Mercenaries in India were fighters, primarily peasants, who came from India and abroad, to fight for local rulers in India in the medieval period. This mercenary work became an important source of income for some communities.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, a number of mercenaries, arriving from several countries found employment in India. Some of the mercenaries emerged to become independent rulers.
In the medieval period, Purbiya mercenaries from Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh were a common feature in Kingdoms in Western and Northern India. They were also later recruited by the Marathas and the British. [1] They also played a prominent role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. [2]
The Siddi (pronounced [sɪd̪d̪iː]), also known as Sidi, Siddhi, Sheedi, or Habshi, are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan. Some were merchants, sailors, indentured servants, slaves and mercenaries. The Habshi or Siddis are thought to have arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic conquest of the subcontinent in 712 AD. [3] The latter group are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis.
Some Siddis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas, and some also established the small Siddi principalities of Janjira State on Janjira Island and Jafarabad State in Kathiawar as early as the twelfth century. A former alternative name of Janjira was Habshan (i.e., land of the Habshis). In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana (1205–1240 CE). Although this is disputed, he may also have been her lover, but contemporary sources do not indicate that this was necessarily the case. [4]
Siddis were also brought as slaves by the Deccan Sultanates. Several former slaves rose to high ranks in the military and administration, the most prominent of which was Malik Ambar.
Thousands of Europeans took up service at the courts of rulers all over India. [5] These mercenaries for the most part came from the margins of their respective societies. [6] During the first war between Bahamani Sultanate and Vijayanagara Empire, launched in 1365 by Muhammad Shah I, both sides imported their artillery guns and employed Turkish and European gunners to man them. [7]
European mercenaries served in the courts of Indian rulers for 300 years, beginning with the large-scale defections of soldiers from Portuguese Goa in the 16th century, followed by a series of defections of British soldiers and laymen from the British East India Company bridgehead at Surat in the 17th century. [6] During Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's first historic journey to India in 1498, he observed that there were Italian mercenaries in the employ of various Rajahs on the Malabar coast. [5] Two of da Gama's own crewmen had left him to join the Italians in the service of a Malabar Rajah for higher wages. [5]
Portuguese historian João de Barros stated that there were at least 2,000 Portuguese fighting in the armies of various Indian princes in 1565. [5] Among these mercenaries included the indigenous Goan Christian and Bombay East Indian Christian soldiers and sailors. [8] [ verification needed ] The Maratha ruler Shivaji employed many Portuguese and hundreds of Goans and Bombay East Indians in his navy, until they were persuaded by the colonial authorities in Goa to desert. [8] They were generally sought after as artillery experts by the Mughals and Marathas. [8] When the Mughals complained to the Portuguese viceroy António de Melo e Castro about the Portuguese soldiers serving under the Marathas, the latter responded with a letter stating he had no control over the Portuguese and native Christian officers in Shivaji's army, just as he had no control over the mercenaries serving in the Mughal and other armies. [8]
During the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, so many Europeans took up service at the Mughal Army that a distinct suburb was built for them outside Delhi named Firingipura (Foreigners' Town). [5] Its inhabitants included Portuguese, French and English mercenaries, many of whom had converted to Islam. [5] These mercenaries formed a special Firingi (Foreigners') regiment, under the command of a Frenchman named Farrashish Khan. [5] Shah Alam II gave the German mercenary Walter Reinhardt Sombre a large estate in the Doab, north of Delhi. [9] Sombre settled in the estate with his wife Farzana Zeb un-Nissa, also known as Begum Samru, and made the village of Sardhana his capital. [9] The ruling class of this principality was drawn from an assortment of Mughal noblemen, and 200 French Indian and Central European mercenaries, many of whom had converted to Islam. [9] Sombre was succeeded after his death by his wife who took command of his mercenary troops and became the ruler of Sardhana, earning the distinction of being the only Roman Catholic ruler in India. [9] Among these mercenaries was John-Augustus Gottlieb Cohen, a German Jewish mercenary who was the father of Urdu poet, Farasu. [9]
There were many mercenaries working in the armies of the Deccan Sultanates who controlled much of central and southern India. [5] One of the most prominent mercenaries in the Adil Shahi court was Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho, a Portuguese former landowner in Goa, who was imprisoned there on a murder charge before escaping to Bijapur in 1542. There he converted to Islam with his wife and children, and was given lands with great revenues by Ibrahim Adil Shah I. [5] A Portuguese Jewish gunner by the name Sancho Pires, defected in similar circumstances to the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in 1530. [10] Pires converted to Islam and took the name Firanghi Khan; acquiring a position of great influence in the Nizam Shahi court. [10]
