Socio-Political Condition of Gujarat Daring the Fifteenth Century Thesis submitted for the dc^ee fif DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY By AJAZ BANG Under the supervision of PROF. IQTIDAR ALAM KHAN Department of History Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarb- 1983 T388S 3 0 JAH 1392 ?'0A/ CHE':l!r,D-2002 CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY TELEPHONE SS46 DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202002 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN This is to certify that the thesis entitled 'Soci•-Political Condition Ml VB Wtmmimt of Gujarat / during the fifteenth Century' is an original research work carried out by Aijaz Bano under my Supervision, I permit its submission for the award of the Degree of the Doctor of Philosophy.. /-'/'-ji^'-^- (Proi . Jrqiaao;r: Al«fAXamn Khan) tc ?;- . '^^•^\ Contents Chapters Page No. I Introduction 1-13 II The Population of Gujarat Dxiring the Sixteenth Century 14 - 22 III Gujarat's External Trade 1407-1572 23 - 46 IV The Trading Cotnmxinities and their Role in the Sultanate of Gujarat 47 - 75 V The Zamindars in the Sultanate of Gujarat, 1407-1572 76 - 91 VI Composition of the Nobility Under the Sultans of Gujarat 92 - 111 VII Institutional Featvires of the Gujarati Nobility 112 - 134 VIII Conclusion 135 - 140 IX Appendix 141 - 225 X Bibliography 226 - 238 The abljreviations used in the foot notes are f ollov.'ing;- Ain Ain-i-Akbarl JiFiG Arabic History of Gujarat ARIE Annual Reports of Indian Epigraphy SIAPS Epiqraphia Indica •r'g-acic and Persian Supplement EIM Epigraphia Indo i^oslemica FS Futuh-^ffi^Salatin lESHR The Indian Economy and Social History Review JRAS Journal of Asiatic Society ot Bengal MA Mi'rat-i-Ahmadi MS Mirat~i-Sikandari hlRG Merchants and Rulers in Giijarat MF Microfilm. • MS Manuscript FIHC Proceeding of Indian History Congress RMPG Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat SMG Some Aspects of Medieval Gujarat TA Tabaaat~i-A"kbarr t. ~ TMS, Tabaaat-i-Mahmud ShahX 1 *>. ' ; TMS^ Tarikh -i-Mazaffar Shihi 2 rr TG Ta'rlkh-i-Gujaxat TSG TarikhJL-Salatrn-i-Guj arat T3 Tarikh-i-Sorath TP Tgril^.-.i-?3rishta T?S Tarikh-i-Fero2 Shahi ••Socio-Political Condition in the Kingdom of Gujarat During the Fifteenth Century" I wish to express my sincere gratefulness to my Supervisor Prof, Iqtidar Alam Khan for his valuable guidance. I acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof. Shireen Moosvi for her help in writing the chapter entitled "The Population of Gujarat Duriog the Sixteenth Century". My thanks are also due to cartographers Mr. Faiz Habib and Mr. Zahoor A. Khan. I would also like to thank - . the library staff of my Department, the Persian teacher Mr, Habibullah as well as the typist Mr. Mohd Riaz Khan, I am also indebted to the staff of the National Archives of India, New Delhi, for their help at the archives. I acknowledge with gratitude the patience shown by ray parents and tr^aendous moral support provided by them during the preparation of this thesis. Financial assistance rendered by UGC and ICHR is also duly acknowledged. ( Ajaz THE TERRITORIES CONTROLLED BY THE GUJARAT SULTANS U07-1572 ?5 ChUtorgorh Oeeto Ipolonpur Morwo Rodhonpu.dho^pi X PATAN .^f"'," , DUNGARPUR Santholpurir, '^^ • ttisalnoflor / *» ^^X^ . Sami Munj^Tpurp X ( l^AJ»nodno,ar BANSWARA Sorangpur K A C H H Jhunjhuwo • Kndi.A'"'?!? tort's!•M.9!)g!Js,.^ _ Ujjoln Jholod AHMADABAHMADABArtBohyUMomuro^A d M«hrol Oharangodhro S<h<)-o» •QholiQfflnoi d Morvi' Mahmudobod yiorwa Wodhwon^"'"'"' OIV>ll<* Jdobod (fennHR'A' •Dohod ,Kolol Ohondhuko0 ^y XHOIOI_ J'^HAMPANE R Jagat' •Cai»boyJ*RPBA Bohodorpur /V-Ci*^*T •.Sonkh.r ada 22 •Dobhoi 2? Mftbufo^oJ, ^JAHA. 3AUT WjParaBBQ«CiIK«JP, r Sultanpur '"°"Vp/d>^S'r^'^^°^^ rnP'' »on'i«5,SURAT>V£^l«<«^^^Sr^. rapt, VBhoni< A'T^* ' Chikhli tg^LHER Oiu DAMA _^ RAMNAGAR A R A B / A N BAST EIN ZoA^< r S E A MAMBAl) OR BOMBAYf INDEX Sorkor heodquorter ® V DANDA Places ossrgned KM so 50 KM • V" RAJPURI U-Li Trade rout» —i .// 70' 7<* This map is aimed at showing the areas and places controlled by the Sultanate of Gujarat at different points of time during 1407-1572 A.D. All Muhammad Khan, author of Mlrat-i-AhmadF (Vol. I p, 17) gives the list of the 25 sarkars controlled by' the Sultanate at the time of its maximum expan­ sion. In this map these 25 sarkars are indicated by dot within small circles. The places other than these sarkars that are mentioned by records as being held by nobles in different capacities are shown in this map with ordinary dots. The alignments of the land routes shown by thick lines that go to suggest the pattern of the Gujarat's trade links with the other parts of Indian subcontinent are copied from Prof. Irfan Habib's sheet nOi, 7 A, B in An Atlas of the Mughal Empire. Introduction Being located on the western coast of Indian subcontinent, a part of Gujarat is a peninsula washed on two sides by the 'Arabian sea and on the third by the Gulf of Carnbay. A large number of excellent ports found on its coast made Gujarat a commercial emporium. Its natural products, particularly cotton, that was available in abxmdance and easy access to the sea facilitated the development of the overseas trade. Moreover teak forests in the eastern part of the province provided rich building material for local use as well as for export all over the world.