0:08

As-salamu alaykum. Welcome back to the

0:10

Islamic History Podcast. I'm

0:12

your host Mutaqi Ismail. This

0:15

season we're discussing the history of

0:17

the Mughal Empire.

0:19

This is episode 8-15

0:22

Akbar and the Rajputs. Before

0:25

we get into the episode, let's do a

0:27

brief recap of where we are so far.

0:31

Humayun dies in 1556 and his

0:34

son Akbar becomes the new

0:36

Mughal Emperor. Akbar

0:39

is a very young emperor and has to work

0:41

his way out from under his handlers. Akbar

0:44

must also deal with the threat of the Rajputs

0:47

based in Rajasthan. He

0:49

neutralizes much of the Rajput threat by

0:51

marrying their daughters and abolishing the Jizya.

0:54

And with that, let's

0:56

discuss the other method Akbar used

0:59

to neutralize the Rajputs.

1:02

Dealing with the Rajputs part 2.

1:08

Akbar, who was still at war with the

1:10

Rajputs, decided to attack

1:12

the Mewar kingdom in modern southeastern

1:14

Rajasthan in 1567.

1:17

This kingdom was ruled by a guy named Uday

1:20

Singh, whose father had fought against Babur

1:22

nearly 40 years earlier. Uday

1:26

Singh was living in this powerful fortress

1:28

called Chittor when he heard

1:30

that the Mughals were coming. He prepared

1:33

by stationing 8,000 soldiers in the fort, appointing

1:37

a general named Jai Malmurtor to

1:39

defend the fort, and stocking

1:41

the fort with enough food to last for years.

1:44

He also destroyed the countryside so the

1:46

Mughals couldn't find any food. Then

1:49

Uday Singh and his family moved to a stronghold

1:52

in the hills north of the city and

1:54

named it, get this, Udaypur

1:57

after himself.

1:58

And to this day, Udaypur is still a part of Rajasthan. Singapore is

2:00

still a pretty famous city in India.

2:04

Akbar arrived at Chatur in late

2:06

October 1567 and

2:09

set up camp at the base of the fort.

2:12

His camp was apparently very large and

2:14

nearly 10 miles long. Akbar

2:18

was planning to lay siege to the fort using

2:20

two methods.

2:22

First he was going to have people tunnel

2:25

under the fort and set off explosives.

2:28

And

2:29

he was going to use this thing called a sabat,

2:32

kind of like a covered trench to get

2:34

close to the fortress walls. But

2:38

things didn't quite go as planned.

2:41

The Mughal soldiers dug two tunnels

2:44

under the fort,

2:45

filled them with gunpowder and

2:47

then lit the fuses.

2:50

One of the fuses burned slower than

2:52

the other so when the first one

2:54

went off the Mughals thought both

2:56

of them had gone off. They

2:59

were rushing into the tunnels just

3:01

as the second one exploded.

3:03

A lot of people somewhere between 200 to 500 were

3:06

killed in the explosion and many of them

3:10

were Akbar's best soldiers. So

3:14

the Mughals now had to rely on their

3:16

second method since the first one didn't

3:18

work out.

3:21

Akbar's engineers began building

3:23

a slow moving fortification

3:25

called a sabat. The

3:28

sabat had walls and a wooden roof

3:30

to protect the people inside from arrows

3:32

and other projectiles. It

3:35

was wide enough for 10 horsemen

3:37

to ride side by side and

3:39

the Mughals also hid their cannons inside

3:42

the sabat.

3:44

The front of the sabat was always

3:46

under construction as it moved forward.

3:49

This was the most dangerous part of

3:51

the moving fortification because the Rajput

3:54

defenders targeted that section first.

3:58

The only protection for the Mughal was the

3:59

workers at the front of the sabat was a screen

4:02

made of raw hides.

4:04

But these workers were also paid

4:07

in gold and silver, so that kind

4:09

of made the risk worth it.

4:11

The Rajputs eventually saw that the

4:14

sabat, this covered fortification,

4:16

was getting close and so they offered to surrender.

4:20

But the Rajputs and the Mughals couldn't

4:22

agree on anything during the negotiations

4:24

and things fell apart.