Many British renegades defected to the service of the Mughals and Deccan Sultanates during the 17th century, as in the case of Joshua Blackwell, a British East India Company official who in 1649 converted to Islam, and took up service in the Mughal army. [11] Most of these renegades, like the trumpeter Robert Trulleye, however, went into the service of the Deccan Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda. [11] In 1654, 23 British East India Company servants deserted Surat in a single mass break-out. [11] In the 1670s, the authorities uncovered an active network of covert recruiting agents in British Bombay. [11] By the 1680s, the increasing defections of British soldiers and East India Company servants led Charles II of England, to issue an order calling back all Englishmen in the employ of Indian princes. [11]
During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a British convert to Islam named Abdullah Beg was one of the most active insurgents in old Delhi against British rule. [12] Beg was a former Company soldier, who upon the arrival of the mutineer sepoys on 11 May, self-identified with them and virtually became a leader and advisor to the rebel forces in Delhi. [12] He was last seen manning the rebel artillery along with another British defector and Muslim convert, Sergeant-Major Gordon. [12] On account of his faith, Gordon was spared during the massacre of Christians at the outbreak of the uprising. [12] In due course Gordon was taken to Delhi, where he manned the guns on the northern side of the city walls. [12]
Mercenaries | Background |
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Anthony Pohlmann | Hanoverian who served in the armies of the Daulat Scindia and British East India Company |
Benoît de Boigne | French military adventurer who made his fortune and name in India. |
John Hessing | Dutch mercenary who served the Maratha Confederacy |
Fernão Lopes | 16th century Portuguese soldier who defected to the Adil Shahi general, Rasul Khan. |
Claude Martin | French army officer in India |
Jean-Philippe de Bourbon-Navarre | French mercenary and progenitor of the Bourbon lineage in Bhopal |
Pierre Cuillier-Perron | French military adventurer in India |
Michel Joachim Marie Raymond | French General in Nizam's military and the founder of Gunfoundry Hyderabad, Hyderabad State. |
Walter Reinhardt Sombre | French mercenary and husband of Begum Samru, ruler of Sardhana, a principality near Meerut and also served the Faujdars of Purnea |
George Thomas | Irish mercenary who was active in India during the 18th century |
Jean-Baptiste Ventura | Italian mercenary and adventurer who served the Sikh Empire in the Punjab |
Jean-François Allard | French mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
John Holmes | British mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
Claude Auguste Court | French mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
Paolo Avitabile | Italian mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
François Henri Mouton | French mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
Alexander Gardner | American mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
Josiah Harlan | American mercenary who served in the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
Johann Martin Honigberger | Austrian traveler who was a doctor & production supervisor for the Sikh Armies under Maharaja Ranjit Singh |
Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil | French mercenary who served in the armies of the Nawabs of Bengal, Nawabs of Awadh and the Mughal Empire |
René-Marie Madec | French mercenary who served in the armies of the Nawabs of Bengal, Nawabs of Awadh, the Mughal Empire, the Jats of Bharatpur State and the Rohilla |
Mercenaries | Background |
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Ahmad Baksh Khan | Bukharan mercenary who founded the Princely State of Loharu |
Dost Mohammed Khan | Afghan mercenary and founder of the Princely State of Bhopal |
Bajirao I was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy. He, after Shivaji, is considered to be the most charismatic and dynamic leader in Maratha history. He was just twenty years old and already had a reputation for rapid decisions and a passion for military adventure.
Sambhaji, also known as Shambhuraje, was the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Kingdom, ruling from 1681 to 1689. He was the eldest son of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Kingdom. Sambhaji's rule was largely shaped by the ongoing wars between the Marathas and the Mughal Empire, as well as other neighbouring powers such as the Abyssinians of Janjira, Wadiyars of Mysore and the Portuguese Empire in Goa. After Sambhaji's execution by Aurangzeb, his brother Rajaram I succeeded him as the next Chhatrapati and continued the Mughal–Maratha Wars.
The Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent or Indo-Muslim period is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad Caliphate under the military command of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.
Murud-Janjira is the local name of a famous fort and tourist spot situated on an island just off the coastal town of Murud, in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. Malik Ambar is credited with the construction of the Janjira Fort in the Murud Area of present-day Maharashtra India. After its construction in 1567 AD, the fort was key to the Sidis withstanding various invasion attempts by the Marathas, Mughals, and Portuguese to capture Janjira.
Malik Ambar was a military leader and statesman who served as the Peshwa of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate and its de facto ruler from 1600 until his death in 1626.
