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History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39: Chapter XXIX. Relations with the Outer Muslim World

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39

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Chapter XXIX. Relations with the Outer Muslim World

§1. Aurangzib sends rich presents to other Muslim States.

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After all his rivals had been destroyed and he was firmly seated on the Peacock Throne, Aurangzib received a succession of embassies from all the Muhammadan States which had trade relations with India. The fame of his victories had spread far and wide and he was congratulated on his accession. His policy at the beginning was to dazzle the eyes of foreign princes by the lavish gift of presents to them and their envoys, and thus induce the outer Muslim world to forget his treatment of his father and brothers, or at least to show courtesy to the successful man of action and master of India's untold wealth, especially when he was so free with his money. The poorer Muhammadan Powers sent embassies so miserably ill-equipped and carrying such worthless presents that it was openly said in India that the missions were not political but commercial. "Every one suspected that they came merely for the sake of obtaining money in return for their presents, and of gaining still more considerable sums by means of the numerous horses and different articles of merchandise, which they introduced into the kingdom free of all duty, as property belonging to ambassadors. With the produce of these horses and merchandise, they purchased the manufactures of India which they also claimed the privilege of taking out of the kingdom without payment of the impost charged on all commodities exported.'' (Bernier, 134; *Storia*, ii. 115.)

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Later in his reign, partly because his aim had by that time been realized, and partly because his constant wars had drained his treasury dry, his liberality to foreign Courts and envoys was greatly curtailed. He, however, continued to the end of his reign to maintain friendly intercourse with the Muslim States of Central Asia and Arabia by letter and embassy.

§2. Diplomatic intercourse with the Sharif of Mecca.

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Among the chiefs of Islam, the Sharif of Mecca held a position of peculiar honour and importance. He had control over the holy places, and through him alone could alms from outside reach the pious men and mendicants who lived in that sacred soil to which the heart of the entire Muslim world turns in prayer five times a day. After the War of Succession, Aurangzib planned to drown in a shower of gold any scruples which the headmen and theologians of the Holy City might have felt in acknowledging as lawful sovereign the usurper of a loving father's throne.* In November, 1659, shortly after his grand coronation, he despatched Mir Ibrahim, a pious Sayyid, with six lakhs and sixty thousand Rupees for distribution among the Sayyids, recluses, servitors of the mosques and shrines, and devotees at Mecca and Medina. The chief of the mission died in Arabia about June 1661 and the charge of the party was transferred to Haji Ahmad Said, who carried his pious task out, and returned to Court in March 1665, bringing with himself Sayyid Yahiya, the bearer of a friendly letter and some relics from the Sharif of Mecca. This envoy received Rs. 13,000 in return.

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Thereafter agents of the Sharif used to visit the Delhi Court every year and levy contributions in the name of the Prophet. Thus, we find that in 1668 they took away Rs. 9,000, in 1671 Rs. 30,000 and 100 gold pieces, in 1674 Rs. 5,000, and in 1686 Rs. 5,000. Besides these, large sums were often sent by Aurangzib through his own agents for distribution in the Holy City. In December 1684 he entrusted the Shaikh-ul-Islam (the resigned Chief Qazi) with a casket full of supplicatory letters addressed to the Prophet with a request to deposit it at the foot of the Prophet's tomb. In December 1693 when his son Muhammad Azam recovered from a serious illness, he sent Rs. 1,20,000 to be spent in charity at Mecca and Medina.

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∗ Manucci says that at first "the holy men of Mecca declined to accept the gifts sent by Aurangzib, because his father was still alive" (ii. 3); but in a few years the Grand Sharif repented of it and "sent envoys to find out if Aurangzib would consent to renew the offering that he had before sent." (ii. 114.) Naturally, the official history of the reign would be silent about any such rebuff, if the Emperor received it. I can only suspect from the long time which the Mughal embassy at Mecca took to do its work that there was some such hitch. The party sent out with the gifts was absent from India for more than five years, which cannot be explained by imagining that the members had an insatiable appetite for pilgrimage (haj).

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But at last the Sharif's greed made Aurangzib turn against him. In the last decade of his reign he wrote to his *wazir*, "The Sharif of Mecca, having heard of the great wealth of India, sends an envoy every year for making his own gain. The money that I send there is meant for the poor and not for *him*. Devise some means by which it may reach them and the hands of this unrighteous exactor may not touch it. Ask of the [Arab] traders at Surat who have the best repute and substance, if they can convey my money to the poor of the Holy Cities in safety. If so, it will be sent through their agency. My object is to please the souls of the lovers of God and not to proclaim my charity." (*Ruqat*, No. 174.) Two other letters make the same complaint of the Sharif intercepting the royal alms and diverting the money to his own use, while the mendicants and recluses of Mecca starved. At last Aurangzib resorted to the policy of sending money secretly and in small instalments to the needy people of the Holy Cities, through the merchants of Surat, without the agency or even knowledge of the Sharif.* (K.T., 25b, 114b.)