4:27

On February 23rd, 1568, Akbar

4:31

himself shot and killed the

4:34

Rajput commander Jaimal Rator using

4:37

his favorite musket, the Sangram.

4:40

With Jaimal's death, the Rajputs

4:42

lost all hope of either victory

4:45

or an honorable surrender.

4:48

Soon after that, small fires

4:50

began appearing throughout the fort.

4:54

This was the beginning of

4:56

the Johar,

4:57

the tradition where the Rajputs set their

4:59

women on fire before rushing

5:02

out to fight the Mughals to the death. The

5:05

Rajput musketeers, however, had a different

5:07

idea. They tied up their women

5:10

and children and pretended to be

5:12

Mughal soldiers. They made

5:14

it look like they were taking their families as

5:16

prisoners and pushed them ahead of them

5:19

as they left the fort. Several

5:21

Rajput soldiers were able to use this

5:23

ploy to get away and escape into the hills.

5:26

Akbar was so mad when he found

5:28

out he ordered everyone else

5:31

in the fort to be executed.

5:33

With this commandment, Chittor fell

5:35

to the Mughals.

5:37

However, the Rajput leader, Uday

5:39

Singh, was still free. After

5:42

he was done with the Muar kingdom, Akbar

5:44

went to attack Rantambour in February 1569.

5:46

It was about 200 miles northeast

5:48

of Muar. He used his cannons

5:53

to bombard the fortress and the walls

5:55

were reduced to rubble.

5:57

The Rajput king,

5:59

Rajya Surjanu,

7:50

but

8:01

Amarsingh continued to fight a guerrilla

8:03

war from the hills. Finally,

8:07

in 1616, during

8:09

Jahangir's reign, Amarsingh

8:12

surrendered.

8:16

Akbar on the Hunt

8:20

Akbar was an avid hunter.

8:23

He is said to have gone on hunting expeditions

8:25

for big games such as elephants,

8:28

lions, and tigers. These

8:31

hunting expeditions were not just for

8:33

sport, but also allowed

8:36

Akbar to display his power and wealth.

8:39

Hunting was also seen as a way to test

8:41

one's physical and mental strength.

8:44

Akbar was known to hunt on horseback

8:46

using a bow and arrow.

8:48

Sometimes he also used cheetahs.

8:51

Cheetahs, yes, the fastest land

8:54

animal in the world, were considered

8:56

a symbol of royalty, wealth, and

8:58

power as they were difficult to obtain

9:01

and costly to maintain. In

9:04

the Mughal Empire, these hunting

9:07

expeditions with cheetahs were called shikar.

9:11

Akbar kept a large number of cheetahs

9:13

at his court and trained them to hunt. He

9:16

really loved his cheetahs and was often

9:18

seen playing with them. Akbar's

9:21

skill at training cheetahs is highlighted

9:23

in this article entitled Akbar

9:26

and His Cheetahs by Inayachula

9:28

Khan, written for the 2012 Indian

9:31

History Congress.

9:34

As far as the training of the cheetahs

9:36

is concerned, in the former times,

9:38

people managed to train a newly caught cheetah

9:41

for the chase in the space of three months or

9:43

if they exerted themselves in two months.

9:46

But Akbar trained them in the short space

9:48

of eighteen days.

9:50

Akbar used to take it upon himself to keep

9:52

and train cheetahs, astonishing the most

9:55

experienced by his success.

9:57

Before Akbar, a cheetah would not kill more

9:59

than one.

9:59

than three antelope in one and the same

10:02

chase, but now, after training,

10:04

he would hunt as many as twelve. Abo

10:07

Fazl informs us that in former times

10:10

cheetahs were kept blindfolded, but

10:12

at the court of Akbar, because of improved

10:14

training, it was no longer necessary

10:16

to do so. Once, from

10:18

the kindness shown by Akbar, an antelope

10:21

made friendship with a cheetah. They

10:23

lived together and enjoyed each other's company.

