by KS Lal
Women
and children were special targets for enslavement throughout the medieval
period, that is, during Muslim invasions and Muslim rule. Captive children of
both sexes grew up as Muslims and served the sultans, nobles and men of means
in various captives. Enslavement of young women was also due to many reasons;
their being sex objects was the primary consideration and hence concentration
on their captivity.
Psychology
regarding Sex
Islam
originated in the Arabian peninsula which is by and large stony and sandy.
There is no luxuriant herbage, there are no lofty trees or winding rivers.
Muhammad used to say that “three things gladden the eye of the gazer: green
fields, running water, and fair faces.” [1] Since green fields and
running water were denied to the medieval Arab, he concentrated on deriving
comfort and society mainly in fair faces. This phenomenon became prominent in
the course of Islamic history throughout the world.
In
the campaigns launched by Muslims, it was easy to capture women, more so after
their menfolk had been massacred. The Prophet’s one great aim was propagation
of his religion and as Margoliouth observes, “Abu Bakr (the chief campaigner
for Muhammad’s creed) probably was aware that women are more amenable to
conversion than men.... slaves than freemen, persons in distress than persons
in prosperity and affluence.”[2] Women slaves turned concubines could
increase Muslim population by leaps and bounds when captured in large
numbers[3]. Hence there was particular keenness on enslaving women from
the very beginning of Islam.
This
was also encouraged by the injunctions of the Quran. Muslims are allowed four
wives besides they are allowed to cohabit with any of their female slaves.
Surah iv:3 says, “Then marry what seem to be good to you of women”; Surah
iv:29, “Take what your right hand possesses of young women”, and Surah
xxxiii:49, “Verily we make lawful for thee what thy right hand possesses out of
the booty God hath granted thee.” Muslims are allowed to take possession of
married women if they are slaves. Surah iv:28 declares, “Unlawful for you
are... married women, save such as your right hand possesses”, that is, female
slaves captured in war. Manucci’s observation on the seventeenth century India
is significant in this regard. He says that “all Muhammadans are fond of women,
who are their principal relaxation and almost their only pleasure.” [4]
From
the teachings of the Quran quoted above, it will be seen that while Muhammad
restricted the number of lawful wives, he did not restrict the number of slave
girls and concubines.[5] All female slaves taken as plunder in war are the
lawful property of their master, and the master has power to take to himself
any female slave married or single. T.P. Hughes adds that “there is absolutely
no limit to the number of slave girls with whom a Muhammadan may cohabit, and
it is the consecration of this illimitable indulgence which so popularizes the
Muhammadan religion amongst uncivilized nations, and so popularizes slavery in
the Muslim religion”.[6]
In
brief, the climatic conditions of Arabia the birth-place of Islam, Muhammad’s
life-style as a model for Muslims, and injunctions in the Quran and the Hadis,
determined Muslim psychology about women. Islam permits polygamy with
unbelievable liberality. A man can have four wives at any point of time, that
is, if he chooses to have a fifth one, he can divorce one of the already at
hand and keep the number within the legal limits of four. Besides, he can have
as many slave girls or concubines as he pleases. It is related in the Hadis
that Muhammad said that “when the servant of God marries, he perfects half his
religion.... Consequently in Islam, even the ascetic orders are rather married
than single.” [7] In Islam there is provision for temporary marriage
(muta), multi-marriages, divorce, remarriage of widows, concubinage — in short,
there is freedom from all inhibitions and reservations in matters of sex. The
insistence is on everybody marrying and celibacy is frowned upon. According to
a tradition derived from Ibn Abbas and quoted by Ibn S’ad, popularly known as
Katib al-Waqidi the Prophet’s biographer, Muhammad said that “in my ummah, he
is the best who has the largest number of wives.” [8]
It
has been repeatedly said Musalmans are allowed by the Quran and the Hadis to
have four wives. The aphorisms and maxims current about this phenomenon
indicate that all wives could not have been procured in the normal way; some
would have been purchased, some others captured. One aphorism says, “One
quarrels with you, two are sure to involve you in their quarrels; when you have
three, factions are formed against her you love best; but four find society and
occupation among themselves, leaving the husband in
peace.” [9] According to another, “Wives there be four: there’s
Bedfellow, Muckheap [dirty], Gadabout [idle] and Queen O’ women. The more the
pity that the last is one in a hundred.” [10] Yet another says,
“A man should marry four wives: A Persian to have some one to talk to; a
Khurasani woman for his housework; a Hindu for nursing his children; a woman
from Mawaraun nahr, or Transoxiana, to have someone to whip as a warning to the
other three.” [11] The mention of so many nationalities in the
sayings show that obtaining wives and concubines through all kinds of means —
capture, purchase, enslavement — was in vogue among medieval Muslims.
