quote:Originally posted by the lioness: ^^^ you may be right but that does not mean that many Siddi who rose to power started out as slaves,as was Bilal, it's well documented, these individuals had names (not just playing with word meanings but actual people) The notable thing is that Siddis (Habashi) and Nagas are two separates entities in India and they would tell you that themselves. People are really mixed up, mixing these two peoples up. The Siddi (aka Habashi) ruled for short periods of time in parts of India, this I agree on.
But they certainly did not come in as conqueors direct from Ethiopia, despite the tall tales of the Kebra Nagast. They were people of African descent who were introduced into various parts of the Arabian peninsula and the Persian Gulf, Iran, Iraq, and the Indian subcontinent were part of the East African slave trade. Between the 14th and the 19th centuries, the Arab traders and slave dealers, Indian merchants and potentates, along with the Portuguese colonists brought into different parts of India people from Africa who are collectively known as the Habashis or Siddis. Used interchangeably in historical literature, both terms, “Habashis” and “Siddi,” have survived, and both mean “African" The term "Siddi" is said to be derived from the Arabic word sayyid, meaning master or lord. Nevertheless, the Africans were brought in as slaves. The Africans in India belong to various parts of Africa as is evident by geographic identifications, namely, Abyssinians, Nubians, Somalis, Zanzibaris. These divisions were further divided by religious loyalties: Muslim or Christian. Most Africans in the Deccan came from the Horn of Africa, or Ethiopia, called al-Habashah by Arabs. Therefore, the present writer has preferred the term Habashi.
Detailed documentation concerning the numbers, the status and role of the Habashis in the earliest Muslim period in Indian history is lacking. However, the favor shown to the Habashi slave, Jamal al-Din Yaqut, by Sultanah Raziyah (reigned 1236-40) in the early, 13th century is an indication that even then Habashis were able to rise to positions of power and eminence, though the story that Yaqut was the sultanah’s paramour does not find support in contemporary chronicles. Ibn Battutah, who traveled widely in India between 1333-42 notices them from north India to Ceylon, employed especially as guards and armed sailors. Towards the close of the 14th century the slave, Malik Sarwar, who was most probably a Habashi eunuch, achieved (but never declared) independence from the Delhi sultans to found a dynasty known as the Sharqis of Jawnpur which ruled a part of the present north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for nearly a century, c. 1394-1479. Under the Sharqis, the city of Jawnpur became a major centre of Indian Islamic art, architecture, and culture. In Bengal, where the Habashi slaves arrived directly by sea, it is recorded that Sultan Rukn al-Din Barbak Shah (reigned 1459-74 ) maintained some 800 African slaves mainly for military purpose, many of whom were raised to higher rank. In 1486 the leading slaves murdered Barbak’s successor and put one of their own number on the throne. For seven years the kingdom remained under a remarkable African regime. When it finally fell due to mismanagement, all the Africans were expelled from the region. The refugees, many thousand, were turned back from Dilli and Jawnpur and finally drifted to the Deccan. They did not, however, altogether disappear from the scene since Tome Pires, a European traveler, found them very much in evidence in the second decade of the 16th century. He asserts:
“The People who govern the kingdom are Abyssinians. These are looked upon as knights; they are greatly esteemed; they wait on the kings in their apartments. The chief among them are eunuchs and these come to be kings and great lords in the kingdom. Those who are not eunuchs are fighting men. After the king it is to this people that the kingdom is obedient from fear.
Siddi (Habashi)
The Siddi, Siddhi, or Sheedi (Urdu: شیدی ; Hindi: सिद्दी or शीदि; Gujarati: સિદ્દી; Kannada:), also known as Habshi, are an Indian and Pakistani ethnic group of Afro-Arab and/or Black African descent.
The Siddi population is currently estimated to be 20,000–55,000, with Gujarat and Hyderabad in India and Karachi in Pakistan as the main population centres. Siddis are mainly Sufi Muslims, although some are Hindus and some Roman Catholic Christians. Villages in the forests of northern Karnataka, for instance, have residents who likely are descended from Mozambican/Angolan slaves who escaped from Portuguese traders and ships.
