Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s2.t2: II. Trade and Commerce
Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s2.t2
- Language
- English
II. Trade and Commerce
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A succession of favourable crops always left a disposable surplus of corn in the village which was usually carried to the neighbouring towns or transported to a *mandi* (or market-town) for distribution over the country. Industrial goods were usually made or manufactured expressly for sale in a suitable market. The aristocracy of Hindustan was always in want of such goods which could only be imported from abroad. The Sultan was always on the lookout to replenish his stock of horses by importing them from neighbouring countries. All these and other similar demands stimulated the exchange and transport of goods within and without the country. In fact, both inland and foreign trade had a very long and continuous tradition in India. The problem of carriage and transport was solved fairly well for the merchants and carriers of goods. For communication on land, there were a number of roads and pathways running all over the country which were kept in good condition by the State for its administrative requirements, especially for the movement of big armies with their heavy baggage trains. The traders were allowed to make use of all these facilities on land.
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In the absence of modern nautical appliances and the use of steamships, a voyage on the sea was obviously full of real dangers, not the least from the sea pirates. But in spite of all dangers, coastal trading was popular with the Indians, and Arabs and other foreign merchants carried on trade with many countries. The dangers of loss or destruction on the sea were more than compensated by the amount of profit one successful voyage brought with it. Some of the foreign traders even maintained their establishments and organizations in various countries. Inside the country the carriers of goods were very well organized. All these conditions led to a fairly extensive activity both in internal trade and in foreign commerce.
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A. *Internal Trade.*—India has a very ancient business tradition, as has been pointed out, and the system of castes assigns a separate and major caste of *Vaisyas* expressly for the purpose of trading. The old trading classes of the *Gujaratis*, (or Marwaris) of the North and the *Chettis* of the South still occupy their ancient and honoured occupation and carry on their commercial activities. Until the last century, the old class of grain-carriers, known as *Banjaras* of Rajputana, still employed hundreds of thousands of oxen in their trade. Some of their caravans amounted to as many as 40,000 head of oxen.¹
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¹ Compare Tod, II, 1117.
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I have made a reference to the tiny market of the village. The city market will be described in another place. Besides business in the regular shops of the market, petty shopkeepers and dealers also carried on their business in movable stalls and on pack horses. Pedlars and itinerary dealers were common.² Bigger deals in commodities were made in special market towns or *mandis* which also served as convenient media of exchange for the surplus of corn or goods produced in the vicinity. Administrative centres like Multan and Lahore or capital cities like Delhi sometimes served as big clearing houses for whole provinces. At the annual or periodical fairs of a neighbouring town, the retail merchants and petty shopkeepers of the sorrounding places obtained their new stock of goods or replenished the old one. Special cattle fairs on a very large scale were held in well-known places for the sale of all kinds of cattle, e.g., horses, oxen, camels, cows and buffaloes, and people came long distances to buy or dispose of their animals.¹
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² Compare Salzmann, 244, for trade conditions in mediaeval England.
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¹ Compare Tod, II, iii-12, for a parallel from Marwar. ² Compare T., 13b. how orthodox Muslim opinion forbade trading in slaves and hoarding of corn, which was persistently ignored by the commercial classes. ³ Compare Barbosa, II, 73, for Gujarati Banias; many references in I. K. and Ibn Batuta for Khurasanis; B. 385 for Multanis and Banjaras. Compare also Le Bon (*vide* Urdu Translation, 91-2) who identifies both Multanis and Banjaras with two classes of the Jat community, which is now predominantly agricultural.
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Large-scale business was a preserve of special classes or particular communities. The petty business of a town was similarly in the hands of professional merchants. Certain classes of craftsmen preferred to sell their finished goods direct to the customer or to the dealer of those goods. All of them were guided by immemorial customs. There was no ethical code to regulate the nature of their commercial enterprise beyond what the State thought fit to lay down.² The most important business communities of Hindustan were the *Multanis* in the North and the Gujarati Banias on the West Coast; the latter dealt in both Indian and foreign goods and had even spread out into Malabar and Cochin where they dealt with goods ‘of every kind from many lands’. Foreign Muslim merchants were usually known as *Khurasanis*. They traded all over the country, and several other Muslim groups carried on their business in coastal towns. Some of the Caravanis or Banjaras also carried on business on their own account.³ The rulers of the coastal kingdoms in the Deccan accorded to foreign merchants certain extra-territorial rights and special concessions, in consideration for the heavy taxes these communities paid to their treasury. The merchants of Hindustan who carried on their business in the South enjoyed all these immunities and facilities.
