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Ibn Battuta's Travels: Delhi India

Delhi, India
Ibn Battuta entered India through the high mountains of Afghanistan, following the
footsteps of Turkish warriors who, a century earlier, had conquered the Hindu farming
people of India and established the Sultanate of Delhi. That first wave of Muslim soldiers
looted towns and smashed the images of the gods of the Hindu worshipers. But later
warrior kings set up a system to tax, rather than slaughter the peasants. They replaced the
local Hindu leaders with Turks from Afghanistan and conquered and united a large area
almost to the
tip of the
subcontinent.
But these
Muslim
sultans in
Delhi were
not safe.
They faced
continued
opposition
from the
Hindu
majority in
India who
rebelled
against their
conquerors, and they were threatened with periodic Mongol invasions from the north. The
Chagatay Khan (whom Ibn Battuta visited on his way to India) had invaded India and
threatened Delhi, the new capital city about 1323. But the armies of the feisty Sultan
Muhammad Tughluq in Delhi had chased them back across the Indus River.
Slowly India was becoming more firmly controlled by the Muslim leaders.Hindus were
even converting to Islam and finding jobs in the new government. They recognized the
economic advantages of becoming Muslims: much lower taxes and opportunities for
advancement under the present leader. (In the rural areas, the population remained almost
exclusively Hindu. They had to pay their taxes, but were allowed to worship as they
wished. And many hated the Muslim government which was imposed upon them.)
In order to strengthen his hold on India, the Sultan needed more judges, scholars, and
administrators. In late 1334, Ibn Battuta went to Delhi to seek official employment and he
signed a contract agreeing that he would stay in India. He cleverly assembled gifts for the
sultan: arrows, several camels, thirty horses, and several slaves and other goods. Everyone
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knew that the Muhammad Tughluq would give to his visitors gifts of far greater value in
return!
When he arrived in Delhi, Ibn Battuta was given a welcoming
gift of 2,000 silver dinars and put up in a comfortably
furnished house. Muhammad Tughluq was not in Delhi, and so
Ibn Battuta waited. Muhammad Tughluq had received reports
about this new arrival and hired Ibn Battuta sight-unseen to the
service of the state. He would receive an annual salary of 5,000
silver dinars to be paid from two and a half villages located
about 16 miles from the city. (State officials and army officers
were paid from taxes on crops produced in peasant villages
rather than from the royal treasury.) The average Hindu family
lived on about 5 dinars a month.
However, after dealing with a rebellion, the Sultan became
suspicious of many people around him. Even Ibn Battuta
came under suspicion. While living in Delhi, Ibn Battuta
married a woman and had a daughter by her. This woman was
the daughter of a court official who had plotted a rebellion and was executed by the
Sultan. But the most serious problem for Ibn Battuta was his friendship with a Sufi holy
man. This holy man refused to have anything to do with politics and tried to live a
religious life. He snubbed the Sultan and refused to obey the Sultan's commands. In
retaliation Muhammad had the holy man's beard plucked out hair by hair, then banished
him from Delhi. Later the Sultan ordered him to return to court, which the holy man
refused to do. The man was arrested, tortured in the most horrible way, then beheaded.
Battuta was called to see the Sutlan, and expected that he too would be executed.
But the Sultan had another task in mind, one that Ibn Battuta found fascinating. Knowing
of Ibn Battuta's love of travel and sightseeing, the Sultan wanted to make Ibn Battuta
ambassador to the Mongol court of China. He would accompany 15 Chinese messengers
back to their homeland and carry shiploads of gifts to the emperor. Now he was given an
opportunity to get away from Muhammad Tughluq and to visit further lands of Islam in a
grand style! It was an offer too exciting - and too dangerous - to refuse.

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