§3. Interchange of embassies and letters with the Shah of Persia.

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We have seen how the Shah of Persia had intrigued with Dara and Murad during the War of Succession and had also written to the two Shia rulers of the Deccan urging them to assert themselves while the Mughal empire was torn by quarrels among the princes. But when Aurangzib made himself undisputed master of the throne, Shah Abbas II. sent a grand embassy under Budaq Beg, the captain of his musketeers, to congratulate him on his accession and to wish him a long reign.

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The Persians have been rightly called the Frenchmen of Asia. Their country has been the spring-head of the culture thought and fashion of the entire Islamic world. Persian influence has moulded the poetry of all Muslim lands, and Persian manners and taste have been laboriously, if sometimes clumsily, imitated by all Muhammadan Courts from Cordova and Constantinople to Delhi and Seringapatam. To gain a word of praise from the countrymen of Firdausi and Hafiz has been the dream of all writers in the predominant literary language of Asia, and every historian and letter-writer in Persian has trembled in fear till his work has received the seal of approbation from the fastidious judges of Iran. Kings have dreaded the sharpness of a Persian satirist's pen more than their enemies' swords.

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∗ Mecca embassies.—Bernier, 133; Storia ii. 115; A. N., 449-450, 627, 882, 886, 977; K.K., ii. 412 (1692-93 A.D.); M. A., 76, 108, 140, 251, 285 (probably Ali Aqa of p. 285 was the same man as Ahmad Aqa of p. 271), 364. With I.O.L. Pers. MS. 3172 are bound up several Arabic letters from the Sharif of Mecca to Shah Jahan and his sons (mostly formal).

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The news that a Persian mission was coming caused a flutter in the Mughal Court. Every one from the Emperor down to the meanest guardsman felt that he and his country were on their trial. His manners and conduct would be judged by the masters of social decorum in all Asia, and if he was found wanting in correctness of taste and proper dignity in the least particular, he would be made the laughing-stock of the entire Muslim world. This natural anxiety was aggravated by the large number of Persian refugees serving in India who gave highly coloured pictures of the power and civilization of the Court of Iran and sneered at the Indo-Musalmans as half-polished barbarians. There was the greatest fear that the Persian envoy would not observe the Indian Court etiquette at his presentation, but cleverly put some mark of inferiority or some slight on the Mughal Emperor, who had a hereditary rivalry with the royal house of Persia for social predominance.

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Budaq Beg's forerunner came on 24th March, 1661 and presented his country's famous melons (*kharbuza*) and other fruits, receiving Rs. 2,500 in return.* The ambassador himself reached Delhi by way of Baluchistan and Multan and had his first audience on 22nd May. A right royal welcome was accorded to him. "Soldiers were posted on both sides of the street, a league in length, through which the ambassador would pass. The principal streets were decorated with rich stuffs, both in the shops and also at the windows, and the ambassador was brought through them, escorted by a number of officers, with music, drums, pipes and trumpets. On his entering the fort, or royal palace, he was saluted by all the artillery....It was a fine sight to see the ambassador followed by his 500 horsemen, almost all of the same height and appearance, large-limbed and handsome men, with huge moustaches, and riding excellent and well-equipped horses." (*Storia*, ii. 49, 53.)

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The gifts from Persia consisted of 66 swift Iraqi horses and a round pearl weighing 37 carats and valued at Rs. 60,000,—the whole being worth Rs. 4,22,000. The Shah in his letter congratulated Aurangzib on his accession and offered his friendly help whenever the Mughal Emperor would need it; he referred to the long-standing friendship between the royal houses of Persia and India, made much of Shah Tahmasp's assistance to Humayun in recovering his throne, went through the history of Qandahar, remarking how he had most reluctantly used force in taking it from Shah Jahan's hands, and concluded by wishing that the relations between them might continue friendly in future in spite of his retaining that fort.

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∗ He was probably the bearer of the shorter letter of congratulation from the Shah given in *Ruqat-i-Shah Abbas Sani*, pp. 28-33, while the longer one (pp. 71-81) was delivered by Budaq Beg.