In
later times, this encouragement to polygamy was taken advantage of by Muslim
conquerors. That Muhammad restricted the number of lawful wives but did not
restrict the number of slave concubines, came handy to Musalmans. He “thus left
upon the minds of his followers the inevitable impression that an unrestricted
polygamy was the higher state...” [12] Hazrat Umar, the second
Caliph, was the first to allow instant divorce (by the pronouncement of talaq,
talaq, talaq, three times) called talaq-i-bidat (innovative form of divorce),
“to meet an extraordinary situation brought on by wars of conquests”. Those
wars brought in such an influx of women that constant divorce became necessary
to falicitate quick acquisition of fresh spouses by divorcing the old ones.
“Victory over an enemy would seem to have been consummated only when the
enemy’s daughter was introduced into the conqueror’s harem” [13] — a
precept so enthusiastically practised by Muslim conquerors and rulers in India.
It is
therefore no wonder that from the day the Muslim invaders marched into India to
the time when their political power declined, women were systematically
captured and enslaved throughout the length and breadth of the country. Two
instances pertaining to two extreme points of time would suffice as examples.
When Muhammad bin Qasim mounted his attack on Debal in 712, all males of the
age of seventeen and upwards were put to the sword and their women and children
were enslaved.[14] And after the Third Battle of Panipat (1761),
“the unhappy prisoners were paraded in long lines, given a little parched grain
and a drink of water, and beheaded... and the women and children who survived
were driven off as slaves — twenty-two thousand, many of them of the highest
rank in the land, says the Siyar- ul-Mutakh irin ,” [15]
The
special interest of Muslims in sex slavery was universal and widespread and a
plethora of evidence is available in contemporary Persian chronicles. In fact,
Muslim historians derive extra delight in narrating anecdotes and stating facts
about Muslim indulgence in sex and allied activities. Two incidents from the
lives of the first two Sultans, Qutbuddin Aibak and Shamsuddin Iltutmish, may be
mentioned here as examples.
On
the arrival of Qutbuddin Aibak at Karman (situated between Kabul and Bannu),
Tajuddin Yaldoz received him with great kindness and honour and gave him his
daughter in marriage. A fete was held on the occasion and poetical descriptions
in Hasan Nizami’s Taj-ul-Maasir follow — “of stars, female beauty, cup-bearers,
curls, cheeks, eyes, lips, mouths, stature, elegance, cups, wine, singers,
guitars, bar- bets, trumpets, flutes, drums, of the morning, and the
sun.”- [16] And again, when Aibak, some years later tried to remove
Yaldoz form his kingdom, he marched to Ghazni and occupied the throne. But only
for forty days, for during this period he was “wholly engaged in revelry”, wine
and riot, and the affairs of the country through this constant festivity were
neglected, and the “Turks of Ghazni and Muizzi Maliks” invited Yaldoz back to
his capital. Aibak was incapable of opposing him and retired to Delhi.[17]
The
following anecdote is related of Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish. He was greatly
enamoured of a Turkish slave girl in his harem, whom he had purchased, and
sought her caresses, but was always unable to achieve his object. One day he
was seated, having his head anointed with some perfumed oil by the hands of the
same slave girl, when he felt some tears fall on his head. On looking up, he
found that she was weeping. He inquired of her the cause. She replied, “Once I
had a brother who had such a bald place on his head as you have, and it reminds
me of him.” On making further inquiries it was found that the slave girl was
his own sister. They had both been sold as slaves, in their early childhood, by
their half-brothers; and thus had Almighty God saved him from committing a
great sin. Badaoni states in his work, “I heard this story myself, from the
emperor Akbar’s own lips, and the monarch stated that this anecdote had been
orally traced to Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban himself.” [18]
Distribution
of Slave Girls
Marriages
brought servants and bandis, but the largest number of slave girls was
collected during raids, campaigns and wars throughout the medieval period. We
have briefly seen the achievements of Muslims in this regard from the time of
Muhammad bin Qasim onwards. It was a consistent policy to kill all males,
especially those capable of bearing arms, and enslave their hapless
women.[19] Al Biladuri writes that “the governors (who succeeded Qasim)
continued to kill the enemy, taking whatever they could
acquire...” [20] Most of the captives were distributed among nobles
and soldiers. Two examples of this custom may be given, one from the Sultanate
and the other form the Mughal period.
