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Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c9.s5: 5.5. Gifts to Caliphs, Mecca and Medina

Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c9.s5

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5.5. Gifts to Caliphs, Mecca and Medina

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The generosity of Muslim rulers was not confined to Musalmans in India alone. It extended to Muslims anywhere and everywhere. In the case of sending presents and wealth to the Caliphs and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina their liberality was unrestricted.

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Lot of wealth was sent to the Caliph by the sultans of Hindustan. The first four Caliphs were directly related to the Prophet. Muawiyah, the founder of the Ummayad Caliphate, was a cousin and Abbas (the ancestor of the Abbasid Caliphate) an uncle of Prophet Muhammad. There was therefore very great reverence for the Caliphs in the world of Islam. The Abbasids had built up a large empire with capital at Baghdad.¹⁵¹ Its provinces were administered by the Turkish slave governors and Turkish mercenary troops. These Turkish governors became independent in course of time but officially they were only slaves. So they thought it politic to pay tribute to the Khalifa and in return seek from him recognition of their 'sovereignty'. The Arab invader Muhammad bin Qasim as well as the later governors of Sindh used to read the *khutbah* in the name of the Ummayad Caliph and used to send him the legal one-fifth part of the booty (Khams).¹⁵² For example, when Muhammad bin Qasim attacked Debal, "700 beautiful females, who were under the protection of Budh (that is, had taken shelter in the temple) were all captured with their valuable ornaments..." Muhammad despatched seventy-five damsels as Khams to Hajjaj. Thereafter, whichever places he sacked he slew the men and captured the women and children, and batches of them were despatched to the Caliph at regular intervals. On one occasion alone 20,000 slaves of both sexes were sent to the Caliph.¹⁵³ The amount of cash and valuables sent to Caliph counted to 120 million dirhams (120 thousand dirhams according to Al-Kufi).

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Mahmud Ghaznavi's campaigns in India had Caliphal blessings. In return, Mahmud was always careful to inscribe the Caliph's name on his coins, and send to Baghdad presents from the plunder of his campaigns.¹⁵⁴ These consisted of large amounts of all kinds of wealth including indigo, the valuable dyestuff which was collected as tribute from India.¹⁵⁵ The accession of Mahmud's successor Masud was not peaceful and, therefore, soon after coming to the throne he applied to the Khalifa for recognition of his title to succession. "He sent an envoy to Qadir Billah, and promising to send him every year a sum of 2,00,000 *dinars*, 10,000 pieces of cloth, besides other presents, requested him to recognise his claim. The Khalifa was pleased to send him a formal investiture..."¹⁵⁶ His successor continued with the tradition. By such remittances the sultans obtained recognition and moral support of the Caliph while the latter gained in financial resources and remained supreme in the Islamic world.

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Like the Ghaznavids the Ghaurids were also alive to the importance of obtaining the confirmation of their sovereignty from the Caliphs of Baghdad. Ghiyasuddin, the elder brother of Muizzuddin or Muhammad Ghauri, obtained sanctions from the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad. The earliest Muslim rulers of Hindustan were originally slaves, and it was recognised in all quarters that their position as rulers would be buttressed if they could receive caliphal recognition. Tajuddin Yilduz, the ruler of Ghazni, obtained the Caliph's sanction for his authority. After Yilduz and Qubacha had been destroyed by Iltutmish, the latter received the investiture from the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah as a legal sanction of his monarchy.¹⁵⁷ The formal patent of investiture was called *manshur* and the robe of honour, turban, swords, ensigns and other gifts were called *karamat*.

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It is not known if Iltutmish had requested the Khalifa for it, or how much wealth and presents he sent in return, but he must have sent lot of wealth as that was but customary.

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Muhammad bin Tughlaq probably crossed all limits of generosity in sending the Caliph enormous wealth. Surely the Sultan must have sent a substantial amount, because when Ghiyasuddin, who was only a descendent of the extinct caliphal house of Baghdad, visited India, Muhammad's bounty knew no bounds. Writing on the basis of Muslim histories, Wolseley Haig says that "the vessels in his (Ghiyasuddin's) palace were of gold and silver, the bath being of gold and on the first occasion of his using it a gift of 400,000 *tangas* was sent to him; he was supplied with male and female servants, and slaves. He was allowed a daily sum of 300 *tangas*, though much of the food consumed by him and his household came from the royal kitchen; he received in fee the whole of Alauddin's city of Siri, one of the four cities (Delhi, Siri, Tughlaqabad, and Jahanpanah) which composed the capital, with all its buildings, and adjacent gardens and lands and a hundred villages; he was appointed governor of the eastern district of the province of Delhi; he received thirty mules with trappings of gold; and whenever he visited the court he was entitled too receive the carpet on which the king sat." And all this wealth was bestowed on a "mean and miserly" wretch who could not bear to see others eating good food and who did not return a loan he owed to Ibn Battutah.¹⁵⁸ If this treasure was given to a scion of a house which had become defunct, how much more was sent to the living Caliph at Cairo, is difficult to sumrise. No wonder it elicited a comment from the contemporary chronicler Ziyauddin Barani: "So great was the faith of the Sultan in the Abbasid Khalifas," says he, "that he would have sent all his treasures in Delhi to Egypt, had it not been for the fear of robbers."¹⁵⁹ That is how the wealth of India, milked from the labours of the poor, was squandered on foreign Muslims. No wonder that because of the generosity of the Sultan in his time the Caliphal investitures were. received more than once. Muhammad Tughlaq included the names of Abbasid al-Mustakfi and his successors al-Wathiq I and al-Hakim in his *khutbah* and inscribed on his coins their names to the exclusion of his own.¹⁶⁰ Such an attitude of subservience combined with munificence encouraged the Caliph to send to Muhammad's successor Firoz Tughlaq, a patent of investiture entrusting to him the territories of Hind.

