Through the Eyes of Travellers Perception Of Society Tenth to Seventeeth Century

What struck travelers as unusual? Ibn Battuta

Coconut and paaan

How was Bernier’s account different?

Getting reprinted many times

What traditions was the Kitab ul hind based on?

Sanskritic traditions

Where was Al-Biruni born?

973 in Khwarizm Uzbekistan

What languages did Al-Biruni know?

Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit

Received best education

Did not know Greek

Read Arabic version of Plato

When did Mahmud invade Khwarizm?

1017

When and where did Al-Biruni die?

Ghazni at the age of 70

What textile material were exported from India according to Ibn Batuta?

cotton cloth, fine muslins, silks, brocade and satin,

What was the postal used for according to Ibn Batutua?

send information and

remit credit across long distances,

but also to dispatch goods required at short notice.

Where did Al-Biruni travel?

Punjab and parts of northern India

Sahara desert to river volga

Where did the word Hindu come from?

Persian 6-5th century to refer to east of Sindhu

Arabs called it al-Hind and later the people Hindi

Turks referred to people living east of Undus and Hindu and their land Hindustan and their language Hindavi

What language was the Kitab-ul-Hind(Al Biruni) and Rihla (Ibn Battuta)?

Written in Arabic

How long was the Kitab-ul-Hind?

80 chapters

What was the structure of the Kitab-ul-Hind?

Covered religion and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and metrology

Began with a question and followed it up with a description based of Sanskritic traditions and concluded with comparison with other cultures

What was Ibn Battuta’s book?

Rihla in Arabic

Who was Ibn Battuta?

Moroccan traveler

Tangier family

Expertise in Sharia law

Described everything that impressed and excited him

When did Ibn Battuta arrive in India?

1332-33

Reached Sind in 1333

Where had Ibn Battuta travelled too?

Mecca, Syria, Iraq, Persia, Yemen, Oman and East Africa

Why did Ibn Batutta come to Delhi?

Heard about Muhammad bin Tughlaq was a generous patron

Where did Ibn Bauta travel?

China, Maldives, Malabar, Sri Lanka, and Assam

What position was Ibn Battuata given?

Qazi or judge of Delhi until he fell out of favor and was thrown in prison

How many years was Ibn Battuta quazi of Maldives?

18 months

Who settled in India?

Italian doctor Manucci

Who was Marco Polo?

From Venice

Who was disgusted by India?

Shaikh Ali Hazin who expected red carpet treatment

Who became a sanyasi?

Mahmud Balki

When did the Portuguese arrive in India?

1500

Who was Jesuit Ronberto Nobili?

Portuguese

Translated Indian texts into European language

Who was Duarte Barbosa?

Portuguese

Wrote on trade and society of South India

Who was Jean-Bapitise Tavernier?

French

Travelled to India at least six times

Who was Francois Bernier?

French doctor, political philosopher and historian.

In India for twelve years (1656-1668)

Physician to Prince Dara Sukoh eldest son of Shah Jahan

Intellectual with Danishmand Khan, an Armenian noble

Who did Francois Bernier dedicate his writing to?

Louis the fourteenth

Presented it as Bleak

What were the three barriers to al biruni?

Sanskrit was so different from Arabic and Persian and concepts could not be easily translates

Difference in religious beliefs and practices

Self-absorption and insularity of the local community.

Who work did Al Biruni rely on?

Brahmanas

What were the four social categories in Persia?

Knights and princes,

monks and fire-priests,

Physicians, astronomers and other scientists

Peasants and artisans

What did Al-Biruni say on the caste system?

Social divisions were not unique to India

All men were equal in Islam differing in their observance of piety

Disapproved of the notion of pollution (contrary to laws on nature). Impure things strive to be pure

Who were antyaja?

Born outside the system, were expected to provide inexpensive labor

What did the coconut look like?

A man’s head two eyes and a mouth

Inside looks like brain

Fibers look like hair

What was coir used for?

Sewing ships and making cables

What are betel grown for?

