Stories from Islamic History

by Nayab Naseer

  An interview soon after took place between El Senix and Barredo, the Spanish agent, some intimation of which came to the ears of Aben Aboo. The king reached the cavern where El Senix was based, and entered alone, to confront his trusted deputy. He found El Senix surrounded by several friends, and sternly demanded the purpose of his interview with Barredo. Senix, confused by the accusation, faltered out that he only sought an amnesty for him. Aben Aboo listened with a face of scorn, and, turning on his heel with the word "treachery," walked back to the mouth of the cave. Unluckily, Aben Aboo’s men, with the exception of two guards stationed at the entrance had left the spot to visit some near by friends.

  El Senix, perceiving that his own life in danger fell with his followers on the guards, one of whom was killed and the other put to flight. They then attacked Aben Aboo himself. Aben Aboo defended desperately, but the odds were too great, and El Senix soon felled the Moor’s only hope with the but-end of his musket.

  The corpse, suspended on a wooden flame hidden by flowering robes, and set atop a mule entered Granada triumphantly. On one side rode Barredo; on the other side the murderer El Senix, spotting the arquebuse and the scimitar of the dead king. The kinsmen of the dead king rode in train, and after them came a regiment of infantry and a troop of horse.

  As the procession moved along the street of Zacatin salvos of musketry saluted it, peals of artillery roared from the towers of the Alhambra, and the multitude thronged to gaze with silent curiosity. The cavalcade proceeded to the square of Vivarambla, where the principal cavaliers and magistrates of the city had assembled. El Senix dismounted and delivered the corpse to Deza, the president of the tribunal.

  The semblance of mock-respect to a brave enemy was followed by a scene of barbarity worthy of Spain of the day. After the ceremony of public execution, when the dead corpse had his head severed from the body, the body was given to the boys of Granada, who dragged it through the streets and exposed it to every indignity, finally committing it to the flames. The head, enclosed in a cage, was set over the gate that faced towards the Alpujarras, where it stood for many years.

  KUNJALI MARAKKAR

  The loss of Spain for the Muslims was more than mere change of real estate overlordship. Spain and Portugal was, for more than five centuries, a treasure-house of knowledge and technology, much superior to other parts of Europe. The conquest enabled the new masters to acquire this treasure readymade, and this went on to trigger renaissance and mercantilism in the Western world that culminated in the quest for more and more fortunes from distant lands. Vasco da Gama used the advanced navigational knowledge bequeathed by the Moors to round the Cape of Good Hope, bypassing dar-us-Islam for a direct trade route to rich India.

  Chaos would be an understatement to describe the political situation of India at this time. The pan-Indian kingdom of Allaudin Khilji had broken up into several small principalities. The sultan of Gujarat was the dominant power in the Western Coast. The Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur controlled the Konkan coast and the small principalities of Cochin and Zamorin together with their vassals held sway deep-south.

  Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 903 AH (1498 CE). The Zamorin raja there, eager to attract trade welcomed him. It, however took only two years for the Zamorin to understand that the damage caused by the perfidy and insolence of the Portuguese would far outweigh any prosperity trade would bring, and as such promptly expelled them.

  The Portuguese immediately set up shop at next door Cochin, whose raja was a rival of Zamorin. What followed was the standard pattern that colonialists would thereafter adopt – escalate rivalry between native rajas, pit one against the other, offer assistance to one raja at a time and finally, when the assistance reach a level of obligation that would take some doing to recompense, establish hegemony over both.

  Having settled down at Fort Cochin, the Portuguese started harassing the Muslims of Cochin. If religious hatred that followed the conquest of Spain and Portuguese from the Moors were not enough, the Muslims were the prominent traders of Cochin and Calicut, the position the Portuguese eyed.

  Mohammed Kunjali was both a Muslim and a prominent trader of Cochin. It was thus only a matter of time before the Portuguese came for him. On seeing the unpleasant face of the enemy, he remembered the proverb “There are a thousand lands but only one soul” and as such hastened to Calicut.

