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

Islamic Slavery85) built the famous Qasr-i-Lal (Red Fort) in Delhi. Likewise, Kaiqubab built the city of Kilughari. Battutahtestifies that ‘It is their custom that the king’s palace is deserted on his death… and his successor builds anew palace for himself.’ 805 He noted of Delhi that it was ‘the largest city in the entire Muslim Orient,’ madeup of four contiguous cities, built by different sultans. 806Moreover, congested cities, with no modern sewage and garbage management systems, used to getdirty and uninhabitable quickly and a new city used to be built to replace it. Battutah and Babur recorded thedestruction of old cities because of moisture, which necessitated shifting to a new city where everything wasclean and tidy. Hindus, enslaved in large numbers, were engaged in cleaning up the dirt and in constructingnew cities for the largely city-dwelling Muslims. As already cited, Sultan Firoz Tughlaq had assembled180,000 slaves for his services. Of these, a contingent of masons and builders with 12,000 slaves may havebeen engaged in stone-cutting alone, estimates Lal. Emperor Babur recorded that ‘[only] 680 men workeddaily on my buildings in Agra…; while 1491 stone-cutters worked daily on my building in Agra, Sikri, Biana,Dulpur, Gwalior and Kuli (Aligarh). In the same way there were numberless artisans and workmen of everysort in Hindustan.’ 807Throughout Islamic rule, Muslim rulers of India built great mosques, monuments, mausoleums,citadels, palaces and cities as well as repaired them. Indisputably, the greatest Muslim achievements in Indiawere the great architectural monuments; their glares draw numerous visitors to India from around world eventoday. And it is the great multitude of enslaved Indians, who supplied unconditional labor as well as skills atall levels of their construction, with Muslim masters on watch with whips (Korrah) in their hands.A similar pattern in building palaces, monuments and cities of exquisite stature existed in other partsof the Islamic world. In Morocco, previous rulers had built great capital cities in Fez, Rabat and Marrakeshwith stunning palaces and monuments. When Sultan Moulay Ismail captured power in 1672, he decided tobuild a new imperial city at Meknes, which was to surpass the scale and grandeur of all great cities in theworld. He ordered to pull down all houses and edifices clearing a huge area for building a stunning palace,whose walls stretched many miles. The palace compound was to feature ‘various interlocking palaces andchambers’ extending in ‘endless succession across the hills and valleys around Meknes. There were to be vastcourtyards and colonnaded galleries, green-tiled mosques and pleasure gardens. He (the sultan) ordered thebuilding of a huge Moorish harem, as well as stables and armories, fountains, pools and follies.’ 808Sultan Moulay Ismail had wished to build a palatial city greater than that of King Louis XIV atVersailles, the greatest palace in Europe. In reality, he much outdid the Versailles palace. A British entourage,led by Commodore Charles Stewart, on a diplomatic mission to sign a peace treaty with Sultan Moulay Ismailand to free the English captives, visited the palace; they found it far larger than any building in Europe. Eventhe greatest and most opulent palace of King Louis XIV was much tinier. The most stunning edifice was theal-Mansur palace, which stood 150-feet high and was ‘surmounted by twenty pavilions decorated with glazedgreen tiles.’ 809The sultan’s palace was built exclusively by European slaves, aided by bands of local criminals. Thepalace was four miles in circumference and its walls were twenty-five feet thick. According to Windus,‘‘30,000 men and 10,000 mules were employed everyday in the building of the palace.’’ Every morning thesultan would appear to oversee the construction and give idea for the days work. Slaves would workmeticulously to finish the allotted work in time. As soon as he finished one project, he would start another.805. Ibid, p. 86,88806. Gibb, p. 194–95807. Lal (1994), p. 88808. Milton, p. 100–01809. Ibid, p. 102230