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The Sea and the World of the Mutasaddi: A profile of port officials from Mughal Gujarat (c. 1600–1650)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2011

JORGE FLORES
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Abstract

This article seeks to trace the profile of the governors (mutasaddis) of the main port-cities (especially Surat and, to a lesser extent, Cambay) of the Mughal province of Gujarat in the first half of the seventeenth century. My research on the careers of individual mutasaddis – based mainly (but not exclusively) on existent Portuguese materials – allows us to better understand the social world of those occupying key positions in the ‘waterfront’ of the Mughal Empire and its dealings extensively with the European powers (Portuguese, Dutch and English). Hence, the analysis of the professional and personal trajectories of the Indian Muslim doctor Muqarrab Khan and the Persian Mir Musa Mu'izzul Mulk presented here demonstrate how far business, politics and cultural patronage were often entangled in the career of a Mughal mutasaddi of Gujarat.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 55 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2011

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References

1 For an overview see: Richards, John F., ‘The Mughal Empire’, The New Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: 5 (reprint, New Delhi, 1995), pp. 29–34Google Scholar.

2 Goa, 7 November 1579, in Documenta Indica, (ed.) Joseph Wicki, Vol. XI (Rome, 1970), p. 676.

3 Qandahari, Muhammad ‘Arif, Tarikh-i-Akbari, trans. Ahmad, Tasneem (New Delhi, 1993), p. 193Google Scholar.

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5 Besides Cambay and Surat the Portuguese controlled the port of Diu, other relevant maritime settlements of Gujarat were Rander, Broach, Ghogha and Porbandar. See Deloche, Jean, La circulation en Inde avant la révolution des transports, Vol. II (la voi d'eau) (Paris, 1980), pp. 59–63Google Scholar; Moosvi, Shireen, “The Gujarat ports and their hinterland: the economic relationship”, in Ports and their hinterlands in India, 1700–1950, (ed.) Baga, Indu (Delhi, 1992)Google Scholar; Gokhale, B. G., Surat in the seventeenth century: A study in Urban History of pre-modern India (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Arasaratnam, Sinnappah and Ray, Aniruddha, Masulipatnam and Cambay. A history of two port-towns, 1500–1800 (New Delhi, 1994)Google Scholar.

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7 The defence of the former argument is to be found in Pearson, M. N., Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat. The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley and New Delhi, 1976)Google Scholar; ibid., “Merchants and States”, in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, (ed.) James D. Tracy (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 41–116. For a critique, cf. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Of Imarat and Tijarat: Asian Merchants and State Power in the Western Indian Ocean, 1400 to 1750”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 37, No. 4 (October 1995), pp. 750–780.

8 Hasan, Farhat, State and locality in Mughal India, Power Relations in West India, 1572–1730 (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 35, 39Google Scholar. Also see: Hasan, F., “Mughal officials at Surat and their relations with the English and the Dutch merchants: Based on a collection of Persian Documents of the Reigns of Jahangir and Shahjahan”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Golden Jubilee Session (Gorakhpur, 1989–90), pp. 284–293Google Scholar; and Rezavi, Syed Ali Nadeem, “The Mutasaddis of Surat in the seventeenth century”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 44 Session (Burdwan, 1983), pp. 214–221Google Scholar.

9 The Jahangirnama. Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India, (ed. and trans.) Wheeler Thackston (Washington, D.C. and New York, 1999), pp. 240–241.

10 Viceroy to the King, Goa, 3 February 1618, in Documentos Remetidos da Índia ou Livros das Monções, (ed.) R. A. Bulhão Pato, Vol. IV (Lisbon, 1893), p. 130.

