Emigration of Iranian Elites To India During The 16-18th Centuries
Emigration of Iranian Elites To India During The 16-18th Centuries
Emigration of Iranian Elites To India During The 16-18th Centuries
3/4 | 1997
L’héritage timouride : Iran – Asie centrale – Inde, XVe-
XVIIIe siècles
Electronic version
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/480
ISSN: 2075-5325
Publisher
Éditions De Boccard
Printed version
Date of publication: 1 October 1997
Number of pages: 129-143
ISBN: 2-85744-955-0
ISSN: 1270-9247
Electronic reference
Masashi Haneda, « Emigration of Iranian Elites to India during the 16-18th centuries », Cahiers d’Asie
centrale [Online], 3/4 | 1997, Online since 03 January 2011, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http://
journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/480
It is a well known fact that among the various ethnic groups com
posing the Mughal nobility1, Iranian people, that is, Persian speaking
people from the Iranian region, had considerable influence on the poli
tics, economy and society of the Mughal empire2. An accurate and
detailed knowledge of these Iranian elements is indispensable for his
torians interested in any field of Mughal history. At the same time, the
question of Iranian emigration certainly cannot be overlooked even
by those whose main studies remain within the framework of Iranian
history. The background of that massive emigration must be unders
tood to comprehend contemporary Iranian society. Despite the impor
tance of this topic, there has not been, to my knowledge, any compre
hensive study focusing on Iranian people in the Mughal Empire.
Although there exist several studies on the Mughal nobility as a whole3,
they do not necessarily look in depth at Iranian people within it. As a
result, certain key questions remain unclarified, such as the region of
Iran they came from, the type of people who emigrated to India, their
status and occupations before going to India, and the reason for their
immigration.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate some little known
aspects of Iranian people in the Mughal empire and to draw a picture
of Iranian immigrants in India by using as the basis for a comprehen
sive and analytical study the well known biography, Ma’âṣer al omarâ4.
A. Tajiks
Place name Number of people
Eastern region Esfarayn 1
Herat 20
Joveyn 1
Kerman 1
Khorasan 5
Khwaf 19
Lar 1
Mashhad 20
Nishapur 11
Qandahar 4
Qohestan 1
Sabzevar 7
Sistan 1
Tun 3
Torbat 4
Yazd 14
Central and Northern region Amol 1
Ardestan 2
Isfahan 10
Gilan 6
Kashan 3
Qazvin 5
Sava 4
Shiraz 10
Tehran 8
Western region Shirvan 1
Shushtar 1
Tabriz 1
B. Turks
Tribe name
Afshar 2
Zu’l Qadr 2
Qaramanlu 3
Qara Qoyunlu 5
Ostajalu 2
C. Others
Safavi 10
? 9
134 / Masashi Haneda
merely losing royal favour25. India became for them a kind of political
asylum. In this case, immigrants never returned to Iran. This type of
immigration could happen anywhere at any moment of history, so it can
not be said to be characteristic of this particular period.
What is much more interesting is the second type of immigration,
where immigrants moved to India of their own free will. Unable to pros
per in Safavid society, they moved to India without hesitation. In this
case, the immigrants could return to Iran, or at least keep in touch with
their friends and relatives there26. Let us now examine the careers of two
notables in this category.
him with 2 500 zats32 and 200 horses for his painstaking journey and his
precious gifts33. Later he received important positions at court such as
mir sâmân and mir bakhshi and was promoted to 5 000 zats and 2 000
horses. He died in India in Rabi‘ I 1047/September 163734. An ardent
Shiite, he gave, according to the Ẕakhirat al khavânin, a great deal of
money in charity for people starving as a result of a drought in the
Deccan, though certain Iranian people at the Mughal court insisted that
it was not enough and claimed he sent two hundred thousand rupees
every year to his sons and relatives in Iraq (certainly in Isfahan) to buy
houses, gardens and property there35.
