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

Islamic SlaveryAfter direct Muslim rule began in Delhi (1206), the power and opportunity for making expeditionsagainst non-Muslim communities in the vast landscape of India greatly increased. The scale of enslavementand yield of slaves naturally increased during subsequent centuries, until apostate Akbar officially banned thedivinely sanctioned institution, but with only limited success. Enslavement was slowly revived after Akbar’sdeath in 1605; it peaked in the reign of orthodox Aurangzeb (d. 1707). It tapered down quickly after theBritish consolidation of power in India beginning in 1757.Once the sultanate was founded in Delhi, slaves were mainly supplied to domestic markets, insteadof transporting them to overseas market. Naturally, slave-markets mushroomed across India for the first timein history. Amir Khasrau wrote about the time of Sultan Alauddin Khilji (r. 1296–1316) that ‘the Turks,whenever they please, can seize, buy, or sell any Hindu.’ The buying and selling of slaves obviously occurredin slave-markets. It is already noted that ‘fresh batches of captives were constantly arriving’ in the slavemarketsof Delhi during Sultan Alauddin. During Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq (d. 1351), Ibn Battutah foundan excessive supply of slaves in the markets of Delhi, making them very cheap. Shihabuddin Ahmad Abbasalso records, ‘Everyday thousands of slaves are sold at a very low price’ during his reign. 858 Manrique andBernier witnessed during Emperor Shahjahan and Aurangzeb (1628–1707) that destitute peasants and theirwomen and children were carried away by tax-collectors for selling them to exact revenues (noted already).Price of slaves: The price at which the slaves were sold is not given in most instances. KS Lal hassummarized available information on the prices of Indian slaves as discussed below. 859 Sultan Mahmud hadransomed King Jaipal’s release at ‘200,000 golden dinars and 250 elephants’, plus ‘the necklace taken fromJaipal was valued at another 200,000 golden dinars.’ Al-Utbi informs us that the 53,000 captives brought bySultan Mahmud in 1019 were sold at two to ten dirhams apiece. The combined assault of Muhammad Ghauriand Qutbuddin Aibak on the Hindus of the Salt Range yielded so large a number of captives that ‘five Hinducaptives could be bought for a dinar,’ wrote Hasan Nizami.Slave-trade in India had become such a prominent trade vocation that some rulers even took the onusof regulating slave-markets by fixing prices. During Sultan Alauddin Khilji, Indian markets were teemingwith slaves. He fixed the price for a good-looking girl suitable for concubinage from twenty to thirty and evenforty tankhas (ten tankhas = one gold coin), while male slaves were priced at 100 to 200 tankhas. Handsomeboys were to be sold at twenty to forty tankhas, while those in poor demand could be sold at seven to eighttankhas. The price of a child slave was fixed at seventy to eighty tankhas. 860 Special arrangement was therefor setting wholesale prices. However, in times of huge catches of slaves, the law of supply and demandprevailed; and the prices could not be kept at the fixed higher rates. On the contrary, when the supply waslow, the prices went up. Captives of special significance—such as of royal or noble birth, young age,outstanding beauty, or of exceptional military capability—could be sold as high as 1,000 to 2,000 tankhas.Poet Badr Shah had allegedly bought a slave, named Gul-Chehra (Rose Face), for 900 tankhas, while famouscommander Malik Kafur was called Hazardinari, meaning that he was purchased for one thousand (hazar)dinars.After Sultan Alauddin’s death, the later sultans had done away with price-control of slaves. DuringSultan Muhammad Shah Tughlaq’s reign (1325–51), the capture of slaves was huge and their prices camedown so low that ‘‘the value at Delhi of a young slave girl for domestic service does not exceed eight tankhas.Those, deemed fit for the dual role of domestic maid and concubine, were sold for about fifteen tankhas.’’ Ibn858. Ibid, p. 51859. Ibid, p. 120–27860. Child slaves brought such high prices, because they could serve the master for their whole life and that theycould be handled easily and moulded into whatever the master wanted, particularly to groom them to be ruthlesssoldiers for waging Jihad against the infidels (like Janissaries).242