^ The people of Gujarat, therefore, were always particularly involved in the occupations identified with handicraft manufacture and trade which contributed to the 3 great wealth of the region. 1. Sikandar LodI, the ruler of Delhi is ^«ported to have remarked that Gujarat Sultan had^S4^ports in his control; Sikandar bin Manjhu, Mirat-i-Sikandarx, ed. by S.C.Misra and M.L. Rehman, Baroda, 1961, pp. 309-10. Here after see MS 2. For the timber forests see English Factories in India 1618-69 ed. W. Foster, Oxford, 1906-27, pp. 65, 79 & John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyage and Travels in All Parts of World. London, 1811, p. 326 quoted by Irfaji Habib An Atlas of Mughal Empire, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1982,p. 25, hereafter see Atlas For the export of the timber, see S. Maqbol Ahmad, 'Commercial Relations of India with the Arab VJorld' Islamic Culture. XXXVIII No. 2, 1964 p. 149; For the local use of the teak timber see Mlrl't-i-AhmadT. ed. Saiyid Nawab Ali, Baroda 1927, I p. 16. Here after see MA. 3. That these factors contributed to the prosperity of Gujarat is emphasised by S.A.I. Tirmizi, Some Aspects of Medieval Gujarat, Delhi, 1968, p. 2, '.here after see SMG. Since Gujarat was a coastal -domain well known for its flourishing trade, the seafaring communities as well as various commercial groups, could be assumed to have comprised a very considerable part of its total population. One may reasonably presume that a major part of Gujarat's seafarers and traders were living in the urban centres. This large urban population was perhaps, further boosted by the existence of considerable artisan pockets. It is pointed out by Moreland that during the 17th century^Gujarat was not self-supporting in food grains. This was, possibly, owing to its large urban and seafaring popul­ ation. According to Moreland "it (Gujarat) imported food grains largely from the North and East, rice from the Deccan, wheat and other grains from Malwa and Rajputana". During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Gujarat appears to have witnessed important socio-economic changes which contributed greatly to its distinct regional identity. The features of the economy and demography of the 17th century Gujarat noticed above were, apparently, some of the characteristics hallmarks of such an identity. In this study 1. Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, London, 1920, p. 244. I hope to probe the question as to how and when the Gujarati society came to develop these features. In this connection I am proceeding on the premise that the expansion of Gujarat's overseas trade contributing to the emergende of these special features of its economy and demography might be traced back to the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth centuries when it was being ruled by a regional Sultanate, It is sought to be done, on the one hand, by examining the nature and extent of patronage the seafaring in general and trade and commerce in particular received at the hand of Gujarati Sultans, On the other hand I have also tried to test the above premise by examining, to the extent it is permitted by the available evidence, the demographic structure of Gujarat during 1407-1572. In my study of the population of Gujarat I have followed Moreland's method based on the assximption that the ratio between the armed personnel and the population came up to 1:30 respectively. One of my major concerns in this thesis would be the study of the state of trade and commerce as well as the 1. The evidence pertains to^total strenth of Gujariti armed forces in the year 1572 furnished by MA I, p, 16, related crafts in Gujarat under the regional SultSis. The II and III chapters of my thesis deal with this problem. In this study, first of all I would be dealing with the evidence suggesting the presence of different merchant communities of local as well as foreign origins in Gujarat, For this purpose, in addition to the references to these communities in the Persian chronicles and surviving traditions, large corpus of epigraphical evidence surviving from 14th, 15th and 16th centxiries has also been fully utilized.