The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c5.s4.3

c5.s4.3

As Muslims must live in accordance with a set of rules and a code of conduct, there was an official Censor of Public Morals and Religion called *Muhtasib*. It was his duty to see that Muslims did not absent themselves from public prayers, that no one was found drunk in public places, that liquors or drugs were not sold openly. He possessed arbitrary power of intervention and could enter the houses of wrong-doers to bring them to book. Sir Alexander Burnes relates that he saw persons publicly scourged because they had slept during prayer-time and smoked on Friday.³⁴ I. H. Qureshi writes, It was soon discovered that people situated as the Muslims were in India could not be allowed to grow lax in their ethical and spiritual conduct without endangering the very existence of the Sultanate.³⁵ Hurriedly converted, half-trained, Indian Muslims were prone to reverting to their original faith which was full of freedom. Therefore, all the sultans were very strict about enforcing Islamic behaviour on Muslims through the agency of Muhtasibs. Balban, Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq were known for their severity in this regard. Muhammad bin Tughlaq regarded wilful neglect of prayers a heinous crime and inflicted severe chastisement on transgressors.³⁶ Women too were not spared; Firoz Shah and Sikandar Lodi in particular forbade women from going on pilgrimage to the tombs of saints.³⁷ The Department of Censor of Public Morals was known as *hisbah*.³⁸