Hakim Da’ud
Hakim Da’ud’s father and mother were both physicians at Shah
‘Abbas’ court and harem respectively. After the death of his father in
1029/1619 2036, Da’ud succeeded him and entered a royal service as a
physician. He stayed at the Safavid court throughout the reign of Shah
Safi (1629 42), but received no special attention. After the enthronement
of ‘Abbas II, Da’ud, realizing that he had little chance of promotion,
decided to change masters and went to India in 1053/1643 44. He was
successful in curing the burn of one of Shah Jahan’s daughters and so
received royal favour. After that, everything went his way. He became
an amir with the name of Taqarrob Khan in 1057/1647 48 and was
given 5 000 zats and 3 000 horses in 1068/1657. After Aurangzeb took
power, Da’ud was confined, perhaps because his relationship with the
former emperor was too close. He died in 1073/1662 63. His high
influence at the Mughal court is reflected in the fact that his name
appears several times in European travel accounts, including those of
Manucci, Bernier and Chardin37. Da’ud’s son, Mohammad ‘Ali Khan,
who had gone to India with his father, was, unlike his father, a recipient
of the favour of Aurangzeb and served him throughout his life38.
Having acquired a fortune in India, Hakim Da’ud ordered a large
mosque to be built in his home town of Isfahan and named after him. The
construction of the Masjed e Hakim was begun in 1067/1656 57, and com
pleted in 1073/1662 63, the year of Da’ud’s death39. The location of the
mosque was significant, being built on the site of the Masjed e Jorjir,
which had been the second Friday mosque of the city during the Buyid
period40. It was situated alongside the Grand Bazar which connected
the old Maydan (Meydân e kohna) with the Royal Maydan (Meydân e
Shâh), newly built by Shah ‘Abbas I. This was the very centre of the
Emigration of Iranian Elites to India / 137
city, and no better location could have been chosen. Much care was taken
so that the labourers worked in good conditions. Not only were the wor
kers provided for : it is said that feed was scattered along the road for
the donkeys that carried the building materials41. This is all evidence of
how important the building of the mosque was for Hakim Da’ud. The
mosque remains today the third largest in the city after the Masjed e
Jom‘a (Friday Mosque) and the Masjed e Emam. Hakim Da’ud never
returned to Iran after his emigration to India, but he kept contact with
his relatives and friends in Isfahan and seems to have identified with
Isfahan until the end of his life.
The careers of both emigrants exemplify the strong attachment the
emigrants felt for Isfahan even after their emigration. Contrary to Satish
Chandra’s assertion42, a number of Iranian people kept contact with their
birthplace even after their emigration and sometimes returned to Iran
in a relatively casual way. The same kind of mobility can be shown in
case of Persian poets who often held administrative posts at the Mughal
court43. To the Persian speaking notables in Safavid society who knew
all that was necessary for court life, it mattered little whether they ser
ved the Safavids or some other dynasty in India. They emigrated easily
to the east. As the Ma’âṣer al omarâ pertinently says, “India was a
source of fortune” for them44.
An analysis of only the Ma’âṣer al omarâ may not be sufficient to
fully understand the character of the emigration of Iranian elites to the
Mughal court during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Much
more complete information will be gained as a result of studying other
Mughal sources such as chronicles, tazkiras, documents and biographies.
This however awaits further research and we must remain for the pre
sent content with the temporary results mentioned here. Though pro
viding only a general view, the paper does show clearly that the ques
tion of the emigration of Iranian elites to India cannot be overempha
sized either for Indian or Iranian history.
At the same time, however, it must not be forgotten that the emi
gration was always one way, from Iran to India. No person of Indian
origin is known to have attained high position at the Safavid court. At
the political and cultural levels, the stream of people flowed from west
to east. On the other hand, a number of Indian merchants went to Iran
in the seventeenth century. Most caravanserais in good locations around
the Royal Maydan in Isfahan were occupied by Indian merchants45. It
is said there were more than ten thousand Indians in Isfahan and there
138 / Masashi Haneda
existed even a crematory specially reserved for them on the shore of the
Zayanda river in the latter half of the seventeenth century46. Stephan
Dale’s study clearly shows that, from an economic point of view, the
stream of people moved rather from east to west.
