The Sultanate of Gujarat

EXCHANGE in EAST ASIA and THE INDIAN OCEAN HIST 1301 | History The Sultanate of Gujarat The Mughals never ruled over the all of India, and certain regions continued to be mostly free of their domination. One such region was the Sultanate of Gujarat, which is located on India's northwest coast. It played a significant role in the Indian Ocean commerce in the sixteenth century. Gujarat was situated near Persia and the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Sea. Monsoon winds blew from May to September, and the associated ocean currents drove sailing ships from Arabia and East Africa into Gujarat and other locations on India's western coast, including the southern state of Kerala. The monsoon winds and currents reversed in the winter, making it easier for sailors to go home. Between these monsoon-induced shifts, foreign traders and sailors settled on India's western coast, establishing prosperous commercial centres with year-round residents including both Indians and non-Indians. Gujarat was integrated into the Mughal Empire by Emperor Akbar in 1573. India's riches was transported through its harbours, with the port towns of Surat and Khambat seeing particularly high traffic. Fine cotton textiles that were bought by consumers in the Middle East, Europe, and East Africa were among the products shipped. The port cities included stores, banking houses, and rest rooms for travellers in addition to the warehouses and commercial firms held by Indians, Arabs, and Persians. Gujarat was not just a commercial centre but also a centre for education. It became the home of many Islamic intellectuals, and several cities had sizable mosques and religious institutes, some of which were constructed with financial assistance from Hindu emperors. The people living in Gujarat's ports were not homogenous. The majority of the population may be Hindu, but there was a good representation of other religious groups. These were mostly commercial diaspora groups, founded by foreign merchants who came to conduct business but frequently settled and married into the local community. The Muslim-founded trading diaspora communities in Gujarat were the most important. Some of their residents were the offspring of merchants who converted to Islam in order to do business more effectively with Arab and Persian merchants, or they were the ancestors of merchants who had arrived from Persia or the Arabian Peninsula as early as the seventh century. They were able to establish the confidence required to do business in far-off places—ventures that would take years to turn a profit—by sharing the faith of their business partners. Islamic mystics known as Sufis first came to India in the eleventh century, and many Muslims may trace their lineage to the Sufis. Some Muslims, however, were descended from warriors who had come to India in the eleventh through thirteenth century as part of the armies of Afghan or Central Asian invaders. In Gujarat's cities, there were also a lot of Parsis. The Parsis were Zoroastrians, followers of a religious order whose forefathers had travelled from Persia to India in the seventh century and worshipped fire. They could have settled in India prior to the Islamic conquest and never went back, or they might have left Persia after the invasion out of fear of religious persecution. Jews and Nestorian Christians, who broke away from the main Christian Church in the fifth century over a disagreement over whether Jesus had two natures—one human and one divine—or only one nature—divine—were also present in Gujarat. There was a bigger Christian community in Kerala, but the Nestorian Christians had mostly arrived from Persia and Syria. Gujarat was also home to a few minor Buddhist and Jains' communities in India. Gujarat's remarkable religious and ethnic variety helped the state's economy by facilitating easier trade between its traders and people from similar backgrounds throughout the globe. Persians traded with Persians, and Arabs dealt with Arabs. Gujarati Jews remained connected to Jewish communities in North Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of India. The Mughal rulers' Muslim faith surely contributed to the success of the Muslim mercantile community in Gujarat. Nonetheless, the Mughals' hegemony over India was beginning to waver by the mid17th century.