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Historical Mistranslations: Identity, Slavery, and Genre in Eighteenth-Century India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2020

NEELAM KHOJA Open the ORCID record for NEELAM KHOJA [Opens in a new window]
NEELAM KHOJA*
Affiliation:
MacMillan Center, Yale Universityneelam0929@gmail.com
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Abstract

Colonial and postcolonial historians writing in English relied upon an emancipated slave's eighteenth-century Persian text, Tahmās Nāma, to construct the history of the Punjab in the same period. In this process, they have mistranslated the text and the genre. Rather than reading Tahmās Nāma as factual history or as a moral text of refinement, this article argues that if we return to the original account, in Persian, we see that the text is primarily auto/biographical. While this auto/biography does provide some insight into eighteenth-century political history of the Punjab and Mughal Hindustan, it—more importantly—sheds light on the ethnic, religious, social, economic and gendered lives of the author, Miskin, and the people whom he includes in his narrative. These intersecting and overlapping identities have been erased, flattened or misrepresented in translations of the text. Based on a re-reading of the auto/biography in its original language, this article considers how identity and slavery—conceptual categories of the present that are elided in the mistranslations—function in the text, and how those categories were understood, negotiated and leveraged during the eighteenth century.

Keywords

Tahmās Nāmaan eighteenth-century slave's autobiographymis-translationsKitāb-i Qiṣṣa-i Tahmās Miskīn
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 283 - 301
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Asiatic Society

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References

1 Miskin, Tahmas Khan, Tahmās Nāma, (ed.) Aslam, Muhammad (Lahore, 1986), p. 355Google Scholar. There are actually two dates of completion. The first, based on a chronogram, is 1780, the second is 1782. See below for a fuller discussion of this point.

2 Sarkar, Jadunath, Fall of the Mughal Empire, vol. ii, 1754–1771 (Calcutta, 1934)Google Scholar.

3 Rao, Pagdi Setu Madhava, trans., Tahmās Nāma, the Autobiography of a Slave (Bombay, 1967)Google Scholar.

4 Persian-reading historians of Punjab, including Purnima Dhavan, Muzaffar Alam, and J. S. Grewal, read and cite the critical edition of the Persian text.

5 Chatterjee, Indrani, ‘A Slave's Quest for Selfhood in Eighteenth-Century Hindustan’, Indian Economic & Social History Review 37, 1 (2000), pp. 53–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire.

6 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, pp. 14, 26–27.

7 Culbertson, Laura (ed.), Slaves and Households in the Near East (Chicago, 2011), p. 2Google Scholar.

8 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 12.

9 Patterson, Orlando, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), p. 13Google Scholar. He defines slavery as “the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons”. In Miskin's case, he was not born a slave, and his position as a slave was not permanent, nor can one say that he was consistently dishonoured.

10 Culbertson (ed.), Slaves and Households in the Near East, p. 9. “Enslaved persons in Near Eastern contexts could engage in social maneuvering and hierarchical ascension even within the confines of slavery and cannot be considered social dead or dispossessed”.

11 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 173.

12 Ibid., p. 7.

13 Ibid., p. 8.

14 Ibid., p. 15.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid., p. 83.

17 Taymiya R. Zaman, ‘Inscribing Empire: Sovereignty and Subjectivity in Mughal Memoirs’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, 2007); Zaman, Taymiya R., ‘Instructive Memory: An Analysis of Auto/Biographical Writing in Early Mughal India’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 54, 5 (2011), pp. 677–700CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zaman, Taymiya R., ‘Visions of Juliana: A Portuguese Woman at the Court of the Mughals’, Journal of World History 23, 4 (2012), pp. 761–791CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Zaman, ‘Instructive Memory’, p. 679.