There are conflicting hypotheses on the origin of the name Siddi . One theory is that the word was a term of respect in North Africa, similar to the word sahib in modern India and Pakistan. A second theory is that the term Siddi is derived from the title borne by the captains of the Arab vessels that first brought Siddi settlers to India. These captains were known as Sayyid. The term "Siddi" is said to be derived from the Arabic word sayyid, meaning master or lord. It seems improbable that this is the etymology of the term as applied in our context, since the Africans were brought in as slaves. Similarly, another term for Siddis, habshi (from Al-Habsh, the Arabic term for Abyssinia), is held to be derived from the common name for the captains of the Ethiopian/Abyssinian ships that also first delivered Siddi slaves to the subcontinent. The term eventually came to be applied to other Africans and not only to emancipated Siddis. In time, it came to be used to refer to their descendants as well. It is sometimes pronounced "Hafsi" and is considered an insult. Siddis are also sometimes referred to as Afro-Indians.Siddis were referred to as Zanji by Arabs; in China, various transcriptions of this Arabic word were used, including Xinji The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in the Indian subcontinent in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic invasions of the subcontinent in 712 AD. The latter group are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis. Most Siddis, however, are believed to be the descendants of slaves, sailors, servants and merchants from East Africa who arrived and became resident in the subcontinent during the 1200-1900 AD period. A large influx of Siddis to the region occurred in the 17th century when Portuguese slave traders sold a number of them to local princes.
Flag of the Siddis from Murud-Janjira an important vassal of the Mughal Empire. In Western India (the modern Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra), the Siddi gained a reputation for physical strength and loyalty, and were sought out as mercenaries by local rulers, and as domestic servants and farm labor. Some Siddis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas, and some even established small Siddi principalities on Janjira Island and at Jaffrabad as early as the twelfth century. A former alternative name of Janjira was Habshan (i.e., land of the Habshis). I Some Indian Siddis are descended from Tanzanians and Mozambicans brought by the Portuguese. While most African slaves became Muslim and a small minority became Christian, very few became Hindu since they could not find themselves a position in the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy
Famous Siddis ( Sheedis)
Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut,
In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana (1205–1240 CE). Although this is disputed, he may also have been her lover.
Yakut Khan, naval admiral
Yakut Khan was a Siddi Naval Admiral and administrator of Janjira Fort who first served under Bijapur Sultanate and later under the Mughal Empire[1]. His real name was Siddi Qasim Khan but was given the title of Yakut Khan by Emperor Alamgir. During a Muhgal-English conflict he laid siege to the British-held Bombay in 1689. The Siddis are a community of African ancestry that live in much of Karnataka and Kerala, India. They were loyal to the Mughals he Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids and Genghis Khan (of Turco-Mongol lineage)
Malik Ambar
described in ealier post, starting out as a slave he eventually rose to become a very popular Prime Minister of Ahmadnagar
Hoshu Sheedi
Emir Hosh Muhammad Sheedi, Hoshu Sheedi (Sindhi: جنرل هوش محمد شيدي; Urdu: جنرل ہوش محمّد شیدی), full name Shaheed Hosh Mohammad Sheedi, was a general of Talpur Mirs' army, which fought against the British in the Battle of Miani and the last Battle of Dubbo (1843). Hoshu belonged to the African-descended Sheedi community of Pakistan.
Noor Mohammed
Noor Mohammed (Urdu: نور محمد دانش; born 1958) is a Pakistani poet of African and Baloch descent. He is more commonly known as Noon Meem Danish or N. M. Danish.
Did you cut and paste this? I would assume you did since you don't know arabic and trying to interpret a language you don't know is beyond foolish. However, there are a number of issues with this cut and paste job. 1. is the attempt at the origin of the word Siddi and 2. is the fact it claims the Africans were brought in as slaves. This is a lie. What proof do they have of this other than someone saying it in a book in modern times? I can right a book and stating x, y and z is the devil, doesn't make it factual. Even in the video of that Jewish man who wrote the book about Siddis in India he mentions a number of africans who came there trading and who ruled without being slaves so that invalidates this cut and paste job you have provided. As I always say, a bit of googling without actual research is dangerous.
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some of us are embarrassed by the slave backgounds of the most powerful Habshi (Siddi) like Malik Ambar or Shahzada Barbak. So we just leave it out and pick up at the time when they came to power. Therefore our African pride is not hurt. We can write a chapter in a book or an article on the internet and simply leave that part out. However in my opinion the full story is a story of triumph. The largest area in India controlled by Hashis (Siddis) was in Bengal for a period of 6-7 years. It was not a take over of the whole of India by an invading Ethiopian army coming from Ethiopia although we might enjoy that fantasy. They were Siddis and Siddis are not Nagas and they will tell you this. Hense the title of this thread is inaccurate on both counts.
The African diaspora in the Indian Ocean Shihan de S. Jayasuriya, Richard Pankhurst - 2003 - 293 pages
Encyclopedia of the African diaspora: origins, experiences, and ... Carole Boyce Davies - 2008 - 1010 pages .
