The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c6.s7: Islamic Scriptures as Source-materials

The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c6.s7

Language: English

Islamic Scriptures as Source-materials

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The best way to understand the content and spirit of Muslim rule in India and to assess the hollowness of manipulated history is by going through Muslim scriptures besides of course faithfully perusing Muslim historical literature in Arabic and Persian. All medieval chroniclers and historians were scholars of Islamic literature and law. Many of these Ulama were even advisers of kings in matters religious and political. In their writings they often quote from the Quran and Hadis to vindicate the actions of their conquerors and kings. Very often they quote from or use the very idiom of Islamic religious texts in their chronicles. Muslim invaders, conquerors and rulers also repeatedly assert that they worked according to the dictates of the Shara and Sunna to suberve the interests of Islam. Therefore to understand the true nature of Muslim rule and history it is necessary to have at least an elementary knowledge of the religion and scriptures of Islam.

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The religion and theology of Islam are based on four great works - (1) The Quran, (2) the Hadis, (3) the *Siratun-Nabi* or the Biography of Muhammad, and (4) the *Shariat* or Islamic law as elaborated in the Hidaya. The word Quran literally means recitation, lecture or discourse. Muslims consider it to be the word of God conveyed to his prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. The first, final and only canonized version of the Koran was collected nineteen years after the death of Muhammad (from ribs of palm-leaves and tablets of white stone and from the breasts of men) when it was seen that the memorizers of the Koran were becoming extinct through the battles that were decimating the ranks of the believers⁵² The religion of Quran comes nearer to Judaism of the Old Testament as well as the Christianity of the New Testament.⁵³ The Quran, the Book of Allah, is treated with unbound reverence by the Muslims. Its 6,239 verses, its 77,934 words, even its 323,621 letters have since been painstakingly counted.⁵⁴ The book is not only heart of a religion, but it is still considered by one-eighth of mankind as the embodiment of all science, wisdom and theology.⁵⁵ Because of the dearth of efficacious writing material, written copies of Quran would have taken time to make, but it does seem to have been available by the middle of the eighth century.⁵⁶

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Every Muslim chronicler of medieval India had mastered the Quran. For an *Alim* and a *Maulana* it was the first must among the works he studied. It is not surprising therefore that its *surahs* (chapters) and *ayats* (verses) are sometimes quoted in historical works and its phraseology freely used. A study of the Quran by a scholar of medieval Indian history will be helpful to him in appraising the achievements and spirit of Muslim rule in India. There are many good translations of the Quran in English; a summary translation is also available in T.P. Hughess *Dictionary of Islam*.⁵⁷

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The study of Quran and the necessity of expounding it gave rise to that most characteristically Muslim literary activity, the books of tradition or Hadis, literally meaning narrative. It is a compendium of doings, sayings, revelations and judgements of Muhammad. Muslim theologians make no distinction between Quran and Hadis. To them both are works of revelation or inspiration. In the Quran, Allah speaks through Muhammad; in the *Sunnah* He acts through him No wonder that the Muslim theologians regard the Quran and the Hadis as being supplementary or even interchangeable.⁵⁸ Within three hundred years of the death of Muhammad, the Hadis acquired substantially the form in which it is known today. Imam Bukhari (d. C.E. 870) compiled authentic traditions from a plethora of voluminous traditions. Next in importance are the collections of Imam Muslim (d. 875) and Imam Tirmizi (d. 892).

