Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c16.22

c16.22

Forcible marriages, euphemistically called matrimonial alliances, were common throughout the medieval period. Only some of them find mention in Muslim chronicles with their bitter details. Here is one example given by Shams Siraj Afif (fourteenth century). The translation from the original in Persian may be summarised as follows. Firoz Shah was born in the year 709 H. (1309 C.E.). His father was named Sipahsalar Rajjab, who was a brother of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq Ghazi. The three brothers, Tughlaq, Rajjab, and Abu Bakr, came from Khurasan to Delhi in the reign of Alauddin (Khalji), and that monarch took all the three in the service of the Court. The Sultan conferred upon Tughlaq the country of Dipalpur. Tughlaq was desirous that his brother Sipahsalar Rajjab should obtain in marriage the daughter of one of the Rais of Dipalpur. He was informed that the daughters of Ranamall Bhatti were very beautiful and accomplished. Tughlaq sent to Ranamall a proposal of marriage. Ranamall refused. Upon this Tughlaq proceeded to the villages (*talwandi*) belonging to Ranamall and demanded payment of the whole years revenue in a lump sum. The Muqaddams and Chaudharis were subjected to coercion. Ranamalls people were helpless and could do nothing, *for those were the days of Alauddin, and no one dared to make an outcry* (italics ours). One damsel was brought to Dipalpur. Before her marriage she was called Bibi Naila. On entering the house of Sipahsalar Rajjab she was styled Sultan Bibi Kadbanu. After the lapse of a few years she gave birth to Firoz shah.²⁶ If this could be accomplished by force by a regional officer, there was nothing to stop the king. In the seventeenth century, Jahangir writes in his Memoirs that after the third year of his accession, I demanded in marriage the daughter of Jagat Singh, eldest son of Raja Man Singh (of Amer).²⁷ Raja Ram Chandra Bundela was defeated, imprisoned, and subsequently released by Jahangir.²⁸ Later on, says Jahangir, I took the daughter of Ram Chandra Bandilah into my service (i.e. married her).²⁹