Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️

A journey through the Indo-Islamic realm, sometimes grand, sometimes tragic but always fascinating 🥀✨

[Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️ @TheGoldenPast]

Welcome to Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️

A space exclusively devoted to the stories, struggles, and splendour of the Indo-Islamic civilization. Here, we’ll revisit the lives of rulers and rebels, saints and scholars, poets and patrons who shaped the Indo-Islamic realm.

[Indian Muslim Archives @Rustum_0]

🧵 Eid-ul-Azha across India: A glimpse into how Indian Muslims celebrated the festival.

1) Thousands of Muslims gathering to offer prayers at Taj Mahal mosque, Uttar Pradesh state.

[Indian Muslim Archives @Rustum_0]

There is not an inch² of Taj Mahal, an Indian Muslim monument, that is related to the Iranians, not even architecture.. stop with this heritage appropriation.

It was built by an Indian Muslim monarch for his Indian Muslim wife and there were multiple architects working in Taj Mahal and none of the major ones were Iranians.

———

Emperor Shah Jahan Bahadur's imperial capital and principal power base lay in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, while his consort Mumtaz Mahal was born in Agra, India. Both were Indian-born Muslims; that is, they belonged to the civilisational continuum of Indian Muslims.

One may ask: "But their ancestors originated from foreign lands." So what? Which civilisation or ethnocultural community in the world has remained untouched by foreign influxes, migrations, or assimilations?

The early Norman monarchs of England did not even speak English, yet historiography does not classify them as English kings and their heritage is belongs to that of modern English-medium not of modern Scandinavians.

Medes never called themselves Iranians or Persians (they fought against Persians), yet they are referred as one in historiography.

Likewise, the Muzaffarid dynasty imported tens of thousands of European and Caucasian slaves and converted many of them to Islam. Think about it, does an average European has any claim over them or we Indian Muslims have?

Can the modern Italians claim the Surat Castle, built by Khwaja Safar the Italian (a Muzaffarid lord) and sideline the Indian Muslims? No! Khwaja Safar was an Indian Muslim and everything he build and did is the Indian Muslim legacy - exclusively. It doesn't matter whether or not he culturally identified with Indians in a modern nationalist sense is ultimately irrelevant.

The Indian Muslim community formation started occuring in the reign of Emperor Muhammad Shah Bahadur (1719-48) but socio-political identity fornally crystallised during the 19th century.

In historiographical usage, every Muslim before that will be called an Indian Muslims. Otherwise if we started digging roots, will there any identity or heritage even be left? Will Persians be able to claim the Kurdish Safavid dynasty?

Gerogians would appropriate Adil Shahis
Hindus would appropriate Nizam Shahis
Mongols would appropriate Timurids
Turks would appropriate Khiljis
What will be left of us?

We can do this with ever other group present on this globe from Europeans to Central Asians to Arabs to Chinese - everybody. What will be left of anybody?

If one nevertheless seeks a more academically precise expression, then "proto-Indian Muslim" is the maximum limit of authenticity one can achieve, anything beyond that is simply wrong.

———

Almost every major architectural element used in the Taj Mahal already existed in earlier Indo-Muslim polities. In fact, while the Taj Mahal contains the Italian feature of pietra dura, there is not a single exclusively Iranian architectural element within it.

The dome of the Taj Mahal itself (along with the lotus-petal motifs above it) cannot be found in anywhere across Persia. However, similar forms can already be observed in earlier Dehlavi and Jaunpuri Indo-Muslim architectural traditions.

But some may argue that these elements ultimately originated from Iran. Well, no.

Why stop tracing influences at Iran? Iranians themselves built negligible and absorbed and inherited elements from numerous other civilisations - Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and many others. So why does the chain of cultural transmission suddenly stop at Iran?

There is an Italian element though - the Pietra Dura - but none Iranian elements at all.

———

Coming to the architects, first if all there was no single "chief architect" of the Taj Mahal. And to be frank, the "architects" of those times were closer to what we would today call master masons rather than architects in the modern sense of the term.

(CONTINUED) — 1/2

[Indian Muslim Archives @Rustum_0]

I am pretty sure than none of you are aware that Nawab Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur defeated the British in three major battles in 1765, compelling them to sue for peace and plead for quarter.

This was before the First Sira War (1767-69)

October 17, 1765 (Final Engagement)

[Simurgh @Serdar_i_azam]

FYI she’s mother of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali. Remembered as one of the earliest Ms women to step into politics. Despite practicing strict purdah, she addressed massive gatherings from behind a veil.

[Simurgh @Serdar_i_azam]

https://t.co/equbcyFldX

[Simurgh @Serdar_i_azam]

An Elephant Fight that Won the Shah-En shah’s Admiration

A few months after Dara Shikoh's wedding, Shahzade Aurangzeb found a rare moment to bask in his father's spotlight. Shah-en Shah Khorram Shah had called for an elephant fight, a favourite royal pastime.

1/7

[Indian Muslim Archives @Rustum_0]

#Fun_Fact

The Indian Muslims bore a substantial 21% share (amounting to 841,223 liras) of the total cost of the Ottoman Hejaz Railway project.

Indian Muslims; 21.03% (841,223 liras)
Pakistani & Bangladeshi: 5.75% (229,006 liras)

[Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️ @TheGoldenPast]

@_SultanHind Tbh yes but succession battles were horrifying

[Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️ @TheGoldenPast]

He was the first son of Shahzade Khorram. After his father ascended the throne and took the regnal name 'Shah Jahan', Dara was appointed as Vali-ahad. He and his older sister Jahanara were the Emperor's favourite children.
This was known by all the other sons of the Emperor

1/10

[Simurgh @Serdar_i_azam]

Dara Shukoh, the eldest son and heir-apparent of Mughal Padeshah Shah Jahan was titled ‘Shah-e-Buland Iqbal’. He was favoured as a successor by his father and his elder sister, Padeshah Begum Jahanara. In the war of succession which ensued after the Emperor’s illness in 1657

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[Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️ @TheGoldenPast]

"King Aurangzeb, your son, sends this plate to let you see that he does not forget you".
Shah Jahan instantly became happy and uttered, “Blessed be God that my son still remembers me". Upon opening the box, he became horrified and fell unconscious.

10/10

[Indo-Islamic Chronicles ✍️ @TheGoldenPast]

he ordered the head to be put in a box and presented to his ailing father, with clear instructions to be delivered only when the old Emperor sat for his dinner. The guards were instructed to inform ShahJahan that,

9/10

[Simurgh @Serdar_i_azam]

Dara Shukoh, the eldest son and heir-apparent of Mughal Padeshah Shah Jahan was titled ‘Shah-e-Buland Iqbal’. He was favoured as a successor by his father and his elder sister, Padeshah Begum Jahanara. In the war of succession which ensued after the Emperor’s illness in 1657

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[Indian Muslim Archives @Rustum_0]

The Jihad (War) of 1857 was entirely Muslim led. In fact the people who commenced the war were the 3rd Native Cavalry made up totally of Muslims.

The leadership was Muslim, the unifying factor was Muslim. I'm attaching some posts below:

British Newspaper; 05/09/1857:

“Mahommedans, and not Hindoos were the prime instigators of the plot; that the conspiracy is Mahommedan; and that the Hindoos have been made the instruments of villains more crafty and more savage than themselves.”

1. https://t.co/jk4ZKsNjJc

2. https://t.co/vnq60dEMRx

3. https://t.co/lDGoBkWKmi

4. https://t.co/hefYaVVNH7