The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c14.1

c14.1

Of this arm of the service it is doubtful whether the Moghuls knew much before they descended into the plains of India under Bābar. What they did know was probably borrowed from the Turks and from Constantinople. Nor could the art and science of gunnery have been very advanced in India itself, when the Moghuls arrived in that country in the first half of the 16th century. In the earlier Moghul period, at any rate, the emperors were dependent for their artillery on the help and instruction of Rūmīs, that is, Mahomedans from Constantinople, or of Farangis, principally run-away sailors from Sūrat, or Portuguese half-castes (Horn, 29). Rūmī Khān was a well known officer of the first of these classes. Of either the real Europeans or their half-caste Portuguese substitutes, we find little or no mention. The Indian Mahomedans ignored as much as possible the services of the Christians and Europeans in their employment. Possibly this may have been due to the contempt which they really felt for Christian foreigners and their abhorrent ways. The slight consideration with which Mahomedan nobles treated Europeans, even those of some position, up to the middle of the 18th century, can be learnt from the statements in a letter written about that time by the celebrated Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau (R. O. Cambridge, “War”, Introduction, xxix, xxx). Similarly, Hājī Mustapha, a very acute observer, remarks about our early successes in Bengal, “But hear a Moghul, or read any of their relations, it seems that the whole revolution hangs on the Moghols themselves only, and if any mention at all is made of foreigners, it is only to hint that Jafer Ali Chan gave also his protection to a few hundred frenghees, headed by one Clive, whom the new Nabob and his party saved from imminent destruction”. (Dalrymple, “Or. Repertory”, ii, 217). The same feeling was shown by the governor of Orissa in 1633, when he insisted that Cartwright, an English trader, should kiss his foot, C. R. Wilson, “Early Annals”, i, 8.