Cambay is the great harbour of Gujarat, on the Mahi-Sabarmati estuary at the head of the Gulf of Khambhat, where Arab and Persian ships landing horses and goods from Hormuz and the Red Sea meet the cloth, indigo and carnelian of Gujarat.
The Gulf has some of the highest tides in the world and bores up the estuary; ships ride the tide in and are dried out at the quay. The Muslim, Jain, Hindu and Parsi merchants who live here are described in Merchants of Cambay and Bharuch.
Who holds it
- Name
- Bhima II through a governor whose name is not known to me
- Title
- Royal governor of the port
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia's Khambhat page for the port; the Gulf and trade from the campaign board; the Ismaili (Bohra) mission of 1067 and Parsi presence from memory, not rechecked.
Lord in 1200
Bhima II through a governor whose name is not known to me
How things stand that morning
A prosperous port well away from the war. Aibak's strength never went down the gulf.
Wealth
The port tolls: the largest single source of Chaulukya revenue after the land (an inference, not a stated figure).
Charter
Customs and harbour dues are the king's; no merchant charter is known to me.
Council
The port is run by royal officers and a harbour-master; the merchant guilds speak for themselves. No document names a council.
Communities
Hindu and Jain vaniyas, Muslim merchants and shipowners (Arab, Persian and local), Ismaili (Bohra) community since 1067 by tradition, a Zoroastrian presence by tradition (see the religious records for communities).
Walls and castle
A walled port town; the walls are not described in the sources we reached.
Trade and crafts
Cotton cloth, indigo, carnelian and agate beads (Cambay beads cut from the Ratanpur agate beds up the Narmada: board), grain; imports of horses, textiles and spices; transshipment between the Gulf and the Red Sea.
Places of note
- The bead cutters: Carnelian and agate cutting
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Wikipedia's Khambhat page for the port; the Gulf and trade from the campaign board; the Ismaili (Bohra) mission of 1067 and Parsi presence from memory, not rechecked.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Khambhat'
- Wikipedia, 'Chaulukya dynasty' (summarising Majumdar 1956 and Dasharatha Sharma, Early Chauhan Dynasties, 1959)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead only; checked against the sources above)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.