10:26

The most remarkable thing was this, that

10:28

the cheetah, when led off against other antelope,

10:31

would pounce upon them as any other cheetah. At

10:34

Akbar's establishment, there were 200 keepers in charge

10:37

of the casa cheetahs. Sometimes

10:39

three or four men were appointed to train

10:41

and look after a cheetah.

10:44

Another animal Akbar hunted often

10:47

were elephants.

10:48

Ironically, he used trained

10:51

elephants to hunt wild elephants.

10:54

There were three ways to hunt elephants. Domesticated

10:58

elephants were trained to charge and capture

11:01

wild elephants,

11:03

or Akbar

11:04

might hunt wild elephants

11:06

from the back of a trained elephant, or

11:10

the final method was by

11:12

surrounding a herd of elephants with

11:14

a group of soldiers and capturing the

11:16

animals alive. Once

11:20

captured, the elephants were used in royal

11:22

processions for transportation

11:24

and of course in battle. Akbar

11:28

also used elephants as a hunting platform.

11:32

He would sit on a specially designed

11:34

platform on the back of an elephant and

11:36

use a bow and arrow to hunt big games

11:39

such as lions and tigers.

11:42

It may seem cruel to us now

11:45

to hunt

11:45

elephants for sport,

11:47

but for the moogles,

11:49

hunting and capturing elephants

11:51

was almost a necessity.

11:54

Elephants were used for transportation,

11:57

in battle, and for the construction

11:59

of

13:45

The

14:00

daughter of the Raja of Ambar got pregnant.

14:03

Akbar sent her to live with Sheikh Salim Chishti

14:06

so she could receive the blessings of his home

14:09

and on August 30, 1569 she gave birth to a little

14:11

boy. Akbar

14:15

named him Salim after the Shekh

14:18

but he affectionately called him Shekhubaba.

14:21

Of course, this child later became

14:24

Emperor Jahangir.

14:26

Akbar also gave his son's mother the

14:28

title, Mariam Azamani.

14:32

To honor Sheikh Salim, Akbar

14:34

built a new capital near the town where

14:36

he lived and named it Fatipur Sikri.

14:39

The Jama Mosque, which was also built

14:41

by Akbar, is located there.

14:44

Akbar wound up switching to a new capital

14:47

about a decade later but in the meantime

14:50

he had two more sons, Murad

14:52

in 1570 and Danyal

14:55

in 1572 who was named

14:57

after the Sufi Shekh whose house he was born

14:59

in.

15:03

The conquest of Gujarat.

15:07

By 1572 Akbar

15:10

had pretty much taken care of all of the Rajputs

15:13

and he decided it was time to deal with

15:15

Gujarat. Gujarat

15:17

had been causing problems for him for a while

15:20

since the king of Gujarat was giving

15:22

refuge to Mughal rebels which

15:24

led to chaos as the rebels tried to take

15:26

over Gujarat for themselves. There

15:30

were three main groups of rebels

15:32

operating in Gujarat. The Fowlattis,

15:35

Afghans, the Habashis, Africans,

15:39

and the Mirazas,

15:40

rebel Mughal princes and nobles. Akbar

15:43

finally got his chance to take over Gujarat

15:46

when a minister invited him to do

15:48

so. He marched on

15:50

Gujarat in the summer of 1572

15:53

and took the capital without a fight. The

15:56

various rebel groups quickly surrendered

15:58

to him and he appointed his foster

16:00

brother Mirza Aziz Koka

16:03

as the new governor. After

16:05

taking the Gujarat capital, Akbar

16:08

marched on the port city of Surat which

16:10

also surrendered after a short siege. This

16:14

was the first time Akbar had ever

16:16

seen the sea and he even went out

16:18

on a boat.

16:20

During this trip, he met the Portuguese

16:23

who controlled a few forts along the coast

16:25

like Diyue and Daman, which

16:28

by the way we talked about in earlier episodes.

16:31

Stay tuned

16:32

because this meeting with the Portuguese

16:34

would have a huge impact on

16:37

Akbar's religious beliefs later on.

16:40

With Gujarat subdued, Akbar

16:42

and his army began the long journey back

16:44

north. Thinking he was

16:46

too far away to do anything immediately,

16:49

the nobles in Gujarat declared

16:51

independence from Mughal rule.

