A History of Agriculture in India v2.c62.s3: Slave-Raiding
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c62.s3
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- English
Slave-Raiding
v2.c62.s3.1
A method of proselytization to Islam adopted by the Turks was slavery. The Ottoman Turks adopted the systems of raising troops, the Janissarries, from the Christian boys of the conquered European territories like Bulgaria and Thrace. They were delivered up each year by their parents as a form of tribute. There was a tax on every Christian family of one boy in five. They were put into Muslim schools, separated from all home or family ties, brought up in the faith of Islam, and forbidden to marry. Imbued thus with an undivided allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan and religion of Islam, upon which all their aspirations hung, when their training was completed they entered the infantry or civil service.
v2.c62.s3.2
In India the Turks adopted the system of slave-raiding. The slaves (or *bandagan*, as they were called) were all converted to Islam. Shams-i-Siraj describes in great detail, how the slaves were obtained. 'The Sultan was very diligent in providing slaves, and he carried his care so far as to command his great fief-holders and officers to capture slaves whenever they were at war, and to pick out and send the best for the service of the court. When the feudatories went to court, each one according to his ability took with him beautiful slaves, dressed and ornamented in the most splendid style. They also, when they paid their annual visit, brought other presents suited to their means and station—high-priced horses of the best breeds, fine elephants, valuable garments of every kind, vessels of gold and silver, arms, camels and mules—each man according to the extent of his fief, some as many as a hundred, some fifty, some twenty, and some eleven. They also brought slaves.
v2.c62.s3.3
'Those chiefs who brought many slaves received the highest favour, and those who brought few received proportionately little consideration. When the chiefs perceived the Sultan’s eagerness for slaves, and that their efforts to get them were highly appreciated, they exerted themselves in providing them, and the numbers brought every year exceed description. Great numbers of slaves were thus collected, and when they were found to be in excess, the Sultan sent them to Multan, Dipalpur, Hisar-Firozah, Samana, Gujarat, and all the other feudal dependencies.
v2.c62.s3.4
'Some of the slaves spent their time in reading and committing to memory the holy book, others in religious studies, others in copying books. Some, with the Sultan's leave, went to the temple at Mecca. Some were placed under tradesmen and were taught mechanical arts, so that about 12,000 slaves became artisans (kasib) of various kinds. Forty thousand were every day in readiness to attend as guards in the Sultan's equipage or at the palace. Altogether, in the city and in the various fiefs there were 180,000 slaves, for whose maintenance and comfort the Sultan took especial care. The institution took root in the very centre of the land, and the Sultan looked upon its due regulation as one of his incumbent duties. To such an extent were matters carried that there was a distinct muster-master (majmu-dar) of the slaves, a separate treasury for the payment of their allowances, a separate jao-shughuri, and deputy jao-shughuri, and a distinct diwan, that is to say, the officers for administering the affairs of the slaves (ashab-i' diwan-i bandagan), were entirely distinct from those under the Prime Minister (ashab-i diwan-i' ala-e wizarat).
v2.c62.s3.5
'When the Sultan went out in State the slaves accompanied him in distinct corps—first the archers, fully armed, next the swordmen, thousands in number (hazār hazār), the fighting men (bandagan-i award), the bandagan-i mahili riding on male buffaloes, and slaves from the Hazara, mounted on Arab and Turki horses, bearing standards and axes. These all, thousands upon thousands, accompanied the royal retinue. The slaves increased to such a degree that they were employed in all sorts of domestic duties, as water coolers, butlers (etc., etc.). In fact there was no occupation in which the slaves of Firoz Shah were not employed.'¹
v2.c62.s3.6
¹ Shams-i-Siraj 'Afif. Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, in Elliot and Dowson, The History of India..., Vol. III, pp. 340, 341 and 342
Linked texts (1)
- Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf