A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.51

c6.51

Arab travellers and geographers begin to be a valuable source from the ninth century A.D. Much of the trade of the Indian Ocean was in the hands of Arabs from very early times, and with the rise of Islam there came a sudden expansion, the effects of which were not confined to religion and politics but spread to commerce and science. Muslim merchants enjoyed great prestige as the Prophet himself had been one of them. Before the end of the seventh century a colony of Muslim merchants had established themselves in Ceylon, and in 758 the Arabs and Persians settled in Canton were sufficiently numerous for them to be able to raise a tumult in the city and profit by the resulting confusion. Ibn Khurdadbeh, a Persian Muslim of Magian descent, is the first writer who claims mention here; his *Book of Routes and Kingdoms*, composed between 844 and 848 and still being revised in 885, covers wide ground but presents facts in a dry and often incomplete manner. Then, Abu Zaid Hassan of Siraf on the Persian Gulf, no great traveller himself, had many opportunities of meeting much-travelled merchants and scholars, the celebrated Masūdi among them. Abu Zaid declares (916) that his object was to supplement an earlier work on India and China with data drawn from his own studies and talks with persons who had travelled in the eastern countries. Abu Zaid's predecessor who wrote his work in 851 has often been identified with the merchant Suleiman who seems, however, to have been only one of the sources of information commanded by that unknown writer. Ibn al-Fakih, another writer of the early tenth century who slightly preceded Abu Zaid and Masūdi, also drew largely upon this anonymous writer; in fact it is a common trait of Arab writers to copy one another extensively and this absolves us from noticing in any detail many other authors of the tenth century. The illustrious Alberuni (1030) has little on South India and the celebrated historian and geographer Abulfeda (1273-1331) marks no great advance in knowledge relating to India. His notices of South India are brief, vague and secondhand, though he cites quite often the inveterate traveller and geographer Ibn Said (1214-86). The last and perhaps the most important Arab writer we must notice is the indefatigable Moorish explorer Ibn Batuta. Born in Tangier about 1300, he left his native place at the age of twenty-two, and continued to travel incessantly for the next thirty years. He died at Fez in 1377. He spent many years in India during the time when the mad tyranny of Muhammad bin Tughlak drove all the governors of provinces into open revolt, and led to the rise of independent kingdoms in different parts of the empire. By profession a doctor of the Muhammadan law and traditions, he was a good liver and keen observer of men and affairs. A good part of his work is devoted to an account of his travels and experiences in South India, and contains much accurate information on the state of politics, religion and society at the time.