Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c14.31

c14.31

But the Portuguese in this matter followed the custom of the Muslims. Linschoten recorded that they never worked, but employed slaves, who were sold daily in the market like beasts, and della Valle notes that the greatest part of people in Goa were slaves.⁶⁶ The Portuguese not only employed Indian slaves for domestic and other duties, but they also regularly brought slaves from Abyssinia and Mozambique for sale at good price in Goa and Surat. They dominated the Indian seas where they pirated non-chalantly, captured slaves and sold them in the markets of Hugli, Tamluk, Pipli, St. Thome, Ceylon and Goa. Pyrard (1608-11) observed that goods of all the world must pass Ormuz and pay tribute to the Portuguese.⁶⁷ It so happened that their Governor in Hugli, Manoel Travers, infuriated Shahjahan when as a prince, he was in rebellion and in a helpless position. Travers seized some of the princes richly laden boats and carried away some of Mumtaz Mahalls slave girls. When Shahjahan became king he ordered the Mughal governor of Bengal to chastise the Portuguese. After a sanguinary battle on the famous river port Hugli in 1632 they were expelled from Bengal.⁶⁸ As a matter of fact the people of India hailed the other European adventurers as liberators from Portuguese tyranny, their forcible conversions and their obnoxious slave trade.⁶⁹