16:54

Akbar surprised everyone when

16:56

he turned his army right back around

16:58

to deal with the rebellion.

17:00

Even though he had already traveled nearly 600

17:04

miles, he made it back to Gujarat

17:07

in just 9 days. The

17:10

rebels were surprised to see Akbar

17:12

and his imperial army return so quickly.

17:15

Akbar suppressed the rebellion by 1573. This

17:20

was necessary because Gujarat was very

17:22

important because of its long coastline

17:24

and all the international trade that went through

17:27

it. Needless to say, conquering

17:29

this land was a huge financial

17:32

boost for Akbar and the Mughal empire.

17:37

The conquest of Bengal

17:42

Bengal is a region in the eastern part

17:45

of the Indian subcontinent.

17:47

It is now made up of the Indian state

17:49

of West Bengal, the independent

17:51

country of Bangladesh, and parts

17:53

of the Indian states of Assam and Tripura.

17:57

It has a long and rich history

17:59

and has been a center of trade and

18:01

cultural exchange for many centuries.

18:04

Bengal has a diverse population

18:06

with many different languages, cultures,

18:09

and religions.

18:11

Bengali is the official language of

18:13

the region and Islam and Hinduism

18:16

are the main religions.

18:18

The Bengal region is largely flat

18:21

and is crisscrossed by a number of rivers

18:23

including the Ganges, Brahmaputra,

18:26

and Meghna rivers. The

18:28

Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers are

18:30

two of the largest and most important

18:33

rivers in South Asia and they flow

18:35

right through the heart of Bengal. Bengal

18:39

has a humid subtropical climate with

18:41

high humidity and a monsoon

18:43

season that lasts from June to September.

18:45

The region is known

18:48

for its fertile soil and abundant rainfall

18:50

which makes it an important agricultural area.

18:54

The ruler of Bengal at this time

18:57

was an Afghan named Sulayman

18:59

Khan Karani.

19:01

Technically

19:02

he was a Mughal vassal

19:04

but he acted independently gathering

19:07

as much men weapons and money

19:09

as he wanted.

19:11

Nonetheless

19:12

he continued to read the Khutba and

19:14

strike coins in Akbar's name signaling

19:17

his submission to the Mughal throne.

19:20

When Sulayman Khan Karani died

19:22

in 1572 he

19:24

was succeeded by his son Dawood

19:27

Khan Karani.

19:29

Dawood Khan did away with a nominal

19:31

submission to the Mughals and proclaimed

19:34

his full independence. He

19:36

read the Khutba and struck coins in his

19:39

own name which was enough

19:41

to give Akbar a reason to invade Bengal.

19:45

In 1574 Akbar

19:48

personally led an army towards Bengal.

19:51

Their first stop was at Patna in

19:53

the modern Indian state of Bihar and

19:55

Eastern India.

19:57

The Mughals easily defeated the Afghan

19:59

defenders.

20:01

After taking Patna, Akbar

20:03

sent an army of 20,000 soldiers to continue the

20:06

campaign into Bengal.

20:09

This army,

20:11

led by his trusted general Munaim

20:13

Khan, traveled down the Ganges River

20:15

into Bengal. Their

20:17

Afghan opponents were quickly demoralized

20:20

at the sight of this large Mughal army

20:22

and fled to their capital in Tanda, which

20:25

is now in the Indian state of West Bengal.

20:28

Munaim Khan and the Mughal troops captured

20:30

Tanda without a fight, and this conquest

20:33

marks the beginning of the Mughal era

20:35

in Bengal.

20:38

As the Mughals continued to conquer more

20:40

and more of Bengal, the Afghans

20:43

fled into the forests and continued

20:45

to resist the Mughals for the next 40 years.

20:49

They were joined in their fight by Muslims,

20:51

Hindus, Portuguese renegades,

20:54

and local chieftains, all of whom

20:56

saw the Mughals as foreign Chagatai

20:58

Turkish invaders. The

21:01

Mughals, however, continued to pursue

21:03

the Afghans in four different directions.