All these facts mean that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
there existed, culturally and economically, a loosely unified area inclu
ding Iran, Afghanistan and northern and central India. A number of
Iranian people possessing sophisticated Persian culture emigrated from
Iran to India seeking honour and fortune, while many Indian mer
chants moved from India to Iran looking for economic profit.
NOTES
1. I shall use the term “nobility” in the same sense as Athar Ali used it in his book entit
led The Mughal 7obility under Aurangzeb, Aligarh, 1966. According to him, “the term
‘nobility’ generally denotes the class of persons who were officers of the king and at
the same time formed the superior class in the political order” (ibid., p. 2).
2. Athar Ali, The Apparatus of Empire, Delhi, 1985, p. xx xxi ; J.F. Richards, The 7ew
Cambridge History of India I 5 : The Mughal Empire, Cambridge, 1993, p. 19, 145
146. According to the tables of the ethnic composition of manṣab holders made by
Athar Ali, Iranian officials, in most cases, form the largest of all the ethnic groups throu
ghout the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries.
3. Athar Ali, The Apparatus of Empire ; id., The Mughal 7obility under Aurangzeb ;
Iqtidar Alam Khan, “The Nobility under Akbar and the Development of his Religious
Policy, 1560 80”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1968), p. 29 36. Athar Abbas
Rizvi examined Iranian manṣab holders under Akbar based on the Â’in e akbari in
his A Socio Intellectual History of the Isnâ ‘Ashari Shi’is in India, 2 vol., Canberra, 1986,
vol. I, p. 235 241.
4. Navvâb Ṣamṣam al Dawla Shâh Navâz Khân, Ma’âṣir al umarâ, ed. Mawlavî ‘Abd
al Raḥîm, 3 vol, Calcutta, 1887 1895 [hereafter MU]. English translation : The Maâṯir
al umarâ, tr. H. Beveridge, revised, annotated and completed by B. Prashad, 2 vol.,
New Delhi, 1979.
5. The author does not always give the biography of one person per item. There is some
times mention of more than two persons in the same item. That is why the number
of items included in the English translation is different from the number of persons
discussed in the present study.
6. For exemple, for the period of Akbar, ‘Abd al Bâqî Nahâvandî, Ma’âṯir i Raḥîmî,
ed. H. Ḥusayn, 3 vol., Calcutta 1910 31 ; for the period before 1650, Shaykh Farîd
Bhakkarî, Zakhîrat al Khawânîn, ed. Sayyid Mu‘în al Khaqq, Karachi 1961 74, [here
fater ZKh]. We have another concise biography which covers almost all the period like
MU, Kiwal Ram, Taẕkerat al omarâ, Ms. British Library, Add. 16703.
7. Though Athar Ali makes a distinction between those who came from Iran and
those who were born in Iran, in the column “country of birth” in his list, he puts both
people together into a group called Irani in the end. See lists at the end of The Mughal
7obility under Aurangzeb.
8. We could easily diminish the number of people whose origin is not known in MU
by consulting Athar Ali’s two works on the Mughal nobility quoted above. I did not
do so here, however, because, although at least one reference is quoted in his huge list
of notables in The Apparatus of Empire, it does not mean that one can get access to
the exact reference to the place of origin of the notable concerned. It just shows, in prin
ciple, the reference to either his manṣab or to his promotion. We must look elsewhere
to confirm the origin of the person concerned. Due to a lack of time and the inacces
sibility of some of the sources, I decided against doing this.
9. Iqtidar Alam Khan, “The Nobility under Akbar”, p. 35.
10. Richards, Cambridge History of India, p. 145.
11. Athar Ali, The Mughal 7obility under Aurangzeb, p. 19 20,35. Athar Ali regards
140 / Masashi Haneda
people receiving over 1 000 zats as notables, while in the other two aforementioned
studies, people receiving over 500 zats are included in this category.
