The 13Th & 14Th Centuries
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The 13th & 14th Centuries Persian / Arabic Literature 1. Poetry was a popular form. Amir Khusrau and Amir Hassan were great poets. They also wrote qawwalis and created a new Indian style of poetry and is the originator of Hindustani music. 2. History writing was another popular trend. Barni, Afif, Siraj etc. 3. Books we written, specially dictionaries, with painted illustrations. Persian vs Arabic Historiography 2. analytical type. keep in mind that historiography is the study of how history is written. it is the study of all aspects of writing history. going by this definition.....volume wise arabic history works are less voluminous, persian more. reason, persian had been the court language of medieval rulers. what ever was written in arabic was by travelers before delhi sultanate, by religious scholars, arab immigrants to india. (list here famous examples)perspectives - arabic historians were not sympathetic to hindu traditions and culture. most of the works written by religious scholars, immigrants carry that tinge of fanaticism and superiority complex with respect to india in general and hindus in particular. persian - more sympathetic as they were written by those who settled here and non-religious historians. content and style - no differences that i know of. standard muslim style historical writing with plenty of allusions to religious terms. very few were objective. most of them were written to praise their patrons. eulogies and exaggerations. political history, cultural history, economic history, military history etc were the genres. methods of study - both relied on general observations, litterary sources written before them in their languages. very less or no importance was given to numismatics, inscriptions, archaeological sources, non-arabic and non-persian literature. Al-Utbi's Kitab-i-Yamini 1. He himself was Secretary to the Sultan Mahmud. He thus played an important role in the government at Gazni, and no doubt had first hand knowledge of many of the events he described, at least those that took place in the capital. His work covers the entire reign of the first sultan of Gazni Nasiru-d din Subuktgin, and of his son Mahmud up to the year 410 H. (1020 CE). As the founder of the Ghaznivite dynasty, Subuktigin played an extremely important role in the history of India and Central Asia. 2. Despite his proximity to Sultan Mahmud, Al Utbi seems to have little or no direct knowledge of India. He seems to have little knowledge of Indian topography and his statements regarding localities and place names are unreliable. No Indian words appear in his text aside from Rai. 3. His numerous incursions into India were largely raids designed to capture spoil in material wealth, slaves and livestock. He is portrayed as a zealous Muslim eager to destroy "idol temples", but this was probably justification for pillage, since these activities contravened the earlier Arab policy of granting Hindus and Buddhists protected dhimmi status. Minhaj-us-Siraj's Tabakat-i-Nasiri (a) Motivation behind writing 1. Minhaj served in very high posts in his career. He was very close to the sultans. Thus his interests were completely aligned with the interests of the sultanate i.e. to preserve and establish strongly the Turkish rule. 2. Another motivation definitely would be to please the sultan and he worked under many sultans. But this was a minor motivation only as he didn't depend on writing to earn his livelihood. 3. By glorifying the western connections of Islam he sought to inspire the muslims as well which was needed as they were facing a number of challenges in that age. (b) Importance 1. Due to his proximity to the sultans the value of his work goes up because it reflects the thoughts of a person whose interests were completely aligned with that of the Turkish rule and who was actively helping the sultans in preserving and establishing the rule. 2. The sultanate was in a nascent and insecure stage then. The sultan was trying to establish his legitimacy and authority and for this he had even sought investiture from the Caliph. In his work Minhaj tries to establish the historical links of the Sultanate with Western Asian Islam and covers this in his initial chapters itself. 3. By glorifying the western connections of Islam he sought to inspire the muslims as well which was needed as they were facing a number of challenges in that age. 4. His interests were in the preservation and propagation of Turkish rule and his writings reflect the insecurity of the age. He didn't care who was the sultan so long as the rule was preserved. Thus he praised each and every sultan very highly despite the fact that he may have violently replaced the previous sultan. For the same reason he keeps a balance between all sultans. 5. Where he departs from the other writers of his age was he covered not just the history of his sultan but also the entire history of Islam. 6. Because he was writing a history of a long period it was necessary for him to draw upon the works of other scholars. Wherever he finds 2 conflicting opinions he mentions both with sources along with the one he accepts and the reasons for doing so. For his own period he relies on his own experiences or those of witnesses. 7. He gives an indiscriminate religious tone to his work. He almost absent minded uses terms like Islamic armies and devil's armies to describe wars even if they were between two muslim rulers only. By doing this he merely showed where his sympathy lay. This tells us about the educational system of the day because he was a product of an educational system which was highly religious and used only religious terms. 8. His bias against Hindus can be seen only when he describes the conflicts. Otherwise he ignores it when they pose no threat to the sultanate. This clearly reflects the attitude of the sultanate rulers as well who used religion to achieve their goals in the conflict situations only and otherwise were indifferent in all practical purposes. In many instances Minhaj goes ignores the uncomfortable religious aspects of a problem as well if it ran counter to his objectives. This attitude was reflected in the sultans as well. (c) Limitations 1. He remained confined to the ruling and elite class only. But this tells us about the nature of state system in those days. (d) Comparison with Barani 1. Minhaj comes across as a scholar who lived in a turbulent phase - one where the rulers' concern was the preservation of their rule and for which they had to make many compromises and even shift goalposts i.e. be practical. We cannot expect him to be driven by any particular ideology or political leaning. Institutions were fluid and situation was dynamic and one had to be very careful. By Barani's time the institutions had stabilized, self preservation was no longer the overriding objective and one could stick to an ideology. Tensions were emerging between these institutions and this is reflected in Barani's writings as well. 2. Minhaj writes in detail about different amirs in different areas and thus many of the events are repeated. Barani on the other hand focuses on the events of only one area and writes period wise. Thus there is no repetition in Barani. 3. Minhaj mostly chronologically lists various events and doesn't analyzes the trends, elements of continuity / discontinuity and the reasons thereof. Barani tries to analyze some aspect or the other at the end of each chapter for instance how each sultan viewed punishment as. 4. Minhaj doesn't tell us about the problems faced by the sultans. Barani tells us how Balban strengthened his position, how sultanate changed under Khaljis, how mongol threat changed the nature of sultanate under Ala-ud-din. Zia-ud-din Barani (Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi & Fatwa-i-Jahandari) (a) Motivations behind writing 1. Barani himself writes that he hoped that his work will help others learn from past mistakes. He claims he was repentful for not criticizing MbT when it mattered. By this work, he hoped, people will learn and not commit the same mistakes. 2. But in reality he had fallen out of favor of the new sultan Firuz and was even imprisoned. Firuz had outlook which ran contrary to MbT in many ways and hence Barani was writing to please him and earn favor. (b) Importance 1. His work doesn't just reflect his own thinking but tells us about the views of the educational system and the particular section of maulvis. These maulvis relied on extremist form of Islam to preserve their existence in polity. They expected the sultan to consult them on even political matters and this kept their importance intact. But under MbT the dominance of maulvis had reduced drastically as he had to make many compromises to propagate and strengthen his rule in India which included appointment of even Hindus to high offices and not consulting the maulvis in political matters. They were thus fearful of losing power in the politics of the age. This is reflected in the work. 2. Thus he prescribes that the sultan must take steps to propagate Islam, punish non muslims, impose shariat and give more authority to men of (muslim) religion. 3. By his time the sense of insecurity in the sultanate was over and the sultans were well established. There was no need to draw legitimacy form the western connections any more (in fact delhi was the sole surviving muslim sultanate). Sultanate had no connections left with the west.