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Among the classes which did not actively participate in internal and foreign trade, but depended upon it for their living we may mention the class of carriers of goods and the class of brokers. The Banjaras, whom we have mentioned earlier, carried on the business of conveying agricultural and other produce from one part of the country to another on a very extensive scale. Their migratory habits, their large stock of bullocks and bullock-carts and wagons and pack horses, and their intimate knowledge of the roads of the country specially fitted them for their task.¹ The Bhats of Rajputana took up the guiding of caravans on the road on the dangerous and insecure countryside of Gujarat and Rajputana.²
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¹ Compare the opinion of Malik Muhammad Jaisi, P., 484.
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² Compare many references in Tod; also in Sidi ‘Ali Reis.
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Big business on the coast and inside the country was usually done with the aid of an organized class of brokers who “skilfully raised the price of commodities by charging their commission to both parties of a deal”. When Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji decided to control the demand and the supply of his kingdom, particularly of Delhi, he had to suppress the class of brokers in his rough and ready manner.³ But as soon as the commercial activities were released from the control of the State, the brokers resumed their normal functions. By the time of Sultan Firuz Tughluq the business rules and practice of brokers were sufficiently important to find a place in the legal compendium of the reign.⁴ The system of agency was similarly known and practised. Legal agents (vakils) were regularly employed by principals to conduct business on their behalf.⁵ The native bankers discharged some of the commonly accepted functions of the present-day banking. They used to give loans and receive deposits or hundis.⁶ Among other facilities for trading we may note the system of lending money on interest. Bonds known as *Tamassuks* were regularly executed : and the law provided elaborate rules for the production and the examination of evidence and for fixing the rate of stipulated interest. All these rules were enforced by the judicial authorities in the kingdom.¹
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³ Compare Barani, B (MS.), 155.
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⁴ Compare F.F., 340b, that if a broker had negotiated the sale of a commodity between two parties and the transaction later fell through, without any fault on the part of the broker and after the terms of the deal had been agreed to, the broker was not bound to refund his commission, for it was to be considered his wages.
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⁵ Compare an illustration in W.M., 31b.
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⁶ Compare *Encyclopaedia Britannica*, 1929 Edition, Vol. III, 44, how among other functions banking provides : (1) Safe keeping for people's money. (2) A temporary investment for money paying interest so long as the money is retained and repaying the principal on its being claimed in accordance with the contract. (3) The provision of a means of payment—in credit money, Bank Notes and cheques, etc.; compare also Jain, 10, for a definition of indigenous banking of India. ‘Any individual or private firm, which, in addition to making loans, either receives deposits or deals in hundis or both’: also illustration in W.M., 31b, from the reign of the Lodis. Compare the opinion of Barani, how sometimes the indebted nobles transferred to these native bankers the right of holding a revenue-assignment or *Aqta* for a money consideration or a cash payment in advance (*vide* B., 63). Similarly Jain, 10, for *Itlaq* or the system of ‘cash-cards’ which developed under Sultan Firuz Tughluq. The soldiers were paid these cash-cards by the State in outlying places and the financiers of Delhi discounted them at a fixed rate of commission.
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¹ Compare T.F.I., 166, for an illustration.
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We shall treat the question of money-lenders separately from other business customs and practices. A whole class of people from both communities began to thrive on the business of lending money. They advanced loans to support commercial undertakings, but their principal business was to lend money at the most profitable rate of interest. These *Sahus* and *Mahajans*, as money-lenders and bankers were called, were extremely popular with all the upper classes whose extravagance and constant demand for money were proverbial. It is difficult to ascertain the rate of interest, but by comparing a number of stray statements of Amir Khusrau, we will put it for a rough calculation at 10 per cent. per annum on big sums and 20 per cent. on small or petty sums.² The system of these usurious loans and compound rates of interest led to the heavy indebtedness of the poorer people who borrowed small sums but could hardly pay back, while the greater resources of a noble and, in the last resort, his power and influence came to his rescue.³ Let us note in this connection, that people usually carried about their cash or valuables in *himyanis* or hollow belts of tough cloth, which they usually wore around their waist on a journey.⁴
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² Compare M.A., 150, for the Muslim money-lenders. Compare for the rates of interest K.K., 312, where Amir Khusrau mentions the rate of interest at one *Jital* per month for the principal sume of one *Tanka* or about 20 per cent per annum. In *I'jaz-i-khusravi*, Vol. I, 147, he definitely speaks of 10 per cent. per annum which probably applies to big sums. In *Matla-ul-anwar*, 150, he makes a similar reference to the system of monthly payment of interest.