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Equally important guide for the Muslims in the performance of their duties is the life-story of Muhammad. Apart from several *maghazi* books dealing with the prophet's campaigns, his first authentic biography too was ready in the eighth century. Its author Ibn Ishaq was born at Medina in 85 H. and died in Baghdad in 151 H. (704-768 C.E.). He wrote the *Sirat Rasul Allah*.⁵⁹ Other biographers of note who succeeded him were al-Waqidi, Ibn Hisham, and At-Tabari. Muslims try to mould their lives after the model of Muhammad. No one regarded by any section of human race as perfect man has been imitated so minutely.⁶⁰

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The Quran and the Hadis provided the foundation upon which theology and law of Islam were raised. Law in Islam is more intimately related to religion than to jurisprudence as modern lawyers understand it.⁶¹ Named after their founders Abu Hanifa (C. 699-767), Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Idris (C. 767-820), Ahmad bin Hanbal (C. 780-855) and Malik bin Anas (C. 715-795) - the four *mazahib* or schools of Islamic law named Hanafi, Shafai, Hanbali and Malaki respectively, too had come into being in the eighth-ninth century. Their compilation is called Hidaya. If at all anything was wanting with regard to Muslim law, it was provided by *Hidaya* or Guidance.⁶² The *Hidaya* is a voluminous treatise based on Sunni law composed by Shaikh Burhanuddin Ali who was born at Marghinan in Transoxiana about 530 H. and died in 593 H. (1135-1196).⁶³

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Muslim law in its ultimate form was thus available to the conquerors and Sultans who established their rule in India in the thirteenth century. True, there were no printed editions of these works. But beautiful hand written copies were always available at least to distinguished conquerors and kings and their counsellors. Muslim law is definite, clear and universal. This law was the actual sovereign in Muslim lands: no one was above it and all were ruled by it.⁶⁴ Such is the reverence paid to these religio-legal treatises that they have remained the model of prose in literary works. The rhymed prose of the Quran has set the standard which almost every conservative Arabic writer consciously strives to imitate. The diction, the idiom, the very phrases of these religio-legal works were adopted by Muslim chroniclers in writing the history of Islamic achievements in India.⁶⁵ There are two sorts of Muslim historians, the dry annalist, and the pompous and flowery orator. But both use the language of their scriptures - a style more natural to their ideas and sentiments. It is necessary therefore to read these scriptures. It is necessary to know Islam in order to understand the ethos and legacy of Muslim rule in India.

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Footnotes:

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¹ E and D, II, p.33.

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² E and D, II, pp.214-15.

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³ Barani, pp.216-17.

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⁴ The Qazi quoted from the Quran, *Yan yad vaham saghrun*, Sales trs. p. 152. See also *Ain*, I, p.237, n.1.

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⁵ Barani, pp.290-291.

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⁶ Barani, *Fatawa-i-Jahandari*, pp.49, 98.

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⁷ Nizami, K.A., *Religion and Politics in India during the Thirteenth Century*, p.317; M. Habib, Introduction to Fatawa-i-Jahandari, p. v.

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⁸ Amir Khurd, *Siyar-ul-Auliya*, Urdu trs. Quddusi, pp.472-73.

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⁹ Badaoni, II, p.258.

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¹⁰ *Ibid.*, p.257.

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¹¹ *Ibid.*, p.258.

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¹² *Ain*, I, p.2.

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¹³ Smith, *Akbar the Great Mogul*, p.108; Badaoni, II, p.383; C.H.I., IV, P.115.

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¹⁴ Badaoni, II, p.383.

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¹⁵ Elliot and Dowson, Vol.I, Preface, pp.xx-xxi.

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¹⁶ *Ibid.*, p.xii.

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¹⁷ *Medieval India under Muhammadan Rule* (London,1903), Preface, p.v-vi.

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¹⁸ *A History of the Great Mughals* (Calcutta,1905,1911).

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¹⁹ *History of Medieval India* (Allahabad,1925),p.ii.

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²⁰ Singhal, D.P. Battle for the Past in *Problems of Indian Historiography*, Proceedings of the Indian History and Culture Society, Ed. Devahuti, D.K. Publishers, Delhi 1979.

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²¹ James Tod, *Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan*, Routledge and Kegan Paul (London,1829,1957), 2 vols., I, Introduction, pp. xiv-xv.

