Indian Muslims the Ottoman Empire
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INDIAN MUSLIMS AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1876 -1924 ABSTRACT T tt E SI §/ ( ^^ UBMITTED FOR THE OEGRIpE OF -\ x-'x, x It.- t Asian Suiclies (y ;-^\^ tl4lSTORY)Vy^ BY SHAMSHAD ALj i , - ) Under the Supervision of 'Professor Mahmudul Haq TA17 V CENTRE OF WEST ASIAN STUDIES AL1GARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 1990 ABSTRACT India's isolation from European and West Asian regions was broken towards the end of the fifteenth century by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope route and the appearance of the Portuguese in the Eastern Seas as well as the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517 and the founding of Safavid Empire in Persia and the Mughal Empire in India. In order to arrive at a more precise understanding of the Indian Muslims' relations with the Ottoman Empire, one has to look at the political map of Western and Central Asia during the Medieval as well as Modern period. The political and diplomatic relations between the Indian rulers and the Ottoman Empire were very friendly over the last five hundred years. The Bahmanids were the first Indian rulers to establish diplomatic contacts with the Ottomans. Later on they were followed by the Muslim rulers of Gujrat followed by Mughal rulers of India, Nizam of Hyderabad, Tipu Sultan of Mysore and Nawab of Arcot (Madras). Even during the British occupation of India there were bilateral exchanges of diplomatic missions between India and the Ottoman Empire. In the present work efforts have been made to examine the various levels of relations between Indian Muslims and the Ottoman Empire during 18th and 19th and [ 2 ] the first quarter of the present century. I have tried to investigate the basic objectives of such relations, and efforts have also been made to analyse the impact of these relationships. This work has been divided into seven chapters. Firstly, I have discussed the diplomatic attitudde of the Ottoman Empire towards the Indian rulers especially the Muslim rulers. The relations between both the countries varied from ruler to ruler and from time to time. As for instance Bahmanid Kings Muhammad Shah (1463-82) and Mahmud Shah (1482-1518) and the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II (1451- 81) and Bayezid II (1481-1512) had exchanged between themselves letters and royal embassies. The Mughal ruler Akbar found that his throne was insecure like his father Humayun, so he started by going farther in positive friendliness towards the Ottomans. He had written a letter to Sulaiman the Magnificent, and addressed the Ottoman Sultans as the Khalifas on the earth. But as Akbar's power grew he developed an anti-Ottoman stance. Declining to recognise the Sultan as the Caliph he put forward his own claim to the title. He never regarded the Ottoman Sultans as the sole champions of the Islamic world. Jahangir followed the same policy and subsequent Mughal rulers Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and Muhammad Shah - exchanged their letters and embassies with the Ottoman Sultans. These relations were followed by Tipu Sultan of Mysore and Nizam of [ 3 ] Hyderabad. Both the rulers had sent their embassies to Constantionple and got positive responses from the Ottoman Sultans. In the Second Chapter emphasis has been made to analyse the concept of the caliphate in the conciousness of Indian Muslim. As we know that caliph means the successor of the Prophet who rules over the entire Muslim territories. The Muslim advent in North-West India almost coincided with the crystalization of this concept of the Caliphate. Mahmud of Ghazna submitted himself in enlightened self interest to the spiritual sway of the Abbasid Caliphate in the eleventh century. The coins of Muhammad Bin Sam, the founder of Muslim Empire in India, bear the name of the Khalifa. More than that he bequeathed this to the Ghazanavids Sultan at Lahore and the Turkish Sultans at Delhi. Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316) and most of his successors until Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-1451) reconciled themselves to an abstract concept of Universal Muslim Caliphate with a hypothetical Caliph. The Timurids even before Babur, believed in the theory that each emperor was also the Caliph of his own dominion. Akbar seemed to have ignored the Ottoman Caliphate. It may have been perhaps due to the fact that they (Mughals) regarded the Ottoman Sultan - as their inferior, recalling the historical fact of Timur subduing [ 4 ] the Ottoman Empire in 1402. The Muslim subjects recognised the Ottoman Sultan as their rightful caliph and those Indian Muslims whc visited Mecca must have said their prayer and performed their pilgramage under the Turkish sovereigns. The Mughal rulers who dealt on equal terms with the Ottoman Sultan continued until the reign of Shah Alam II (1750) to qualify themselves with the title of Khalifa. The existence of the Ottoman Caliphate became an