Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c15.19

c15.19

Sale of slaves was so common in medieval India that it is referred to by Persian chroniclers throughout the period. Manumission too was common although it is not mentioned as often. It is a good thing in Islam that there are elaborate rules guiding their lives. There are some hundreds of rules about the treatment and obligations, manumission, sale and purchase of *ghulam* or *bandi*. All transactions were done in accordance with the rules laid down by the Doctors of Islam. But a bad aspect is that the rules went on multiplying and becoming complicated with passage of time. From the eighth to the seventeenth century rules became so numerous and so complicated because of *fatwas* and judgements of Doctors that it became necessary to afford to all an easy and authoritative interpretation and standard canon by launching the project *Fatawa-i-Alamgiri*. These rules could take care of all situations, serious or sober or even pornographic.⁵³ Rules in the *Kitab-ul-Talaq* form an excellent treatise on sex-education. Still a plethora of rules contained contradictions leading to various interpretations. Owners of slaves and the Qazis could do a lot of manipulation in sale and manumission. Naturally, the slave, generally poor and exploited, was at the receiving end against the all-powerful master. For us these rules and laws have an importance of their own. It is on the basis of these historical and legal works compiled by medieval Muslims that an idea of the lives of slaves who could be sold, bartered, lent, mortgaged and used in so many ways, can be formed.