  The Zamorin, in the meantime, anticipating trouble from the Portuguese built a fort in Ponnani. He was now head-hunting for a capable head of operations, which apart from being a distinguished boatman also needed to show sufficient zeal and motivation not to be lured by the Portuguese promise of gold, wine and women.

  It now transpired that Mohammed Kunjali, the trader, was also a distinguished boatman. It was thus only a matter of time before he made common cause with the Zamorin and established himself as master of fort Ponnani. It was still sooner that he rose in esteem to become leader of Zamorin’s naval force, and organized the first naval defense of the Indian coast against imperial forces.

  The flattered Zamorin gave Kunjali the title “Marakkar,” derived from the Malayalam word marakkalam meaning ‘boat,’ and kar, a termination, showing possession, and henceforth Mohammed Kunjali came to be known as the first Kunjali Marakkar.

  Peace was short-lived. Very soon, the Portuguese succeeded in taking Goa from the Adil Shah sultan of Bijapur. The Zamorin made common cause with the Kothari Raja of Kannur, the Sultan of Gujarat and the Sultan of Egypt – all threatened by the growing hegemony of Portuguese in the Arabian Sea. Their combined navy crushed the Portuguese at Chaul in 913 AH (1508 CE). The Portuguese however settled scores the next year at Diu, resulting in the withdrawal of Egyptian navy from Indian waters.

  Calicut was a maritime state and depended on the seas for its survival. In 918 AH (1513 CE), unable to withstand Portuguese dominance of the seas, the Zamorin sued for peace. The Portuguese secured trade monopolies and constructed forts at Calicut and Chailyam.

  Kunjali Markkar suddenly found himself on his own. He was now the only resistance against the Portuguese in India. He nevertheless remained on good terms with the Zamorin, who persuaded the Portuguese from attacking Ponnani in 931 AH (1525 CE). However, in 956 AH (1550 CE) the Portuguese did attack, pillage and plunder Ponnani.

  The Zamorin’s alliance with Portuguese was an alliance of desperation, and he was on the lookout to get rid of them at the earliest possible opportunity. The defeat of Vijayanagar, a staunch ally of the Portuguese in 972 AH (1565 CE) by the five Deccan sultanates gave Zamorin the impetus. Hostilities were resumed and Kunjali Marakkar was only too happy to evict the Portuguese from Calicut and Chaliyam.

  Mohammed Kunjali passed away and his successor Kunjali II enjoyed only a brief reign. In 1573 CE Kunjali III donned the mantle of the Marakkar.

  Though the Portuguese were driven out of Calicut, they still controlled the Indian seas. The loss of Vijayanagar did nothing to change the power balance as the Zamorin had hoped, and he still needed free navigation to the ports of Gujarat, Persia and Arabia if he were to survive long. So he went to the Portuguese again, and this time he gave them permission to build a factory at Ponnani.

  Kunjali Marakkar was not amused. He shifted his base to Kottakal and started hostilities with both the Zamorin and the Portuguese.

  ***

  It was a typical moonless night in the South Malabar Coast of 994 AH (1586 CE), with the hot and humid air compounded by the total absence of any sea breeze. At dawn, soon after the azan called people to prayer, the chirping of a million birds would be heard and the endless line of coconut groves would be visible to the naked eye. But shortly before this, a sharp shrill whistle interrupted the stillness of the night, and almost instantly, though unassertively, the war-paroe drifted out of the small creek. The thirty odd souls in the boat could not see each other. The only light in the horizon was a faint glimmer of petro-max in distant Ponnani.

  If one had the power of night vision and live feed satellite imagery, he could see th
e spectacular sight of hundreds of such small canoes emancipating from obsolete creeks, all over the Malabar Coast, zeroing in on the Portuguese frigate on the way from Goa to Cochin.

  The war-paroe was a small craft devised by the Kunjalis, which, manned by just thirty to forty men each could be rowed through lagoons and narrow waters. Several such crafts were deployed at small creeks and inconspicuous estuaries. They would suddenly come out and attack the Portuguese ships at will, inflicting heavy damage and causalities before returning to the safety of shallow waters.

