Mughal Administration c13.s7: § 7. Nobles' families held by the Emperor as hostages.
Mughal Administration c13.s7
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§ 7. Nobles' families held by the Emperor as hostages.
c13.s7.1
The sovereign had another hold upon the nobility in Mughal times. The peerage consisted largely of able adventurers from Central Asia and Persia and a few from the Turkish empire. The Persians were most highly valued for their polished manners, literary ability, and capacity for managing the finance and accounts. There was always a keen desire on the part of the Mughal emperors to seduce to their service the higher officers of the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of Turkey because, as Aurang-zib frankly says, the Persians were intellectually far superior to the Indian Muhammadans, while the western Turks brought with them something of European culture and science. For such officers, when they fell into disgrace in their homeland or dreaded the wrath of their native sovereign, a flight to India opened a road to honour, power and wealth far surpassing what they had enjoyed at home. This stream of recruits, who contributed much to the success and glory of the Mughal empire, naturally dried up on account of the increasing anti-Shia spirit displayed by Aurangzib in his latter years and the preponderant Sunni majority of the Indian Muslim population, and partly also on account of the rapid decay of the royal power and civilisation of Persia under the later Safavi Shahs at the end of the 17th century. But so long as it lasted, high-born Persian and Arab refugees in India were welcomed and the Emperors were glad to marry their sons and grandsons to the daughters of these newcomers.
c13.s7.2
The latter, however, had to give hostages for their fidelity to their new master. No Persian or Turkish refugee was confirmed in any high post or promoted to independent command, so long as he did not bring his family from his native land and settle them in India, for that was the surest means of preventing their escape from this country. They had also to place one of their sons as their representative (*wakil*) at Court, really as a hostage for their good conduct during their absence in the provinces. The Hindu Rajahs had to do the same.