11 The English established a factory in Surat in 1612–13, while the Dutch managed to open a trading post in the same port as early as 1618. For their commercial relations with the Mughals in Western India, see: Hans W. Van Santen, “De Verenidge Oost-Indische Compagnie in Gujarat, 1620–1660”, PhD. Thesis, Leiden University, 1982; Hasan, Farhat, “Anglo-Mughal Commercial relations at Surat, until the first half of the seventeenth century”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 51 Session (Calcutta, 1990), pp. 272–281Google Scholar; Murari Kumar Jha, “The Mughals, Merchants and the European Companies in the 17th century Surat”, Asia Europe Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2 (July 2005), pp. 269–283.

12 Powell, Avril, “Artful Apostasy? A Mughal Mansabdar among the Jesuits”, in Society and Ideology. Essays in South Asian History presented to Professor K. A. Ballhatchet, (ed.) Robb, Peter (New Delhi, 1994), pp. 72–96Google Scholar; Rezavi, Syed Ali Nadeem, “An Aristocratic Surgeon of Mughal India: Muqarrab Khan”, in Medieval India 1. Researches in the History of India, 1200–1750, (ed.) Habib, Irfan (New Delhi, 1999), pp. 154–167Google Scholar. Also see Qaisar, Ashan Jan, The Indian Response to European Technology and Culture (A.D. 1498–1707) (Delhi, 1982)Google Scholar, passim.

13 Ali, M. Athar, The Apparatus of Empire. Awards of Ranks, Offices and Titles to the Mughal Nobility (1574–1658) (New Delhi, 1985)Google Scholar, J. 43, 114, 317, 382, 391, 401, 417, 450, 530, 578, 605, 666, 814, 871, 944, 989, 1153, 1193, 1373, 1394, 1436; Khan, Shah Nawaz, The Maathir-ul-umara, being the biographies of the Muhammadan and Hindu officers of the Timurid sovereigns of India from 1500 to about 1800 AD, (trans.) Beveridge, H., Vol. I (reprint., New Delhi, 1999), pp. 616–617Google Scholar.

14 Edwards, William notes that he “hath many great enimyes neere the King” (W. Edwards to the Company, Ahmadabad, 20 December 1614, in The Voyage of Nicholas Downtown to the East Indies, 1614–15, (ed.) Foster, William [reprint., New Delhi, 1997], p. 171)Google Scholar. On the episodes that contributed occasionally to diminish his political fortune in Mughal court (and consequently his mansab), see Rezavi, “An Aristocratic Surgeon”, p. 157; Powell, “Artful Apostasy?”, pp. 77–78.

15 A cursory reading of the Jahangirnama reveals the proximity between the two men. Throughout his memoirs, Jahangir praises Muqarrab Khan's medical and hunting skills (pp. 34, 137–138, 380–381) and addresses him as “an old servant that I knew well” (p. 277), or “an old retainer of this dynasty” (p. 411).

16 Powell, “Artful Apostasy?”, p. 75; Das, Asok Kumar, Mughal painting during Jahangir's time (Calcutta, 1978), pp. 142–143, 150–151Google Scholar; King of the World. The Padshahnama: An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, (ed.) Milo Cleveland Beach and Ebba Koch, (trans.) Wheeler Thackston (London, 1997), pp. 28–29, 92–93, 161–162, 198–199.

17 Letter from Father Jerónimo Xavier to the Jesuit Provincial of India, Agra, 24 September 1608, in Documentação Ultramarina Portuguesa, Vol. III (Lisbon, 1963), p. 128; Guerreiro, Fernão, Relação anual das coisas que fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus nas suas missões, (ed.) Viegas, Artur, Vol. III (Lisbon, 1942), pp. 20–21Google Scholar.

18 Aldworth, Thomas to the Company, Ahmadabad, 9 November 1613, in Letters Received by the East India Company from its servants in the East, (ed.) Foster, William, Vol. I (reprint, Amsterdam, 1968), p. 307Google Scholar.

