Be it not hidden from the bright hearts of the bankers of the treasure of History and the appraisers of the jewel of Chronicles, that the Jewish and Christian communities, before the advent of Islām, used to come to many ports of the Dakhin, like Malabar, &c., for trading purpose by the sea-route, and after acquiring familiarity with the people of that country, they settled down in some of the towns, erected houses with gardens, and in this manner dwelt there several long years. When the planet of the Muslim faith rose, and the bright effulgence of the Muslim sun shone on the East and the West, gradually, the countries of Hindustān and the Dakhin were recipient of the rays of the moon of the Muhammadan faith, and Muslims commenced visiting those countries. Many of the kings and rulers of those parts embraced the Islamic religion, whilst the Rājahs of the ports of Goa, Dābil, and Jabūl, &c., like Muhammadan rulers, gave Musalman emigrants from Arabia quarters on the sea-shores, and treated them with honour and respect.1 In consequence, the Jews and the Christians burnt in the fire of envy and malice. And when the Kingdoms of the Dakhin and Gujrāt became subject to the Musalman Emperors of Dehlī,1 and Islām became powerful in the kingdom of the Dakhin, the Jews and the Christians placed the seal of silence on the door of their tongues, and ceased to utter words of enmity and hatred. Subsequently in the year 900 A.H., weakness2 and decay set in in the kingdom of the Dakhin. At that time, the Portuguese Christians, on behalf of the king of their own country, were directed to build forts on the sea-shores of India. In the year 904 A.H., four ships of the Portuguese Christians1 came to the ports of Qandrīnah2 and Kālīkot, and the Portuguese after ascertaining thoroughly the state of affairs3 of the sea-board sailed back. And the next year, six Portuguese ships arrived at Kālīkot,4 and the Portuguese disembarked, and made a prayer to the ruler of that place, who was called Samrī, to prevent the Musalmans from trading with Arabia, urging that they (the Portuguese) would yield him more profit than the Musalmans. The Samrī did not listen to their prayer. But the Christians commenced molesting the Musalmans in mercantile business, so that the Samrī5 becoming enraged ordered the former’s slaughter and massacre. Seventy leading Christians were slain; whilst the rest getting into sloops sailed out to save themselves, and alighted near the town of Kuchīn,6 the ruler whereof was on terms of hostility with the Samrī. There they obtained permission to build a fort, and within a short time they erected quickly a small fort, and dismantling a mosque which stood on the sea-shore they built on its site a church.1 And this was the first fort which the Christians erected in India. In the meanwhile, the inhabitants of the port of Kanor also leagued with them. The Christians erected a fort also there. Being freed from anxiety, the Christians commenced a trade in pepper and ginger, and obstructed2 others from trading therein. Consequently, the Samrī advancing with his forces slew the son of the king of Kuchin, and ravaging that province returned. The successors of the slain ruler collecting again a force raised the standard of sovereignty, re-populated the province, and under the advice of the Ferengis3 placed a flotilla of galleys in the sea. And the ruler of Kanor also similarly fitted out a flotilla of boats. The Samrī, getting enraged at this, bestowing all his treasures on the army, twice or thrice advanced with his forces against Kuchīn.4 At every time, the Portuguese |helped Kuchin, so that the Samrī did not succeed in subduing it, and without attaining his object retired. Becoming powerless, he sent envoys to the rulers of Egypt, Jiddah, the Dakhin and Gujrāt. Complaining of the malpractices of the Christians, he asked for help, and sending out narratives of the oppressions practised by the Christians over the Musalmāns, he stirred up the veins of their zeal and rage. At length, Sultān Qabṣūr Ghurī1 despatched to the Indian coasts a General, named Amīr Ḥusain, with a fleet of thirteen war-vessels, containing a naval force with armaments. Sultān Mahmūd of Gujrāt and Sultān Mahmūd Bahmanī of the Dakhin also fitted out numerous ships from the ports of Deo, Sūrat, Kolah, Dabil and Jabūl, in order to fight with the Portuguese. First, the ships from Egypt arrived in the port of Deo, and uniting with the ships of Gujrāt set out for Jabūl, which was the rendezvous of the Portuguese. And some ships of the Samrī and some ships of Goa and Dabil having also joined them, they kindled the fire of war; but suddenly, one warship full of the Portuguese quietly sailed up from the rear. The Portuguese commenced a cannonade, and converted the sea into a zone of fire. Malik Ayāz, ruler of Deo, and Amīr Ḥusain were obliged to fight with them, but failed to effect anything. Some Egyptian galleys were captured, and the Musalmāns drank the potion of martyrdom, whilst the Portuguese triumphantly steered back to their own ports. Inasmuch as at that period, Sultān Salīm, Khaqan1 of Rūm (Turkey), defeated the Ghorīah Sultān2 of Egypt, and the empire of the latter came to an end, the Samrī who was the promoter of this war lost heart, and the Portuguese acquired