Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c13.5

c13.5

Muslim rulers and nobles in India were not lagging behind in these perverted passions. Muhammad Hindu Shah Farishtah in his *Tarikh* and Khondamir in his *Dasturul Wuzra* relate the following incident about Mahmud Ghaznavi. Sultan Mahmud had a passion for slaves possessing handsome faces. His Wazir Abul Abbas Fazl bin Ahmad followed his example. Fazl, on hearing the reputation of the beauty of a boy in Turkistan, deputed a confidential person to purchase that boy (whose countenance was beautiful as that of the planet Venus), and bring him to Ghazni, according to the mode of conveyance usually adopted for females. When an informer represented to the king these circumstances, his most august Majesty demanded that slave (who was as white as silver) from the minister The minister made evasive replies, and pertinaciously refused to part with the slave, notwithstanding His Majestys absolute power. The king one night visited the minister at his house (without prior notice), where the minister entertained him with respect and hospitality due to the dignity of a sovereign. When the slave (who looked as beautiful as a virgin of paradise) came into the presence of the king, high words passed between him and his minister, and so greatly was the kings anger kindled, that he issued orders to seize the minister and plunder his house. Soon after this the king departed for Hindustan, and certain evil-disposed *amirs* tortured the minister so severely with the rack that he lost his life. After him the old Khwaja Ahmad bin Hasan Maimandi was appointed to the office of Wazir.²