Muhammad
bin Tughlaq became notorious for enslaving women and his reputation in this
regard spread far and wide. Ibn Battuta who visited India during his reign and
stayed at the Court for a long time writes:
“At
(one) time there arrived in Delhi some female infidel captives, ten of whom the
Vazir sent to me. I gave one of them to the man who had brought them to me....
My companion took three girls, and — I do not know what happened to the
rest.” [21]
On
the large scale distribution of girl slaves on the occasion of Muslim festivals
like Id, he writes:
“First
of all, daughters of Kafir (Hindu) Rajas captured during the course of the
year, come and sing and dance. Thereafter they are bestowed upon Amirs and
important foreigners. After this daughters of other Kafirs dance and sing...
The Sultan gives them to his brothers, relatives, sons of Maliks etc. On the
second day the durbar is held in a similar fashion after Asr. Female singers
are brought out... the Sultan distributes them among the Mameluke
Amirs” [22]
Thousands
of non-Muslim women were distributed in the above manner in later years.[23]
Shahjahan
attacked the Portuguese in Hugh in 1632, and captured many women. One such was
Maria de Taides “one of the sisters living in the palace of king
Sahajahan.” [24] Maria de Taides was later married to Ali Mardan
Khan.[25] One Thomazia Martins also had been taken captive during the fall
of Hugli. Many more like these were distributed among the nobles.
Concubinage
Slave
girls had two main functions to perform, domestic service and providing sex if
and when required. In medieval Muslim society sex slavery and concubinage were
almost interchangeable terms. For the polygamous Muslim men of means slave
girls and maids were as much in demand as kanchanis or dancing girls,
concubines or even free born women. Whether they were purchased in the open
market [26], or captured during war, or selected during excursions,
or came as maids of brides, in short whatever their channel of entry into the
harem, the slave girls kept in the palace of the king or mahals of the nobles
were invariably good looking. Their faces determined their place in the harem
and in the heart of the master. Their being a little sexy was an additional attraction [27], but
those with bad breath and odour in the arm- pits were avoided as unpleasant
smell was repugnant to kissing and caressing.[28] They used to be
elegantly attired. Their garments were sometimes gifted to them by their
masters or mistresses. It was a custom that the princesses did not wear again
the dresses they put on once, and gave them away to their bandis.[29] Some
favourite slave girls were taught to sing and play on musical instruments. Many
of them were trained to recite verses, naghmas and gbazals. The habit of
speaking elegantly in correct diction and immaculate pronunciation was so
familiar to the females of Muslim society that maids too were readily
distinguished by their refined language. Placed as they were, they knew how to
win the hearts of their masters who gave them lovely and caressing names like
Gulab, Champa, Chameli, Nargis, Kesar, Kasturi, Gul-i- Badam, Sosan, Yasmin,
Gul-i-Rana, Gul Andam, Gul Anar, Saloni, Madhumati, Sugandhara, Koil, Gulrang,
Mehndi, Dil Afroz, Moti, Ketki, Mrig Nain, Kamal Nain, Basanti etc., etc.
Elaborating on their ethnic status Manucci adds that
“All
the above names are Hindu, and ordinarily these ...are Hindus by race, who had
been carried off in infancy from various villages or the houses of different
rebel Hindu princes. In spite of their Hindu names, they are
however,-Mahomedans.” [30]
As a
rule, “being kafir is a defect in both ghulam and bandi as by nature the
Musalman detests to associate with or keep company of a
kafir.” [31] Obviously, the number of such converted slave girls was
so large that even Hindu names of all of them could not be changed to Islamic
ones. For instance, while under Aurangzeb women and children of the Rajputs and
Marathas [32] were regularly enslaved during raids and invasions,
even nobles of lesser note indulged in reckless enslavement throughout. Sidi
Yaqut of Janjira or Zanjira (Zanj is used for black African), once took a
Maratha fort and seven hundred persons came out. Notwithstanding his word to
grant quarter to the garrison “he made the children and pretty women slaves,
and forcibly converted them to Islam... but the men he put to death.” [33]
Hijras
Early
in the eighteenth century Muslim rule in India set on its path of decline. The
harems of royalty and nobility began to suffer from a financial crunch. Many
slave girls in these establishments, unable to bear the rigours of penury, left
their palaces and mansions and took up quarters in the cities to fend for
themselves. Thousands of eunuch guards of the harems also took to the streets
when their services were dispensed with or starvation knocked at their
doors.[34]
In
their effort to provide means of livelihood for themselves many slave girls
adopted the profession of dancing girls and prostitutes and hundreds of
eunuchs, thrown out of employment, turned bhands and hijras. Prostitution is
practised the world over, hijras are a people peculiar to India. Basically, and
historically, they have come down or ‘descended’ from the medieval eunuchs.