complete domination. In the month of Ramẓān, 915 A.H., the Portuguese proceeded to Kālīkot, set fire to the Cathedral Mosque, and swept the town with the broom of plunder. But on the following day, the Malabarese collecting together attacked the Christians, killed five hundred leading Portuguese, and drowned many of them in the sea. Those who escaped the sword fled to the port of Kolam,1 and intriguing with the Chief of that place, at a distance of half a farsakh from that town, erected a small fort, and entrenched themselves there. And in the same year, they2 wrested the fort of Goah from the possession of Yusaf Adil Shāh;3 but the latter shortly after amicably got it back from their hands. But after a short period, the Portuguese offering a large sum of money to the ruler of that place re-acquired possession of it, and establishing their Capital at that port, which was very strong, fortified it further. And the Samrī, from the humiliation and sorrow consequent on this, died in the year 921 A.H., and his brother succeeding him ceased hostility, and establishing peaceful relations with the Portuguese, gave the latter permission to erect a fort near the town of Kālīkot, obtaining from them a stipulation to the effect that he would send yearly four ships of pepper and ginger to the ports of Arabia. For a short while, the Portuguese kept their promise and word, but when the fort was completed, they prevented his trading in the aforesaid articles, and commenced various malpratices and oppressions on the Musalmāns. And similarly, the Jews who were at Kadatklor,4 being informed of the weakness of the Samrī, transgressed the limits of propriety, and caused many Musalmāns to drink the syrup of martyrdom. The Samrī, repenting of his past policy, first proceeded to Kadatklor, and completely extinguished the Jews, so that no trace of them remained there. After this, with the support of all the Musalmāns of Malabar, he advanced to Kālīkot, besieged the fort of the Portuguese, and fighting bravely defeated the latter, and stormed their fort. In consequence, the power and prestige of the Malabare se Musalmans grew, and without any pass from the Portuguese they despatched on their own behalf vessels loaded with pepper and ginger to the ports of Arabia. In the year 938 A.H., the Portuguese erected a fort at Jaliat, which is six karoh from Kālīkot; and the passage of ships from Malabar was thereby rendered difficult. Similarly, the Christians1 in those years, during the reign of Burhān Nizām Shāh, erecting a fort at Raikūndah close to the port of Jabūl, settled down there. In the year 943 A.H., erecting a fort also at Kadatklor, the Christians acquired much power. At this time, Sultān Sulaimān, son of Sultān Salīm of Turkey,2 planned to turn out the Portuguese from the ports of India, and to take possession thereof himself. Accordingly, in the year 944 A.H., he sent his Vazīr, Sulaimān Pāshā, with a fleet of one hundred war-ships to the port of Aden, in order to take it first, as it formed the key to the maritime position of India, and then to proceed to the ports of India. Sulaimān Pāshā in that year wresting the port of Aden from Shaikh Dāud, and slaying the latter, sailed out for the port of Deo, and commenced warfare. He had nearly stormed it, when his provisions and treasures ran short. Therefore, without accomplishing his mission, he sailed back to Turkey. And in the year 963 A.H., the Portuguese became dominant over the ports of Harmūz1 and Muscat, over Sumatra, Malacca,2 Milāfor, Nāk, Fatan, Nashkūr, Ceylon, and over Bengal to the confines of China, and laid the foundations of forts at many places. But Sultān Alī Akhī stormed the fort of Sumatra; and the ruler of Ceylon also defeating the Portuguese, put a stop to their molestation over his country. And the Samrī, ruler of Kālīkot, being hard-pressed, sent envoys to Alī Adil Shāh, and persuaded the latter to fight with the Portuguese, and to expel them from his kingdom. And in the year 979 A.H., the Samrī besieged and stormed the fort of Jalīat, whilst Nāzim Shāh and Adil Shāh pushed on to Rāikandāh and Goah.3 The Samrī, by the prowess of his men of bravery and heroism, captured the fort of Jalīat, but Nāzim Shāh and Adil Shāh, owing to the venality of their disloyal officers who suffered themselves to be taken in by the bribes offered them by the Portuguese, had to retire without achieving their objects. From that time forward, the Portuguese Christians, adopting a settled policy1 of molesting and oppressing the Musalmāns, perpetrated much highhandedness. Whilst some ships of Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar, which without a pass from the Portuguese had proceeded to Makkah, were returning from the port of Jiddah, they looted them, and inflicted various molestations and humiliations on the Musalmāns, and set fire to the ports of Adilābād and Farabīn which belonged to Adil Shāh, and ravaged them completely. And coming under the guise of traders to the port of Dabil, the Portuguese schemed by means of fraud and treachery to get hold of it also. But the Governor of that place, Khwajah Aliu-l-Mulk, a merchant of Shīrāz, becoming apprised of their intention, killed one hundred and fifty principal Portuguese, and quenched the fire of their disturbance.
