islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic JihadThe greatest pain and sufferings that slaves endured were the physical ones: hunger, thirst anddisease. Physical pain and sufferings started immediately after the capture and continued until they arrived atthe destination. The destinations were often situated thousands of miles away in foreign lands, where theywere herded like common animals through difficult terrains. The captives used to be kept in chains until soldto their ultimate masters. Sometimes, a slave changed handed up to twenty times.An example of how the journey began for slaves can be found in the description of King Jaipal’senslavement by Sultan Mahmud. According to al-Utbi, ‘his (Jaipal’s) children and grand children, hisnephews and the chief men of his tribe, and his relatives, were taken prisoners, and being strongly boundedwith ropes, were carried before the Sultan like common evil-doers… Some had their arms forcibly tied behindtheir backs, some were seized by the neck, some were driven by blows on their neck.’ 772It should be understood that Sultan Mahmud sometimes spent months on his campaigns in Indiacapturing slaves in tens to hundreds of thousands along the way. These captives, tied together in anuncomfortable and agonizing condition, were then driven away to his capital in Ghazni, hundreds tothousands of miles away. The majority of these slaves used to be feeble women and children, who had totravel bare-footed under such uncomfortable conditions through rugged terrain and jungles, sometimes formonths. When Timur embarked on his expedition to India, it lasted four–five months (Sept. 1398 to Jan.1399). Along the way, he had accumulated 100,000 slaves before reaching Delhi; they were intended to bedriven back to his capital Samarkhand in Central Asia. On his way back from Delhi, he captured another200,000 or more slaves and drove them to Samarkhand, thousands of miles away.These examples clearly point to the enormous physical strain, pain and sufferings endured bycaptives. Those who failed to keep up the pace, because of physical weakness and fatigue, received beating ofthe worst kind in order to keep them walking. There was little guarantee that such large numbers of captivesgot enough food and water along the way. Those who fell ill certainly did not receive required medicaltreatment. If they failed to carry on, they were abandoned half-alive to die on their own in the wilderness inagonizing pain or to be devoured by wild animals.The suffering of captives has been vividly recounted in an eyewitness account of Ulugh KhanBalban’s attack of King Kanhardeva of Jalor (Rajasthan), documented by Prabandha, a fifteenth-centuryIndian author. Referring to the large number of women and children taken slaves, tied and huddled together,the author wrote:He added:‘‘During the day, they bore the heat of the scorching sun, without shade or shelter as they were(in sandy Rajasthan deserts) and shivering cold during the night under the open sky. Children,torn away from their mother’s breasts and homes, were crying. Each one of the captives seems asmiserable as the other. Already writhing in agony due to thirst, the pangs of hunger… added totheir distress. Some of the captives were sick, some unable to sit up. Some had no shoes to puton and no clothes to wear…’’‘‘Some had iron shackles on their feet. Separated from each other, they were huddled togetherand tied with straps of hide. Children were separated from their parents, wives from theirhusbands, thrown apart by this cruel raid. Young and old were seen writhing in agony, as loudwailings arose from that part of the camp where they were all huddled up… Weeping andwailing, they were hoping that some miracle might save them even now.’’ 773772. Lal (1994), p. 22773. Ibid, p. 54–55223