12. For an example of immigration at the beginning of the eighteenth century, see
MU, vol. I, p. 463.
13. J. Aubin, “Šâh Ismâ‘il et les notables de l’Iraq persan. Etudes safavides I”, JESHO
2(1959), p. 60 64.
14. All ten are descendants of Soltan Hoseyn Mirza b. Bahram Mirza, brother of Shah
Tahmasp, living in the Qandahar region. They aligned with the Mughal side as a result
of the purge of the royal family by Esma‘il II. See MU, vol. II, p. 670 676, vol. III, p. 296
302, 434 442, 583 586, etc.
15. The number of people who came from Khwaf (19) is impressive, if one takes the
size of the city into account. The numbers reflect Aurangzeb’s particular favour
towards them. See Athar Ali, The Mughal 7obility under Aurangzeb, p. 19.
16. V. Minorsky, Tadhkirat al mulûk, London, 1943, p. 14 16, 187 188 ; Aubin, “Šâh
Ismâ‘il” ; A.K.S. Lambton, Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia, London, 1988,
p. 221 257, 297 327. Although it is obvious that we have to modify this dualistic view
to some extent, as being too simple and not precisely reflecting the historical reality,
I think such a classification still has some meaning. For a recent study on the Tajiks
and the Turks, see for exemple, J. Aubin, Emirs mongols et vizirs persans dans les
remous de l’acculturation, Paris, 1995 [Cahiers de Studia Iranica 15].
17. It is a well known fact that horse breeding is very difficult in India and the horse
was one of the most important import items to India from Central Asia. See M. Alam,
“Trade, State Policy and Religious Change : Aspects of Mughal Uzbek Commercial
relations, c. 1550 1750”, JESHO 37/3 (1994), p. 208 210 ; J. Gommans, “The Horse
Trade in Eighteenth Century South Asia”, JESHO 37/3 (1994) ; and M. Szuppe, “En
quête de chevaux turkmènes : le journal de voyage de Mîr ‘Izzatullâh de Delhi à
Boukhara en 1812 1813”, dans Inde Asie centrale : routes du commerce et des idées,
(Cahiers d’Asie centrale 1 2), Tachkent Aix en Provence, 1996.
18. F. Robinson, “Perso Islamic culture in India from the seventeenth to the early twen
tieth century”, in R.L. Canfield (ed.), Turko Persia in Historical Perspective, Cambridge
1991, p. 106 107.
19. There is much evidence that Tajik immigrants took part in military action. See, for
example, the case of Baqer Khan Najm e Sani whose skill in archery was excellent (MU,
vol. I, p. 408 412). He was a descendant of Najm e Sani, a famous Tajik vakil of
Esma‘il I who led the army, unlike other Tajik vakils, to Transoxiana against the
Uzbeks. See M. Haneda, “La famille Ḫûzânî d’Isfahan : 15e 17e siècles”, Studia Iranica
18/1 (1989), p. 91. There is an interesting argument on the question of the Tajiks and
the Turks at the Mughal court in the recent study of Stephen Blake on Shahjahanabad.
See S.P. Blake, Shahjahanabad : The Sovereign City in Mughal India 1639 1739,
Cambridge, 1991, p. 130 150.
20. There still remains some obscurity concerning the function of these posts, but the
glossary on the principal posts by Athar Ali is useful. See Athar Ali, The Apparatus
of Empire, p. XXV XXVI. See also Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, The Administration of the
Mughal Empire, Lohanipur – Patna (n.d.) ; H.K. Naqvi, History of Mughal Government
and Administration, Delhi, 1990 ; Hare Krishna Mishra, Bureaucracy under the
Emigration of Iranian Elites to India / 141
Mughals, 1556 A.D. to 1707 A.D., Delhi, 1989 ; Aniruddha Ray, Some Aspects of
Mughal Administration, New Delhi, 1984 ; R.C. Majumdar (éd.), The Mughal Empire,
Bombay, 1974, chap. XVII.