19 Elkington, Thomas to the Company, Swally Road, 25 February 1615, in The voyage of Nicholas Downtown to the East Indies 1614–15, as recorded in contemporary narratives and letter, (ed.) Foster, William (reprint, New Delhi, 1997), p. 198Google Scholar. Similar assessments by Nicholas Dowtown (letter to the Company, [Surat], 7 March 1615, in Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, East Indies, China and Japan, 1513–1616, (ed.) W. Noel Sainsbury [London, 1862], p. 392); and T. Keridge (letter to T. Aldworthe and W. Biddulph, Ajmer, 15 November 1614, ibid., p. 337).

20 Based on evidence from the EIC (which broadly matches the Portuguese sources), Hasan writes that he was governor of Surat in 1608–10 (State and Locality, p. 35). I have closely followed Athar Ali and the precious data he gathered in his Apparatus to reconstruct Muqarrab Khan's trajectory in Gujarat after 1610: governor of Surat in 1613–14 [J 450]; governor of Cambay in 1615–16 [J 530]; overseer of the customs-house of Surat and Cambay in 1615 [J 605]; governor (subadar) of Gujarat in 1617 [J 814]; governor of Gujarat in 1618–19 [J 989] (improbable, since Prince Khurram became subadar of the province in 1617); governor of Surat in 1623 [J 1394] (also doubtful, for Muqarrab Khan was subadar of Agra in 1623–24 [J 1436]).

21 Jahangirnama, pp. 94, 106, 108, 133–134, 141, 143, 192, 219, 249.

22 Rezavi (“An Aristocratic Surgeon”, p. 161) notes that people like Khan-i-Azam and the chronicler Lahori considered Muqarrab Khan's appointment a mistake. However, the subadar of Gujarat would later be chosen by Jahangir to rule over two other provinces (Bihar and Delhi).

23 4 October 1618, Assentos do Conselho do Estado, (ed.) p. Pissurlencar, Vol. I (Bastorá-Goa, 1953), pp. 24–26.

24 Numerous and harsh criticisms to Muqarrab Khan are to be found in the correspondence of the East India Company. He is often accused of favouring the Portuguese and commonly portrayed as dishonest and childish. Suffice it to recall the violent clash between Hawkins, William and the “dogge Mochreb-chan” (Early Travels in India, 1583–1619, (ed.) Foster, William [reprint., New Delhi, 1985], p. 75)Google Scholar, or Thomas Roe's tough letter to the governor of Surat, openly considering him his enemy (19 October 1615, in Calendar of State Papers, p. 436). On the ups and downs of Roe's relationship with Khan, Muqarrab, see The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India, 1615–19, as narrated in his Journal and Correspondence, (ed.) Foster, William (reprint., New Delhi, 1990)Google Scholar, passim.

25 Cf. Chandra, Satish, “Commercial activities of Mughal emperors during the seventeenth century”, in Essays in Medieval History (New Delhi, 2003)Google Scholar, Chapter 10.

26 On one occasion in Cambay, he took the Jesuit Nicolau Pimenta in his elephant to watch one of his ships being launched into water (BA, Jesuítas na Ásia, cod. 49-V-18, f. 350). Also see Rezavi, “An Aristocratic Surgeon”, pp. 164–165.

27 The Journal of John Jourdain, 1608–1617, (ed.) William Foster (New Delhi, 1992), pp. 154, 173. 175.

28 The voyage of Nicholas Dowtown, p. 33.

29 Jorge Flores, “Firangistan e Hindustan. O Estado da Índia e os confins meridionais do império mogol (1572–1576)”, PhD thesis, New University of Lisbon, 2004, pp. 112–115; Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Southeast Asia as seen from Mughal India: Tahir Muhammad's ‘Immaculate Garden’ (c. 1600)”, Archipel, Vol. 70 (2005), pp. 209–237.

30 “Da Missão do Mogor”, no date [1616]; BA, Jesuítas na Ásia, cod. 49-V-18, ff. 330v-63v.

31 Jahangirnama, pp. 133–134.

32 Painted ca. 1612 and today housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), IM 135–1921.

33 Raza Library (Rampur, India), album 1, f. 7a. Cf. King of the World, pp. 120–121.

34 Davis, Natalie Zemon, Trickster Travels. A Sixteenth-Century Muslim between Worlds (New York, 2006), pp. 62–66Google Scholar. Also see: Matar, Nabil, Islam in Britain, 1558–1685 (Cambridge, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Chapter 4.