issue of religious concern for the Indian Muslims and assumed overgrowing proportions during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Shah Wali Allah (1703-1762) was a great Muslim thinker of India in the eighteenth century. He believed strongly in the necessity of a Universal Caliph. Now the Muslims of India all along recognized the Sultan of Turkey as their Caliph. The religious and temporal authority of the Ottoman caliph was interestingly enough, first invoked in India by the British when Lord Wellesly forwarded a letter from Ottoman Sultan Seiim ill to an Indian Sovereign Tipu Sultan of Mysore. The former had asked him to mend his relations with the British and make friendship with them. The second intervention by the caliph in India on behalf of the British was made during the upheaval of 1857. They made use of this power of the Ottoman Sultan for their own purposes. The change of British policy regarding this had begun to develop tension in Indian Muslim politics between those who were loyal to the British and those who were the L 5 J followers of Pan-Islamism. But in the second half of the nineteenth century Sultan Abdul Aziz's claim to be the Universal Caliph of Islam was generally accepted by the middle class Indian Muslim intellegentsia. The third chapter examines the consequences of the imperial aggression against Turkey and responses of the Indian Muslims. The Russian Revolution of 1905 and its impact on the National Liberation Movement in Asia had far reaching consequences. Imperialist forces adopted all the possible means to suppress the revolutionary wave. The Indian Nationalists in particular and Nationalists of other countries in general were victims of this situation. Quick awareness could be felt among the Asian people and they realized the main objectives of Imperialist powers. The appeal of Pan-Islamic ideas was not accidental. The Muslims had suffered very severely from the onslaught of British imperialism. A large number of agents from various Muslim states frequently met at Constantinaple in the 1870s and secretly discussed questions concerning their mutual interests. Now Pan-Islamic idea was taking a concrete shape. It seemed to Muslims that as their caliph would lead them in forging a strong united front against the relentless onslaughts of the West. Shaikhul Hind Mawlana Mahmudul Hasan of Deoband tried his best to give a practical shape to Pan-Islamic ideas on the political level at the beginning of the twentieth century. He prepared a secret scheme of [ 6 ] driving out the English. Apart from other achievements Pan- Islamic ideas became a powerful stimulus after World War I contributing decissively to the anti imperialist Khilafat Movement. The Fourth Chapter deals with Jamal al-Din al- Afghani's influence on Indian Muslims. The great Pan- Islamic thinker of the time Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani belonged to the group of Ulama who felt that Western onslaught should be met on the basis of Islamic unity. He continued to be a source of inspiration for the Muslim intellectuals of the entire Islamic world. We see that both the nationalist and modernist Muslim thinkers and political leaders wore influenced by his thoughts and ideas. As a political figure, his reputation had already been established when he visited India in 1868. He was well armed by Indian officials but the Government did not allow him to meet the ^Ulama'. The impact of al-Afghani's appeal was felt generally in the first decade of the twentieth century when he became a symbol of Islamic movement. Among the associates of Sayyid Ahmad Khan who came under the influence of al-Afghani were Mawlana Shibli Numani and Mawlana Altaf Husayn Hali. Al Afghani left a strong influence on the minds of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad and Muhammad Iqbal. Apart from Calcutta and Hyderabad he also visited several cities [ V ] in north west India where he made several disciplec. However, the teachings of al-Afghani had little influence on the direction which Muslim politics in India followed in later years- The Fifth Chapter throws light on the development of Pan-Islamic Movement in India and its convergence with Indian Nationalism. The Indian Muslims came closer to the Pan-Islamic Movement due to the rising national and international political development. As a matter of fact the nineteenth century marked the zenith of British Imperialism in India. The Indo-Turkish press contributed a lot in promoting national spirit and Pan-Islamic feeling in the entire Muslim World. After 1880 there was a tendency to activate Pan-Islamic sentiments for political purposes. The spirit of Pan-Islamism was a political manifestation of the idea of Universal brotherhood. During the first phase it provided the meeting place between India and the Ottoman Empire. Although it was a religious sentiment of Islamic brotherhood which promoted the Muslims of India to participate in the Pan-Islamic Movement, it is significant that it was the anti-Imperialist and anti-Western in its orientation.