RELIGION & RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER COMMUNITIES:
(1) VIEWS OF RELIGION:
Like his predecessors, Alauddin was a Sunni Muslim. His administration persecuted the Ismaili (Shia) minorities, after the orthodox Sunnis falsely accused them of permitting incest in their "secret assemblies". Alauddin ordered an inquiry against them sometime before 1311. The inquiry was conducted by the orthodox ulama, who found several Ismailis guilty. Alauddin ordered the convicts to be sawn into two.[144]
Ziauddin Barani, writing half-a-century after his death, mentions that Alauddin did not patronize the Muslim ulama, and that "his faith in Islam was firm like the faith of the illiterate and the ignorant". He further states that Alauddin once thought of establishing a new religion. Just like the Islamic prophet Muhammad's four Rashidun caliphs helped spread Islam, Alauddin believed that he too had four Khans (Ulugh, Nusrat, Zafar and Alp), with whose help he could establish a new religion.[145] Barani's uncle Alaul Mulk convinced him to drop this idea, stating that a new religion could only be found based on a revelation from god, not based on human wisdom.[146] Alaul Mulk also argued that even great conquerors like Genghis Khan had not been able to subvert Islam, and people would revolt against Alauddin for founding a new religion.[147] Barani's claim that Alauddin thought of founding a religion has been repeated by several later chroniclers as well as later historians. Historian Banarsi Prasad Saksena doubts the authenticity of this claim, arguing that it is not supported by Alauddin's contemporary writers.[145]
According to Barani, Alauddin was the first sultan to separate religion from the state. Barani wrote that he:[148]
came to the conclusion that polity and government are one thing, and the rules and decrees of law are another. Royal commands belong to the king, legal decrees rest upon the judgment of the qazis and muftis. In accordance with this opinion, whatever affair of state came before him, he only looked to the public good, without considering whether his mode of dealing with it was lawful or unlawful. He never asked for legal opinions about political matters, and very few learned men visited him.
— Tarikh i Firoze Shahi by
Ziauddin Barani[148].
(2) RELATIONSHIP WITH HINDUS:
At times, he exploited Muslim fanaticism against Hindu chiefs and the treatment of the zimmis.[148] Persian historian Wassaf states that he sent an expedition against Gujarat as a holy war and it was not motivated by "lust of conquest".[149] The masnavi Deval Devi—Khizr Khan by Amir Khusrau states that Gujarat was only annexed in the second invasion which took place seven years after the first one, implying the first was merely a plundering raid.[150] At Khambhat, it is said that the citizens were caught by surprise.[151] Wassaf states that "The Muhammadan forces began to kill and slaughter on the right and on the left unmercifully, throughout the impure land, for the sake of Islam, and blood flowed in torrents."[152]
Alauddin and his generals destroyed several Hindu temples during their military campaigns. These temples included the ones at Bhilsa (1292), Devagiri (1295), Vijapur (1298–1310), Somnath (1299), Jhain (1301), Chidambaram (1311) and Madurai (1311).[153]
He compromised with the Hindu chiefs who were willing to accept his suzerainty. In a 1305 document, Khusrau mentions that Alauddin treated the obedient Hindu zamindars (feudal landlords) kindly, and granted more favours to them than they had expected. In his poetic style, Khusrau states that by this time, all the insolent Hindus in the realm of Hind had died on the battlefield, and the other Hindus had bowed their heads before Alauddin. Describing a court held on 19 October 1312, Khusrau writes the ground had become saffron-coloured from the tilaks of the Hindu chiefs bowing before Alauddin.[154] This policy of compromise with Hindus was greatly criticized by a small but vocal set of Muslim extremists, as apparent from Barani's writings.[155]
Alauddin rarely listened to the advice of the orthodox ulama. When he had asked about the position of Hindus under an Islamic state, the qazi Mughis replied that the Hindu "should pay the taxes with meekness and humility coupled with the utmost respect and free from all reluctance. Should the collector choose to spit in his mouth, he should open the same without hesitation, so that the official may spit into it... The purport of this extreme meekness and humility on his part... is to show the extreme submissiveness incumbent upon this race. God Almighty Himself (in the Quran) commands their complete degradation in as much as these Hindus are the deadliest foes of the true prophet. Mustafa has given orders regarding the slaying, plundering and imprisoning of them, ordaining that they must either follow the true faith, or else be slain or imprisoned, and have all their wealth and property confiscated."[156]
Alauddin believed "that the Hindu will never be submissive and obedient to the Musalman unless he is reduced to abject poverty." He undertook measures to impoverish them and felt it was justified because he knew that the chiefs and muqaddams led a luxurious life but never paid a jital in taxes. His vigorous and extensive conquests led to him being viewed as persecutor both at home and abroad, including by Maulana Shamsuddin Turk, Abdul Malik Isami and Wassaf.[157] Barani, while summing up his achievements, mentions that the submission and obedience of the Hindus during the last decade of his reign had become an established fact. He states that such a submission on the part of the Hindus "has neither been seen before nor will be witnessed hereafter".[158]
Under the Mamluk dynasty, obtaining a membership in the higher bureaucracy was difficult for the Indian Muslims and impossible for Hindus. This however seems to have changed under the Khaljis. Khusrau states in Khazainul Futuh that Alauddin had dispatched a 30,000 strong army under a Hindu officer Malik Naik, the Akhur-bek Maisarah, to repel the Mongols.[159] During Ikat Khan's rebellion, the Sultan's life was saved by Hindu soldiers (paiks). Because of the large presence of non-Muslims in the imperial army, Alaul Mulk advised him not to leave Delhi to repel the Mongol Qutlugh Khwaja who had surrounded it.[160]
(3) RELATIONSHIP WITH JAINS:
Per Jain sources, Alauddin held discussions with Jain sages and once specially summoned Acharya Mahasena to Delhi.[161] There was no learned Digambracarya in North India during this period and Mahasena was persuaded by Jains to defend the faith. Alauddin was impressed by his profound learning and asceticism. A Digambara Jain Purancandra was very close to him and the Sultan also maintained contacts with the Shwetambara sages. The Jain poet Acharya Ramachandra Suri was also honored by him.[162]
Kharataragaccha Pattavali, completed in 1336–1337, details atrocities on Jains under his reign including destruction of a religious fair in 1313 while capturing Jabalipura (Jalor). The conditions seem to have changed a year later. Banarasidas in Ardhakathanaka mentions that Jain Shrimala merchants spread over North India and in 1314, the sons of a Shrimala and others along with their cousins with a huge congregation of pilgrims were able to visit a temple at Phaludi despite Ajmer and its neighbourhood under siege by Muslim forces.[162]
Alp Khan who was transferred to Gujarat in 1310, is praised by Jain sources for permitting reconstruction of their temples.[163] Kakkasuri in Nabhi-nandana-jinoddhara-prabandha mentions Alp Khan issuing a farman permitting the Jain merchant Samara Shah to renovate a damaged Shatrunjaya temple.[164] Alp Khan is also mentioned to have made huge donations towards repairing Jain temples.[165][166]