Merchants of Cambay and Bharuch

Who he is

Name

not named in any source we could check

Title

Headmen of the merchant communities (nakhudas, shresthis, headmen of the foreign Muslim colony)

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Confidence

medium

Al-Masudi called Cambay 'a very successful port' in 915 (Wikipedia, Khambhat, citing al-Masudi); Edward Alpers (2014, p. 57, cited in the Chaulukya article) says the Chaulukya kings endowed mosques to keep good relations with Muslim traders; Ibn Battuta (1340s) says most inhabitants were foreign merchants with fine houses and mosques. The campaign board adds the Hormuzi horse trade and the Parsi settlement at Navsari (1142 by tradition) and the Arab colony at Rander.

What it holds

• The merchant quarters and wharves of Cambay and Bharuch (rights of landing, warehouse and mosque, granted by the crown)
• The right to judge disputes inside their own communities
• Shares in ships and in the horse trade

How it was acquired

By long residence and royal licence: the Chaulukya kings endowed or licensed mosques (Alpers, via the Chaulukya article).

Allies and rivals

The Jain bankers lend to the crown; the Muslim shipowners need the king's pilots and tolls; the king needs the horses.

How things stand that morning

At the start of the sailing season (the north-east wind brings the horse ships between November and March) the harbours are full; the sack of Anahilapataka in 1197 has shaken confidence in the inland road, not in the ports.

Wealth

Cloth, indigo, carnelian beads; the horse trade; port tolls. No figure from any source.

Military

None of their own; hired guards.

Threats

• Silting of the head of the gulf, which will kill Cambay within three centuries
• A raid from the sea or from Malwa

Places of note

• Cambay (Khambhat): Emporium: cloth, indigo and beads out; horses and silver in
• Bharuch: Head port of Lata, with the Narmada bar and bore
• The bead cutters of Cambay: Agate and carnelian cut and drilled for export to East Africa and South-East Asia
• Rander: Tapti port with an Arab merchant colony (rank in 1200 inferred)
• Navsari: Zoroastrian community by tradition from 1142
• Ghogha: Lighterage landing on the Saurashtra side of the gulf

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry cambay-bead-works says the stone comes from the Rajpipla hills about two hundred kilometres away; we keep that as the campaign board's claim.

Evidence: Al-Masudi 915 and Ibn Battuta 1340s bracket the period; nothing is dated for 1200 itself.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Drawn as ports only.

Primary sources for Chaulukya Gujarat

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• Epigraphia Indica: inscriptions of the Chandelas, Paramaras, Gahadavalas, Chaulukyas, Senas and Eastern Gangas, Various (edited for the Archaeological Survey of India by J. Burgess, E. Hultzsch, F. Kielhorn, Sten Konow, F. W. Thomas and successors) (inscriptions of the 1180s to 1210s; the series ran from 1892). The main record series for the Hindu kingdoms of northern India around 1200. Read online
• Historical Inscriptions of Gujarat, Various (the Chaulukya and Vaghela chanceries), edited by G. V. Acharya (inscriptions of the 10th to 14th centuries; edited 1933 to 1942). The standard corpus of Gujarat's inscriptions. Read online
• A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
• The Book of Roger (the Pleasure of Him who Longs to Cross the Horizons), Muhammad al-Idrisi (completed 1154 at Palermo). The nearest Arabic geography in time to 1200 for the Indian Ocean. Read online
• The History of India as Told by its Own Historians: the Muhammadan Period, vol. 2, Various (Ibn al-Athir, Hasan Nizami, Awfi, Juzjani and others), edited by H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (the sources date from the 1190s to the 14th century; the collection was published in 1869). A one-volume anthology of the Arabic and Persian accounts of the Ghurid conquest. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Northern India.