35 Avril Powell, “Artful Apostasy?”; Eaton, Richard, “Approaches to the study of conversion to Islam in India”, in Approaches to Islam in religious studies, (ed.) Martin, Richard (Tucson, 1985), pp. 106–123Google Scholar.

36 See: Conversion. Old Worlds and New, (ed.) Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton (Rochester, 2003), esp. the Introduction and Chapters 4 to 7.

37 For a standard account of Muqarrab Khan's relation with Christianity, see Maclagan, Edward, The Jesuits and the Great Mogul (New York, 1972), pp. 77–79Google Scholar, Muqarrab Khan's adopted son (Masih-I Kairanawi, or Sa'ad Allah) would also apostatise and later became a poet.

38 Rui Lourenço de Távora to D. Francisco da Gama, Goa, 20 December 1611, BNP, Reservados, cod. 1975, ff. 208–9 [208v]; Viceroy to the king, no place nor date [Goa, 1613], HAG, Monções do Reino, book 12, f. 23.

39 On the cartaz system, see Thomaz, Luís Filipe, “Portuguese control over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal: A comparative study”, in Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500–1800, (ed.) Prakash, Om and Lombard, Denys (New Delhi, 1999), pp. 115–162Google Scholar.

40 For a detailed analysis of the “disaster of Surat” and its consequences for Mughal-Portuguese relations, see Flores, “Firangistan e Hindustan”, pp. 251–261.

41 Jahangirnama, p. 154.

42 “Capitulos das pazes que se fizeram entre os vassallos de El-Rey Jahanguir e os Portuguezes, por Nauabo Mucarreb-Xhan e Gonçalo Pinto da Fonseca”, 7 June 1615, in Júlio Firmino Júdice Biker, Collecção de tratados e concertos de pazes que o Estado da Índia portuguesa fez. . ., t. I (Lisbon, 1881), pp. 189–192 (English translation of this document published by Heras, H., “Jahangir and the Portuguese”, in Indological Studies, (ed.) Anderson, Bernard and Correia-Afonso, John [New Delhi and Bombay, 1990], pp. 140–151)Google Scholar.

43 “Copia de hua carta que hum official do secretario escrevo a hu irmão seu da Barra de Surrate em Fevereiro de 615”, BNP, Reservados, cod. 11410, ff. 71–1v.

44 Bocarro includes the Portuguese translation of one of these letters in his Década 13 da Historia da India (Lisbon, 1876), pp. 355–357.

45 John Crouther to the Company, Ahmadabad, 26 December 1614, Calendar of State Papers, p. 359; Edward Dodsworth to the Company, Ahmadabad, 30 December 1614, ibid., p. 363. Nicholas Downtown writes that the governor of Surat contacted the Dutch in Masulipatnam offering them Daman in exchange for their naval support against the Portuguese (N. Downtown to the Company, Swally, 20 November 1614, Letters Received, Vol. II, pp. 168–171).

46 N. Downtown to the Company, Surat, 7 March 1615, Calendar of State Papers, p. 392. In all likelihood, the treaty of 1615 (of which only the Portuguese version survived), was never recognised by Jahangir.

47 ARSI, Goa, Vol. 33 II, f. 667v.

48 Annual letter, 1623; ARSI, Goa, Vol. 33 II, f. 725. Also see the letter from António de Andrade to the Provincial of the Society of Jesus in India, 23 September 1623, in Documentação Ultramarina Portuguesa, Vol. III, p. 163. Muqarrab Khan is also said to have helped the Franciscan mission of 1623–24 led by Friar Manuel Tobias to the court of Jahangir. In his letter Friar Gaspar da Conceição, Tobias calls him “the hidden Christian, friend of the Portuguese” (Agra, 18 April 1624, Madrid, Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental, 600/6–4, ff. 217–233).

