Discuss evidence on slavery provided by Ibn Batuta with special reference to female slaves.

Answer:

Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan traveller who spent several years at Muhammad bin Tughlaq's court, left the fullest contemporary account of slavery in fourteenth-century India, and his testimony is particularly informative about the position and uses of female slaves.

Slavery in his account

• Slaves were abundant, cheap and freely bought and sold in the markets.
• War captives were a principal source, and slaves were also received as tribute and gifts.
• The Sultan maintained vast numbers, and Firoz Shah is said to have held some 180,000.
• Ibn Battuta himself received and presented slaves as a matter of course.

Female slaves in particular

• He records their sale at very low prices, noting how cheaply he purchased them.
• They served in domestic work, as attendants and in the harem.
• Many were trained as singers, dancers and musicians for entertainment at court.
• Some were employed as spies to report on the nobles to the Sultan.
• Female slaves were presented as gifts among nobles and to visiting dignitaries.

Value and limitations

• His is an eyewitness account by a well-placed observer with access to the court.
• He wrote from memory years later, so numbers may be exaggerated.
• His perspective is that of the elite, telling us little of slaves' own experience.

Ibn Battuta's Rihla thus remains our richest source on Sultanate slavery, especially for the female slaves whose domestic, artistic and even political roles he describes. As historians caution, his figures must be treated with reserve, yet his testimony establishes beyond doubt how deeply slavery was woven into elite life in fourteenth-century India.