise the book is a
perfect composure of the facts, incidences and the theories during the medieval times. The
system of slavery and its functioning is very well explained in the book. The book is altogether a
good composition and enumerates knowledge to the reader.