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³ Compare the despairing wail of Lalla, of going to a country where there was no system of ‘debts nor anyone that lends’. *Vide* Temple, 185; also T., 15, on the evils of borrowing.
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⁴ Compare B. 130-1.
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As to the standards of commercial morality, let us remember that the moral standards of mediaeval merchants were usually low in every country, as is quite natural to expect in the absence of present organization and control. There were few means of earning a dishonest penny that the tradesmen did not try.
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Attempts at adulteration and fraudulent weights were quite common and no amount of sermonizing was effective in correcting them.¹ Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji instituted very severe punishments and a very rigid control over their dealings. Special market officials and spies were appointed to supervise them, and sometimes the Sultan even sent out young children in various disguises to detect their malpractices. When the Sultan had finally succeeded in suppressing or at least in temporarily retarding commercial dishonesty and busines frauds, he was acclaimed all over the kingdom and all his cruelties, even his want of faith, were forgotten in the enthusiasm of the moment.² It is a matter of satisfaction, however, that in spite of the insecurities of maritime trade and more or less complete freedom from government control, a very different moral atmosphere prevailed in coastal towns, where the Indian merchants dealt with foreign traders. The foreign travellers uniformly bear witness to the integrity and truthfulness of Indian merchants, to their honest methods of business, to their acuteness and to their measures and weights ‘that will turn by a hair of the head’.³
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¹ Compare Salzmann, 75, for an estimate of England; also *ibid.*, 241-2, for the sermon of Berthold of Ratisbon, on the dishonest ways of shopkeepers; compare I.K., I, 174; also Kabir, Shah, 162; especially the opinion and observations of Barani who warmly supports the measures of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji and in a description of the commercial classes, by no means the strongest, calls them ‘the biggest liars and the meanest of the seventy-two races’. *Vide* B., 316-7, 343.
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² Compare, for instance, the compliment paid to the Sultan by a famous theologian named Shams-ud-din, who came to India to advance the cause of Muslim religion but returned because of his disgust at the personal religion of the Sultan and the callous disregard of the latter for Muslim injunctions. According to him the success of Ala-ud-din in suppressing commercial fraud was a unique achievement ‘since the age of Adam’. (*Vide* B., 298).
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³ Compare Varthema, 168.
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It is not possible to form any accurate or even tentative estimate of the volume of internal trade of Hindustan. The villages together with their *mandis* were probably areas of comparatively brisk exchanges of commodities under ordinary peaceful conditions. We may say with confidence that Delhi and other provincial capitals were the focus of the internal trade of their respective territories and displayed considerable commercial activity. As a whole, the volume of internal trade was large except when thwarted by the monopoly of the State or rigid administrative control.¹ Various references are made to individual fortunes amassed through commercial enterprise by many business men. How far such estimtes reflect upon the currents of the internal trade or its volume is extremely uncertain.²
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¹ Compare Tod, II, 1110, for an illustration of the effect of monopoly on the internal trade of Rajputana : ‘Commerce has been almost extinguished within these last twenty years; and paradoxical as it may appear, there was tenfold more activity and enterprise in the midst of that predatory warfare, which rendered India one wide arena of conflict, than in these days of universal pacification. The torpedo touch of monopoly has had more effect on the kitars (i.e., rows of caravans) than the spear of the desert Sahariya.’
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² Compare, for instance, Frampton, 135; Major, 22, where Nicolo Conti mentions that the merchants between ‘Indo and Gange’ were so rich that one of them owned forty ships which he employed for the shipment of his own goods. All of them were estimated to be worth 50,000 ducats (gold pieces) each., Compare Jain, 10, for another instance of two bankers of the Jain community who built the finest Jain temple of Dilwara on Mount Abu at their own expense in the 12th century. According to Jain, the undertaking must have cost them ‘an enormous sum of money.’