21:07

North to Goragat,

21:08

in modern Bangladesh.

21:10

South to Shatgan,

21:12

also known as Shaptagram, and located

21:14

in modern West Bengal, India.

21:17

East to Shatgan,

21:19

in central Bangladesh, on the banks of the

21:21

Brahmaputra River. In southeast

21:23

of Fatehbad,

21:24

also in central Bangladesh, and now called

21:27

for read poor.

21:29

Akbar's general Majnun Krazi

21:32

Khan died fighting in Goragat.

21:35

These were intense campaigns featuring

21:37

brutal and pitched battles.

21:40

One example is the Battle of Tuqaroy,

21:42

which took place in March 1575

21:45

in Medinipur in West Bengal.

21:49

It was led by Munim Khan and Todar

21:51

Mal, who was Akbar's Hindu finance

21:53

minister. There were an

21:56

unprecedented number of casualties on both sides,

21:58

and the most important thing was the battle of Tuqaroy.

21:59

The Mughals filled eight

22:01

minarets with enemy skulls

22:03

as a warning. This was a

22:06

major blow to the resistance in Bengal.

22:09

After this defeat, Dawud Khan surrendered

22:12

to Monin Khan in April 1575.

22:16

The Mughal general presented the Afghan

22:18

leader with a sword, a belt, and

22:20

a cloak, and Dawud Khan turned

22:22

towards the Mughal capital, Fatsipur

22:25

Sikri, and prostrated in submission.

22:27

A few months later,

22:30

in October 1575,

22:32

Monin Khan died and Dawud

22:35

Khan took this opportunity to rebel

22:37

yet again. He

22:40

gathered his scattered forces and began attacking

22:42

the Mughals.

22:44

Akbar-Sin Rajat Todarmal and

22:46

his general Khan Jahan to take back

22:48

Bengal.

22:50

Within a month, the Mughals had retaken

22:52

the capital of Tunde.

22:54

The following summer, in July 1576,

22:56

they faced

22:58

off against Dawud Khan's forces in the

23:01

Battle of Raj Mahal in the modern

23:03

state of Jharkhand, India on the banks

23:05

of the Padma River. The Mughals

23:08

crushed the Afghans again and their

23:10

best field commander was killed in action. Dawud

23:13

Khan was captured and taken alive.

23:17

But there were no honorific robes or

23:19

belts at this time. Khan

23:21

Jahan ordered Dawud Khan beheaded.

23:24

Dawud Khan's body was hung from a gibbet

23:27

while his head was shipped back to Akbar.

23:30

In the next episode,

23:32

we will discuss Akbar's strange relationship

23:35

with religion.

23:39

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24:51

Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

25:21

Asalaamu Alaikum. Welcome back to season

25:23

two of the Umayyad Caliphate presented

25:25

by Islamic History Exclusive.

25:28

I'm your host Muttaki Ismail and this

25:31

is episode two dash 15.

25:34

Before we get into the episode, let's do a brief

25:36

recap of where we are so far.

25:40

Hajjaj ibn Yusuf appointed his

25:42

cousin Muhammad ibn Okhasim

25:44

to lead an invasion of Sindh.

25:47

Muhammad ibn Okhasim finally captured

25:49

the port city of Dehbul in 93 AH.

25:54

After Nizak's betrayal,

25:56

Qutayba ibn Muslim began

25:59

dealing with multiple

25:59

multiple rebellions in Khorasan.

26:03

He put most of these rebellions down,

26:05

but now Samarkand had overthrown

26:08

its king and rebelled against the

26:10

Umayyads. And

26:12

with that, let's continue our discussion

26:15

of the Umayyad conquest of

26:17

Sind. As

26:20

we mentioned in the opening, Mohammed

26:22

ibn Qasim had conquered a lot

26:25

of territory in Sind. The

26:28

port city of Dehbul fell in 93

26:31

AH. This is on the Sind

26:33

river delta in what is now modern

26:35

southern Pakistan,

26:37

where the river flows into the Arabian

26:39

Sea.

26:41

This was 93 AH, which is

26:43

the same year that we left off with

26:45

Qutayba ibn Muslim in Khorasan.