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Budaq Beg reported to his master his satisfaction at the princely treatment accorded to him. The Shah having expressed a wish to taste the betel leaf (pan) which is universally chewed in India, quantities of the rarest variety of the leaf were sent to him repeatedly. He now acknowledged them and also granted Aurangzib's request that Burhan-ud-din, the son-in-law of his minister Fazil Khan, might be allowed to emigrate to India. The royal letter from Persia told the envoy, evidently for communication to Aurangzib as an instance of his master's power, that the Shah had recently reduced to submission Tahmuras Khan the Prince of Georgia, who had defied Persian arms for two generations.

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On 27th July the envoy was given leave to depart. On him and his entourage the Emperor conferred gifts worth Rs. 5,35,000.* The despatch of a return embassy charged with a reply to Shah Abbas's letter, was delayed by the Emperor's illness and his visit to Kashmir. Tarbiyat Khan, the governor of Multan and a Commander of 4000 Horse, was selected for the mission and sent off from the Court on 2nd November, 1663, with presents worth more than seven lakhs of Rupees, and a letter drafted by Danishmand Khan, the scholarly Persian courtier known to readers of Bernier's *Travels* as the French doctor's patron. We possess this letter in which, as was the literary usage in such compositions, the sense is buried under piled up flowers of rhetoric and an endless succession of epithets. The patronizing tone in which the Shah had offered his friendly help and probably also his reference to Qandahar where Aurangzib had twice failed and the Persian arms had triumphed, galled the spirit of the Mughal Emperor. He replied by thanking the Shah for his friendly views, but declared in a lofty tone that he needed no *man's* help as he depended solely on God’s favour; his astonishing victories were a proof of God’s abounding grace on him. Then he naturally glided into a long and exultant narrative of his triumphs over his brothers, and concluded with a self-righteous declaration that he was devoting every hour of his life to doing good to his subjects, promoting peace and prosperity in the land, and advancing the cause of Islam. (Bahar-i-sakhun.)

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∗ Budaq Beg's name is given as *Buadaq Sultan, Tufangchi Aqasi*, in the *Ruqat-i-Shah Abbas Sani*. For his embassy, A. N. 609, 614, 621, 628, 664; *Storia*, ii. 47-54; Bernier, 146-151; *Ruqat-i-Shah Abbas Sani*, 156-162 (Shah to his envoy in India), 28-33 and 71-81. Br. Mus. Or. 1641, *f.* 72a-73b gives details and valuation of the presents from the Shah and his envoy.

§4. Quarrel with Persia.

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The Mughal envoy had audience of the Shah at Isfahan, but he was very rudely treated and subjected to much humiliation and suffering. The Persian king often uttered threats of invading India in his presence. It was probably at this time that he sent Aurangzib a long letter* composed by Mirza Tahir Wahid, vigorously defending the Shia religion, glorifying the Persian royal house, sneering at Aurangzib, and bragging of his own success as a ruler and defender of the true faith!

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At last after a year’s stay in Persia, Tarbiyat Khan was given conge at Farahabad, and entrusted with a taunting letter for Aurangzib. In it Shah Abbas writes, "I learn that most of the zamindars of India are in rebellion because their ruler is weak, incompetent and without resources. The chief of them is the impious *kafir* Shiva, who had long lived in such obscurity that none knew of his name; but now, taking advantage of your lack of means and the retreat of your troops, he has made himself visible like the peak of a mountain, seized many forts, slain or captured many of your soldiers, occupied much of that country, plundered and wasted many of your ports, cities and villages, and finally wants to come to grips with you. You style yourself a World-conqueror (*Alamgir*) while you have only conquered your father; and having gained composure of mind by the murder of your brothers—who were lawful heirs to your father's land and wealth—you have abandoned the royal practices of doing justice and charity and are busying yourself in the company of men who call incantation and Satanic magic the knowledge of God and the exposition of Truth. You have failed in every undertaking that required manliness. It is beyond your power to repress lawless men; you have become helpless and distracted by your lack of material and money and the defeat of your troops. Thanks to the favour of God and the Imams, it is my nature to cherish those who are crushed, and my ancestors have been the refuge of the kings of the world,—witness how we restored to their thrones Humayun and Nazar Muhammad Khan. Now that you, the successor of Humayun, are in distress, it is my royal aim to go personally to India with my multitudinous army, meet you (which has long been my desire), give you every help and extinguish the fire of disorder with the lustre [lit., water] of my sword—like that of Ali,—so that the people might be delivered from the oppression of lawless men, and sing my praises. God keep you safe amidst your misfortunes!'*

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∗ Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 389-398.