Be it known to the minds of enlightened researchers, that from the date that the ships of Jālālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar Pādshāh2 were captured at the hands of the Portuguese Christians, the sending of ships to the ports of Arabia and Ajam was totally suspended, inasmuch as the Emperor viewed the acceptance of passes from the Portuguese to be derogatory, whilst to send the ships without such passes was attended with danger to the lives of passengers, and with peril to their property. But the Emperor’s Umarā, like Nawāb Abdu-r-Raḥīm Khān Khān-i-Khānān1 &c., taking passes from the Portuguese Christians, sent out ships to the ports. And for some time the state of things continued in this wise. When Emperor Nuru-d-dīn Muḥammad Jahāngīr ascended the throne of Dehlī, he permitted the English Christians, who, in their articles of faith, totally differ from the Christian Portuguese and the Christian French, &c., and who thirst for the latter’s blood, and are in hostility with the latter, to settle down in the tract of Surat,2 which pertained to the Province of Gujrāt.3 This was the first place amongst the Indian sea-ports, where the English Christians settled down. Before this, the English Christians used to bring their trading ships to the ports of India, and after sale of their cargoes used to sail back to their own country. After they settled down at Surat, the trading factories of the English Christians, like those of the Christian Portuguese and the French, &c., gradually sprang up at different centres both in the Dakhin1 and in Bengal,2 and they paid customs-duties like others. During the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgīr, the English rendered loyal services to the Emperor, and were, therefore, granted an Imperial Farman,1 permitting them to erect trading factories in the Imperial dominions generally, and in Bengal especially, and also remitting customs-duties on the ships of the English Company, in consideration of an annual payment by the latter of three thousand rupees, as has already been mentioned in connection with the foundation of Calcutta. From that time, the English acquired much prestige in Bengal.
In the year 1162 A.H., Nawāb Muzaffar Jang, maternal grandson of Nizāmu-l-Mulk Aṣaf Jāh, at the instigation of Ḥusain Dost alias Chānd, who was one of the leading men of Arkat (Arcot), allied himself with the Christian French, and attacked Anwāru-d-dīn Khān Shahāmat Jang Gopāmanī, who was Nāzim of Arkat from the time of Nawāb Nizāmu-l-Mulk Aṣaf Jāh, in order to wrest the province of Arkat. A great battle was fought, and Nawāb Shahāmat Jang, on the battle-field, displaying bravery and heroism, was killed. Nawāb Nizāmu-d-daulah, second son of Nawāb Aṣaf Jāh, who, on the death of his father, had succeeded to the masnad of the Viceroyalty of the Dakhin, on hearing of the hostility of his maternal nephew, with a force of seventy thousand cavalry and one hundred thousand infantry, set out to chastise Muzaffar Jang. Arriving at the port of Būlcharī (Pondichery) on the 26th Rabīu-l-āwāl 1163 A.H., Nizāmu-d-daulah fought a battle, in which he triumphed, whilst Muzaffar Jang was captured. Nizāmu-d-daulah spent the rainy season at Arkat. The Christians of Būlcharī (Pondichery) conspired with Himmat Khān and other Afghān generals of Karnatik, who were servants of Nizāmu-d-daulah, and deceiving them by holding out temptations of lands and treasures, blinded their sense of obligations. Those traitors tied up the waist of mutiny and treachery, and conspiring with the Christians of Būlcharī (Pondichery), on the night of the sixteenth Muharram, 1174 A.H., delivered a night-attack, and killed Nawāb Nizāmu-d-daulah. After the fall of Nawāb Nizāmu-d-daulah, the Afghāns and the Christians (the French) placed Nawāb Muzaffar Jang on the masnad. Muzaffar Jang proceeded to Būlcharī (Pondichery) with a contingent of the Afghāns, and taking a large number of Christian French in his service made them his confidants. In the same year, taking a large force consisting of Afghāns and Christians, he set out for Ḥaidarābad, and crossing the confines of Arkat came to the Afghān tract. From the vicissitude of fortune, hostility broke out between Muzaffar Jang and the Afghāns, and it led to a fight. On the 17th Rabīu-l-āwāl of the aforesaid year, both sides arranged themselves in battle-array. On one side were arrayed Muzaffar Jang and the Christian French, and on the other the Afghāns. Himmat Khān and other Afghan Generals, meeting with their deserts for disloyalty, were killed, whilst Muzaffar Jang from an arrow-shot which pierced the pupil of his eye was also killed. After this, the Christian French entered the service of Amīru-l-Mumālik Salābat Jang, third son of Aṣaf Jāh, received as jāgīrs Sikakūl and Rājbandarī, &c., and acquired so much influence, that their orders became current in the Dakhin. No Musalman ruler had before this taken into employ the Christian French, though from a long period they used to frequent the ports of the Dakhin. It was Muzaffar Jang who taking the Christian French into his service, introduced them into the Moslem dominions. When the Christian French acquired so much influence, the Christian English, who thirsted for the blood of the French, also cherished ambition to meddle with the Imperial dominions, acquired possession of some tracts in the Dakhin, brought the fort of Sūrat into their own possession, and established fortified factories in Bengal. In that the French slaying Nawāb Anwāru-d-dīn Khān Gopamanĭ, the Ṣūbahdār of Arkat, and nominally installing another person at its head, had become dominant in the Dakhin, Nawāb Muḥammad Ālī Khān, son of Nawāb Anwāru-d-dīn Khan, entered into an alliance with the English Chiefs. The latter advancing to the assistance of Nawāb Muḥammad Alī Khān spared no measure to help him, and exerted themselves strenuously to exterminate the French. In 1174 A.H., the English besieged the fort of Būlcharī (Pondichery), and wresting it from the hands of the French rased it, whilst Sikakūl, Rājbandarī, and other Jāgīrs were unexpectedly abandoned by the French. Nawāb Muḥammad Ali Khān, with the support of the English, succeeded his father on the throne of the Viceroyalty of Arkat (Arcot), under the surname of Wālājāh Amiru-l-Hind Muḥammad Ali Khān Manṣūr Jang, subordinated himself to the English Chiefs, and passed his life in ease and pleasure. Now the province of Arkat (Arcot), like Bengal, is under the domination of the English Chiefs.