26:48

So I'm trying to keep things in line here

26:50

between these multiple storylines going on.

26:54

With the conquest of Dehbul, Mohammed

26:56

ibn Qasim ordered the construction

26:58

of a masjid, or a mosque, and several

27:01

homes for Muslim settlers. After

27:04

Dehbul had been pacified, Mohammed

27:06

ibn Qasim led his troops upriver

27:09

to the city of Nirun, which

27:11

is near modern day Hyderabad. The

27:13

city of Nirun surrendered peacefully

27:15

and agreed to pay tribute. At

27:18

that point, Mohammed ibn Qasim

27:20

split his army into two. He

27:23

continued to lead one faction toward

27:25

Sihuan, which is just north of Hyderabad.

27:29

Sihuan also fell to the Umayyads.

27:32

His second-in-command led the other

27:34

faction, the other side of the army, toward

27:37

Sadausan. Sadausan also

27:39

surrendered peacefully to the Umayyads.

27:41

And now with so much territory on

27:44

the western side of the river under

27:46

his control, Mohammed ibn Qasim

27:48

prepared to cross the Sindh River, where

27:51

the former king of Sindh, King

27:53

Dahir, had gathered a large

27:55

army to confront the Umayyads. To

27:58

get across the river,

27:59

Muhammad ibn al Qasim and the Umayyads

28:02

had to build a bridge of boats.

28:04

Pontun bridges or boat

28:06

bridges, these things have been used throughout

28:09

history.

28:10

From a military perspective, when an army

28:12

has to cross a river, it has

28:14

basically three options.

28:17

They can either build a real bridge,

28:20

which takes too long, they

28:22

can swim across, which is too

28:24

dangerous, or they

28:26

can sail across and that can

28:29

often be very long or too

28:31

difficult to organize if you don't have

28:33

enough boats for all of the troops to go all

28:35

at once. So

28:38

the next best option is a pontun

28:40

bridge or a boat bridge. A

28:42

pontun bridge lines up

28:45

several boats basically next to each

28:47

other to cross the river and once you have

28:49

these boats lined up, you take several wooden

28:52

planks or boards and these are placed

28:54

or nailed across the boats

28:56

that are going across the river creating

28:59

a temporary bridge.

29:01

So Muhammad ibn al Qasim did something

29:03

just like this.

29:05

He did have several boats with him, not enough

29:07

to take his entire army across at once,

29:10

but he did have enough to build

29:12

this pontun bridge across the river.

29:15

The boats were way down with sand

29:17

and gravel, this was to make them more stable,

29:20

and then wooden planks were nailed across

29:23

the boats to make a sort of bridge. Muhammad

29:27

ibn al Qasim did not march his entire

29:29

army across the pontun bridge, instead

29:32

he ordered a few infantry

29:35

men to gather on top of the bridge.

29:38

Once they had gathered on top of this

29:40

temporary pontun bridge, the

29:43

entire row of boats

29:45

were pushed out and swung

29:48

around and then once

29:50

it was lined up with the opposite side

29:52

of the river, the Umayyad soldiers

29:55

charged up the riverbank to fight

29:57

the Sindhi troops waiting there.

30:00

with King Dahir. So this

30:02

first wave of Umayyad forces rushed

30:04

up the riverbank, fought back King

30:06

Dahir's troops, thereby securing

30:09

the riverbank. Once the riverbank

30:11

had been secured, this allowed

30:14

the rest of the Umayyad army, including

30:16

its cavalry and siege weapons, to

30:18

cross the river safely and

30:21

easily. So now the Umayyads

30:23

were on the other side of the river. They

30:25

had not defeated King Dahir, they had

30:27

not even really faced his full force yet.

30:29

This was going to be the final showdown

30:32

between the Umayyad forces led

30:34

by Mohammed ibn al Qassim and

30:37

King Dahir's forces. King

30:39

Dahir, the leader or commander

30:42

of the Sindh army, was riding

30:44

a white elephant. And as the battle

30:47

got underway, he would shoot and

30:49

pick off different Umayyad soldiers from atop

30:51

his white elephant with his bow and arrow.