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With this letter Tarbiyat Khan reached Agra (where the Court then was) in September 1666. Aurangzib vented his impotent rage on the innocent envoy, accused him of having failed in his duty, denied him audience, degraded him in rank and finally sent him off as *subahdar* to the penal province of Orissa (June 1667).†

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† Tarbiyat Kh.'s mission. A. N. 974, disgrace 977, 1033 and 1050; *Storia*, ii. 128-131, 146-147 (fullest).

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The threat contained in the Shah's letter was confirmed by reports from Persia that he was making preparations for invading India by way of Khurasan and Afghanistan. Evidently there was great alarm in the country at the news. Prince Muazzam was at once sent with Jaswant Singh and a large army towards Afghanistan, while the Emperor promised to follow. But the danger was exaggerated by the Mughal Court's ignorance of the true state of things in Persia. The Safavi monarchy was really very weak, as Bernier shrewdly suspected. (*Travels*, 149.) Shah Abbas II., however, died on 22nd August, and the imagined danger to India blew over. For the rest of Aurangzib's reign, Persia was powerless for offence. But, as a historian of Persia has remarked, "few dynasties have lived so long and so successfully on their reputation as did that of the Safavis after the death of Shah Abbas I.," and Aurangzib kept a vigilant eye on the n.w. frontier, forbidding any nearer approach of the Persian outposts for facility of trade, or the admission of large caravans of Persian horse-dealers into India lest they should be invaders in disguise.* To the last day of his life he continued to speak of the Persians as *Irani ghul-i-bayabani* ('carrion-eating demons') and *batil mazhaban*, or 'false believers.'

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∗ *Faiyaz-ul-qawanin*, 496-499. Manucci records the incorrect rumour that such a taunting letter was sent with Budaq Beg (ii. 52). The taunting correspondence between Aurangzib and the Shah has been printed in the Report of the Lahor Session of the Indian Historical Records Commission, Jan. 1920.

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In 1688 Aurangzib tried to intervene in a struggle between the Shah of Persia and Ahmad, his rebel governor of Herat, by helping the latter in besieging Qandahar. But nothing came of the attempt. (*Ishwardas*, 133*b*.)

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∗ For the threatened Persian invasion, *A. N.* 974, 975, 984; *Storia*, ii. 146-149; *Anecdotes*, § 51; K.K. ii. 202. For Aurangzib's vigilance, *Anecdotes*, § 49, 50, and 52. For Safavi weakness, *Sykes, History of Persia*, ii. 296.

§5. Relations with Central Asia.

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With the Powers of Central Asia, Aurangzib's intercourse was more frequent and uniformly cordial. The first foreign embassy that he received after his accession was one sent by Subhan Quli, king of Balkh, which presented him (January and February, 1661) with valuable Turki horses, camels, hunting animals, dry fruits, &c., and received Rs. 26,000 in return. On 19th November in the same year, Khwajah Ahmad, the envoy of Abdul Aziz Khan, king of Bukhara, made his bow and delivered to Aurangzib a congratulatory letter from his chivalrous antagonist of the war of 1647. On the ambassador and his entourage the Emperor spent one lakh and twenty thousand Rupees, besides Rs. 12,000 sent to the Bukhara chancellor. But both the envoys from Balkh and Bukhara died in India from the effects of the very miserly and dirty way in which they lived.

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The compliment was returned by the despatch of a mission from India to Central Asia, under Mustafa Khan Khafi (2nd July, 1664), with gifts worth 1½ lakhs for Abdul Aziz Khan and one lakh for Subhan Quli Khan. Two other envoys came from these kings in 1667, and received in return 2 lakhs and 1½ lakhs respectively in cash and kind. These Central Asian Powers kept up frequent intercourse with Aurangzib throughout his reign, by means of friendly letters and gifts, and we have many mentions of envoys coming from them.

