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THE SIDDIS OF INDIA BY RUNOKO RASHIDI Although their numbers were dwarfed by those Africans victimized as of result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade India also received its share of African bondsmen, and we find them scattered over such states as Bengal, Gujarat, Maharasthra, Karnataka, and Andra Pradesh. They are referred to as Siddis, or Sidis, or Habshis. Some of them, as soldiers and administrators, achieved true prominence. In several cases they were the actual powers behind the throne. Their names include Chingiz Khan, Abhangar Khan, Malik Andil, Habash Khan, Saif al-Din Firuz, and Ikhlas Khan. The most famous of these Africans to achieve distinction in India was the celebrated Malik Ambar (1550-1626). Malik Ambar, whose original name was Shambu, was born around 1550 in Harar, Ethiopia. After his arrival in India, around 1575, Ambar was able to raise a formidable army and achieve great power in the west Indian realm of Ahmadnagar. Ambar was a brilliant diplomat and administrator. He encouraged manufactures and built canals and mosques. He gave pensions to poets and scholars, sent an African ambassador to the court of Persia, established a postal service, and ultimately became one of the most famous men in India. Of Malik Ambar, Mutamad Khan (biographer of Ambar’s contemporary and rival--the powerful Mughal emperor Jahangir), noted: “In warfare, in command, in sound judgment and in administration, he had no rival or equal.” Malik Ambar, the greatest of all the Siddis, died in 1626 near the age of eighty and is buried in an imposing basalt tomb in Khuldabad, outside of Aurangabad. In a collective form, however, and in respect to long term influence, the African sailors known as Siddis stand out. Certainly, Siddi kingdoms were established in western India in Janjira and Jaffrabad as early as 1100 AD. Indeed, the Siddis ruled or at least governed the island Janjira for 330 years from 1618 until 1948. In the seventeenth the Siddis of Janjira withstood a series of sieges by the powerful Maratha dynasty. After their conversion to Islam, the African freedmen of India, originally called Habshi from the Arabic, called themselves Sayyad (descendants of Muhammad) and were consequently called Siddis. Indeed, the island Janjira, near the modern city of Mumbai, was formerly called Habshan, meaning Habshan's or African's land. Siddi signifies lord or prince. It is further said that Siddi is an expression of respectful address commonly used in North Africa, like Sahib in India. Specifically, it is said to be an honorific title given to the descendants of African natives in the west of India, some of whom were distinguished military officers and administrators of the Muslim princes of the Deccan. The Siddis were a tightly knit group, highly aggressive and even ferocious in battle. For an extended period they were employed largely as security forces for Muslim fleets in the Indian Ocean, a position they maintained for centuries, during which time they inflicted numerous naval defeats even against the British. The Siddi commanders were titled Admirals of the Mughal Empire, and received a large annual salary of 300,000 rupees. According to Ibn Battuta (1304-1377), the noted Moroccan writer who journeyed through much of both Africa and Asia, the Siddis "are the guarantors of safety on the Indian Ocean; let there be but one of them on a ship and it will be avoided by the Indian pirates and idolaters." |
