de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Nawabs of Janjira and Sachin were African slaves
By Sujeet Rajan January 29, 2013
First of its kind exhibition in New York explores the mark African
slaves left in India’s history. NEW YORK: Till this day, the descendants
of the Nawabs of Janjira, and the people of the town — once a
principality near Mumbai — and in the neighboring state of Gujarat, in
Sachin, another erstwhile principality, where the tradition of the
Nawabs and their regal customs of old still thrive, revere the Sufi
saint Bava Gor, who became the patron saint of the agate bead industry
and is credited with increasing the trade of quartz stone between East
Africa, the Persian Gulf, and India during the 14
th century.
Ikhlas Khan and Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah, mid 17th century. (From the collection of Sir Howard
Hodgkin, London.) Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Photo:
Courtesy of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
There is an integral connection between the Nawabs of the two
states, their descendants and the Sufi saint, for over 600 years: they
all have African roots in them. For the first time ever, to highlight
the extraordinary achievement of African slaves in India who made their
mark in history, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in
Manhattan, is presenting an exhibition, “Africans in India: From Slaves
to Generals and Rulers,” starting from February 1, through July 6th of
this year. The Schomburg Center is a research wing of The New York
Public Library. Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf, historian and curator of Digital
Collections at the Schomburg, and Dr. Kenneth X. Robbins, collector and
co-editor of
African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat, have co-curated Africans in India — a visually rich testament to the wide reaches of the African Diaspora.
Noble Ikhlas Khan
198_331View Printable ImageMuhammad Khan, The Noble Ikhlas Khan With a Petition. Muhammad Khan (17th century), India. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, c. 1650. 4 23/32 in. x 4 1/4 in San Diego Museum of Art.
In
1490, an African guard, Sidi Badr, seized power in Bengal and ruled for
three years before being murdered. Five thousand of the 30,000 men in
his army were Ethiopians. After Sidi Badr’s assassination, high-level
Africans were driven out and migrated to Gujarat and the Deccan. In the
Deccan sultanate of Bijapur, Africans formerly enslaved—they were called
the “Abyssinian party”—took control. The African regent Dilawar Khan
exercised power from 1580 and was succeeded by Ikhlas Khan. The
Abyssinian party dominated the Bijapur Sultanate and conquered new
territories until the Mughal invasion in 1686.
The exhibition retraces the lives and achievements of a few of the many
talented and prominent Africans in India. Since the 1400s, people from
East Africa, from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and adjoining areas, have
greatly distinguished themselves in India. They have written a story
unparalleled in the rest of the world – that of enslaved Africans
attaining the pinnacle of military and political authority. From Bengal
in the northeast to Gujarat in the west and to the Deccan in Central
India, these men and women known as Sidis and Habshis vigorously
asserted themselves in the country of their enslavement.
Portrait of a Young Man
12_36View Printable ImagePortrait of a Young Man, Indian, about 1620. Deccan, India. Opaque watercolor on paper 25.5 x 17.9 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Special Fund for the Purchase of Indian Art, 13.1397.
This
portrait is believed to be the Afro-Indian Sultan Burhan Nizam Shah III
(1605-1632), who ruled in the sultanate of Ahmednagar, in northwest
Deccan. “It is the only case in history, that
slaves from East African went to another continent and reached a high
position in society,” said Diouf, in an interview to The American
Bazaar. “The success was theirs but it is also a strong testimony to the
open-mindedness of a society in which they were a small religious and
ethnic minority, originally of low status,” says Diouf. “As foreigners
and Muslims, Africans ruled over indigenous Hindu, Muslim and Jewish
populations.” The exhibition itself comprises of large panels; on each
one of them are several images, comprising of contemporary photos, of
monuments that the Africans built in India, and of Indian paintings of
African rulers and officials, from private collections around the world,
and from museums in India, England and the US. Diouf started compiling
the objects and materials for the exhibition almost a year ago.
