History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c13.46

c13.46

But in explaining the charge of habitual and wanton cruelty we must critically examine the accounts furnished by contemporary writers. These are besides Barani, Ibn Batūṭah, Shihab-al-Din, Badr-i-Chāch and ‘Ain-al-mulk Multani. We may leave out the last two, for Badr-i-Chāch was a court poet who would not point out the faults of his patron and ‘Ain-al-mulk Multani owed a debt of gratitude to the Sultan who had pardoned him when he rebelled against his authority. But Ibn Batūṭah and Shihab-al-Din are valuable authorities who have no reason to conceal the truth. The Masālik contains information gathered from the most reliable persons. It says nothing about the fiendish barbarities of Muhammad. But it may be argued that the author of the Masālik derived his information from foreigners who were liberally treated by the Sultan, although it seems improbable that none of the numerous visitors among whom were included nobles as well as Shaikhs and the ‘Ulama should have spoken of the atrocities which the Sultan, according to Barani, practised upon the ‘innocent believers.’ He does not mention even a wanton slaughter of the Hindus, a thing which would have greatly pleased a fourteenth century Muslim divine. ‘Ala-al-Din Khilji’s persecution of the Hindus was extolled as an act of great religious merit by the Egyptian master of the Hadis, Shams-al-Din Turk when he came to India, but among the numerous suppliants who came to Muhammad's court none makes even a casual mention of his alleged extermination of the human species. The informants of Shihab-al-Din sometimes gave him minute details about the Sultan's character, policy and administration, but strangely enough they omitted all mention of the Sultan's barbarities. Even if we ignore the testimony of the Masālik, we cannot set aside the observations of Ibn Batūṭah who was in close contact with the Sultan for a number of years and about whose general veracity there can be no doubt. Here is an exact translation of Ibn Batūṭah's passage relating to the Sultan's character.