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*B. Foreign Trade.*—India had always even in the ancient past substantial commercial relations with the outside world. In the period under review the rise of Islam and the Moorish supremacy over the seas had cut off India from direct commercial relations with Europe. This, however, did not affect the volume of Indian commerce or the distribution of Indian goods in western countries. Indian goods were carried by the Arab to the Red Sea and from there found their way to Damascus and Alexandria whence they were distributed all over the Mediterranean countries and beyond. These Indian goods reached the East African coast, the Malay Islands and China in the Far East, and other countries on the Pacific Ocean through the agencies of the Moorish merchants. India was similarly connected on the mainland with Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Persia through the Multan-Quetta route, the Khyber Pass, and the Kashmir routes. Caravans of merchants, familiar with these beaten tracks since ancient days, were frequently passing between India, Bukhara, Iraq, and even as far as Damascus.
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1. *The Sea-borne Trade.*—One great advantage of the sea-board was its comparative safety until the coming of the Portuguese about the middle of the 16th century. The land frontiers, on the other hand, were constantly menaced by the Mongol invaders. The sea-routes were in the hands of the Moorish merchants who had a more or less complete monopoly of the sea-borne trade of India, the volume of which was considerable. The chief articles of import were certain articles of luxury for the use of the upper classes and a general supply of all kinds of horses and mules.
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Among articles of luxury mention may be made of silks, velvets, and embroidered curtains together with other furnishings and decorations. We have already mentioned how brocade and silk stuffs were partly imported from Alexandria, ‘Iraq’ and China under Sultan Muhammad Tughluq. Similarly, we are informed by a chronicler that the royal stores of Gujarat were always provided with articles of luxury made in European countries.¹ By the time of Humayun these foreign goods were generally popular with the nobility and the royal families of Hindustan.² With the manufacture of guns, gun-powder, and other mechanical weapons, a new stimulus was given to the import trade of Hindustan. Gold, silver, copper, and Tutiya (blue vitriol) were also imported in small quantities.³
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¹ Compare T.A., I, 198 (Lucknow Edition).
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² Compare the use of Italian and Portuguese articles of decoration in the royal banquets of Humayun, described in a later chapter; compare, ibid., 423, for the use of gorgeous canopies with linings of European velvets and embroideries of Portugal, by Sultan Ibrahim Sur.
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³ Compare Yule, II, 398.
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There was a great demand for the supply of horses in Hindustan. Apart from the enormous military demand for the supply of horses, the animal was also commonly employed for conveyance, pleasure-riding and racing. The choice animals found a ready market in Hindustan. The fondness for horses was by no means confined to the Muslims. Hindus were equally anxious to revise their old-time ideas of military equipment and were slowly substituting horses for elephants. Thus there was a great demand for the supply of horses in Hindu States of Rajputana and the Deccan, especially in the latter, where climatic and other conditions discouraged the breeding of horses and the stock had to be replenished from outside from time to time. For the annual gifts of the Sultan, special arrangements were made to procure the best horses from every country, and a very good price was paid.⁴ Horses were also regularly purchased for the supply of the royal stables. We shall mention the import of horses through the land frontier later on. Let us note here that some thoroughbreds were brought from Dhofar (on the extremity of Yemen), others from Kis, Hormuz and Aden, and others still together with mules from Persia.¹
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⁴ Compare E.D., III, 578.
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¹ Compare the account of Marco Polo (who calls the mules ‘asses’) in Yule, I, 83-4; *ibid.*, Vol. II, 340: the account of Ibn Batuta, K.R., I, 156; compare a description of the invading army of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji at Chitor by, Malik Muhammad Jaisi who speaks of horses of many countries, Iraq, Turkistan, Balkh, Bhutan, etc. *Vide* P. (hin), 227.
