Vol. 12 · pages 51–55

30 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES at maps of ancient trade we are struck with a network of small roads meeting and crossing each other at various points. However we may decipher two main trade routes from India to the mediterranean. The northern most followed the river Oxus and encircling the northern basin of the Caspian sea converged on the Black sea and thence to Constantinople. The middle one rather followed a straight path, with many bifurcations which meet at market. It starts on along the southern basin of the Caspian Sea through, Tebriz, Erzewm Trebizond and through the Black Sea to Constantinople. These were the two main land trade routes between the India and the west. There were also two marine routes though one of them was only halfway marine. Of these one was the Red Sea route. Ships from Indian ports crossed the Indian ocean either to southern Africa or sailed upwards, and touched at the ports of southern Arabia and Aden and through the St. of Babelmandeb (the gate of Tears) ploughed the waters of the Red Sea, touching at Jedda on the Arabian coast and Bernice on the Egyption coast. From Bernice goods were taken by Caravan to Thebes and Kos where they were gained through the Nile to Alexandria and from thence to Europe. The other marine route lay through the Persian gulf. Ships sailed from Baroach and kept hugging close to the land and touched at Masket and at Ormuz through the gulf of Oman to Bassora. From Bassora at the mouth of the Persian gulf, the goods were taken by the Caravan along the shores of the Euphrates and Tygris through Babylonia to Antioch on the mediterranean. These two marine trade routes continued upto the present time but the story of the land trade routes is entirely different. They were closed and were closed for ever and the history of their foreclosure is perhaps the only event in the Asiatic continent that profoundly affected the history of Europe. zz

CHAPTER II COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF INDIA IN THE MIDDLE AGES OR THE RISE OF ISLAM AND THE EXPANSION OF WESTERN EUROPE The birth of Islam is synchronous with the consolidation of Papal power in Rome under Gregory the Great. It was the era of theocracies and the east was once more spreading a wave of religion that had almost succeeded in Mohomedanizing the entire continent of Europe. Not to speak of Africa and Asia and like many big things ; it had its origin in the small. Long before Muhamad’s birth, Arabia was inhabited by different tribes and enjoyed the prosperity of being the commercial go-between between the East and the West. This early prosperity of the Arabs is attested to by the ruins of rich and splendid cities lined from Petra to Damascus; but according to Strabo, this source of prosperity to the Arabs early dried up when the Romans opened direct trade to India. The products of India and Arabia passed to Myos Hormos on the western shore of the Red Sea and camels to Thebes and thence sailed down to Alexandria through the Nile. As a result of this, the Arabs were reduced to be “the true sons of the desert”. Economically there is no country so poor as Arabia. Arabia, the sandy, stony and happy as Gibbon calls it. Owing to the scarcity of arable land and water, the Arabs could not become a settled people. They continued to be nomads and tribal, having no unity in religion or politics. Owing to their disunion, the Arabs were overrun by foreign invaders many a time. The Abyssinians, the Persians, the Sultans of Egypt and the Turks, all in their turn subjugated the kingdom of Yemen, many a Sythian tyrrant had demanded the allegiance of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and Arabia in part became the province of the Roman empire.

32 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES None was able to subdue the Arabs permanently and they have overthrown the suzereinty of powerful monarchs like Sesostris, Cyres, Pompey and Trojan. The causes of this apparent spirit of independence among the Arabs are to be sought in the geography of their habitat. Crude and inartistic as was the paganism of the Arabs ritual pomp, elaborate mythology or high philosophical speculation had no place in it. “The Religion of the Arabs, as well as of the Indians consisted in the worship of the Sun, the Moon, and the fixed stars.” 1 “Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites and the object of his fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has bowed to the religion as well as to the language of Mecca.” 2 The conversion of pagan to a new religion is never a hard task, for, pagans are anything but fanatic and most tolerant. The pagan Arabs were living in peaceful relations with the Christain communities in the North and at Najran in the South, with the Jewish communities residing in the North-east and the Zorastrians living in close proximity to the Persian Gulf. As a result of this propinquity, the interchange of ideas had been working towards a spiritual monotheism among the Arabs long before the birth of Muhamad and is typified by the Hanifs. Independently or otherwise of the Hanafi movement, Muhamad, an Arab camel driver, conceived the idea of improving the lot of the degraded Arabs constantly fighting among themselves and offering human sacrifices to the numerous idols in Caaba. No man ever arrogated to himself the virtue of being a Prophet with so little equipment, but he made bold and the faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction. “That there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God. ”3 The circumstances of Muhamed’s birth are seemingly favourable to his proclamation as a Prophet. It will be remembered that Arabia was populated by various tribes all enjoying equal independence. All these tribe however united to respect the tribe of Koresh which by means, fair or foul, held the custody of the temple of Caaba and the Sacerdotal 1 Gibbon’s “ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ”, Vol. V, p. 327. 2 Ibid. Vol. V, p. 327-8. 3 Ibid, Vol. V, p. 337.

