Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4.s2.t4.1.2

c4.s2.t4.1.2

Great social reformers like Nanak, and saints and prophets like Kabir, Chaitanya or Nizam-ud-din Awliya, pass over them without much comment, and though rebelling against priesthood in no uncertain terms, they do not strive against these graver evils in the same characteristic and militant manner. The Muslims who could perhaps have taken a healthier and more detached view of the situation found no particular cause for complaint in the suppression of human personality through these glaring social evils, for it was not uncongenial to the whole of their outlook on life, as will be explained later. In other words, these social evils had become the normal features of their social organism in the eyes of both the Hindus and Muslims. There is a continuous series of these travellers from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. In the 13th century came the famous Marco Polo who started about 1273 on his long tour in Eastern Countries. In the 14th century followed the equally famous and for us the most important traveller, the famous Ibn Batuta who spent his whole life (1325-1354) in travelling throughout the Muslim world of that day. In the 15th century came at least five travellers whose accounts have come down to us. The century opens with a Chinese naval mission in 1405, the Muslim secretary of which, named Mahuan, recorded his observations on Bengal and Malabar. Sometime later followed Nicolo Conti (1419-1444).