The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c2: Preface

The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c2

Language: English

Preface

c2.1

The importance of the century following the destruction of the Chauhana kingdom in 1190 A.D. needs little stressing. After the Arab and Ghaznawide preliminaries the Ghoride conquest planted the Muslim Turks over North India, firmly determined to settle and rule in the country. They became instrumental in the diffusion of those cultural elements of Islam which were to dominate Indian life for several centuries. And, yet, underlying the new values, was the continuity of Indian institutions and ways of life which the new rulers had little equipment or desire to drastically alter. The vanquished Hindu powers never forgave them and sorely tried their resources at a time when the Mongol barbarian consumed all their energy. Their empiricism, however, proved a great asset and by compromise and improvization they brought the foundation-process to a successful close. But in so doing they lost their trans-Indian affiliations and environment entered to outline the culture-pattern that is India of to-day and of yesterday. As initiating the medieval age of India the 13th century of the Christian era, therefore, holds the key to her history.

c2.2

In the following pages is presented a study of this age of transition. My source materials had of necessity to be mainly those of the conquerors but I can claim to have neglected or failed to co-ordinate no Indian evidence, epigraphic, numismatic or literary.

c2.3

A common term for the Delhi sultans I have substituted by Memeluke, for, while it correctly conveys their original status, it is yet free from the inexactitude implied by the term slave.

c2.4

To critics I owe an explanation for what may be called unscientific method of transcribing non-English words. My defence is convenience, convenience for the reader and for the printers. Besides, the use of diacritical marks has always seemed to me to smack a little of pedantry for, to the scholar familiar with the language, they are unnecessary, and to one not knowing it, they are equally useless except to show off the author's knowledge. Except for the philologist and the precisian, phonetic approximation, I feel, must remain the easiest, because the most natural, means of renderng foreign words. For place names which, with their admittedly phonetic inaccuracies, have almost become part of the English language, I have retained the spelling used in the gazetteers except for Mathurah and Awadh whose anglicised pronunciations are too atrocious to be used.

c2.5

There has occurred a rather irritatingly large number of printing errors. For this my faulty proof-reading is as much responsible as war time congestion in the press where metals have to be speedily released, sometimes at the cost of accuracy.

c2.6

Among those whose valued help I have to acknowledge I must mention Dr. C. C. Davies of Oxford, formerly of London University, whose unfailing courtesy and expert advice greatly eased what at the beginning appeared a forbiddingly difficult task. I am also grateful to the late Sir E. Denison Ross and Mr. W. H. Moreland for providing facilities and helping me solve problems. Mr. Nelson Wright very kindly read through my chapter on the coinage and made important corrections. I must also thankfully acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. Hasan Barani, advocate of Bulandshahr in allowing me to see and make use of Muizzuddin's *Firman*. To my teachers, Dr. N. K. Dutt and Professor H. C. Raychowdhury I am equally indebted for advice and suggestions. For many acts of kindness in the various stages of the work I must also render thanks to my friends Dr. Mahdi Husain and Mr. Muhibbul Hasan Khan. I am under deep obligation to my pupil and friend Abdul Majed, M.A., who, cheerfully and at a great cost of time and comfort, underwent the tedium of preparing the index.