The word Habshi, as its derivation implies, doubtless at first applied primarily to Abyssinians (or, in modern parlance, Ethiopians), but was later used more widely for any Africans. However, most slaves taken from Africa to India would, for geographical reasons, have originated on the eastern side of continent. For much of the time covered in this paper they would probably have included a substantial, if not a predominant, proportion of Abyssinians.
The first Habshi of whom there is historical record was probably Jamal al-Din Yaqut, a royal courtier in the kingdom of Delhi, in the north of the sub-continent. A handsome and most likable individual, he won the favour of the then reigning sovereign Queen Radiyya (1236-1240). This incurred him much jealousy at court, on which account he was eventually murdered by his rivals.
Habshis, it is evident from fourteenth century reports, were soon also prominent in several other parts of India. The largest concentrations of slaves was apparently found in the north-west, facing Africa: in Gujarat, and, immediately to the east, around the Gulf of Cambay. Both areas had long been in close commercial contact, across the Arabian and Red Seas, with Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
The Evidence of Ibn Battuta
Early evidence of an Ethiopian slave presence in the sub-continent is provided by the famous Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta. Describing the situation between 1333 and 1342, he recalls that on embarking on a ship at Qandahar, or Gandhar on the west coast of India, he found on board "fifty Abyssinian men-at-arms", and adds, with admiration: "these latter are the guarantors of safety on the Indian Ocean; let there be but one of them on a ship and it will be avoided by the Indian pirates and idolaters". Half a century later, in 1375-6, Gujarat was reported as paying a tribute of 400 slaves, described as "children of Hindu chiefs and Abyssinians".
A sizable number of Habshis were also found much further south, at Calicut, which also faced the African continent, and traded with Ethiopia. Ibn Battuta tells of a shipowner?s agent at the port, who, when going ashore, was "preceded by archers and Abyssinians with javelins, swords, drums, trumpets and bugles". Habshis were likewise in evidence further south again, at Colombo, in Ceylon, where Ibn Battuta reports that Jalasti, "the wazir and ruler of the sea", had "about five hundred Abyssinians".
The North: Alapur and Jaunpur
Habshis were also reported in the interior of northern India. Ibn Battuta recalls that at Alapur, north of Delhi, the governor was "the Abyssinian Badr..., a man whose bravery passed into a proverb". He was "continually making raids on the infidels alone and single-handed, killing and taking captive, so that his fame spread far and wide and the infidels went in fear of them". Gossip had it that he had retained some non-Indian ways: according to Ibn Battuta he used to eat "a whole sheep at a meal", and, "following the custom of the Abyssinians", would, after consuming it, drink a pound and a half of ghee, or clarified butter.
Later in the century a slave called Malik Sarwar, described as a Habshi, was appointed further north as governor of Jaunpur. He was succeeded by his son Mubarak Shah, who struck coins in his own name, and was succeeded in turn by his brother Ibrahim Shah. The latter reigned for almost forty years, and is remembered as a patron of literature and the arts.
The North-East: Bengal
Numerous Habshis and other foreign slaves were likewise politically very prominent in fifteenth century Bengal, a region in north-east India which also enjoyed extensive trade with Ethiopia and other parts of Africa. The then Bengali ruler, Sultan Rukn al-Din (1450-1474), reportedly had no less than 8,000 African slaves, some of whom rose to positions of considerable importance. Such slaves were particularly influential during the ensuing reign of Jalal al-Din Fath Shah (1481-1487). This caused the modern Indian historian Sir Jadu-Nath Sarkar, a stern critic of the Habshis, to remark: "The Abyssinians... presented a serious problem... they had captured most of the high positions and now swarmed in the palace and in the city. Power made them arrogant and like the Turks in the employ of the later Abbaside Caliphs, they behaved with the citizens with increasing violence. The more defiant of them, according to Firishta, were consequently punished ?with the scourge of justice?".
The Habshis were in fact so powerful in Bengal that a group of them, including the chief eunuch, conspired to overthrow the then ruler Jalal al-Din Fath. Taking advantage of the absence on campaign of the loyal Habshi commander-in-chief, Amir al-Umara Malik Andil, the Habshi commander of the palace guards, Sultan Shahzada, assassinated Jalal al-Din. "From protectors of the dynasty", one historian wrote, "the Abyssinians became masters of the kingdom". Shahzada duly assumed the throne, in 1486, and adopted the name of Barbak Shah. He was, however, soon afterwards killed by the Habshi Amir al-Umara who in his turn made himself king, with the name Sayf al-Din Firuz (1487-1490). A kind man, he is said to have confounded his treasury officials by the largesse of his gifts to the poor. His reign was, however, short, for he was replaced only three years later by an infant king. Real power, however, fell into the hands of another Habshi, Habash Khan, who was later killed by yet another Habshi, Sidi Badr "the madman", who had the young king put to death. Badr then seized the throne, under the name of Shams al-Din Muzaffar Shah, and instituted a reign of terror. His cruelty, however, provoked strong opposition against him, and by extension against Habshi domination. His army, which included no less than 5,000 well-armed Habshis, was besieged for three months, at the end of which he died.
