The Mughal occupation of Balkh 1646-1647

Journal of Islamic Studies

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 49-61

  Foltz, Richard ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67650344995     PISSN: 09552340     EISSN: 14716917     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jis/7.1.49     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Jahanglr, Tuzuk-t JahangTn, tr. A. Rogers and H. Bevendge (Calcutta 1909-14), ii. 166
2. Mahha Samarqandi, Muzakktr al-ashab, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences MS. no. 4270, ff. 297 a-b
3. see also R. D. McChesney, 'The Anthology of Poets: Muzalckir al-Ashab as a Source for the History of 17th Century Central Asia', in M. Mazzaoui and Moreen (eds.), Intellectual Studies on Islam (Salt Lake City, 1990)
4. Roya Marefat, 'Beyond the Architecture of Death: The Shrine of the Shah-i Zinda in Samarkand', unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1991).
5. This assumption of responsibility highlights a very important psychological connection, suggesting that Mughal culture retained undercurrents of pre-Islamic ancestor worship. The Mughals' psychological connection with the Central Asian Timurid ancestors as manifested in their art and architecture has been discussed by Lisa Golombek, 'From Tamerlane to Taj Mahal', in Abbas Danesvan (ed.), Essays in Islamic Art and Architecture (Malibu: Undena, 1981)
6. Thomas Lentz and Glenn Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century (Los Angeles County Museum, 1989).
7. A. A. Semenov cites Babur's correspondence with his Sufi master, Khwaja Ahmadi KasanT of Andijan (A. A. Semenov, 'K voprosu o kul'turno-pohticheskikh sviaziakh Bukhary i "Vehkomogol'skoi" Indii v XVII v.', in Materialy vtorogo soveschantia arkheologov i etnografov Sredniei Azii (Moscow, 1959), 8
8. Riazul Islam points out Babur's letters to Humayun instructing him to take Balkh and then continue on to Samarkand (Riazul Islam, A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Perstan Relations (1500-1750), vol. 1 (Karachi and Tehran, 1979), 65
9. Humayun, while advancing on India with his Safavid army, abruptly decided to make a detour and 'resolved to go to Balkh' (Gulbadan Begum, Humayun-nama, tr. A. S. Bevendge (reprinted Delhi, 1972)
10. Akbar on at least one occasion ignored ambassadors from 'Abdullah Khan because he 'had thoughts of reconquering his ancestral territories' (Abu'l Fad Allami, Akbar-nama, tr. H. Beveridge (reprinted New Delhi, 1977), lii. 296 hereafter AN)
11. JahangTr states in his memoirs that '... I had made up my exalted mind to the conquest of Maverannahr ..." (Tuzuk-i JahangTri, i. 69). Details on Shah Jahan's and Aurangzeb's plans will follow.
12. Riazul Islam, lndo-Persian Relations (Tehran, 1970), 99.
13. Hasan Khan Shamlu, The Shamlu Letters, ed. Riazul Islam (Karachi, 1971)
14. Shamlu, ff. 8Ob-81b. ' Inayat Khan, Shah Jahan-nama, tr. A. R. Fuller, ed. W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai (Delhi, 1990), 335
15. hereafter SJN; 'Abd al-Hamld Lahauri, Padshah-nama, ed. Kabiruddin and Abdui Rahim (Calcutta, 1923-9), 3 vols, vol.2, pp. 598-9 (hereafter PN).
16. The Mughal official Sa'adullah Khan, in a letter to the Safavid governor of Khorasan Hasan Lafabeh, gives Nazr Muhammad's action as the main pretext for the invasion (M. Athar Ah, 'The Objectives behind the Mughal Expedition into Balkh and Badakhshan 1646-7', Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 1967) 165
17. citing Jami'al-insha, ff. 4b-5a).
18. A. Ansari, 'Shah Jahan's Northwestern Policy', Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society (1957), 122. 'His [Shah Jahan's] plan after the conquest of Qandahar seemed to be to renew his friendly relations with Persia as a preparation for his intended attack on Balkh.
19. R. C. Verma, Foreign Policy of the Great Mughals (Agra, 1967), 78-9.
20. Islam, Indo-Perstan Relations, 106.
21. SJN 325.
22. Muhammad Yusuf b. Khwaja Baqa, Tazktra-i MuqTm KhSni, abridged French tr. J. Senkowski (St Petersburg, 1824), 42
23. hereafter Senkowski. Written in the early eighteenth century, the Tazktra-i MuqTm KhSni provides one Central Asian account of Shah Jahan's Balkh adventure (also Muhmkhanskaya istorita, Russian tr. A. A. Semenov (Tashkent, 1956), 97-101
24. MS. ff. 48b-51a). A slightly later and more detailed Central Asian version can be found in Mir Muhammad Amin, Sdstlat al-saldtin, Bodleian Library MS. no. 269 (ff. 225a-261b; hereafter SS
25. see also A. Ziaev, 'Silsilat as-salatin kak " SJN 330. u Accounts of the ongoing conflict between the two brothers may have been exaggerated, following in the steps of Shah Jahan's informants. For a response to accusations that Nazr Muhammad forced Imam Quli's abdication, see Audrey Burton, 'Nazir Muhammad Khan Ruler of Bukhara (1641-1645)
26. Balkh (164S-16S1)',.Central Asiatic Journal, 23: 1-2 (1988).
27. SJN 328. " Senkowski, 44. w TQK, f. 113b.
28. AS u. 355.
29. SN 391.
30. The Mughals are said to have lost 1000 men, and the Uzbeks 5000-6000. The Uzbeks appear to have been demoralized by the sight of Aurangzeb calmly dismounting to perform his ritual prayers in the midst of battle, leading 'Abd al-'AzTz to remark that to fight with such a pious man 'is to bring ruin upon one's self (Musta'id Khan, Ma'asir-t 'AlamgTrt, tr. J. N. Sarkar (Calcutta, 1947), 317).
31. Eighteen years later Uzbek ambassadors in India were still speaking of the incident with awe (Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire.A.D. 1656-1668, tr. Brock, rev. Constable (reprinted Lahore, 1976), 116
32. Niccolao Manucci, Storta do Mogor, tr. W. Erskine (Calcutta, 1907), ii. 32.
33. John F. Richards, The Mughal Empire (Cambridge, 1993), 133.
34. J. H. Bilimoria (tr.), Kuqq'at-t 'AlamgTn P e l h i , 1972), letter 1, pp. 3-4. But as Mu'azzam has failed at this point even to retake Qandahar from the Safavids, Aurangzeb goes on to say that he is less concerned with the taking of provinces than for the reputation of his son. n Manucci, ii. 32. He explains Aurangzeb's failure to act on this design by the pragmatic recognition that such a venture could be destabilizing when Aurangzeb had barely established his power in India, and adds that the emperor knew from his own experience in 1646 h ow difficult was the terrain and h ow harsh the climate en route to Balkh.
35. Ruqq'at-i 'AlamgTri, letter 1, p. 4.
36. Ma'asir-t 'AlamgTri, 162 (Persian text p. 164).
37. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb, vol. 1 (reprinted Bombay, 1972), 91.
38. Islam, Indo-Persian Relations, 214. Th e Safavids claimed (falsely) to be sayyids (descendants of the Prophet) themselves.