Nawab
Sidi Ahmad Khan of Janjira (From the Kenneth and Joyce Robbins
Collection); The African nawabs (princes) of Janjira also ruled over
Jafarabad in Gujarat. Photo: Courtesy of Schomburg Center for Research
in Black Culture. Besides appearing in written
documents, the Africans have been immortalized in the rich paintings of
different eras, states, and styles that form an important component of
Indian culture. Because of their high positions, they were captured in
vivid and exquisite portraits as principal subjects or in the immediate
vicinity of non-African rulers. Africans in India features dramatically
stunning photographic reproductions of some of these paintings. As
rulers, city planners, and architects the Sidis have left an impressive
historical and architectural legacy that attest to their determination,
skills, and intellectual, cultural, military and political savvy. The
imposing forts, mosques, mausoleums, and other edifices they built –
some more than 500 years ago – still grace the Indian landscape. From
humble beginnings, some Africans carved out princely states complete
with their own coats of arms, armies, mints, and stamps. They fiercely
defended them from powerful enemies well into the 20th century when,
with another 600 princely states, they were integrated into the Indian
state.
Nawab Sidi Mohammed Haider Khan, 1930
12_34View Printable ImageCollection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins.
After
renouncing his rights to the throne of Janjira, Sidi Mohammad Abdul
Karim Khan established the Sachin State in 1791 in Gujarat. It survived
until 1948, when it was incorporated into Bombay (Mumbai) before
becoming part of Gujarat. The Siddi dynasty was Muslim and ruled over a
population 85 percent Hindu and 13 percent Muslim. Nawab Sidi Mohammed
Haider Khan was enthroned as the seventh ruler of Sachin in 1930. A
well-read intellectual, he retired to Mumbai where he died in 1970.
Janjira is especially considered one of the best specimens of
naval fort architecture. Well-conceived and well-defended, it was never
conquered, though attacked dozens of times. The Sidi dynasty ruled over
the island for 330 years. According to one account, the first conqueror
of the island, in 1489, was an Ethiopian. Another Ethiopian, Sidi Yaqut
Khan, is said to have been appointed officer in charge of the mainland
in the late 1400s. The three-mile island of Janjira is entirely
surrounded by a formidable fortress of 22 rounded bastions whose walls
are 80-feet high Janjira and Sachin have a close connection in history:
after renouncing his rights to the throne of Janjira, Sidi Mohammad
Abdul Karim Khan established the Sachin State in Gujarat in 1791. He was
given the title of nawab and founded a dynasty that ruled over a mostly
Hindu population. Sachin had its own cavalry and state band that
included Africans, its coats of arms, currency, and stamped paper. In
1948, when the princely states were incorporated into India and ceased
to exist, Sachin had a population of 26,000, with 85 percent Hindus and
13 percent Muslims. The successive Nawabs of Janjira and Sachin were
educated in the best schools reserved for royal and noble families. Some
went on to finish their studies at Oxford, Cambridge, and Sandhurst
Military Academy in Great Britain. Ibrahim Khan III, the sixth Nawab of
Sachin from 1887 to 1930, illustrated himself during World War I. He was
promoted to Major, received the British title “His Highness,” and the
distinction of being saluted by 11 guns.
Siddi Family in India
13-34View Printable ImagePhotographer: © Henry Drewal
Africans
and their descendants Africanized the Indian Ocean world, contributing
their cultures, talents, skills and labor, and helping shape the
societies they entered and made their own.
The first Africans who reached India in the modern era were not captives
but merchants. Commerce between East Africa and India goes back more
than 2,000 years. The kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia had established a very
active commerce with India and Axumite gold coins minted between 320
and 333 found their way to Mangalore in South India where they were
discovered in the 20th century. Ivory, silver, gold, wine, olive oil,
incense, wheat, rice, cotton cloth, silk, iron, copper, skins, salt, and
sesame oil were some of the main items traded on both sides of the
Indian Ocean and on to China. Axum was also involved in the slave trade.
Trade between East Africa and India was boosted with the spread of
Islam. Indian Muslims from Gujarat migrated to African trading towns in
Kenya, Zanzibar and the Comoros Islands where they worked with African
and Arab merchants. While African traders traveled to and from India,
some settled. In the 1300s, Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta met Ethiopian
merchants in what are now India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. The most
famous African trader was Bava Gor, who was also called Sidi Mubarak
Nob, and made Ratanpur in Gujarat his home.
