Ziauddin Barani (‎; 1285–1357) was an Indian political thinker of the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

located in present-day Northern India during

Muhammad bin Tughlaq Muhammad bin Tughluq (; ; 1290 – 20 March 1351), or Muhammad II, also named Jauna Khan as Crown Prince, further known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, or The Mad Sultan, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from 4 February 1 ...

and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best known for composing the ''Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi'' (also called ''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi''), a work on

medieval India Medieval India was a long period of post-classical history in the Indian subcontinent between the ancient and modern periods. It is usually regarded as running approximately from the break-up of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century to the star ...

, which covers the period from the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq to the first six years of the reign of Firoz Shah Tughluq; and the ''Fatwa-i-Jahandari'' which promoted a hierarchy among Muslim communities in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, although according to M. Athar Ali it was not based on race or even like the

caste system A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

, but taking as a model of

Sassanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, which promoted an idea of aristocracy through birth and which was claimed by Persians to be "fully in accordance with the main thrust of Islamic thought as it had developed by that time", including in the works of his near-contemporary

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

Life

Barani was born in 1285, to an Indian Muslim family native to Baran, (now

Bulandshahr Bulandshahr, formerly Baran, is a city and a municipal board in Bulandshahr district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bulandshahr district and part of Delhi NCR region. According to the Governme ...

) in northern India, hence his nisba ''Barani''. His ancestors had immigrated to Baran from the Indian town of Kaithal,

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. His father, uncle, and grandfather all worked in high government posts under the

Sultan of Delhi The Sultan of Delhi was the absolute monarch of the Delhi Sultanate which stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent during the period of medieval era, for 320 years (1206–1526).Ghiyas ud din Balban Al-Sultan al-Azam Ghiyath al-Dunya Wal Din Abu'l Muzaffar Balban al-Sultan (; 1216 – 13 January 1287), more famously known as Ghiyath al-Din Balban or simply Balban, was the ninth Mamluk sultan of Delhi. He had been the regent of the last S ...

and his father Muwayyid-ul-Mulk held the post of ''naib'' of Arkali Khan, the son of Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji. His uncle Qazi Ala-ul-Mulk was the ''Kotwal'' (police chief) of Delhi during the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khalji.Mahajan, V.D. (1991, reprint 2007). ''History of Medieval India'', Part I, New Delhi: S. Chand, , pp.174-6 Barani never held a post, but was a ''nadim'' (companion) of

for seventeen years. During this period he was very close to

Amir Khusro Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau, sometimes spelled as, Amir Khusrow or Amir Khusro, was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar, who lived during the per ...

. After Tughlaq died, he fell out of favor. In "Exile" he wrote two pieces dealing with government, religion, and history, which he hoped would endear him to the new sultan, Firuz Shah Tughluq. He was not rewarded for his works and died poor in 1357. Ziauddin Barani

His gravestone lies in the courtyard of Nizamuddin Auliya's dargah in Delhi, at the entrance of the ''dalan'' of Mirdha Ikram, and near the tomb of Amir Khusrau.

Works

Fatwa-i-Jahandari

The ''Fatwa-i-Jahandari'' is a work containing the political ideals to be pursued by a Muslim ruler in order to earn religious merit and the gratitude of his subjects. It is written as nasihat (advices) for the Muslim kings. His fatwa would condone segregation of the Muslim ''ashraf'' upper castes and ''ajlaf'' low castes, in addition to the ''azral'' under-castes or the converted Muslims who are regarded as "ritually polluted" by the ashraf. by Zarina Bhatty Muzaffar Alam argues that, contrarily to what many think, through this aristocratic view of power he doesn't follow secular models (Iranian or Indian), "rather, the interests of the Muslim community define the contours of his ideas on the heredity question", as he saw that during times of political troubles "frequent changes within ruling classes lead to the ruination of illustrious Muslim families", and thus preserving these upper class families, themselves at such place for diverse administrative or military qualities, would lead to the advent of more capable rulers and in the longer run help Muslim interests, Alam to conclude that this hierarchization "was a conscious choice exercised by Barani to serve the narrowly sectarian interests of the early Islamic regime in India". The work delves into aspects of religion and government and the meeting of those two, as well as political philosophy. He notes: Barani's ''Fatwa-i-Jahandari'' provides an example of his views on religion. He states that there is no difference between a Muslim king and a Hindu ruler, if the Muslim king is content in collecting ''jizya'' (poll-tax) and ''khiraj'' (tribute) from the Hindus. Instead, he recommends that a Muslim king should concentrate all his power on holy wars and completely uproot the "false creeds". According to him, a Muslim king could establish the supremacy of Islam in India only by slaughtering the

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

s. He recommends that a Muslim king "should make a firm resolve to overpower, capture, enslave and degrade the infidels." At the same time, the book makes it clear that the kings of the

did not hold similar views. Barani rues that they honoured and favoured the Hindus, and had granted them the status of

dhimmi ' ( ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligation under ''s ...

s (protected persons). The Muslim kings appointed Hindus to high posts, including governorships. Barani further laments that the Muslim kings were pleased with the prosperity of Hindus in their capital Delhi, even when poor Muslims worked for them and begged at their doors.

Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi

The ''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi'' or ''Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi'' (Firuz Shah's History) (1357) was an interpretation of the history of the

up to the then-present

Firuz Shah Tughlaq Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309 – 20 September 1388), also known as Firuz III, was Sultan of Delhi from 1351 until his death in 1388. He succeeded his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq following the latter's death at Thatta, Sindh. His father was ...

. Then interpretation noted that the sultans who followed the rules of Barani had succeeded in their endeavors while those that did not, or those who had sinned, met the

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (; ) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; ), was the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods. Etymology The name ''Nemesis'' is derived from the Greek ...

. But, though Barani refers many times to the sources of information, he did not consult his contemporary works. This resulted in the sketchy description of Ala-ud-Din Khalji’s wars in Chittor, Ranthambhor and Malwa and the Deccan campaigns of Malik Kafur. The later medieval historians, Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad, Badaoni, Ferishta and Haji-ud-Dabir depended upon the ''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi'' for their account of history of the period covered in this work. Abdul Haq Dehlvi in his ''Akhbar-ul-Akhyar'' depended upon the work for the biographical sketches of Nizam-ud-Din Auliya and the other Sufi saints. ;Zawabit Barani categorized the law into two kinds, the

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

t and the Zawabit. The Zawabit were the state laws formulated by the monarch in consultation with the nobility in the changed circumstances to cater to the new requirements which the

t was unable to fulfill. The Zawabit, he said must be in the spirit of the Shariat and enumerated four conditions for its formulation as guidelines. They are- * The Zawabit should not negate the

t. * It must increase the loyalty and hope among the nobles and common people towards the Sultan * Its sources and inspiration should be the

t and pious Caliphs * If at all it had to negate the

t out of exigencies, it must follow charities and compensation in lieu of that negation

Other works

* Salvat-i-Kabir (The Great Prayer) * Sana-i-Muhammadi (Praises of Mohammad) * Hasratnama (Book of Regrets) * Tarikh-i-Barmaki * Inayat Nama-i-Ilahi (Book of Gods Gifts) * Maasìr Saadat (Good Deeds of the Sayyids) * Lubbatul Tarikh. * Fatawa-i-Dindari

Notes

References

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