History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39.s6.1

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.*