THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
H I S T O R Y N O T E S
GREAT HABSHIS IN ETHIOPIAN/INDIAN HISTORY:
History of the Ethiopian Diaspora, in India - Part IV
Posted by RUNOKO RASHIDI
We saw in recent weeks that many Ethiopians, or "Abyssinians", were taken to India in medieval and post-medieval times, and that not a few of them rose to positions of power and influence. Two, we saw, held the title of Ulugh Khan.
Now read on:
The Third Habshi Ulugh Khan
The third Habshi bearing the title of Ulugh Khan was Yaqut's son Muhammad, also known as Shams ud-Dawlah Muhammad al-Habshi, who served as vizier to his father from 1543-4 to 1557-8. Also called Khayrat Khan, he also held the title of al-Majlis al-Ashraf al-Ali, and is remembered, as we have seen, as one of the patrons of the Gujarat historian Haji ad-Dabir. Muhammad Ulugh Khan appointed as his vizier yet another Habshi, Bilal Falah Khan, and, according to the Indian historian M.S. Commissariat, "secured the same devotion as his father had enjoyed from the Habshi troops in Gujarat and was thus able to take an active part in the confused politics of the time". He sided sometimes with Itimad Khan and sometimes with Imad-ul-Mulk Arslan, but after Akbar's conquest of Gujarat ended his days in captivity, and was buried at Sarkhej beside the graves of his father Yaqut and his son Ahmad.
The prestigious title of Jhujhar Khan, as Commissariat notes, was likewise successively held, by "two Abyssinian commanders" of Gujarat. The first was Bilal Habshi, who was appointed in 1538-9, and was governor of Burhanpur under Mubarak Shah of Khandesh (1537-1566). He was subsequently killed in battle before the great commercial town of Surat in 1558-9, and was buried at Sarkhej. His son, Aziz Khan, and grandson, Amin Khan, both acquired some prominence in Gujarat.
The second Habshi with the title of Jhujhar Khan was Bilal Habshi's son Marjan Sultani Habshi, who held the fiefs of Bahmanul and Munda. The adopted brother of Yaqut Ulugh Khan, he died in 1573, when he was executed by being trampled on by an elephant.
Other Prominent Habshis
Other prominent Habshis of this time included Said Safar Salami, who, after Bahadur's death in 1537, became governor of Surat with the title of Khudavand Khan; Bilal Falah Khani Habshi, vizier to Muhammad Ulugh Khan, who subsequently became an independent chieftain with the title of Khayrat Khan and died in 1563-3; and Fulad Khan Sandal, who ruled the town of Jamud, until his death in 1569-70.
Yet another important Habshi of Gujarat was Shaik Said al-Habshi Sultani. Originally a slave of Rumi Khan, he later entered the service of Sultan Mahmud III. On the latter's death in 1554 he joined the great Habshi captain Jhujhar Khan, and, after a long and distinguished military career, received valuable fiefdoms from the latter, who reportedly regarded him as a brother. Shaik Said managed his land efficiently, and acquired great wealth. He collected a fine library, and had over a hundred slaves, probably mainly or entirely Habshis, as well as numerous horses and camels. Until Emperor Akbar's conquest of Ahmadabad, he dined daily in the company of many nobles and divines, and maintained a public kitchen, which distributed food daily to nearly a thousand destitute persons. He died in 1576; and is perhaps best remembered as the builder of a famous mosque, known by his name, in Ahmadabad.
Emperor Akbar's Conquest
Akbar’s conquest of Gujarat had major consequences for thered abusive words against Akbar, was punished, as we have seen, by being thrown under an elephant and crushed to death. His son Walil Khan was on the other hand given a command in the Akbar’s Gujarat army. Another Habshi, Abdul Kerim Sayfud Muhammad Fulad Khan, the son of the afore-mentioned Fulad Khan, was the ruler of Songir under the kings of Khandesh. He subsequently transferred his allegiance to Akbar, who responded by reaffirming his possession of Songir. He later became, as we have seen, Haji ad-Dabir's second patron.
Bijapur Habshis in this period after Imam Ahmad’s campaigns continued to be prominent further south of the sub-continent, in Bijapur, where their power was bitterly, and almost continuously, contested by other military factions.
