History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c4: Corrigenda

History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c4

Language: English

Corrigenda

c4.1

6 Read historians for historian 19 ,, from ,, form 41 ,, decree ,, degree 42 ,, all ,, both 45 ,, doom ,, down 60 ,, Dihli ,, Dirli 103 ,, fear ,, wear 119 ,, those ,, these 144 ,, formed ,, made 147 ,, Khokhar ,, Khakhar 170 ,, Khorasanis ,, Khorasans 190 ,, Khṣatriyas ,, Kṣatriyās 253 ,, the scene ,, scene and his overmastering sense of justice led him to deal with the offenders with unusual severity. As we read through the catalogue of murders and mutilations in the pages of Ibn Batūṭah, we feel aghast at the seeming brutalisation of this accomplished monarch who was the only man of letters among the mediaeval rulers of Dihli. But a careful study of the growth of his character leads to the conclusion that he was not essentially inhuman or wicked. In early life he was a magnificent ruler with great plans of conquest and administrative reform revolving in his original mind, but man and nature conspired to wreck them. The hostile attitude of the people which was not wholly unjustifiable and the ingratitude of his officers goaded him to desperation so that he was compelled to have recourse to punishment and vengeance as the only means of saving his kingdom from ruin. His analysis of the situation may have been wrong, his methods to meet it defective, but this does not predicate a natural thirst for bloodshed. Sometimes the Sultan fell into his own snare and was betrayed by his confidential advisers as happened in the case of the dealings of ‘Aziz Khummār and Malik Maqbūl with the ‘Centurions.’ The true origin of Barani’s charge is to be found in the war of the ‘Ulama against Muhammad. How could Barani whose intellect moved in a narrow groove sympathise with Muhammad’s liberalism? To his orthodox mind it appeared as if the entire political system of Islam was cut adrift from its ancient moorings and, anxious as he was for the power of the church, he laid special emphasis on the cruelties of the Sultan. But the force of his charge is considerably diminished by the lack of concrete instances.

c4.2

There are one or two other observations which might be made in this connection. The age in which Muhammad lived did not disapprove of such punishments. In the 14th century both in Europe and Asia rulers dealt with their offending subjects in a ruthless manner. The Egyptian Sultan Nāṣir, a contemporary of Muhammad, was an enlightened Prince, a patron of art and letters, who extended toleration to Christians but his ‘punishments were as barbarous and primitive as his methods of confiscation were sweeping and illegal.’ Another contemporary of Muhammad, Ghiyas-al-Din of Ma’bar, an erstwhile vassal, was a horrid ruffian whose atrocities shocked even Ibn Batūṭah, yet neither Barani nor those who came after him have condemned his conduct. Even in comparatively modern times the Mughals inflicted at times the most terrible punishments upon their

History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c4: Corrigenda

Corrigenda

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c4.2

c4.3

c4.4

c4.5

c4.6

c4.7

c4.8

c4.9