History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39.s6: §6. Relations with Turkey and Abyssinia.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39.s6
- Language
- English
§6. Relations with Turkey and Abyssinia.
v3.c39.s6.1
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.*
v3.c39.s6.2
∗ Abdullah Khan in India, A. N. 1064 66; M. A. 71-76, 105, 113, 143; Storia, iii. 190-193.
v3.c39.s6.3
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.
v3.c39.s6.4
∗ 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."
v3.c39.s6.5
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.∗
v3.c39.s6.6
∗ 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.
v3.c39.s6.7
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.
v3.c39.s6.8
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."
v3.c39.s6.9
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.
v3.c39.s6.10
∗ 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.