History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s6.t1.3

v5.c84.s6.t1.3

Gujrat was, therefore, pre-eminently the gate of India in Mughal times, in respect of the outer Muslim world. Though a small stream of immigrants and traders filtered in through the Afghan passes, yet Surat and Broach were the most convenient and most frequented entrances to India for Southern Asia and Eastern Africa. Through Surat passed the enormous volume of Muslim pilgrims to the holy cities of Arabia and of Shia votaries to the shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Travellers, merchants, scholars, fortune-hunters, and political refugees from Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Zanzibar and even Khurasan and Barbary used to enter India through the Gujrat ports by the short comfortable cheap and usually safe ocean highway, while the land route across the Sulaiman and Hindu Kush ranges fell into growing neglect from the early 16th century onwards.