The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c5.s2.10

c5.s2.10

Among other chief agencies that overthrew the feudal system were the rise of cities, scouring of the oceans for Commercial Revolution and the spread of knowledge, scientific knowledge in particular. In India there was urbanisation under Muslim rule, but it has been grossly exaggerated.²² India had large urban centres before the arrival of Muslims. Arab geographers become rapturous when describing the greatness of Indias cities-both in extent and in demography-on the eve of Muslim conquest and immigration.²³ During his sojourn in India Ibn Battuta visited seventy-five cities, towns and ports.²⁴ Under Muslim rule many old cities were given Muslim names. Thus Akbarabad (Agra), Islamabad (Mathura), Shahjahanabad (Delhi) and Hyderabad (Golkunda) were not entirely new built cities, but old populated places that were given new Islamic names, mostly after the ruling kings. Giving new names to old cities was not an extension of urbanisation as such, although it must be conceded that Muslims loved city life and encouraged qasba like settlements. Urbanisation in Europe gave impetus to industry and personal property and founded a new set of power cluster-the middle class. The rise of this new class, with its wealth and industrial importance, contributed more than anything else to social and political development in Europe before which the feudal relations of society almost gradually crumbled. The rise and spread of this class in India and its impact on society remained minimal and rather imperceptible. Edward Terry noted that it was not safe for merchants and tradesmen in towns and cities, so to appear, lest they should be used as filled sponges.²⁵ Moreland on the testimony of Bernier and others, arrives at the conclusion that in India the number of middle class people was small and they found it safe to wear the garb of indigence.²⁶ Europe broke the shackles of feudalism by embarking upon Commercial Revolution and took to the seas for the same. The Mughals in India fared miserably on water. Even the great emperor Akbar had to purchase permission of the Portuguese for his relatives to visit places of Islamic pilgrimage. Throughout medieval India there was little change in the field of scientific learning and thought.