[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937) › v4.c19.26 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.26 The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.26 - **Language:** English ### [v4.c19.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.26) During the years 1661–67, Aurangzīb received complimentary embassies from many foreign Muslim powers, such as the Sharīf of Mecca, the kings of Persia, Balkh, Bukhārā, Kāshghar, Urganj (Khiva) and Shahr-i-nau, the Turkish governors of Basra, Hadramaut, Yaman and Mocha, the ruler of Barbary, and the king of Abyssinia. The only embassy from Constantinople in his reign arrived in 1690, charged with a letter for him. His policy was to dazzle the eyes of these princes by the lavish gift of presents to them and to their envoys, and thus induce the outer Muslim world to forget his treatment of his father and brothers. The fame of India as a soft milch cow spread throughout the middle and near East, and the minor embassies were merely begging expeditions, as Bernier shrewdly noted. The Sharīf of Mecca in particular used to send his agents to the Delhi court every year with the object of levying contributions in the name of the Prophet, till at last the emperor’s patience was worn out and he refused to make the Sharīf his almoner at the holy city, but began to send his gifts to its scholars and mendicants through his own agents. On the embassies received and the return-embassies sent out Aurangzīb spent in presents nearly three million rupees in the course of seven years, besides the large sums which he annually distributed at Mecca and the gift of a million to ‘Abdullah Khān, the deposed king of Kāshghar, who had taken refuge in India in 1668 and died at Delhi in 1675. - [Previous: v4.c19.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.25) - [Next: v4.c19.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.27) - [Up: v4.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.26) · Pramāṇa