And as has been related before, when Nawab Sirāju-d-daulah, Nāzim of Bengal, owing to his inexperience, flung the stone into the hornet’s nest, he suffered of necessity the sting. And Nawāb Jāfar Ali Khān, treating the English as his confidants and colleagues in the Nizāmat of Bengal, suffered them to acquire control over administrative affairs. Inasmuch as complete disintegration had overtaken the Moslem Empire of Delhi, in every Ṣūbah the Provincial Governors acquiring authority grew into semi-independent Feudatories. Now, since a period of thirty years, the Provinces of Bengal, Bihār, and Orissa have come into the possession and authority of the English Chiefs. An English Chief, styled the Governor-General, coming from England, resides in Calcutta, and selecting Deputies for the collection of the revenue and for administration of civil and criminal justice, and for trading business, sends them out to every place. And establishing the Khāliṣah Kachirī1 (the Court of Crown-lands) in Calcutta, the English Governor settles on his own behalf the assessment of the revenue of each Ẓila (District). And the Deputies and the Ẓiladārs (District Officers) collecting revenues, remit them to Calcutta.
In the year 1178 A.H., when the English became victorious2 over Nawāb Vazīru-l-Mulk Shujāu-d-daulah, Nāzim of the Ṣūbah of Audh and Ilahābād (Allahabad), a treaty was entered into, and the English left to the Nawab Vazīr his country. From that time, they have acquired influence over that Ṣūbah also, and seizing the district of Banāras have separated it from that Ṣūbah. And their soldiers quartering themselves in the dominions of the Nawab-Vazīr, as the latter’s servants, exercise influence over all affairs. Heaven knows what would be the eventual upshot of this state of things.
Similarly, in the Dakhin, the English have got in the fort of Madras an old factory and a large army. They have also acquired possession of the Province of Arkat. They hold, as jāgīrs under Nizām Alī Khān, the towns of Ganjām, Barampur, Ichapūr, Sikakūl, Ishāqpatan, the fort of Qasim kotah, Rājbandar, Ilor (Ellore), Machlibandar (Masullipatam), Bājwārah, and the fort of Kondbali, &c., and the Zamīndārs of those places appearing before them pay in revenue. And whenever Nizām Alī Khān needs auxiliaries, they furnish him with strong contingents, and outwardly do not disobey his orders.
But the English Christians1 are embellished with the ornaments of wisdom and tact, and adorned with the garments of considerateness and courtesy. They are matchless in the firmness of their resolutions, in the perfectness of their alertness, in the organisation of battles, and in the arrangement of feasts. They are also unrivalled in their laws for the administration of justice, for the safety of their subjects, for extermination of tyranny, and for protection of the weak. Their adherence to their promises is so great that even if they risk their lives, they do not deviate from their words, nor do they admit liars to their society. They are liberal, faithful, forbearing, and honourable. They have not learnt the letters of deceit, nor have they read the book of crookedness. And notwithstanding their difference in creed, they do not interfere with the faith, laws, and religion of Musalmans.
All wranglings between Christianity and Islam, after all, lead to the same place:
The dream (of empire) is one and the same, only its interpretations vary.
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P. xxiii, for ‘prisoner’ read ‘Governor.’
P. 9, for ‘Bakhtiyar Khilji’ read ‘Bakhtiar Khilji.’
P. 17, for ‘where’ read ‘were.’
P. 17, for ‘Taunpur’ read ‘Jaunpur.’
P. 26, for ‘embanked road a bridge’ read ‘embanked road or bridge.’
P. 32, for ‘raised the anchor’ read ‘he raised the anchor.’
P 42, for ‘Babu Mankli’ read ‘Baba Mankli.’
P. 170, for ‘Ali Quti’ read ‘Ali Quli.’
P. 172, for ‘
P.P. 209 and 210, for ‘Nezamat’ read ‘Nizamat.’
See Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, p. 29. Writes Dr. Hunter: “The Saracen Arabs who under the conquering impulse of Islām next seized the countries of the Indo-Syrian route (632-651 A.D.) soon realised its value. They were a trading not less than a fighting race, and Bussorah and Baghdad under the Caliphs became the opulent headquarters of the Indian trade.” The Saracens conquered Egypt, Syria, and Persia, 632-651 A.D. In a footnote to p. 28 of the above History, Dr. Hunter refers the reader for an account of the Jewish trade with the East to an article on ‘The Jews under Rome’ by Lieut.-Col. Conder. Again says Dr. Hunter (p. 45): “The trading colony of Arabs at Canton included at the beginning of the 7th century A.D., an uncle of Muḥammad the Prophet.” Again in p. 46, says Dr. Hunter: “It was a commercial dispute that brought about the first Musalmān conquest of an Indian Province. In 711 A.D., Kasim led a naval expedition against Sindh, to claim damages for the ill-treatment of Arab merchantmen and pilgrims near the mouth of the Indus in their voyage from Ceylon. During the following centuries the Indian Ocean became an outlying domain of Islām. The Arab geographers mapped the course from the Persian Gulf to China into ‘seven seas,’ each having a name of its own, and with the Arab-Chinese harbour of Gampua on their eastern limit. Abul Feda, the princely geographer of the fourteenth century (1273-1331) mentions Malacca as the most important trading place between Arabia and China, the common resort of Moslems, Persians, Hindus, and the Chinese. Colonies of Arabs and Jews settled in an early century of our era on the southern Bombay coast, where their descendants form distinct communities at the present day. The voyages of Sinbad the Sailor are a popular romance of the Indian trade under the Caliphs of Baghdad, probably in the ninth century A.D.” From the above it is clear that India, including Bengal, was within the sphere of the commercial influence of the Saracen Arabs, from about the very dawn of Islām.
↩The first Musalmān conquests in the Dakhin were made in the reign of Jallalu-d-din Khilji, Emperor of Delhī, through the military genius of his nephew, Alau-d-din Khilji. See Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, p. 170, and n. 2, ante, p. 90.
↩“In 1564, Vijayanagar finally went down before the Moslems in the field of Talikot after an existence of 4½ centuries. The Bahmani dynasty formed from the coalition of the Musalmān adventurers in the fourteenth century, began to break up in 1489, and by 1525, its disintegration was complete. The Portuguese arrived just as this once powerful kingdom was evolving itself through internecine war into the Five Musalmān states of Southern India. At the time (1498, when Vasco da Gama landed in India) the Afghan sovereignty in Northern India was dwindling to a vanishing point.” See Dr. Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, pp. 101-102.
↩Covilham, the first Portuguese explorer in India, stayed some time on the Malabar coast (having come there from Aden on an Arab ship), in 1487. Vasco da Gama reached Calicut on May 20th, 1498. See Dr. Hunter’s History, Vol. I, pp. 87-88.
↩The European form of Qandrinah is, I guess, Conlon or Calicoulan. For Conlon, Calicoulan, Cochin, Calicut, see the map at p. 96, of the above History. Ibn-i-Batutah (1304-1377) mentions Quilon and Calicut amongst the five chief ports that he had seen. See p. 48, n. 2 of the above History.
↩Dr. Hunter states that at the time the Malabar chiefs were tolerant of the religions of the many nations who traded at their ports. Abu Zaid when mentioning the foreign colonies records that the king allows each sect to follow its own religion (Abu Zaidu-l-Hasan of Sīraf translated in Sir Henry Elliot’s History of India). Manichaeans, Musalmāns, Jews, and Christians were alike welcome at the Malabar ports. Not only Jews from the earlier times (from 6th century B.C.) and ‘St. Thomas Christians,’ from 68 A.D., but also Arab traders (Moplahs) both in pre-Islamic and Islamic times were settled on the Malabar coasts. (See Dr. Hunter’s History, Vol. I, pp. 98-100).
↩The Zamorin of Calicut received the Portuguese graciously. But the foreign Arab merchants, then the most powerful community at his port, perceived that the new ocean-route must imperil their ancient monopoly by way of the Red Sea. They accordingly instigated the court officials to intrigues which nearly ended in a treacherous massacre, p. 103, Hunter’s History, Vol. I. The Rīyaz’s account would however shew that the provocation came from the side of the Portuguese, who came with a crusading spirit. (See p. 101, ibid).
↩In English histories, he is called the ‘Zamorin,’ which is the European form of the Tamil Samuri, meaning ‘son of the Sea.’ See Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, p. 95, n. 1.
↩Or Cochin. From Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 103, it would appear Da Gama departed from Calicut, and for some time stopped at Cannanore.
↩In 1500 King Emmanuel of Portugal sent a fleet of thirteen ships under Pedro Alvarez Caleral, who was well received by the Zamorin, and established a factory on shore at Calicut for purchase of spices. He captured an Arab vessel and a Moslem vessel. The Arab merchants were roused to indignation, and sacked the Portuguese factory at Calicut, slaying the chief agent and fifty-three of his men. Caleral retaliated by burning ten Arab ships, and sailed down to Cochin, burning two more Calicut vessels on his way. Caleral concluded a friendly treaty with the Rājah of Cochin, promising to make him some day Zamorin of Calicut, and established a factory at Cochin. Friendly overtures were also received by him from the Rājah of Quilon and Cannanor. See Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 107. The fanatical vandalism of the Portuguese Christians in demolishing a Moslem Mosque, is in sad contrast to the toleration and scrupulous regard for the sanctity of the Christian Church shewn by the early Moslem Arabs under Omar, after the latter had conquered Palestine and visited Jerusalem.— See Sir William Muir’s ‘Annals of the Early Caliphate,’ p. 210.
