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History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c16.s1: Social Reforms

History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c16.s1

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English

Social Reforms

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Curiously enough some of the social reforms of 'Alāuddīn were also an outcome of political exigencies and not of any philanthropic motives. One of the notable steps was the prohibition of sale and use of intoxicants. He enforced prohibition not because drinking was harmful to the people at large but because its use made people assemble in gatherings, lose themselves and think of revolt. It was with the intention of putting an end to any incentives to rebellion that the Sultan ordered prohibition.⁸

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⁸ 'Iṣāmī gives an interesting story in connection with the prohibition. He says that one day when the Sultan was sitting with his boon companions like Malik Qīra Beg, Malik Qīrān and others, one of the nobles present there obediently told him how the people were suffering on account of the famine that year, while the king was making merry. The Sultan was greatly moved with this remark and from that day he gave up wine, prohibited it among other people and undertook various reforms. (Futūḥ pp. 305-7). The story seems to be nothing more than hearsay.

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Wine is prohibited in Islam. Nevertheless wine drinking was perhaps the greatest vice of Muslim sultans and nobles in medieval times. 'Alāuddīn himself drank hard, and was advised by Malik 'Alāulmulk to stop drinking to excess and holding convivial parties if he wanted to be a successful monarch.⁹ It is not known as to what extent 'Alāuddīn followed the advice of his sagacious courtier, but with the successive outbreaks in his kingdom he determined to put a stop to the use of wine and other intoxicants. First he only ordered prohibition of the sale and purchase of wine, but afterwards prohibited the use of hemp, toddy (*bagni*) and other intoxicants as well.¹⁰ Gambling and dicing were also prohibited. In short ‘Alāuddīn prohibited all those things which encouraged convivial assemblies and in which people expressed themselves freely. There is no doubt that it was in such congregations that “evil politics” was discussed and conspiracies against king and government were hatched.¹¹

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⁹ Baranī pp. 270-71.

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¹⁰ Baranī p. 284 has بگی و بنگ و خمار - و شراب. *Bagni* or *Buggni* is described in Persian dictionaries as a kind of light and intoxicating beverage, which can be classed with *nabiz* or a lawful drink. Steingass says that *Bagni* is malt liquor or beer. "'Alāuddīn, inspired by a recent convert's burning zeal for total prohibition appears to have classed *Bagni* with the *unlawful and intoxicating* drinks and gone further than the theologians.'" (Hodivala pp. 276-77).

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¹¹ The conspiracy at Malik Tājuddīn Kūchī’s residence against Jalāl may be cited as an instance. Baranī pp. 190-91.

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‘Alāuddīn began by excommunicating from the capital vintners, drunkards, gamblers and vendors of toddy and hemp. High officials were ordered to mount on elephants and proclaim aloud in every market and street of Delhi, and at all the gates on the outskirts of the city that the use and sale of wine were strictly prohibited. As an act of goodwill the king himself gave up drinking wine. All the beautiful glass and porcelain vessels of the king’s place were smashed and piled in heaps before the Badaon Gate. Gold and silver vessels were melted and coined into money.¹² Large quantities of wine, which were stored in the palace cellars, were poured out into the streets. The people were also ordered to throw away any wine they possessed so that the streets of Delhi were “filled with mud and mire as in the rainy season.”

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¹² Ferishtah, p. 109.

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As soon as the orders were enforced the respectable people at once gave up drinking, but the habitual drinkers as also those whose livelihood depended upon the sale of wine resorted to illegal means to continue the sale and use of wine. They erected small stills or pans (*bhatthī*) and distilled wine from sugar. The product was sold in the black-market and drunk in secrecy. Not only was liquor fermented in the capital city by such illegal means, it was also smuggled into Delhi in leather bags, hidden under bundles of grass or fuel and by many other devices. But ‘Alāuddīn’s orders were never enforced partially. As soon as he came to know that wine was secretly sold he ordered the offenders to be severly punished. Their wine was seized and given to elephants of the royal stables, and the culprits were beaten with sticks, fettered and thrown into wells specially dug for the purpose in front of the Badaon Gate. In these monstrous holes many offenders rotted and died while those who got released after some time were so much shattered in health that they were almost half dead and took much time to regain their lost strength.

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The intelligence department (*barīds* and *munhiyāns*) strictly supervised over everything that happened inside the capital and their very existence made the people renounce wine. Those who could not give up liquor in any case used to go into villages ten or twelve *kos* from Delhi and drink there, but inside the capital city or its environs like Ghayāspūr, Indarpat and Kilughari or even in villages four or five *kos* from it, the sale and purchase of wine was not at all feasible.

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The orders of the sultan had been carried to such an extreme to which perhaps even he himself did not want. He simply wanted that country wine, which is very intoxicating should not be drunk freely, openly or in large assemblies. As soon, therefore, as he came to know that wine drinking had been given up by the nobility and the respectable people of the city, and that the incorrigible *must* drink in spite of the severe punishments accorded to them, he relaxed his orders to some extent. He permitted private distillation and drinking in secret. In short, people were required to carry their wine like gentlemen and not to hold drink-parties. Nonetheless no public selling or use of wine was permitted.

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According to Barani, 'Alāūddīn's orders about prohibition had the desired effect, and "from the day that the use of wine was interdicted in the City, treachery and rebellion (کتکا جھاتی بلغالك) began to diminish and thought of rebellion left the minds of the people."

Cites (2)