33COMMERCIAL RELATIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES office of worshipping Caaba had fallen on the family of the Hashemites, chiefly on the grandfather of Mahomed. Taking advantage of his exalted position among the Arabs, Mohomed commenced the preaching of the monotheistic Gospel. There isn’t anything new in the Gospel of Mohomed who is the least original of the Prophet. His Koran is a compromise between Judaeism and Christianity. Whatever may be the value of his teachings, the Arabs looked upon it with the utmost hostility, so much so that the Hashemites were lowered in the estimation of their people. The stubbornness of the Arabs grew with the missionary zeal of Mahomed as that of the Hindoos today with the growth of the missionary propaganda. Becoming impatient, the Arabs compelled the Hashemites to expell Mohamed whose very life was near being threatened; Mahomed centred his attention on Medina but was not sure of welcome. He therefore negotiated with the Medinites through the few desciples he had made in Mecca. After being assured of their kindness, he stationed himself at Medina and saved his cherished and young religion from utter ruin, which would certainly “have perished in its craddle, had not Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of Mecca.” 1 His stationing at Medina was of immense advantage to Mohamed. To his sacerdotal office was combined the regal and to the judicial, the executive. He became a missionary monarch strong enough to back his preaching by the cannon. “The choice of an independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca to the rank of a sovereign and he was invested with the just prerogative of forming alliances and of waging offensive and defensive wars. The imperfection of human rights was supplied and armed by the plentitude of divine power. The Prophet of Medina assured, in his new revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary tone, which proves that his former moderation was the effect of weakness. The means of persuation had been tried, the season of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatory, and without regarding the sanctity of days, or months, to pursue the unbelieving nations of the Earth.” 2 So stationed, he began the expansion of his 1 Gibbon’s “ Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, ” Vol. V, p. 356. 2 Ibid. Vol. V. p.359

34 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES creed and kingdom, first by subjugating the Koreish of Mecca. The Arabs were both merchants and robbers in one, and the disciple of Muhamed at Medina began to harrass the trade of the Koreish passing through Medina. The Koreish, being exasperated at this, began warring against Medina. Muhamed, for a while, was on the defensive but he soon got on the offensive and subjugated the city of his birth. Thus he augmented both his forces and resources. “The fair option of friendship, or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam, they were admitted to all the temporal and spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under the same banner to extend the religion which they had embraced.” 2 Having thus equipped his followers for a career of conquest, Mohamed left his mission to his successors, the Califs. “The heroic courage of Ali, the consumate prudence of Moawiyah, excited the emulation of their subjects, and the talents which had been exercised in the schools of civil discord were more usefully applied to propagate the faith and dominion of the Prophet. In the sloth and vanity of the palace of Damascus, the succeeding princes of the house of Ommiyah were alike, destitute of the qualifications of statesmen and of saints. Yet the spoils of the unknown nations were continually laid at the foot of their throne, and the uniform ascent of the Arabian greatness must be ascribed to the spirit of the nation rather than the abilities of their chiefs. A large deduction must be allowed for the weakness of their enemies. The birth of Mahomet was fortunately placed in the most degenerate and disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans, and the barbarians of Europe. The empire of Trojan, or even of Constantine or Charlemagne, would have repelled the attack of the naked Saracens, and the torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia.”3 “With the same vigour and success they invaded the successors of Augustus and those of Artaxerxtus : and the rival monarchies at the same instant became. The prey of an enemy whom they had been so long accustomed to despise. In the ten years of the administration of Omar, the Saracens reduced to his obedience thirty-six thousand 1 Gibbon’s “Decline and fall of the Roman Empire,” Vol. V, p. 359. 2 Ibid, Vol. V, p. 400-1.