↩Animated by a crusading spirit the aim of the Portuguese Government was to destroy the Arab commerce, and to establish an armed monopoly. See Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 108.
↩I.e., the Portuguese Christians. For the origin and significance of the term Ferengis, see Dr. Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, p. 184. Says Dr. Hunter: “The ravenous hordes thus let loose in India, made the race-name of Christian (Ferengi) a word of terror until the strong rule of the Mughal Empire turned it into one of contempt.” See also n. 2, ibid.
↩‘In 1502 Vasco da Gama as Portuguese Admiral of the Indian Seas came to India for the second time, with a fleet of twenty vessels. He bombarded Calicut and destroyed its Arab merchant-fleet. At Cochin, Cannanore, Quilon, and Baticala, he established factories. Da Gama’s successes were stained by revolting cruelties never to be forgotten. For a gruesome detail of those barbarous cruelties, see Hunter’s History, Vol, I, pp. 109, 139, 140 and 141. Da Gama now (1503) returned to Lisbon. The Zamorin and the Arab merchants burned to avenge the tortures and outrages inflicted by this Christian fanatic. They attacked the Cochin Raja, seized his capital, and demanded surrender of the Portuguese factors left under his protection. The Cochin chief bravely held out until relieved by arrival of the next Portuguese fleet in September, 1503. Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 110. This fleet operated against India under Alfonso de Albuquerque and his cousin Francisco de Albuquerque. In India, the two Albuquerques built a fort at Cochin, established a factory at Quilon, and severely punished the Zamorin. Alfonso returned to Lisbon in 1504, whilst his cousin was lost on his way home together with his squadron.’ See Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 111.
The next expedition was sent in 1504 under Lopo Soarez de Albergaria. ‘He continued the policy of unsparing destruction against the ports in which Arab influence prevailed; laid part of Calicut in ruins, and burned Cranganor. Soarez broke the Arab supremacy on the Malabar coast. In 1505, King Emmanuel of Portugal sent Don Francisco da Almeida as the Portuguese Viceroy in India. His principal duty was to coersce the Malabar sea-coast chiefs who might be friendly to the Arab merchants, to strengthen the Portuguese factorites on shore, and thirdly, to break the Moslem Naval supremacy, including the armed Arab merchantmen of Calicut and the regular Navy of the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, who menaced the existence of Portugal in the East. This was the third and last act in the long conflict between Mediæval Christendom and Islam. In four years (1505-1509), Almeida overthrew the power of the Moslem Arabs at the Malabar ports, defeated the Zamorin and destroyed his fleet of 84 ships and 120 galleys, and slew 3,000 Musalmāns.’ See Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 116.
↩“The Mameluke Sultān of Egypt sent forth in 1508 a great expedition under Admiral Amīr Ḥusain, who effected a coalition with the Moslem fleet of the northern Bombay coast, and was aiming to effect also a junction with the southern Calicut squadron. Lourenco Almeida, son of the Portuguese Viceroy, attempted to oppose this junction, but was shot down. The Moslem victors chivalrously gave him honourable burial, and respectfully congratulated Almeida on a son who at the age of twenty-two had covered himself with imperishable glory. In 1509, Almeida, the senior, defeated the combined Moslem fleets off Diu, and slew 3,000 of their men. The aggressions of the Turks upon Egypt gave the Mameluke Sultān, of Cairo, work nearer home, and disabled him from sending further expeditions to India.
[The Turks wrested Egypt from the Mameluke Sultān in 1517].
Almeida’s victory over Moslems off Diu on February 2nd, 1509, secured to Christendom the Naval supremacy in Asia, and turned the Indian Ocean for the next century into a Portuguese sea.” See Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, pp. 117-118.
“The first five years of annual expeditions from 1500 to 1505 had given the Portuguese the upper hand in the armed commerce of the Malabar coast. The following four years under Almeida (1505-1509) left them masters of the Indian Ocean. The next six years (1509-1515) were under Alfonso de Albuquerque to see them grow into a territorial power on the Indian continent.” See ibid., p. 119.
↩In the printed Persian text, Khankan is obviously a misprint or misreading for Khaqan, which is a title held by Sultans of Turkey.
↩I.e., the Mameluke Sultāns of Egypt.
↩Perhaps ‘Coulan.’
↩Albuquerque (1509-1515) succeeded Almeida as the Portuguese Viceroy in India.
↩Yusaf Adil Shāh was king of Bijapur, which was one of the five Musalmān States formed in Southern India out of the old Bahmanī kingdom.
The fort of Goa was seized by the Portuguese in 1510.