Only leaves

Supposed to eat areca nut then put some chalk on the betel and eat it too

What was the largest city according to Ibn Battuta?

Delhi it also was know for its great population

Daulatabad was no less

How many gates does delhi have?

28

What is the greatest Darwaza?

Baduan darwaza

Where is the grain market in Delhi?

Mandwi darwaza

Where is the orchard?

Gul darwana

What were bazaars?

Places of economic, social and cultural activities.

Mosque and a temple

Places for dancers musicians and singers

How did towns get a significant portion of there wealth?

Surplus from villages

Agriculture according to Ibn Batutta?

Highly productive, can grow two crops

What is Tarababad in Daulatabad (Maharastra)?

Market for male and female singers

How long did the postal system take to reach from Delhi to Sind?

50 days

How does Ibn Battuta describe the post system?

Royal horses are stationed at a distance of every four miles

The foot post has a three stations every mile

Every third mile there is a well populated village

There are three pavilions in which people sit with girded loins

Carries a rod (two cubits, with copper bells at the top

Runs as fast as he can and the people of the pavilion hear him

What type of post was faster according to Ibn Battuta?

Foot post often used to transport fruits of Khurasan

How described Calicut as populated with people “I never imagined and a strange nation’?

Abdur Razzaq

What did Abdur Razzaq like about Mangalore?

He saw a temple which filled him with admiration

How did Bernier intepret India?

Bleak

Preoccupied with comparing and contrasting with Europe

He wanted to influence policy-makers and intelligentsia

India was inferior and the inverse of Europe

There is no middle state in India

Oversimplified

What was Bernier’s book?

Travels in the Mughal Empire

Who saw Widespread poverty in India?

Pelsaert

“So much is wrung from the peasants that even dry bread is scarcely left to fill their stomachs”

What was one of the fundamental differences between Mughal India and Europe?

Lack of private property which had bad consequences for the economy

What did lack of private property do?

People were averse to any long term investment since they could not pass their land to their children.

Prevented the emergence of class of improving landlords with a concern to maintain or improve the land

Excessive oppression of the peasanty and continuous

decline of living standards of all sections of society

How did Bernier describe the Mughal Empire?

The king was the kings of beggars and barbarians

Towns were contaminated with ill air

Fields overspread with bushes and full of pestilential marishes

What was remuneration of sovereignty?

Claim made by ruler on his subjects for protection rather then rent.

Tax on crops

Who was the official chronicler of Akbar’s reign?

Abu’l Fazl

What was the Orient? by Montesquieu?

Rulers enjoyed absolute authority over their subjects who were kept in conditions of subjugation.

All land belonged to the king

Private property was non-existent

Everybody barely managed to survive

What was the Asiatic mode of production by Karl Marx?

Surplus was appropriated by the state

Society composed of a large number of autonomous and egalitarian village communities

Regarded as Stagnant system

What was the spectrum in villages?

Zaminadars, Big Peasant, Small Peasant, Untouchable landless laborer

What did Bernier see that changed his mind?

Bengal was bigger than Egypt in agriculture and manufacturing

They had to hire artists

Everything flowed into India

What were Karkahans?

State controlled workships

What percentage of the population lived in town in the seventeenth century?

15%

What were camp towns?

Mughal town that owed their survival on the imperial camp

Did not have viable social and economic foundations

What were merchant groups is called?

Mahajans. Western India

Who was the leader of merchant communities?

Sheth

Who was the chief of the Ahmedabad merchant community?

Nagarsheth.

What were physicians called?

Hakim or viad

What were teachers called?

Pundit or mulla

What were lawyers called?

Wakil

How were female slaves captured?

During raids and expeditions

What did Ibn Batutta buy as gifts for Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq?

Horses,camels and slaves

What are tankas?

coins

What is Sati?

Practice in which widow is burnt alive after husband dies

What did women do?

in both agricultural and non-agricultural production. Women from merchant families participated in commercial activities, sometimes even taking mercantile disputes to the court of law.

Which two travelers went to China?

Ibn Batuta and Marco Polo