21. R. McChesney, “Waqf and Public Policy : the Waqf of Shâh ‘Abbâs, 1011 1023/1602
1614”, Asian and African Studies 15 (1981), p. 171 172. Concerning the respect expres
sed by Mongol Ilkhans to sayyids, see Lambton, Continuity and Change, p. 325 326.
22. The case of the immigration of Mirak Ghiyas, a sayyid from Herat is a good
example. See M.E. Subtelny, “Mîrak i Sayyid Ghiyas and the Timurid Tradition of
Landscape Architecture”, Studia Iranica 24/1 (1995), p. 27.
23. See the case of Mir Mohammad Amin, infra.
24. Athar Ali affirms that most Iranian people were Shiite on the basis of a phrase in
Bada’uni’s Montakhab al tavârikh. We must pay attention to the fact that Bada’uni
was referring only to Akbar’s court and that he said most of the people from “Iraq”
were Shiite, rather than those from “Iran” (including Khorasan) as a whole. See Athar
Ali, The Mughal 7obility under Aurangzeb, p. 19 ; ‘Abd al Qâder b. Moluk Shâh
Badâ’unî Muntakhab al tavarîkh, ed. Ahmad ‘Alî and Lees, Calcutta, 1865 69, vol.
II, p. 326 327.
25. For example, see the case of Asalat (Aṣâlat) Khan Mir ‘Abd al Hadi (MU, vol. I,
p. 167), of ‘Ali Mardan Khan (MU, vol. II, p. 795 807) and of Mir Ghiyas al Din ‘Ali
(MU, vol. III, p. 812 817).
26. Besides the two examples presented here, further such examples include Asaf
(Âṣaf) Khan Khwaja Ghiyas al Din ‘Ali Qazvini, a son of a davâtdâr (ink holder) at
the Safavid court (MU, vol. I, p. 90 93), Asaf Khan Mirza, a son of a vizier of Kashan
and himself at one time an attendant at royal meetings (bâryâb e majles e shâh) (MU,
vol. I, p. 107 115), Asalat Khan Mirza Mohammad whose ancestors had been the
guardians of the holy shrine of Mashhad (MU, vol. I, p. 222 225), Daneshmand Khan,
a man of erudition and patron of F. Bernier (MU, vol. II, p. 30 32), and Fathallah Shirazi,
a man of great learning who was invited to ‘Adelshah’s court (MU, vol. I, p. 100
105).
27. Eskandar Monshi, Târikh e ‘âlam ârâ ye ‘abbâsi, 2 vol., Tehran, 1350 Sh/1971
[hereafter TAA], p. 164. R. Quiring Zoche, Isfahan im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert,
Freiburg, 1980, p. 242.
28. Her name was Hava (Ḥavâ) Begom. After the death of Mirza Razi, she was given
to his cousin, Mirza Rafi‘. See TAA, p. 929 ; Naṣrallâh Falsafi, Zendegâni ye Shâh
‘Abbâs e avval, vol. II, Tehran, 1334/1955, p. 201.
29. According to Eskandar Monshi, Mirza Razi died in 1026/1617. He was survived
by a very young son named Mir Sadr al Din Mohammad, grandson of the sovereign
through the marriage of ‘Abbas’s daughter and Mirza Razi (TAA, p. 929). Following
the enthronement of Shah Safi (1039/1630 31), a purge of the royal family was car
ried out. Among the purged members descended from Shah ‘Abbas’s daughters, we
find the name of Mirza Razi (Mohammad Ma‘sum b. Khwâjagi Eṣfahâni, Kholâṣat al
siyar, ed. Iraj Afshâr, Tehran, 1368 Sh/1989, p. 126), or a son of Mirza Razi, ṣadr
(Eskandar Monshi, Ẕeyl e târikh e ‘âlam ârâ ye ‘abbâsi, ed. Soheyli Khwânsari,
Tehran, 1317 Sh/1938, p. 90). He ought to have been executed, but his life was spared
and he was blinded. Mir Sadr al Din Mohammad might have taken his father’s name
142 / Masashi Haneda
after growing up. He was then at least thirteen years old and this fact corresponds with
Chardin’s remark that the prince was blinded after growing up. Cf. Jean Chardin,
Voyage du Chevalier Chardin, en Perse et autres lieux de l’Orient, 10 vol., Paris, éd.