19 Zaman, ‘Inscribing Empire'; and Zaman, ‘Instructive Memory'.

20 Simon Digby, ‘Dreams and Reminiscences of Dattu Sarvani a Sixteenth Century Indo-Afghan Soldier’, The Indian Economic & Social History Review 2, 1 (January 1965), pp. 52–80; Digby, Simon, ‘Dreams and Reminiscences of Dattu Sarvani a Sixteenth Century Indo-Afghan Soldier’, The Indian Economic & Social History Review 2, 2 (April 1965), pp. 178–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Ḥazīn, Muḥammad ʻAlī and Belfour, F. C., The Life of Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hazin, (London, 1830)Google Scholar; Kashmiri, Abdul Karim, A Journey from Bengal to England, through the Northern Part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian Sea., trans. Forster, George (London, 1798)Google Scholar; al-Kashmīrī ’Abd al-Karīm ibn ’Ākibat ibn Muḥammad Bulākī, Bayān-i vāqi’., (ed.) K. B. Nasīm (Lahore, 1970); Mīr Taqī Mīr, Z̲ikr-i Mīr: yaʻnī haz̤rat Mīr Taqī Mīr kī khvud nivisht savāniḥ-i ʻumrī, ed. ʻAbdulḥaq (Aurangābād, 1928); Mīr, Mīr Taqī and Naim, C. M., Zikr-i Mir: The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet, Mir Muhammad Taqi ʻMir’, 1723–1810 (New Delhi and New York, 1999)Google Scholar; Kia, Mana, ‘Accounting for Difference: A Comparative Look at the Autobiographical Travel Narratives of Hazin Lāhiji and ʿAbd al-Karim Kashmiri’, Journal of Persianate Studies 2, 2 (2009), pp. 210–236CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sabri, Zahra, ‘Mir Taqi Mir's Ẕikr-i Mīr: An Account of the Poet or an Account by the Poet?’, The Medieval History Journal 18, 2 (2015), pp. 214–249CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Sabri argues that Mir's account was not autobiographical; rather, it should be read as majmū‘ah, miscellaneous compilation. She further asserts, “There does not appear to be a strong case for the existence of an autobiographical mentality in the pre-modern greater Islamicate literary milieu, which includes the Turco-Mongol, Persian and Arabic spheres of literary production”. I disagree with her assessment. Miskin's account clearly depicts “autobiographical mentality”, and one would argue that the auto/biographical accounts listed above share the same.

22 It was not unusual for slaves to become emancipated. See Levi, Scott C., ‘Hindus beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 12, 3 (2002), p. 287CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fay, Mary Ann, Unveiling the Harem: Elite Women and the Paradox of Seclusion in Eighteenth-Century Cairo (Syracuse, N.Y., 2012), pp. 70–71Google Scholar; Piterberg, Gabriel, ‘The Formation of an Ottoman Egyptian Elite in the 18th Century’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 22, 3 (1990), pp. 275–289CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Levi discusses how many slaves would become manumitted in Central Asia after the death of their master, or after they reached a specific age, usually 50 years old. Fay writes about female slaves and their emancipation, some of whom go on to be elite and landowning, evidenced through endowments (awqāf). This is not the case for Miskin; his manumission is discussed below.

23 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 15.

24 Piterberg, ‘Formation'; Hagiographical accounts in South Asia included many entries of such men, who were slaves and then rose to an elite status, or whose descendants became famous scholars/poets.

25 Rao, Tahmās Nāma, the Autobiography of a Slave, pp. viii–ix.

26 Chatterjee, ‘A Slave's Quest for Selfhood in Eighteenth-Century Hindustan’, p. 58 fn 15.

27 Ibid., p. 60. Slavery in Islamicate societies has been wrongly labelled ‘benign’ because within Islamic law there are many ways in which a slave can gain his/her freedom and even become part of the ruling class. Moreover, within Islamic customs, slavery was not hereditary. Nonetheless, while Miskin's experience of slavery might not have been as brutal as the stories of slavery in the Americas, systems of oppression exist and require serious consideration.

28 Metcalf, Barbara Daly, Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam (Berkeley CA., 1984), p. 2Google Scholar.