“The pirate chief Timoju proposed to Albuquerque that as the lord of Goa was dead (in reality absent) they should seize the place. This they easily did in March, 1510. But the rightful sovereign, a son of the Ottoman Sultān Amurad II, whose romantic adventures had ended with his carving for himself the kingdom of Bijapur in southern India, hurried back to Goa, and drove out the Portuguese in May. The king being again called away by disturbances in the interior, the Portuguese recaptured Goa with the help of the pirate Timoju in November, 1510. Its rightful sovereign, Yusaf Adil Shāh the king of Bijapur, died in the following month (December.) His son was a minor.” See Hunter’s History, Vol. I, pp. 152-153.
↩That is, ‘Cranganor.’ (See map in Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 96).|
↩ The word
In the latter sense, it would imply the ‘Parsees.’
↩In 1538, Solyman the Magnificent, Emperor of Turkey, captured Aden (Hunter’s History, Vol. II, p. 147). Constantinople, the capital of the old Eastern Roman Empire, is still known amongst Musalmāns in India as ‘Rūm.’
“To the ‘martyr’s blood’ of the Portuguese, the Moslems opposed their Holy Fleet. First the Arabs of the Indian ports supplied the fighters for the faith. Then the Mameluke Sultān of Cairo sent armaments. Finally entered on the scene the mighty power of the Turkish Empire, which deemed its subjugation of Egypt incomplete as long as the Portuguese threatened the Red Sea. The Arabs of the Indian ports quickly succumbed to the cavaliers of the Cross. The Mameluke Sultān of Egypt, hard-pushed by the Ottommas from the north, could make no headway against the Portuguese in the east. But the Turks or ‘Rumis’ turned back the tide of Christian conquest in Asia. ‘The cry, the Rumis are coming’ which afflicted Albuquerque, for ever resounded in the ears of his successors. When the Portuguese closed the Malabar shore route to the Moslem world, the Arab ships struck boldly across the Indian Ocean for Aden to south of Ceylon, passing through the Maldive Island or far out at sea. When the Portuguese secured the strong position of Diu at the north entrance to Indian waters, the Turks constantly harassed that station and tried to outflank it by menacing the Portuguese factories westward on the Persian Gulf. When the Portuguese sought the enemy in the Red Sea, they were often repulsed, and their momentary successes at Aden ended in lasting faliure. In vain the Lisbon Court tried to make a few years’ arrangement with the Turks, offering in 1541 to supply pepper in exchange for wheat, and passes for Moslem ships in Indian waters in return for free entrance to Aden and the Arabian ports of the Red Sea. The unholy project came to nought. Four years later, in 1545, the Turks boldly attacked the Portuguese Diu; in 1547, their janissaries appeared before Portuguese Malacca; in 1551, and again in 1581, their galleys sacked Portuguese Muscat. My present object is merely to bring into view the struggle between Islam and Christendom for the Indian Occan in the century preceding the appearance of the English on the scene. I dare not expand these preliminary chapters by the deeds of heroism and chivalrous devotion on both sides.” See Dr. Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, pp. 130-132.
↩I.e., Ormuz.
↩Malacca was taken by the Portuguese under Albuquerque in 1511. See Dr. Hunter’s History, Vol. I, p. 127.
↩On the Portuguese seizing Goa in 1510, the Portuguese naval supremacy along the South-Western Indian coast was thoroughly established, and no Musalmān ship could safely trade in Malabar waters without a pass from the Christians. See Dr. Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. I, p. 126.
↩“From the time of Albuquerque the inexorable issue between Catholicism and Islam in Asia stands forth. Each side firmly believed itself fighting the battles of its God. ‘I trust in the passion of Jesus Christ in whom I place all confidence,’ Albuquerque declared in 1507 before entering on his governorship, ‘to break the spirit of the Moors (Musalmāns).’ ‘We desire nought else but to be close to God’ ran the Moslem summons in 1539. It denounced the aggressions ‘of the Christians of Portugal,’ and warned an Indian prince that if he held back, his soul would descend into hell.’ (Sulaiman Pāshā to the ruler of Cambay, May 7th, 1539.) See Hunter’s History, Vol. I, pp. 129-130.
↩Akbar the Great, Emperor of India, born 1542, reigned 1556-1605, and was the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth.
↩Abdur Rahim, Khān-i-Khanan, was a son of Bairam Khān, and was born at Lahore, 964 A.H. In 984, he was appointed to Gujrāt. He conquered for Akbar Gujrāt, and defeated Sultān Muzaffar, King of Gujrāt, at the battle of Sarkij. His great deeds were the conquests of Gujrāt and Sindh, and the defeat of Suhail Khān of Bijapur. (See Blochamann’s Translation of Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. I, p. 334).
↩In 1607 Captain William Hawkins landed at Surat with a letter from James I. to the Mughal Emperor (Emperor Jahangir reigned 1605-1627), and proceeded to the Court at Agra. In 1611 Sir Henry Middleton landed at Swally. In 1612 Captain Best routed the Portuguese squadron near Surat, and obtained congratulations of the Mughal Governor, who allowed the English to settle at Surat in 1613. Downton’s sea fight in 1615 established English supremacy over the Portuguese. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was sent by James I. to be ‘ambassador to the Great Mogul.’ Surat was the chief starting place for Mecca, and the Portuguese squadron had troubled the ocean path of pilgrimage. The Imperial Court, too happy that one infidel fleet should destroy another, granted to Sir Thomas Roe an ‘order’ for trade. Roe obtained a ‘permit’ in 1616 for the English to reside at Surat and to travel freely into the interior, and also a similar ‘grant’ in 1618 from Prince Khurram (afterwards Emperor Shāh Jahan) who was then Mughal Viceroy of Gujrāt. The English by their good conduct gradually acquired the position of a useful sea-police, and as patrol of the Moslem pilgrim-ocean-route, and as a ‘sure source of revenue,’ under the Great Mughal. In 1657 the English Company decided that there should be one ‘presidency’ in India, that being at Surat. See Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. II, Chap. II.