The Eighteenth Century
Habshis were still in demand in the eighteenth century, at the close of which J.H. Grose, a British traveller, declared that the "Moors", i.e. Indian Muslims, were "fond of having Abyssinia slaves, known in Indian by the name of Habshee Coifrees", i.e. Kafirs, or Africans.
Though there was still a considerable demand for Habshi slaves, as Grose suggests, most, by the eighteenth century, were probably descendants of immigrants imported into Ethiopia earlier rather than immigrants themselves. Malik Ambar, and Other Prominent Habshis
The best known Habshi of the early seventeenth century was probably Malik Ambar (1549--1626), an "Abyssinian" slave purchased in Baghdad, who became chief minister in the shrunken kingdom of Ahmadnagar. He won renown in 1601 by defeating the Mogul forces in south-west Berar, and subsequently established Murtaza Nizam Shah (1603-1630) as the nominal ruler of the land. He also reorganised the tax system, and improved the training of the soldier. The Mogul court chronicler, Mutamid Khan, wrote: "This Ambar was a slave, but an able man. In warfare, in command, in sound judgment, and in administration he had no rival or equal".
On the death of Malik Ambar his son, Fath Khan, submitted to the Moguls, but soon afterwards joined Murtaza Nizam Shah in attacking them. The latter, however, subsequently appointed another Habshi, Hamid Khan, to the post of minister, and fell completely under his influence and that of the latter?s wife. She became the recognised means of communication between the monarch and his subjects, and on occasion even assumed control of the army. In 1626 she overcame the army of Bijapur, which, however, in the following year decisively defeated her husband. "gathered together like ants and locusts", but were defeated. Hamid Khan's grandsons, realising the futility of the struggle, later made their submission to the Jahanger, who in return granted them fiefs in the Deccan. Hamid?s defeat had fatal consequences. Malik Ambar?s son Fath Khan, uncertain of his influence over Murtaza, killed him, and replaced him by the latter?s son Husayn Nizam Shah III (1630-1633). Randola Khan, a prominent Habshi general in Bijapur, then persuaded Fath Khan to join in the struggle against the Moguls, but the two Habshis were eventually defeated. Fath Khan nevertheless received honourable treatment from the victors, and was allowed to live in Lahore with an ample pension.
Other Prominent Habshis
Several other Habshis held important positions later in the century. They included Atish Habshi (d. 1651), sometime governor of Bihar and later of the Deccan; Habsh Khan Sidi Miftah Habshi, who was honoured by Emperor Aurangzeb, and attracted the interest of the German scholar Hiob Ludolf, who reproduces his portrait in his Relatio nova de Hodierno Habessinae Statu; Habsh Khan?s son Ahmad Khan; Dilavar Khan (d. 1702-3), another sometime governor of the Deccan, who was in turn succeeded as its ruler by another Habshi;and Malik Marjan, Ibrahim Adil's governor of Bidar. Mention may also be made of an unidentified Habshi of Breampur, who, according to the Frenchman Pierre du Jarric, was "a very brave captain", and one of the principal guardians of the fortress of Asirgath. Hyderabad
There was at least one prominent Habshi in eighteenth century Hyderabad, in the interior of central India. He was Rahut Jung, also known as Sidi Asud Ula (died 1796), an infantry commander, described by the historian J. Clunes as "a native of Abyssinia".
The Indian West Coast, and Janjira
Though the influence of the Habshis in the sub-continent was as a whole declining, they continued to hold power at the island of Janjira, on the west coast, where they were almost invariably referred to as Sidis. They were also prominent in the Nizam Shahi fleet of Ahmadnagar. In the early seventeenth century, during the reign of Malik Ambar for example, two Habshis, Habash Khan and Sidi Ambar, served as admirals of this fleet, while a third, Sidi Bulbul, was in command of Rairi. The Sidis played a notable role in the struggle between Emperor Aurengzeb and the Maratha leader Shivaji (1674-1680). No less than "three of the principal provinces" of Bijapur, according to Orme, were then governed by Sidis. One of them was the admiral of the Bijapur fleet, and had under his jurisdiction a "considerable" stretch of coast both north and south of Janjira. Shivaji took the offensive in 1659 when he attacked Janjira, but failed to capture it. He nevertheless succeeded in seizing the nearby fort of Danda-Raipuri.