  Such guerilla raids met with instant success, and surprisingly it stayed that way. The key cause for that was the Kunjali’s solid intelligence network all over the coast, even in Zamorin’s Calicut and Portuguese Cochin. The Portuguese ships were marked for doom even before it had entered Kunjali land – the two hundred kilometer stretch between Calicut and Cochin. The time for attack was invariably just before dawn, when the powers of the enemy, after an arduous night vigil was at its lowest ebb.

  The maundering mob would execute the job with precision and depart in equal haste. There was no desire for worldly booty, no sadistic or human carving to torture the infidel men and lust the women on board. They would do their job, which was to scuttle the ship and carry away the armaments, and depart. Those in the ship were left to their fate, which was by any standards, drowning.

  Using such tactics, the Kunjali had succeeded in decimating the Portuguese fleet within a matter of three years.

  ***

  “Untie him” Kunjali Marakkar ordered.

  No sooner had the ropes been cut the noble from the Zamorin’s court began screaming

  “Kunjali, you will pay dearly for this. First you defy your overlord – the Zamorin, and then you cut off the tail of his elephant.”

  “There is no overlord but Allah.” came the reply.

  As an afterthought Kunjali added “And as for the elephant’s tail, it was cut by my lieutenant Siddhu. Ever since the Portuguese raped his wife and burned his two infants in front of his eyes during their conquest of Goa, he never misses even the slightest opportunity to defy the Portuguese or anyone associated with them”

  The noble started to speak but was cut shot by a piece of dirtball smocked in his face by someone standing nearby. Without uttering any word, he left in a rage. “Let him go” The Marakkar ordered as troops were about to spike him down with their spears. This was a mistake.

  ***

  The expedition came sooner than expected, but Kunjali was waiting. The Zamroin’s elephants fell into the booby traps on the forests enroute to Kotakkal. The Portuguese war ships never got chance to wage battle. No sooner had they arrived from Goa than they were mercilessly shot down by Kunjali’s efficient canoes and slingshots.

  For the next two years, Kunjali Marakkar ran a virtually independent kingdom, continuing his policy of harassing the Portuguese on the seas and their friends on land.

  But if David won against Goliath every time, then the event would never have been celebrated. The Zamorin enforced an economic blockade. The Portuguese and the Zamorin controlled the ports at Calicut and Cochin, and even if someone were to sneak by, the Portuguese still controlled the seas.

  In 1008 AH (1600 CE), the stage was set for the end-game. The Zamorin attacked from land with an army of six thousand and the Portuguese bombarded from the sea. Left with no choice, the Kunjali surrendered to Zamorin on a solemn promise of pardon.

  The next thing Kunjali knew was being dragged by chains, his body bleeding porously from the beatings. Screams and wails of women and children could be heard in the background, but Kunjali and his band of trusted followers were oblivious – it was not as if they could do something about it. Some were already dead and the others were half dead. In Goa, the Portuguese first nurtured Kunjali to full strength. Then the screams could be heard all over Goa as he was dismembered piece by piece, starting from leg upward. Later the body pieces of Kunjali and his followers were mixed and hung around in different places, - a lesson for those who dare defy the imperial order.

  THE MAHDI OF SUDAN

  The majlis of Mohammed Ahmed, the self-proclaimed Mahdi at Ombdurmann was in striking contrast to the grandeur of the residency building across the river at Khartoum. This room was bare of any decoration and devoid of any furniture barring a few cots.

  There were already some twenty odd people cramped in this small room when the Mahdi entered. He wore the same green jibba and same white turban like the others. It was only when the Abdullahi, who accompanied the Mahdi screamed “Make room for the Mahdi to sit” people recognized the Mahdi.

  People began to stand up for the Mahdi, who promptly asked them to remain seated, saying “Whoever wishes that a person may stand up for him reserves his place in the fire of hell.” The Mahdi took a place amongst the others.

