What is the Delhi Sultanate?
The Delhi Sultanate is one of the major civilizations in South Asia during the Foundations Period. Like the Abbasids and Mali Empire, the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate were Muslim. The Delhi Sultanate was significant for the Indian Ocean Exchange Network, leading to the diffusion of Indian goods, ideas, and technology. In addition Arabs, Africans, and Chinese merchants migrated to India to participate in their growing economy. The Delhi Sultanate was considered one of the wealthiest empires due to its regional production of cotton and spices.
|
Governing Techniques of the Delhi Sultanate
Capital of DelhiMuslims took over the subcontinent by force (see the purple section below) Delhi served as the capital of the Delhi Sultanate. The sultan lived in Delhi and was protected by their large standing military. The sultans used their military to conquer territory into southern India. However, the Sultanate never established a bureaucracy or administrators to regulate the empire. This made it difficult for the sultans to maintain control over their conquered territories and achieving stability. They would become a Muslim minority ruling over a Hindu Majority
|
Market RegulationThe Delhi Sultanate established greater government control in the economy. The most powerful sultan, Alauddin Khalji, established government-controlled markets in India. The government set the prices of goods and created heavy regulations against the hoarding of wealth. The sultan controlled the price of grain and lowered the price during times of drought, which benefited his lower-class subjects.
|
Large MilitaryDue to the success of their market regulations, the Delhi Sultanate raised a powerful military of over 300,00 soldiers. The bulk of the Sultan's army consisted of nomadic Turkic slaves called Mamluks, who were skilled equestrians and archers. The Sultan's army were skilled in the same style of nomadic cavalry warfare used by the Mongols, making them successful in repelling the Mongol invasions.
|
Center of the Indian Ocean Exchange Network
Before and during the Delhi Sultanate, dar-al-Islam offered a wide-ranging trans-regional exchange, including technological and trade networks. Islam integrated large parts of Afro-Eurasia, leading to escalating circulation of goods, peoples, technologies and ideas. While initially disruptive, the Delhi Sultanate was responsible for integrating the India into a globalized exchange system. India began widely adopting technologies from the Islamic world, including water-raising wheels with pulleys and papermaking technology. The incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin first appeared in the Indian subcontinent some time during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire. The production of cotton, which may have largely been spun in the villages and then taken to towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, was advanced by the diffusion of the spinning wheel across India during the Delhi Sultanate era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the spinning wheel, and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin, led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production.
The Cultural Impact of Islam in Hindu India
Differences Between the Largest Religions in IndiaReligion has always held a dominant place in South Asian history. Before the arrival of Islam, most South Asians practiced Hinduism with a smaller number identified as Buddhists. Hindus encountered a starkly different religion when Islam arrived:
|
Delhi Sultanate Destruction of Hindu TemplesIslam initially entered India forcefully. During imperial expansion, troops were ordered to destroy Hindu idols and temples in the conquered territory. Mosques were built on top of the destroyed Hindu temple site to prevent Hindus from rebuilding it and to encourage more subjects to convert to the Islamic faith.
Eventually, Muslim rulers took on a more peaceful approach as Muslim rulers found early in their reign that forcing their Hindu subjects to convert was not successful. Thus, most converts came to Islam voluntarily. With its emphasis on the equality of all believers, Islam also attracted low-caste Hindus who hoped that conversion would improve their social status. As a result of the the differences in religion and initial conflict, only 20% of the population in South Asia had converted to Islam by 1500 and 80% remained Hindu. One change did result in the decline of Buddhism. The arrival of Islam and conversion of lower caste people led to the decline of Buddhism. |
Sufi Missionaries
Sufism may be best described as Islamic mysticism or asceticism, which through belief and practice helps Muslims attain nearness to Allah by way of direct personal experience of God. According to Sufis this can be achieved through constant, meditative remembrance of God. Sufis were able to spread Islam through poetry, dancing and art.
Sikhism: A Syncretic Religion in India
Hindu and Muslim tensions in India were quite violent throughout the Foundations Period due to the Delhi Sultanate. During the Early Modern Period, the Mughals, another Islamic dynasty who ruled India, introduced religious tolerant policies that eased the tensions between Hindus and Muslims significantly.
As a result, a syncretic religion known as Sikhism (pronounced as seek-ism) emerged that blended the doctrines of both Hinduism and Islam. The founder of the Sikh religion is Guru Nanak (1469-1539), who is considered one of the greatest religious innovators and spiritual leaders. Nanak's religious ideas drew from both Hindu and Islamic thought, but his ideas are far more than just combining two religions. Nanak was a spiritual thinker and expressed his thoughts in extraordinary poetry that forms the basis of Sikh scripture. He worked for a while as an accountant but while still quite young decided to devote himself to spiritual matters. He was inspired by a powerful spiritual experience that gave him a vision of the true nature of God, and confirmed his idea that the way to spiritual growth was through meditation and through living in a way that reflected the presence of the divine within each human being. In 1496, although married and having a family, Nanak set out on a set of spiritual journeys through India, Tibet and Arabia that lasted nearly 30 years. He studied and debated with the learned men he met along the way and as his ideas took shape he began to teach a new route to spiritual fulfilment. Bottom right image: The Golden Temple, the most sacred shrine in Sikhism |
|
|
Quotes by Guru Nanak illustrating Hindu & Islamic Influences
"Why should one be fearful? Trees, plants, rocks, and all that is inside and outside is Brahman himself."
"By the Karma of past actions has this physical body been obtained. By Ramas grace the liberation of Moksha is obtained." |
"One Universal Creator. His name is Truth. He is Allah, the Unknowable, the Inaccessible, All-powerful and Merciful Creator."
"Someone set up a stone idol and all the world worships it as lord. Those who do this will be drowned in the eternal river of darkness." |