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In April 1664 arrived Mir Fulad, with a friendly letter from Abdullah Khan, king of Kashghar, and in June he returned with gifts worth half a lakh for himself and his master. A reply was despatched in October 1665 with Khwajah Ishaq, who returned from the way on learning that a civil war had broken out in the country. Peace having been restored, he was sent again in November next year. Three other embassies from the same country are recorded in the official history of the reign. Envoys were also received from Urganj (Khiva) and Shahar-nau, but they were on a smaller scale and represented petty chieftains only.*

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In 1668 came a guest of the highest rank from Central Asia. Abdullah Khan, king of Kashghar, was deposed by his son Bulbaras Khan, and when fleeing to India with his family was robbed of all his property on the way. In this distressed condition he was met and relieved by Khwajah Ishaq, the envoy sent earlier from the Mughal Court. On hearing the news, Aurangzib wrote to his governors of Kashmir and the Panjab to study the ex-king's comfort in every way, pay him one lakh of Rupees for his expenses, and supply him with the imperial plate tents and furniture. The subahdar of Kashmir was commanded to escort him personally to Delhi.

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∗ Balkh missions.—A. N. 605-8 (in 1661), 1050, 1063 (in 1667); Storia, ii. 36-44 (=Bernier, 116-123) graphic description; M. A. 90 (in 1669), 149 (in 1676), 193 (in 1680), 483 (1704), 516 (1706). Bukhara missions.—A. N. 637, 644, 662-665, 673, 738, (1661-62), 863 (1664), 1035, 1049 (1667); M. A. 104 (1670), 108 (1671), 158 (1676), 216 (1681), 337 (1690), 440 (1701, from 'Turan'). Urganj missions.—A. N. 1048, 1063 (1667); M. A. 112 (1671), 207 (1681). Kashghar missions.—A. N. 858-61 (1664), 915 (1665), 984 (1666); M. A. 79 (1669), 228 (1683), 337 (1690). Shahar-nau.—M. A. 240 (1683).

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The royal fugitive reached the capital on 15th March, and was welcomed on the way by the Grand Wazir and the Paymaster, and presented to the Emperor, who cordially received him, shook hands with him, seated him near his person and dined with him. The guest was lodged in a fine mansion on the Jamuna which had been furnished with the Emperor's own upholstery, and was daily supplied with food from the imperial kitchen. He roamed in the imperial pleasure gardens with his wives, and was treated to an elephant-combat, which was an exclusive prerogative of the Mughal sovereigns. After spending eight months in happiness at Delhi, he set out to visit Mecca. The same honours were done to him on the way to the port of embarkation. The Mughal Government spent on this august guest ten lakhs of Rupees in all or 1½ million livres of the French money of the time. In August 1670 he reached Surat on his return from Mecca, received one lakh of Rupees more from the treasury, and settled at Delhi, where he died in extreme old age, on 20th October, 1675.*

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There were a few scholars and merchants in Central Asia with whom Aurangzib regularly corresponded. One such was Khwajah Abdul Ghaffar of Trans-Oxiana, to whom he used to write letters describing his conquests in the Deccan during his second viceroyalty and his victories over his brothers. These foreign friends were not forgotten after his accession. Abdul Ghaffar was presented with Rs. 12,000 in 1660 and again in 1661, with Rs. 5,000 in 1663, Rs. 10,000 in 1665, and Rs. 14,000 in 1667. Other Khwajahs of that country were similarly enriched with purses from Aurangzib.†

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† Abdul Ghaffar,—letters in Adab, 131b—135b, gifts in A. N. 462, 605, 848, 876, 1035. Other Khwajahs, A. N. 605. Khwajahs of Juibar in A. N. 1063.

§6. Relations with Turkey and Abyssinia.

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Turkey in Europe was too remote from India and probably also too dissimilar in civilization to come within the sphere of Aurangzib's interests. Late in life, in June 1690, he received the only embassy from Constantinople, charged with a letter for him. It should be noted that both in the Mughal official record of this event and also in an Arabic letter written by Shah Jahan in November 1651 to the ruler of Turkey, the latter is spoken of merely as the *Cæsar of Rome*, i.e., the master of the Eastern Roman Empire, and never as *Khalifa* or ‘Commander of the Faithful,’ though his titles fill five lines in the Khuda Bakhsh MS. where the letter is given in full. So, too, Shah Abbas II. addresses the lord of Constantinople as the *Khundkar of Rome* and not as *Khalifa* or *Sultan*. In fact, the ruler of every Muhammadan State (including the orthodox Aurangzib) called himself the only lawful successor of the Prophet and the *Khalifa of the Age*, without admitting the least superiority, temporal or spiritual, on the part of the sovereign who held the holy places of Arabia. The theory that the Sultan of Turkey is the spiritual head of the Muslim world is a fiction of the late nineteenth century, which we owe to the Indian pilgrims to Mecca.*

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∗ Abdullah Khan in India, A. N. 1064 66; M. A. 71-76, 105, 113, 143; Storia, iii. 190-193.