Several mutually irreconcilable accounts of this struggle are extant. One author, Muhammad Hashim Khan, claims that Fath Khan, the then ruler of Janjira, had "three Abyssinian slaves, Sidi Sambal, Sidi Yaqut, and Sidi Khariyat, each of whom had ten Abyssinian slaves, which he had trained and drilled". They were so well organised that "the management of the island and many domestic concerns" fell into their hands. Learning that Fath Khan intended to surrender the island to the Muslim leader Shivaji, they reportedly plotted together to forestall the betrayal. They succeeded in taking Fath Khan prisoner, and made Sambal ruler in his stead, after which they appealed to Aurengzeb?s imperial armies for help. Conflict between Shivaji and the Habshis, according to this account, later "grew more violent". The Maratha leader collected forty or fifty warships to use against the Habshis, after which "there were frequent naval fights between the opposing forces, in which the Abyssinians were often victorious". Sidi Sambal was then given the title of commander of nine hundred, and, before his death, appointed Sidi Yaqut his successor, and "enjoined all the other Abyssinians to pay him a loyal and cheerful obedience". Yaqut, it is said, was distinguished for his "courage, benignity and dignity", and "strove more than ever to collect ships of war, to strengthen the fortress and to ward off naval attacks. Armed and ready night and day, he frequently captured ships of the enemy, and cut off the heads of many Marathas". He and Sidi Khariyat later launched a surprise attack, with scaling ladders, on Danda Rajpuri, in the course of which its powder magazine caught fire, and the Habshis made themselves masters of the area.
Another, rather different, version of the story, cited by Orme, and elaborated upon in the Bombay Gazetteer, claims that the Sidis on the mainland, faced with Shivaji?s growing strength, escaped to Janjira. Several Sidis were then "in high military command" there. One of them, Sidi Joreh, an admiral of the Bijapur fleet, was sent on an expedition against Shivaji, but, failing in his mission, was suspected of treachery and put to death. His successor, Sidi Sambal, and a group of other Sidis then opened negotiations with Emperor Aurengzeb's generals in Gujarat and the Deccan. The Sidis offered them their services, and the support of Janjira fort and the entire Bijapur fleet. They nevertheless reserved the right to rule at Janjira, and to recapture whatever former Sidi property in Bijapur they could.
Emperor Aurengzeb
Aurengzeb, according to this account, accepted the Sidi proposals, and Sambal was duly appointed a Mogul admiral. He was raised to the dignity of a commander of nine hundred, and given "a large stipend on the revenues" of the town of Surat, whence he afterwards received continuous support against Sevaji. The Sidis, we are told, were at this time rich, and reportedly gained as much from their trade as from a stipend from Aurengzeb. Their administrative organisation, which was in some ways unusual, is described by Orme, who observes: "Reverence to the higher family, and to the Mogul?s choice, had given the pre-eminence of command to Siddee Sambole; but the other captains preserved the distinct command over their own crews and dependents, and an aristocratical council determined the general welfare of this singular republic; in which the lowest orders from their skill and utility, maintained some influence, and proud of their importance, merited, by the alacrity of their service, in so much that they excelled all the navigators of India, and even rated themselves equal to Europeans; and indeed the onset of their sword was formidable in boarding, and on shore". R.O. Cambridge A similar picture is drawn by the eighteenth century British writer R.O. Cambridge. He asserts that the Sidis beside possessing "many vessels of force", "carried on a considerable trade". Sidi Sambal?s appointment as admiral resulted, according to Orme in Sidi Kassim becoming commander of Janjira, and Sidi Khariyat ruler of Danda-Rajpuri. Kassim subsequently succeeded Sambal as admiral in 1677, after which he expanded his fleet, and captured many Maratha ships, while Sidi Khariyat became governor of Janjira, and held this position until his death in 1696. Though some details of the above events are obscure, and differently reported, there can be no denying that the Sidis were in "constant war with the Marathas", between 1673 and 1707, as the Bombay Gazetteer states. "Sometimes laying waste large tracts of Maratha territory," they were "at other times stripped of their own lands", and only "with difficulty" held on to their island of Janjira". The term Sidi by contrast was a corruption of the Arabic Saiyid, or "master". The word, as Edwardes notes, had "an honourable import" when first assumed, but, in common parlance, had become "rather an appellation of reproach than distinction" This is confirmed by the Frenchman Fran?ois Pyrard of Laval, who, reporting on a visit to the Maldives in 1607, observed that "the greatest insult that can be passed upon a man is to call him a cisdy", i.e. Sidi.
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