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²² *Ibid.*, p.xiv. For stray references to works destroyed and Hindus forgetting how to read their ancient scripts, see Minhaj, *Tabqat-i-Nasiri*, I, p.552; Afif, p.333; Thomas, Edward, *Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi*, pp.292-93 and Carr Stephen, *Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi*, pp. 130,137-38.

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²³ Sarkar, *A Short History of Aurangzeb*, p.153.

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²⁴ Lal, *History of the Khaljis*, p.355.

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²⁵ See Bibliography, Sanskrit and Hindi Works, in K.S. Lal, *History of the Khaljis*, pp.374-75.

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²⁶ For example, see the comparable account of terror-tactics of the Muslim army as described by Persian chroniclers and Vidyapati in *Kirtilata* in K.S.Lal, Striking power of the Army of the Sultanate in the *Journal of Indian History*, Trivandrum. Vol.LV, Pt.III, December 1977, pp.85-110.

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²⁷ Philips, *Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon*, pp.322-23.

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²⁸ As an illustration see Arvind Sharma, The Arab invasion of Sind: a study in divergent perspectives in *Historical and Political Perspectives (India and Pakistan)* ed. Devahuti, Indian History and Culture Society, Books & Books, New Delhi, 1982, pp.193-200.

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²⁹ Peter Hardy in Philips, *Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon*, p.309.

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³⁰ Karl Marx, The Future Results of British Rule in India, vide *The Newyork Daily Tribune*, 22 July 1853, cited by D.P. Singhal in his

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Presidential Address to the Indian History and Culture Society, 1981, Proceedings, P.155.

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³¹ H. Laski, *Communism* (London, 1927), p.194.

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³² In his *India in Transition*, 1922.

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³³ T.W. Arnold, *The Legacy of Islam*, p.viii.

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³⁴ Cf K.S. Lal., *Early Muslims in India* (New Delhi,1984), pp.92-93.

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³⁵ Barani, *Tarikh*, pp.10-13.

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³⁶ *Ibid.*, eg. pp.216, 290-91.

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³⁷ *History of Medieval India* (Allahabad, 1940 Edition), pp.509-513.

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³⁸ *The Mughal Empire* (Agra, 1964), p.568.

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³⁹ *Ibid.*, p.571.

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⁴⁰ *The Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi*, pp.207-13.

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⁴¹ Acton, *The Study of History*, Macmillan & Co. (London, 1905), p.45.

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⁴² For example, see Lai, K.S, *Indian Muslims : Who Are They* (New Delhi, 1990).

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⁴³ Farishtah, I, p.33.

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⁴⁴ *loc. cit.*

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⁴⁵ Alberuni, II, p.103. Also I, p.117 for *Cakraswamin*.

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⁴⁶ Aziz Ahmad, *Studies in Islamic Culture*, p.5.

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⁴⁷ For detailed references see Bosworth, *The Ghaznavids*, p.50. For praise of Mahmud by modern writers, M. Nazim, *The Life and Times of*

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*Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna* and M. Habib, *Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznin*.

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⁴⁸ Forbes, *Rasmala*, I, p.77.

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⁴⁹ Hasan Nizami, *Taj-ul-Maasir*, E and D, II, p.219; Abdulla, *Tarikh-i-Daudi*, p.39; Ahmad Yadgar, *Tarikh-i-Salatin-i-Afghana*, p.47; Rizqullah, *Waqiat-i-Mushtaqi*, fol. 31b; *Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri*, II, pp.185-86, 223; Lahori, I, p.452, II, p. 58; Kamboh, *Amal-i-Salih*, I, p.522, II, p.41; Khafi Khan, I, p. 472.

Cites (4)

ʿAmal-i Ṣāliḥ — Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Kambōh 1659, Persian
Tāj al-maʾāthir — Ḥasan Niẓāmī, Persian
Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf, Persian
Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī — Minhāj al-Dīn Jūzjānī, Persian