↩Akbar conquered and re-conquered Gujrāt and the province on the shore of the Gulf of Cambay between 1572-1592; and these were finally annexed to the Mughal Empire in 1593. Surat was the Capital of Gujrāt and the Chief Mughal port on the western coast for the embarkation of pilgrims to Mecca. Surat is the modern representative of the ancient province of Surashtra which included not only Gujrāt but part of Kathiwar. See Dr. Hunter’s History, Vol. II, p. 47, and his reference to Cunningham’s Ancient Geography of India.
↩For the first English settlements on the Madras Coast (1611-1658), see Dr. Hunter’s History of British India, Vol. II, Chap. III. Their first settlement under Captain Hippen on that coast was in 1611 at Masulipatam, the chief sea-port of the Moslem Golconda Kingdom (founded in 1512 under Kutab Shahi line on the breaking-up of the Musalman Bahmani Dynasty, and not subdued by the Mughal Empire until 1687). In 1632, the English received the ‘Golden Phermaund’ (farman) of the Golconda King for their settlement at Masulipatam. In 1639, the English under Francis Day built a factory at Madras. In 1645, the Moslem King of Golconda confirmed the grant of Madras for an English settlement. In 1653, Madras was raised to an independent ‘presidency,’ and in 1658, the English Company declared all its settlements in Bengal and the Coromandel Coast subordinate to Fort St. George.
↩For an account of the English settlements in Bengal (between 1633-1658), see Hunter’s History of ‘British India,’ Vol. II, Chap. IV, and Wilson’s ‘Early Annals of the English in Bengal,’ Vol. I.
In 1632, by order of Emperor Shāh Jahan, Qasim Khān destroyed the Portuguese settlement at Hugli, and expelled the Portuguese who had been ill-treating the Moslems. The English Company’s agent at the Masulipatam factory seized the occasion, and sent out in 1633, on a country boat, eight Englishmen to try and open up trade with the fertile provinces at the mouth of the Ganges. These headed by Ralph Cartwright reached Harishpur in Orissa, and then quietly crept up to the court of Malcandy, in Fort Barabati, in Cuttack, where resided a Mughal Deputy-Governor for Orissa, named Agha Muhammad Zaman. This polite Persian— the Deputy-Governor of Orissa— ‘received the Englishmen in his Audience-hall, affably inclined his head to Mr. Cartwright, then slipping off his sandal offered his foot to the English merchant to kiss, which he twice refused to do, but at last was fain to do it.’ (Hunter’s History, Vol. II, p. 89). The Deputy-Governor on May 5th, 1633, sealed an order giving the English ample license to trade. (See text of order in Wilson’s Early Annals of the English in Bengal, Vol. I, pp. 11-12). The beginning of the English trade with Orissa is usually ascribed to a farman granted to the English in 1634 by Emperor Shāh Jahan, confining them to Pippli near an old mouth of the Subarnarukha river. On May 6th, 1633, the English built a house of business at Hariharpur, near Jagatsingpur in the Cuttack district, this being the first English factory in the present Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal. In June, 1633, Cartwright founded a factory at Balasore. In 1650, the English founded a factory at Hugli. Gabriel Boughton, an English Surgeon, who was in 1650 Surgeon to Shāh Shuja (Mughal Viceroy of Bengal who resided at Rajmahal), used his influence in the Viceregal Court, in getting favour extended to the English, who received in 1650 a ‘nishan’ or ‘permit’ from Shah Shuja to trade duty-free in Bengal on payment of Rs. 3,000.
↩His Majesty Emperor Aurangzeb on 27th February, 1690, granted a farman to the English. The farman sets forth that ‘all the English having made a most humble, submissive petition that the ill-crimes they have done may be pardoned,’ and promised to pay a fine of Rs. 150,000, to restore all plundered goods, and behave themselves no more in such a shameful manner, the Emperor accepts their submission and grants them a new license for trade, on condition that ‘Mr. Child, who did the disgrace, be turned out and expelled.’ (See Hunter’s History, Vol. II, p. 266). In 1690, Charnock returned from Madras, and for the third time anchored at Calcutta.
↩That is, the Board of Revenue or the ‘Sudder Board.’
↩For this victory and the treaty that followed, see note ante and Seir-ul-Mutakherin.
↩The author of the Riyaz appears to be remarkably liberal and catholic in his views, as the concluding lines of his History would indicate. Compare this picture of the ‘new English rulers’ with that in the Seir-ul-Mutakherin.
↩