Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c9.20

c9.20

Ibn Battutahs eye-witness account of the Sultans gifting captured slave girls to nobles or arranging their marriages with Muslims on a large scale on the occasion of the two Ids, corroborates the statement of Abbas. Ibn Battutah writes that during the celebrations in connection with the two Ids in the court of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, daughters of Hindu Rajas and those of commoners, captured during the course of the year were distributed among nobles, officers and important foreign slaves. On the fourth day men slaves are married and on the fifth slave-girls. On the sixth day men and women slaves are married off.⁵⁴ This was all in accordance with the Islamic law. According to it, slaves cannot many on their own without the consent of their proprietors.⁵⁵ The marriage of an infidel couple is not dissolved by their jointly embracing the faith.⁵⁶ In the present case the slaves were probably already converted and their marriages performed with the initiative and permission the Sultan himself were valid. Thousands of non-Muslim women⁵⁷ were captured by the Muslims in the yearly campaigns of Firoz Tughlaq, and under him the id celebrations were held on lines similar to those of his predecessor.⁵⁸ In short, under the Tughlaqs the inflow of women captives never ceased.