12 chap 5
Through the eyes of the travellers, perceptions of society

Affairs of courts, religious issues, architectural monuments

vijayanagara - Abdur razzaq samarqandi diplomat from herat

Al biruni from Uzbekistan 11th century

Muhammad ibn Ahmad Abu Raihan al-Biruni
born in 973 Khwarizm (centre for learning), 1017 Sultan Mahmud invaded and took to Ghazni

• Punjab was part of Ghaznavid Empire

objective: learn Hindus
patanjali into Arabic
Euclid into sanskrit (He didn't know greek but learn Arabic translations)

Kitab ul Hind: 80 chapter q and a, (from book)

language barriers, hard to translate (al biruni)
difference in religious beliefs and practices
self absorption and consequent insularity

caste: everyone equal in Islam, didn't believe in impurity coz everything can be cleansed this contrary to laws of nature
he relied primarily on works by brahmans, but there were antyaja serving both peasants and zamindars

Ibn Battuta from Morocco 14th century: Rihla

born in Tangier, family experts of Shari'a, had travelled extensively for experience, Sind in 1333
got appointed qazi of Delhi by bin Tughluq, then to prison then back , 1342 to china as Sultans envoy to Mongol ruler, became qazi in Maldives, then resumed -> Sumatra to Zaytun (Quanzhou), decided to return in 1347

Samarqandi: 1440s
Mahmud Ali Balkhi 1620s became sanyasi
Shaikh Ali Hazin 1740s disgusted with india

anything unusual, kings cruel and generous, commoners

• densely populated cities of opportunties
• bazaars (towns probably got wealthy from surplus of villages, true?) social hubs
• Indian soil fertile, two crops a year
• inter-Asian networks of trade and commerce
• trade routes with inns and guest houses
• efficiency of postal system, merchants can remit credit across long distances, dispatch goods, Sind to Delhi spy reports in 5days
• horse post uluq, foot post dawa every one third of a mile
• described slavery as natural state of affairs

Francois Bernier from France 17th century

1500 Jesuit Roberto Nobili
Portuguese Duarte Barbosa South India
French jeweller Jean Baptiste Travernier, tradition focus, compared India to Iran and Ottoman
Italian Doctor Manucci

objective: opportunities from Mughal empire 1656-1668, preoccupied with contrasting, focussed on depressing situations, critical insights
published 1670-71
physician to dara shikoh then scientist

letters to Louis XIV and others, described India in bleak situation

• history of Mughals within a universal framework
• model of binary opposition, Europe superior
• lack of private property in land in Mughal India, said crown ownership of land harmful for state (perception common among travellers of the time)
• since landowners couldn't pass land to children they were averse to long term investment in the sustenance and expansion of production (true) leading to uniform ruination of agriculture, excessive oppression of peasantry and decline of living standards
• no middle state (class) in India
• king was king of beggars and barbarians

• described sati pratha

• artisans had no incentive to improve since profits were appropriated by state, but they important precious metals and merchant community prosperous engaging in long distance exchange

• 15% of population lived in towns but he described them as camp towns: owed their existence and depended for their survival on the imperial patronage, no viable socio economic foundations (there were different kinds of towns showing prosperity: manufacturing trading port sacred pilgrimage)

• merchants had strong kin ties caste cum occupational bodies called mahajans with chief called seth, in Ahmedabad nagarseth

• other professions depended on royal patronage or others or townsfolk

Abul Fazl: land revenue as remunerations of sovereignty, for protection he provided rather than rent on land, it wasn't land tax either but tax on crop

French philsopher Montesquieu: oriental despotism
Karl Marx: Asiatic mode of production stagnant system, autonomous villages, surplus appropriated by the state