Ibrahim Adil Shah’s old policy of dividing power between the Habshis and Deccanis, both of them Sunnis, was reversed by his son Ali (1558-1580). He once more dismissed the Habshis and other Sunnis, in favour of the Shiates. Later, however, during the reign of Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1580--1627), a Deccani nobleman seized the dowager queen Chand Bibi, and made himself master of the realm. Three Habshi nobles, Ikhlas Khan, Hamid Khan and Dilavar Khan - the second Habshi of that name - nevertheless soon afterwards drove him from the capital. Ikhlas, who is clearly depicted in a contemporary picture as being of African descent, or at least a man of dark colour, became regent for a short time. He was, however, shortly afterwards dismissed by Chand Bibi, but later resumed his dictatorship which was, however, soon challenged by the other foreigners.
The more northerly Kingdom of Ahmadnagar, taking advantage of these serious dissensions, attacked Bijapur in 1567. The Habshis, realising that they could not defend their city alone, thereupon tended their resignation to Chand Bibi. This, in the view of the British historian Wolseley Haig, provided "the only example of self-denying patriotism to be found in this strife of factions". The Shiah foreigners then rallied to the defence of the city, and the Ahmadnagar army was forced to withdraw, whereupon the struggle at Bijapur was, however, renewed. Ikhlas Khan attacked his fellow Habshi Dilavar Khan, but was defeated by the latter, who became the supreme ruler from 1582 to 1591. In the latter year he was defeated in a battle with the Ahmadnagar army, as a result of which his power in Bijapur collapsed. He thereupon fled to Ahmadnagar where he found service with Burhan II, who had by then seized control there. The ruler of Bijapur complained at this employment of the former Habshi dictator, but Burhan replied by declaring war. He was, however, unsuccessful, and was obliged to make peace. The Deccanis then rebelled against him, and found a ready leader in Dilavar's old rival the Habshi Ikhlas Khan who failed, however, to capture Ahmadnagar.
Burhan was succeeded by Ibrahim Nizam Shah (1595-1596), whose mother had been a Habshi. His chief minister, a Deccani, allowed Ikhlas Khan to return to Ahmadnagar. Ikhlas then persuaded the king, against his minister’s advice, to declare war on Bijapur. Ibrahim was killed, a further struggle for succession ensued. Ikhlas Khan proposed the accession of one prince, while two other Habshis, Ahang Khan and Habashi Khan, supported another.
The above struggles, in which the Habshis, as so often, thus played major role, immediately preceded the conflict between Ahmadnager and the Mogul empire which led to the latter’s decisive victory in 1597.
Sailors
Numerous Habshis were meanwhile employed as sailors in Indian waters. The Dutchman Linschoten recalls that besides Arabs there were also "Abexiins" serving as sailors around India, where they were replacing the Portuguese, who considered such work incompatible with their prestige. "These Abexiins and Arabians, such as are free", he declares, "doe serve in all India for Saylers and sea faring men, with such merchants as saile from Goa to China, Japan, Bengala, Mallaca, Ormus, and all the Oriental coast... These Abexiins and Arabians serve for small money, and being hyred are very lowlie (and subiect), so that often times they are (beaten and) smitten, not as slaves, but like dogs, which they bear very patientlie, not (once) speaking a word".
Some Habshis sailed even further east. They travelled indeed as far as Siam, where the Portuguese mariner Ferdinand Pinto told of "Turks, Abyssins and Moors" engaged in fighting in 1548.
And So It Went On...
And So It Went On... Indian trade with the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Eastern coast of Africa, as we will see next week, continued to flourish in the seventeenth centur. Such trade was accompanied by many further shipments of Ethiopian and other African slaves. The number arriving in India seems, however, to have been significantly less than at the time of Imam Ahmad, with the result that Habshis on the whole began, as we shall see. to play a diminishing role in Indian political affairs.
SOURCES: Addis Tribune, a Tambek International Publication - (Archives/2000/04/21-04-00)
Also see following:
PROFESSOR JOHN GLOVER JACKSON (1907-1993): HUMANIST AND PIONEER TO THE PAST
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JOHN GLOVER JACKSON (1907-1993)
DRUSILLA DUNJEE HOUSTON AND THE WONDERFUL ETHIOPIANS OF THE ANCIENT CUSHITE EMPIRE
ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS OF THE GOLDEN AGE
HISTORY NOTES: ETHIOPIA: ANCIENT LAND OF AFRICA
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Revised: July 20, 2001.
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