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The exports of Hindustan were numerous and included a variety of indigenous products, especially grain and cotton cloth. Some of the countries round the Persian Gulf depended on India for their entire food supply.² The Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Malay Islands, and the East Coast of Africa were fairly extensive markets for Indian goods. The export trade of Hindustan was carried on mainly through the ports of Gujarat and Bengal. The principal exports of Gujarat consisted of precious stones, indigo, cotton, hides, and ‘many other kinds of merchandise too tedious to mention.’ The cotton cloth and other textiles were especially important items of export.³ Other minor exports consisted of cornelians, gingelly oil, southernwood, spikenard, tutenag, opium, indgo-cakes, and certain other drugs unknown to Europeans, but greatly esteemed by the people of Malacca and China.⁴ The exports in agricultural produce consisted of large quantities of wheat, millet, rice, pulses, oilseeds, scents, and other similar articles. This list is, however, by no means exhaustive. According to Varthema, Bengal was the richest country in the world for cotton, ginger, sugar, grain, and flesh of every kind. Barbosa considers sugar the chief article of export from Bengal, and in other respects substantially agrees with the statement of Varthema.⁵ Barros observes that the wealth of Bengal before the rise of Sher Shah to power was considered equal in amount to the joint wealth of Gujarat and Vijayanagar.⁶ How far it depended on its export trade is not clear.
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² Compare, for instance, the account of Ibn Batuta, K.R., I, 157, that the inhabitants of Qalhat lived almost entirely on Indian goods, grain, cloth, etc.; *ibid.*, 156, that rice, the staple food of Yemen, was imported from India.
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³ Compare Yule, II, 398; Major, 9; Frampton, 127. Compare the account of Barbosa that ‘many cotton muslins for veils and other white and coarse cloth of the same’ were sent to many countries on the Persian Gulf and the Malay Islands in ships. Among exports of Gujarat, he mentions a variety of printed cloths, silks, and muslins (*vide* following). Nikitin includes blankets among Gujarat exports (*vide* Major, 19).
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⁴ Compare Barbosa, I, 154-156.
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⁵ *Ibid.*, Vol. II, 145-147.
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⁶ Compare Barbosa, II, Appendix, 246.
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It is almost impossible to determine the volume of foreign trade of Hindustan, as no statistics were ever kept of the imports and exports. Compared to the huge and growing figures of to-day, the volume of foreign trade was probably very small. Khambayat (Cambay) in Gujarat and Bangala in Bengal were the two important ports in the North for foreign trade.¹ According to Varthema, these two ports supplied all ‘Persia, Tartary, Turkey, Syria, Barbary, that is Africa, Arabian Felix, Ethiopia, India’, and a multitude of other inhabited islands with silk and cotton stuffs. He speaks of about three hundred ships of different countries visiting Khambayat every year. His estimate of the output of cotton and silk for Bengal comes to fifty ship-loads.² The average tonnage and the loading capacity of a ship is, however, unascertainable, and, except for a general statement, the whole information is very vague. It shows that India had considerable markets round the Persian Gulf and in the countries bordering on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean; but we know nothing about the demands of those countries and their capacity for the consumption of these goods. We can only say that the carrying trade of India, its potential wealth and the opportunities for development, and finally, the Indian market itself, were sufficiently vast to attract the Portuguese king who safely expected to be the richest king of the world in the event of conquering India.³
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¹ For ‘Bangala’ see Appendix, Moreland, ‘India at the death of Akbar’.
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² Compare Varthema, 111, 212.
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³ Compare the concluding remarks of Varthema addressed to the King of Portugal, 296.
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The share of Indians in the oversea carrying trade was not very considerable. The trade and shipping on the Indian coast were mainly in the hands of the foreigners, chiefly Arabs. A small community of Indian traders composed of Gujarati Banias, the Chettis of the South, and some Moors, who are domiciled in India, had some share in foreign trade and mercantile marine. Now and then a few other Indians were attracted towards these profitable enterprises.⁴ But on the whole, the Indians never took to sea-farming and maritime activities on a big scale. Their manners and customs and the whole of their outlook discouraged any such venture on a national scale.
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⁴ Compare, for instance, the observation of Mahuan, on a class of rich people in Bengal who built ships and took to commerce with foreign nations. He even reports that a Sultan of Bengal fitted out ships and sent them out for foreign trade (vide J.R.A.S., 1895, 533); compare also I.G.I.