Murud is a town and a municipal council in Raigad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated at a distance of 150 km (93 mi) from Mumbai, Murud is a tourist destination. The Palace of Nawab is located in Murud. The palace was built in 1885 for administration purposes. The palace is still owned by the descendants of the Nawab and is a private property.
Jamal ud-Din Yaqut was an African Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana, the first and only female monarch of the Delhi Sultanate in India. Yakut was the puppet of Razia Sultan's stepmother but after sometime he became a trustworthy soldier of the Delhi Sultanate. Razia Sultana's patronage made him an influential member of the court, provoking racial antagonism amongst the nobles and clergy, who were both primarily Turkic and already resentful of the rule of a female monarchy.
Qasim Yakut Khan also known as Yakut Shaikhji, Yakub Khan and Sidi Yaqub was a naval Admiral and administrator of Janjira Fort who first served under Bijapur Sultanate and later under the Mughal Empire.
The Sultanate of Ahmednagar was a late medieval Indian Muslim kingdom located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi dynasty. It was established when Malik Ahmed, the Bahmani governor of Junnar, after defeating the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on 28 May 1490, declared independence and established the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.
Afro-Asians are African communities that have been living in the Indian subcontinent for centuries and have settled in countries such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselves, were in the cavalry-based armies of central Asia, its essential form and structure was established by the empire's third emperor, Akbar. The regular forces were mainly recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.
Janjira State was a princely state in India during the British Raj. It was governed by the Siddi Khan dynasty of Habesha descent and the state was under the suzerainty of the Bombay Presidency.
The Deccan sultanates were five early modern kingdoms, namely Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar, and Berar, which ruled the Deccan Plateau for part of the 15th, and the majority of the 16th–17th centuries. Their architecture was a regional variant of Indo-Islamic architecture, and influenced by the styles of the Delhi Sultanate and later Mughal architecture, but sometimes also influenced from Persia and Central Asia. Hindu temple architecture in the same areas had very different styles.
The Deccanis or Deccani people are an Indo-Aryan ethno-religious community of Deccani-speaking Muslims who inhabit or are from the Deccan region of South India. The community traces its origins to the shifting of the Delhi Sultanate's capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in 1327 during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq. Further ancestry can also be traced from immigrant Muslims referred to as Afaqis, also known as Pardesis who came from Central Asia, Iraq and Iran and had settled in the Deccan region during the Bahmani Sultanate (1347). The migration of Muslim Hindavi-speaking people to the Deccan and intermarriage with the local Hindus who converted to Islam, led to the creation of a new community of Hindustani-speaking Muslims, known as the Deccani, who would come to play an important role in the politics of the Deccan. Their language, Deccani, emerged as a language of linguistic prestige and culture during the Bahmani Sultanate, further evolving in the Deccan Sultanates.
The Maratha Navy was the naval wing of the armed forces of the Maratha Confederacy, which existed from around the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century in the Indian subcontinent.
The Raja Ram Rao Patil or Itbarrao Koli was an Admiral of the Ahmadnagar Navy and Koli ruler of Janjira. Patil built and fortified the Janjira Island.
Islam is the second largest religion in Maharashtra, India, comprising 12,971,152 people which is 11.54% of the population. Muslims are largely concentrated in urban areas of the state, especially in Mumbai and the Marathwada region. There are several groups of Muslims in Maharashtra: Marathi and Konkani Muslims, whose native language is various dialects of Marathi and Konkani, Dakhni Muslims, whose native language is Dakhni Urdu, and more recent Urdu-speaking migrants from North India.
Habshi dynasty refers to the era of Habesha rulers in Bengal that lasted from 1487 to 1493 or 1494 during the Bengal Sultanate. Four Habshi rulers ruled Bengal during this period. This rule began with the rebellion against and assassination of Jalaluddin Fateh Shah of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty.
The Siege of Janjira was a military campaign undertaken by the Maratha Confederacy, commanded by Sambhaji, the second Maratha ruler, against the Siddis of Janjira in January 1682. The Maratha forces, led by Sambhaji, withdrew from Janjira to the Konkan region in response to Mughal attacks, leaving a contingent behind under the command of Dadaji Raghunath Deshpande. Despite their efforts, the Marathas were unable to capture the fort, and the Siddis pursued the retreating forces, plundering Maratha territories.
The Shivaji's invasions of Janjira were a series of military campaigns launched by the first Maratha ruler, Shivaji, against the Abyssinian rulers of the sea fortress of Janjira named Siddis between 1661 and 1676. The Marathas attacked the Janjira fort annually, and during the final siege of 1676, the Maratha Peshwa Moropant faced a counterattack by the Siddis, forcing the Marathas to retreat with heavy casualties.