Women, slaves and social life

The essentials

Travellers also wrote about everyday life, though they focused on things that struck them as unusual. Ibn Battuta noted that slaves, like other commodities, were openly sold in markets and regularly exchanged as gifts. When he reached Sind he purchased horses, camels and slaves as gifts for the Sultan. Muhammad bin Tughlaq is described as gifting slaves. There was considerable differentiation among slaves: some female slaves in the Sultan's service were experts in music and dance; others were employed as spies to keep watch on nobles. Slaves were also used for domestic labour, especially to carry people in palanquins.

Key points

• Bernier described the practice of sati in detail. He wrote of a child widow, who was forcibly burnt; he was moved by the cruelty, though he also noted some women seemed to embrace death cheerfully.
• European travellers wrote at length about sati because it was seen as a sign of the different treatment of women in the East compared to Europe.
• Women's lives revolved around much more than sati: their labour was crucial in agriculture and non-agricultural production.
• Women from merchant families sometimes went to court to contest disputes, which suggests they were not confined to the home.
• Al-Biruni's account focused on the caste system and the notion of pollution, while Bernier noted that craftspeople had little incentive to improve quality since profits were taken by the state — though he admitted that crafts flourished.
• Travellers' accounts are fragmentary for daily life; they reflect gender and cultural biases of the authors.

Exam tips

• Expect extract-based questions on the sati passage or on slaves in the Sultanate.

Common mistakes

• Assuming all slaves did the same work; they were a differentiated group.