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2. *Trade through the Land Frontiers.*—The trade of India through its land frontiers is, as we have said, very old. In spite of the Mongol menace during most of this period, the caravans of merchants never ceased to come. In fact, the inhabitants of Turkistan and the Mongols themselves, whenever they found a respite from their more profitable occupation of raiding the territories of their neighbours, carried on an extensive trade in musk, furs, arms, falcons, camels, and horses.¹ We have already referred to the merchants of Khurasan, the Turkish and Chinese slaves, and a kind of cloth named *Shustari*, probably from Shustar. After the Mongols had ceased to be a menace, probably greater commercial activity was displayed through the land frontiers. Under Babur and Humayun, when the trade conditions could not be called normal or stable as far as these frontiers are considered, we find caravans coming to India from outside, and other references of contact. Under Akbar² and for a long time afterwards, the more peaceful conditions must have affected the trading activities in this part of India very favourably.
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¹ Compare the account of Fakhr-ud-din Mubarak Shah, T.F.M. 38.
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² Compare, for Babur, Macauliffe, I, 51, where trade relations between Delhi, Multan, and Kabul appear to be a familiar feature of commercial life in the Punjab; compare (A.N., I, 207) the account of Abu'l Fazl for the items of royal entertainments and the menu of banquets and food supply for Humayun in Persia, which includes the preparations of many Indian sweets and foods. For the frequent visits of caravans, compare *ibid.*, I, 242, 299.
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Horses were the principal article of import, though other articles of luxuries and especially furs and arms were also in demand.³ Horses were imported into India in very large numbers even in periods of the Mongol menace, and their comparatively, cheaper prices secured a ready market in Delhi. People of ‘Azaq’ in Turkistan specially bred horses for export to Hindustan and developed an elaborate organization for their safe
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³ Compare K.R., I, 239, for the import of silk and velvet garment from Nishapur, ‘one of the four capitals of Khurasan’; also Marco Polo, Yule, I, 90, for the manufacture of steel for Indian swords in Kerman.
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for observations on some districts in the Bombay Presidency, *e.g.*, Thana, Ratnagiri, Surat, etc.
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carriage and attendance on the way.¹ On entering the Indian territory these animals were usually taxed to a quarter of their value. Under Sultan Muhammad Tughluq, these import duties were reduced and the owners of the horses had to pay a fixed tax of seven Tankas per horse on entering the border of Sind and a further duty at Multan,² all of which came cheaper than before. It is not possible to give even a vague estimate of the volume of trade carried on over the land frontiers.
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¹ Compare the account of Ibn Batuta, K.R., I, 199-200. The people of Azaq exported horses to India in droves of 6,000 or thereabout. Various merchants had a share of about 200 horses each in these herds. For each fifty horses, they engaged the services of a keeper called Qashi who looked after them and their feeding on the way.
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² Ibid.
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*Foreign Merchants in Hindustan.*—The contemporary chroniclers sometimes complain of the profiteering character of the foreign merchants in India and their utter want of sympathy with Hindustan and its people. We have already mentioned the instance of foreigners under Muhammad Tughluq.³ Many others may be added to justify the validity and force of the accusation. It is usually forgotten that the foreign traders who came to India had no particular attachment to any country and went wherever the prospects of big profits attracted them. Some of them might have been interested in spreading the religion of Islam⁴; others may have married and settled down and thus cultivated some sympathy towards the land of their domicile.⁵ But on the whole, the foreign traders as a community were only interested in carrying on their business and making profits. It should not be forgotten, however, that the contact of foreigners incidentally contributed to the improvement of certain unhealthy social traditions, and raised the standard of life of certain localities. The coastal towns of India and inland centres, such as Multan, Lahore, Delhi and Gaur, which were favourite haunts of foreign merchants, were the most progressive centres of Hindustan in many respects.
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³ Compare a petition quoted by Amir Khusrau (vide I.K., II, 319); It is addressed to a highly placed administrative official of Delhi on behalf of a citizen, and solicits his intervention against a foreign merchant. The petitioner summarizes in a sentence his main indictment. 'Since the stream of gold flows through our majestic city of Delhi', writes the indignant Amir Khusrau, 'the tribe of foreign merchants pretend to be on terms of best friendship with us, only to ruin the foundations of our prosperity in the long run'.
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⁴ Ibid.
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⁵ Compare Macauliffe, I, 146-47, for an interesting case of a newly converted Sikh merchant who goes to Ceylon for purposes of trade and preaching the mission of Guru Nanak. The Moors, like most of the Muslims, were well known for their proselytising tendencies.