Tomb of Malik Ambar in Khuldabad; photo by Klaus Rotzer
Amongst the most notable African rulers in India of the period were
the Sharqi Sultans of Jaunpur (1394-1479 – the first or all the Sharqui
sultans may have been Africans); Habshi Sultans of Bengal (1486-1493);
Nawabs of Janjira (1618-1948); Sidi Masud of Adoni (17th century); and
Nawabs of Sachin (1791-1948). According to Diouf, one of the reasons why
the African slaves managed to etch their mark in India was because they
were good soldiers, whom the Indian rulers trusted for their prowess
and loyalty. “The Africans were renowned as good soldiers,” she said,
“The rulers probably thought them to be trustworthy and to be used in
frontier areas of battle, where they had no link to other clans and
other families of the rulers. They were subsequently put in position of
authority, and took power for themselves.” High-ranking Africans were
prominent in Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1518); Ahmadnagar (1496-1636);
Bijapur (1490-1686); Golconda (1512-1687); Khandesh (1382-1600); Gujarat
(1407-1572); Kutch (1500-1948); Bhavnagar (1660-1948); and Hyderabad
(1724-1948).
Malik Ambar
12_43View Printable ImageArtist: Unknown, c. 1620. Watercolor on paper. Victoria and Albert Museum.
Malik
Ambar (1549-1626), born in Harar, Ethiopia, was sold as a child into
slavery and became one of the most celebrated rulers in the Deccan
region of India. One of the most famous
high-ranking officials was Ikhlas Khan, an Ethiopian slave, who from the
1580s onward, was in charge of administration, commander-in chief and
minister of finances under Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II and his son and
successor, Muhammad Adil Shah of Bijapur. He was the real master of
Bijapur and appears in numerous paintings. Another notable personality
was Sidi Masud, an African vizier of Bijapur. He served three sultans
until 1683. He lived in the city of Adoni and was essentially an
independent ruler. The most celebrated of the Ethiopianpowerful
leaderswas Malik Ambar (1548-1626). Born Chapu in Kambata, in Ethiopia,
he was enslaved as a young man and taken to Mocha in Yemen. He was later
sent to Arabia where he was educated in finance before being brought to
Baghdad, Iraq. Converted to Islam, Chapu was renamed Ambar. He was
later sold to India where he arrived in the early 1570s. He became a
slave of Chengiz Khan (believed to have been an Ethiopian and a former
slave), the prime minister of the sultanate of Ahmadnagar.
Ethiopian in 1581
1638099View Printable ImageA Collection of the dresses of different nations, antient [sic] and modern (London: T. Jefferys, 1757). Art
and Architecture Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art,
Prints and Photographs, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, The New York
Public Library.
Sailors
and traders from the Upper Nile (Nubia) and Horn of Africa (Ethiopia
and Somalia) traveled to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the first
century A.D. Freed upon Chengiz Khan’s death
in 1575, Ambar left Ahmadnagar to become a commander in Bijapur where he
was granted the title Malik. In 1595, he went back to Ahmadnagar,
putting himself and his army in the service of another Ethiopian, Abhang
Khan. By the turn of the 17th century, Malik Ambar had an army of
10,000 African cavalry and infantrymen. In 1600, he married his daughter
to a 20-year old prince, installed him as sultan, and ruled in his
place as regent and prime minister. “It’s an incredible story, and a
story that has not received enough attention. Slavery is never good, but
this is a great story. A unique one,” said Diouf of the mark the
African slaves left on Indian history.
Ethiopian Priest and Soldier
87126View Printable ImageJames A. St. Johns, Oriental Album. Characters, costumes, and modes of life, in the valley of the Nile (London: James Madden, 1851). Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
Fighting
in 16th-century Ethiopia between Christians—supported by the
Portuguese—and Muslims resulted in numerous prisoners of war, who were
sold into the trans-Indian Ocean slave trade. 
The Nawab of Sachin, 1930
12_41View Printable ImageCollection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins.
Click here to view video of Nawab of Sachin and religious ritual by Sidi Goma Group of Bharuch District, Gujarat.
From Africa to India: Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean Diaspora. © Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, 2003.
This picture was taken during the installation of Haider Khan (on the throne with a footstool) as Nawab of Sachin..
Malik Ambar (? )
12_35View Printable ImagePortrait of Malik Ambar. Southern Indian, 1610-20, Ahmednagar, Deccan, India. Opaque watercolor on paper 36.7 x 23.9 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Ross-Coomaraswamy Collection, 17.3103.
This
portrait, putatively of Malik Ambar, is believed to be of his son,
Fateh Khan. Fateh Khan married the daughter of another Habshi
(Ethiopian), one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. In 1631
vizier—top official—Fateh Khan deposed the sultan and installed Hussain
Shah in his place. Khan held the real power until 1633, when both were
exiled to Delhi and the kingdom was annexed by the Mughals.
http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2013/01/29/nawabs-of-janjira-and-sachin-were-african-slaves/
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