L. Langlès, 1811, vol. VIII, p. 47 59, vol. IX, p. 554, 555.
30. MU, vol. III, p. 415, says it was Mirza Rafi‘, but it must have been Mirza Razi, still
living at the time of Mir Mohammad Amin’s return, as TAA says (p. 883).
31. The story of Mir Mohammad Amin’s return to Iran and second journey to India
is described by Eskandar Monshi in a slightly different way. He was received by Shah
‘Abbas near the Aras river on his return from Tiflis. But “his overweening ambition
led him to make remarks displeasing to the shah ; for instance, he let it to be known
that he would be satisfied with nothing less that the positions of vizier of the supreme
dîvân and vakîl e nafs e homâyûn” ; TAA, p. 883, English translation by R.M. Savory
(Eskandar Monshi, History of Shah Abbâs, Boulder, 1978), p. 1098.
32. ZKh, p. 219, says the sovereign gave him 1 500 zats and 200 horses.
33. He brought as presents twelve Iraqi horses, nine carpets and two rings of ruby (ZKh,
p. 219).
34. MU, vol. III, p. 413 415.
35. ZKh, p. 219. The same story, a little less clear, is found in MU as well.
36. TAA, p. 955.
37. According to Manucci, Hakim Da’ud died after taking, in place of Shah Jahan, the
poison sent by Aurangzeb to assassinate the emperor, see Storia de Mogor or Moghul
India 1653 1708 by 7iccolao Manucci, tr. W. Irvine, London, 1907 08, vol. II, p. 65 ;
François Bernier, Histoire de la dernière révolution des états du Grand Mogol, 2 vol.,
Paris 1670, vol. I, p. 240 241 ; Chardin, Voyages, vol. VII, p. 462 463.
38. MU, vol. I, p. 490 493, vol. III, p. 625 627.
39. Loṭfallâh Honarfar, Ganjina ye âsâr e târikhi ye Eṣfahân, Isfahan, 1344 Sh/1965,
p. 612 620.
40. Concerning the Masjed e Jorjir, see H. Gaube et E. Wirth, Der Bazar von Isfahan,
Wiesbaden, 1978, p. 203 204 ; O. Grabar, The Great Mosque of Isfahan, London,
1990, p. 47 48.
41. Mirzâ Ḥasan Khân Sheykh Jâberi Anṣâri, Târikh e Eṣfahân va Ray va hamma
ye jahân, Tehran, 1321, p. 270 271.
42. Satish Chandra stated that the Iranian people had to take their families to India and
had no contact with the land of their birth after their immigration. See S. Chandra,
Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court 1707 1740, Aligarh, 1959, p. xxxii.
43. Many such examples can be found in Sâjedallâh Tafhimi, Sho‘arâ ye Eṣfahâni ye
Shaba Qâra, Islamabad, 1994 ; see p. 12, 23, 32, 43, 44, 52, 57, 67, 79, 85, 87, 88, 89,
94, etc. I thank Charles Melville for informing me of the existence of this valuable book
and allowing me to refer to his own copy.
44. MU, vol. II, p. 30.
45. M. Haneda, “The Character of the Urbanisation of Isfahan in the Later Safavid
Period”, in Ch. Melville (ed.), Safavid Persia. A History and Politics of an Islamic
Society, London – New York, 1996, p. 374. The figure was drawn mainly based on the
description of Isfahan by Jean Chardin and on the result of field work by Gaube and
Emigration of Iranian Elites to India / 143