  “Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem” In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. Let us begin”

  The small boy was sobbing. “That evil Gordon, may Allah feed him the zhukm and enclose him in the hutmah” he killed my father in front of my mother, my sister and me. My young sister starved to death, and my mother….” He burst into tears and could not complete.

  The Mahdi himself was in tears now. He started pondering over the misery that had befallen the people of Sudan over the past years. The white man had come, promising trade, development and liberation. By trade he meant scrounging the countryside of its substance that resulted in famine. By development he meant supremacy of trade and interest based financers over tribal chieftains, and by liberation he meant pushing the Quran and its commandments indoors and brining women outdoors. Imperial domination had promised better administration. But what the people got was unspoken corruption and cruelty. The native population was oppressed by extortionate taxes, half of which went to the personal coffers of the tax collector. Bayonets and kurbash ruled the land and the only creativity consisted of devising new ways of savage torture.

  Mohammed Ahmed was born to a family of ulema, and was inculcated with the teachings of Islam from childhood. This made him acquire the art of hating this life and longing for the next. As soon as he grew up, he based himself at Abbas Island, south of the Nile from Ombdurmann, and in the midst of injustice and oppression started providing relief in the form of zakat, justice and knowledge. Very soon people - poor, rich and powerful alike began to flock to him. One such person, with whom Mohammed Ahmed held a bond until his death was Abdullahi, son of another ulema.

  Abdullahi shared the same values in life as Mohammed Ahmed did, and he had a sharp mind and excellent organizational skills to boot. He let Mohammed Ahmed do the preaching while he concerned himself in putting such preaching into practice. Very soon, the tax collectors were attacked and people began to consider Mohammed Ahmed as their saviour.

  Until this time Mohammed Ahmed was at best a nuisance – in fact it even served the imperial administration to funnel resentment to an opposition that barked but did not bite. But physical attacks were a strict no-no.

  The imperialists obviously had a well-disciplined army with superior firepower. But they owed most of their success to rival chieftains getting cold feet on merely sighting the enemy. The few who dared to fight were easily defeated, since both were fighting for this world and the imperialists were obviously superior. This was the pattern all over Africa.

  Now the situation was different. Mohammed Ahmed was fighting for the next world, and at this early stage in his revolution; he had the same pure faith, courage and conviction in his beliefs as the salaf - that his supplications would be answered and angels would fight by his side. More and more tribes flocked under Mohammed Ahmed.

  ***

  The wait for the Mahdi, who would restore Islam and end corruption, oppression and injustice started thirty years after the death of Prophet Mohammed, may Allah bless him, and grant him peace. Abdullahi, the shrewd operator that he was knew the only way to end the centuries old blood feud amongst the tribes and rally them under the banner of Moh
ammed Ahmed on a prolonged basis was to proclaim Mohammed Ahmed as the Mahdi, and this he did. The wedge shaped gap in his tooth was taken as a sign of divinity.

  On being presented the signs, Mohammed Ahmed, well-intentioned as he was began to think that perhaps Allah had placed him as the Mahdi after all. Thus the kingdom of Sudan became the “mahdia,” and the followers “ansars.” Within no time all Sudan except the fortified garrison at Khartoum became “mahdia” land.

  ***

  General Hicks set out from Khartoum, but even before he reached the battle-field, his native foot-soldiers, whom he so brilliantly played off against each other till this time crossed over and gave the bayah to the Mahdi. The battle was a mere formality. Those who remained with General Hicks were mercilessly cut into pieces.

  London had the sense to realize Sudan was a lost cause and send General Chinese Gordon to complete the evacuation purpose.

  The Mahdi made an offer to the newly arrived Gordon – surrender, leave all the wealth behind and secure a passage to Cairo. Considering the circumstances, the offer seemed irresistible to everyone inside the garrison – everyone except Gordon, and it was Gordon’s say which mattered.

  Gordon decided to stay put, awaiting a relief force to fight their way back with their hoarded wealth. In the meantime, he began unleashing a reign of terror on the natives - what in his view was justice.