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With the Turkish possessions in Arabia, however, Aurangzib had more intimate contact. In 1661, Husain Pasha, the governor of Basra, sent an agent with a congratulatory letter and the gift of some Arab steeds and Georgian slaves to the Emperor. Both master and man were highly rewarded. In 1669 this Pasha fell under his sovereign's displeasure and was removed from his office. Afraid to return to Constantinople, and yet unable to remain at Basra, he preferred exile from home, and at first went with his family to Persia, where he met with such a cold reception from the Shah that he turned to the rich Court of Delhi. Aurangzib welcomed the refugee (1st July), sending the highest grandees of the Court to meet him on the way and usher him into the Presence. The Pasha was graciously stroked on the back by the imperial hand as he stooped to kiss the throne, and was immediately raised to the rank of a Commander of Five Thousand with the title of Islam Khan, while his two sons also got high *mansabs*. After some delay and hesitation the family settled in India and rose to eminence in the service of the State.

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∗ Turkish envoy to Aurangzib. *M. A.* 337. Shah Jahan's letter, Waris's *Padishahnamah*, 55a—56b. Shah Abbas II.'s letters to the ruler of Turkey, his *Ruqat*, 2-7, 10-13. In January 1667, Aurangzib contemplated sending Shah Khwajah to Turkey (*Akhbarat* 2/3), but evidently nothing came of it. In Irvine MS. 350, *f.* 40a, in an anecdote ascribed to Aurangzib, the ruler of Turkey is similarly designated "Cæsar of Rome."

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Yahiya Pasha, who had succeeded Husain Pasha in the government of Basra, gave up his post, came to Delhi in August 1671, and was enrolled in the Mughal peerage.∗

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∗ Basra mission, *A. N.* 606, 619, 636; *Storia*, ii. 115. Husain Pasha, *M. A.* 85—87, 121; *M. U.* i. 241—247. Yahiya Pasha, *M. A.* 110.

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Some petty chiefs of Arabia also formed friendly relations with the Court of Delhi. From the governor of Hadramaut or Southern Arabia lying north-east of Aden, messengers and letters were received by Aurangzib in March 1665, March 1667, and again in August 1692. Imam Ismail, the governor of Yaman or S. W. Arabia, presented nine Arab horses in March 1665. In 1667 a letter was received from the governor of Mokah.

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With the Powers of Africa, Aurangzib had very slight connection. A Sayyid of Barbary (Maghrib) who served at the temple of Kaba in Mecca, sent him a complimentary letter in 1665. But in May 1683 Sayyid Ahmad, the brother of the ruler of Barbary, came to India and was presented with Rs. 5,000. The official history records that in March 1665, Siddi Kamil presented himself before the Emperor with a letter from the king of Abyssinia, and that he was given conge next month. This "Ethiopian embassy" is the subject of a dispute between Bernier and Manucci, the former maintaining that they were genuine envoys robbed of their all by Shivaji at Surat, and the latter holding them to be sharpers who tried to repair their bankrupt fortunes by posing as ambassadors and playing upon Aurangzib's well-known zeal for spreading Islam. Though the king of Abyssinia was a Christian, his envoys produced a letter in which he begged money from Aurangzib for repairing a mosque which had been built in Abyssinia over the remains of a Muslim missionary from Mecca but pulled down by the Portuguese.* Manucci regards the letter as forged and the requests contained in it as "a thing incredible" and decides "simply from it that this embassy was fictitious."

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But there was such a large Muhammadan population in Abyssinia that I do not see anything strange in this request of its king. The fame of India as a milch cow had spread even further west than Ethiopia. Moreover, a second and unquestionable embassy from the same country visited Aurangzib in February or March 1671, and that proves the existence of diplomatic intercourse. In mediæval times, no doubt, traders and even pilgrims were sometimes charged by princes with letters for their very distant brethren, and such couriers often gave themselves the airs of ambassadors.

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∗ Hadramaut, A. N. 883, 886, 1035; M. A. 350. Yaman, A. N. 886; Bernier, 113. Mokah, A. N. 1035. Barbary, A. N. 883, 886; M.A. 227. Abyssinia, A.N. 883, 886; Bernier, 134-144; Storia, ii. 110-114; M.A. 108 (1671). According to the official history, Rs. 2,000 was presented to the Abyssinian envoy, Siddi Kamil, and Rs. 12,000 to the king of that country, on 23 April, 1665. The ambassador who came from the same king in 1671 carried away Rs. 10,000 in gifts.