A
typical and complete hijra was Sultan Qutbuddin Mubarak Khalji (1316-1320). He
occasionally dressed himself in female attire, embroidered with laces and
adorned with gems, and went about dancing in the houses of the nobles like a
typical hijra. Similarly, Hasan Kangu, the ruler of Malabar, often used to come
to court {darbar-i-am) dressed in the fashion of females. He bedecked his arms
and neck with jewellery and ornaments and used to ask his nobles to treat him
to sexual passivity.[35] In short, the courts of Qutbuddin and Hasan Kangu
presented licence and obscenity of the hijras in utter nakedness.
In
the polygamous Muslim society some men possessed a plurality of women leaving
many other men to remain unmarried. This led the latter to entice, abduct and
enslave girls wherever possible as well as to make love to beardless boys
(amrads) and hijras. Thus need combined with perversion contributed to the
proliferation of hijras. This is amply reflected in a brief survey of life in
Delhi in Muraqqa-i-Dihli (Album of Delhi) written by Dargah Quli Khan who
visited the metropolis in 1738-39 and often walked through its streets. Like in
the fourteenth, in the eighteenth century also one found in the city of Delhi
boys dancing in a world of lecherous sinners soliciting their hearts’ desire.
Amrads were as much in demand as courtesans.[36] During and after the
decline of the Mughal empire, hijras did not remain confined to cities like
Delhi or Agra. They spread far and wide but especially where the scions or
governors of the Mughals established independent states like in Avadh or
Hyderabad. A good number of hijras are found in Lucknow and in Hyderabad, as
well as in cities like Bombay where ‘composite culture’ and a respectable
presence of Muslims obtains.
These
unfortunate hijras, who have continued as a legacy of the Muslim slave system,
still play a pernicious and parasitical role in Indian society. Their
aggressive demand for benefaction makes them detested. There are many negative
aspects of Muslim slave system of which probably the hijra is the worst. But in
medieval times hijras were as essential a part of Muslim society as any other
section. In Delhi and its environs there are extant a number of mausoleums,
called Gumbads, of the Saiyyad and Lodi period. It is an interesting fact that
with Bare Khan Ka Gumbad (Dome and Tomb), Chhote Khan Ka Gumbad, Dadi ka
Gumbad, and Poti Ka Gumbad, there is also the famous Hijre Ka Gumbad.[37]
----------------------------------------------------------
This
excerpt is taken from MUSLIM SLAVE SYSTEM IN INDIA by KS Lal and reproduced
with the kind permission of the publisher.
References
/ Footnotes
[10]
Bary, 81.
[19]
Chachnama, Kalichbeg, 83, 155, l6l, 173-74; E.D., I, 164,
170-71, 203; Al Biladuri, E.D., I, 123. For massacres of Alauddin Khalji,
Khazain-ul-Fatuh, Habib trs, 49.
[25]
Saksena, B.P., History of Shahjahan, 89, 112-13, for the
Portuguese captives of Hughli and female prisoners of the Bundela ruling family
of Orcna.
[31]
Ashraf-ul-Hidayah, Deoband, VIII, 138-39- P. Venkateshwar Rao
Jr., in his review of Akbar Ahmed’s, BBC BKs/Penguin, From Samarkand to
Stornoway living Islam, in the Indian*Express Sunday Magazine, June 27, 1993,
observes: "He (Ahmed) hates Muslim wives whose children have Hindu names.”
But that is the legal position. A Musalman is expected to detest the company of
a kafir, in spite of the efforts made for acquiring non-Muslim wives in
medieval and modern times. But Ahmed’s aim is, as he himself claims, to show
“where Muslims are able to live by the ideal and where they are not”.
[36]
Muraqqa-i-Dihli, Persian text and trs. in Urdu by Nurul Hasan
Ansari, 129-34, 192-205 respectively.
[37]
Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Islamic Period) third ed.
28-29; Carr Stephen, Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi, 196-97;
Archaeological Survey Report, IV, 67ff; XX, 155-58. Also Lai, Twilight, 230-31
for other references.
Kishori Saran Lal (1920–2002) was an Indian historian. He
wrote many historical books, mainly on medieval India. He obtained his master's
degree in 1941 at the University of Allahabad. In 1945 he obtained his D.Phil.
with a dissertation on the history of the Khaljis. This dissertation formed the
basis for his book "History of the Khaljis". He started his career as
a Lecturer of History in the Allahabad University, though he served in this
position only for a brief period. In 2001 he was appointed chairman of the
Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR).
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