29 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 8.

30 Ibid., p. 355.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid. This is Mughal emperor Shah Alam II (d. 1806).

33 Chatterjee, ‘A Slave's Quest for Selfhood in Eighteenth-Century Hindustan’, pp. 57–58.

34 A pahar is a unit of three hours; there are eight units throughout the day.

35 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, pp. 18, 19, 27.

36 Ibid., p. 96.

37 Ibid., p. 354.

38 Ibid., p. 110.

39 Ibid., p. 233.

40 Ibid., p. 7.

41 Ibid., pp. 7–8.

42 Ibid., p. 8.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Miskin does not write that Bibi Hawa (Eve in the Biblical tradition) was created from Adam's rib. He writes that God created her in the female form in the same manner as he created Adam, but in the male form.

46 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 10.

47 Ibid., p. 106.

48 Ibid., pp. 104–105.

49 Ibid., p. 27.

50 Rao, Tahmās Nāma, the Autobiography of a Slave, p. 38.

51 Ibid., p. 44. Slaves were often given as gifts throughout west, central, and south Asia. See Levi, ‘Hindus beyond the Hindu Kush’, p. 280.

52 He was taught how to ride horses and elephants for war, see Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 70.

53 Ibid., p. 194.

54 Ibid., pp. 247–248.

55 Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery, and Law in Colonial India (New Delhi, 1999), p. 43.

56 ‘aṣabīya can mean love of kindred or country. Chatterjee likely means love of kindred in this context, although she does not provide a definition.

57 Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery, and Law in Colonial India, p. 43.

58 Ibid.

59 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 29. He describes his adopted father as someone who was young and warm, who told our author when he was young that if God gave him another son, he hoped that he would be like Miskin. Miskin describes his time with his adopted family as a time of happiness and generosity.

60 Ibid., p. 29.

61 Ibid., p. 125. Miskin notes the battle between Imad al-Mulk Ghazi al-Din and Mansur Ali Khan Safdar Jang, which is not in the English translation. He further mentions Muin al-Mulk's brother, a man named Khankhanan, who was also the maternal uncle of Ghazi al-Din.

62 Ibid., pp. 127–128.

63 Ibid., p. 129.

64 Ibid., p. 131.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid. At this point in the narrative, Miskin writes that it is time for the evening prayers, so he must stop here. This resembles a cliff-hanger, for, as the reader, I was curious to see how Miskin felt about this marriage proposal, but he stopped and did not disclose it, until the next section!

67 Ibid., p. 132.

68 Rao, Tahmās Nāma, the Autobiography of a Slave, p. 25.

69 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, pp. 114–115.

70 Ibid., p. 132.

71 Ibid., p. 133.

72 Ibid., p. 134.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid., p. 171. Before he acquires this title, he mentions that he had been frequenting the tomb of Muin al-Mulk, and he has a dream that Muin al-Mulk bestows on him a robe of honour.

76 Ibid., p. 170.

77 Ibid., p. 169. “The vizier Jahan Khan was happy and said, laughing, that I know it is you who is training the Begum on this subject.”

78 Ibid., p. 172.

79 Ibid., p. 187.

80 Ibid., p. 192.

81 Ibid., p. 194.

82 Ibid., pp. 235–236.

83 Ibid., pp. 198, 212, 240.

84 Gommans, Jos J., Mughal Warfare Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire, 1500–1700 (London and New York, 2003), pp. 43–44Google Scholar. The military hierarchy that he outlines is as follows: yikitlar (individual trooper), ichkilar (household trooper), beglar (chiefs), and beg (someone able to recruit and maintain troops).

85 Ibid.

86 Aquil, Raziuddin, Sufism, Culture, and Politics: Afghans and Islam in medieval North India (New Delhi, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 Miskin, Tahmās Nāma, p. 271.

88 Ibid., p. 289.

89 Ibid., pp. 288–289.