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With the fall of the Tughlaq dynasty the name of the Caliph was dropped from Delhi coins. But the outflow of wealth did not cease. To the Saiyyad rulers, Timur and his successors played the role of the Caliphs. It is they who provided moral and material support to Saiyyad sultans. More than once, role of honour came from Shah Rukh to Delhi for Khizr Khan and Mubarak Khan. In return annual tribute was sent to Shah Rukh.¹⁶¹ Sultan Muhammad Saiyyad also remained loyal to him.¹⁶² It was not only the sultans of Delhi, but also of Jaunpur and Bengal who called themselves vice-regents of the Abbasid Caliphs.¹⁶³ The Caliph al-Mustanjid Billah sent to Sultan Mahmud Khalji of Malwa robes of honour and a letter patent. Mahmud accepted the gifts of the Khalifa with due honour and gave in return to the envoy *tashrifat*, and a large amount of gold and silver. Even some rebels of the Delhi Sultanate received the caliphal investiture¹⁶⁴ in return for gifts of money and gold and slaves. Needless to add that money, gifts and presents were sent to Caliphs; not only to Caliphs but also to Mecca and Medina and to Muslim brethren in their homelands

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*Mecca and Medina*

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This is borne out by some figures available for the Mughal period.

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In war and peace, gifts were regularly sent to Mecca (Makka) and Medina (Madinah). The Prophet had ensured prosperity of Arabia permanently through income from Hajj pilgrimage and presents from pious Muslims to these holy centres of Islam. If the sultans sent treasures to Caliphs, the Mughals excelled in forwarding gifts and charities, gold and silver, to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. "He made Hajj i.e., pilgrimage to the Kaaba, an old pre-Islamic Arab rite, a basic tenet of his religion to impress upon foreign Muslims the sanctity of Arabia, and create an ever lasting source of income for the Arabs." This "income counted as the mainstay of the Arabs before they discovered their oil wealth".¹⁶⁵

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Some interesting information is available from the west coast, where Muslim traders had settled, regarding numbers of gifts being sent to the Muslim holy cities from earliest times. A lengthy bilingual inscription from Somnath Patan in Arabic and Sanskrit dated 662 H/1264 CE mentions about Nakhuda Nuruddin Firoz, the ship master. He built a mosque on land which was either purchased or gifted by Briha Raja Chhada. Provision was made by Nuruddin for *muallims* and *muazzins*. "Any surplus which remained was to be sent to Mecca and Medina." The lengthy Sanskrit text has a shorter Arabic counterpart. Missing in the Sanskrit is the significant invocation: "... in the city of Somnath, may God make it one of the cities of Islam and (banish) infidelity and idols." Another inscription from Junagarh mentions an Arab ship master who was "the prop of the pilgrims to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina".¹⁶⁶

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With the arrival of Babur information about such gifts abounds. Babur sent to holy men belonging to Samarqand and Khurasan offerings vowed to God (*nuzur*); so too to Mecca and Medina. "We gave one *shahrukhi* for every soul in the country of Kabul and the vale-side of Varsak, man and woman, bond and free, of age or non-age."¹⁶⁷

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Akbar regularly sent money and gifts to Mecca and Medina. "Though debarred from leaving Hindustan himself, he helped many others to fulfill this primary duty of their faith, and opened wide his purse for their expenses. Each year he named a leader of the caravan and provided him with gifts and ample funds for the two cities. When Gulbadan Begum, his paternal aunt, went for Hajj, Sultan Khwaja, Gulbadan's cicerone, took among other presents, 12,000 dresses of honour."¹⁶⁸ As mentioned earlier both Akbar and Jahangir sent to the religious men of Persia, Rum and Azarbaijan subsistence allowance on the principle: "Wealth is from God... and these are his servants", be they in Hindustan or any other Muslim country.¹⁶⁹ "Shahjahan despatched to Mecca an amber candlestick covered with a network of gold and inlaid with gems and diamonds by his own artisans. It was a most gorgeous piece of work turned out by the craftsmen, worth two and a half lacs of rupees."¹⁷⁰

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These are just a few specimens. Kings and nobles and rich Hajis regularly sent out wealth from India to Mecca and Medina.

Cites (3)