49 For a brief profile, see Gokhale, B. G., “Muizul Mulk: Governor of Surat”, Journal of Indian History, Vol. 44, No. 1 (April 1966), pp. 55–60Google Scholar; ibid., Surat in the seventeenth century, pp. 59–61. On his dealings with the Dutch, see Tracy, James, “Asian Despotism? Mughal Government as Seen from the Dutch East India Company Factory in Surat”, Journal of Early Modern History, Vol. 3, No. 3 (August 1999), pp. 269–271CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Detailed information about this event (especially about the cargo of the two ships, sold in an auction conducted in Goa between late April and late June 1630) is to be found in Portuguese records, namely the “Treslado do inventario que se fez da fazenda das duas naos mouriscas que tomou em Surrate Dom Francisquo Coutinho Deosem”, Goa, 31 January 1631; HAG, Monções do Reino, book 14, ff. 249–323. Cf. de Matos, Artur Teodoro and Matos, Paulo Lopes, “Christians and Muslims in the Surat Sea: Ships, Merchandise and Goods Captured in a Naval Battle in 1630”, in Vasco da Gama and the linking of Europe and Asia, (ed.) Disney, Anthony and Booth, Emily (Delhi and New York, 2000), pp. 105–115 (extended Portuguese version of this work published as “Cristãos contra muçulmanos no mar de SurrateGoogle Scholar. Navios, mercadorias e valores de um assalto em 1630”, Memórias da Academia de Marinha, Vol. XI (1999), pp. 3–39).

51 Diary of the Count of Linhares [9 February 1631 to 20 December 1631], BNP, Reservados, cod. 939, ff. 102–3 [hereafter Diary Linhares 2].

52 Surat Presidency to the Company, 13 April 1630, The English Factories in India, 1630–1633, (ed.) William Foster (Oxford, 1910), p. 37 [hereafter EIF].

53 “Copia do assento que Padre Antonio d'Andrade Provincial da Companhia fez cõ Mirmuza capitão de Surrate, Cambaya e Baroche”, Daman, 13 September 1630, in Assentos do Conselho do Estado, Vol. I, pp. 285–287.

54 “Copia do formão do Mogor e confirmação das pazes”, 17 July 1631, in Diary Linhares 2, ff. 91v-2.

55 “Assento feito com o capitam de Surrate”, Bulsar, 28 November 1630, in Assentos do Conselho do Estado, Vol. I, pp. 292–294; “Conselho que o Senhor Conde VisoRey fez em quatro de Outubro sobre as novas que teve por cartas do Pe. Provincial Antonio de Andrade e Dom Francisco Coutinho de haver tomado hûa nao de Mequa”, ibid., Vol. I, pp. 291–292.

56 John Leachland to President Rastell, Ahmadabad, 29 November 1623, EFI, 1622–1623, p. 329.

57 de Coutre, Jacques, Andanzas asiáticas, (eds.) Stolz, Eddy, Teensma, B. N. and Werberckmoes, J. (Madrid, 1990), pp. 293–317Google Scholar.

58 Surat Presidency to the Company 13 April 1630, EFI, 1630–1633, pp. 33, 36. Like Coutre, the English complained about Mir Musa's lack of ethic in business. Apparently he owed the EIC 31,000 mahmudis in 1634. In that same year Mir Musa bought from the English a tapestry “with the story of Vulcan and Venus” for 1,600 mahmudis, but he did not hesitate to return it for the lack of fancy colours, like green, red or yellow (EFI, 1634–1636, pp. 83, 64).

59 Foster, William, “President Fremlen's Journal, 1638–39”, The Journal of Indian History, IV.1 (1926), pp. 307–316Google Scholar.

60 On this phenomenon, see Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, “Iranians abroad. Intra-Asian Elite Migration and early Modern State Formation”, Journal of Asian Studies, 51.2 (1992), pp. 72–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ibid., “‘Persianization’ and ‘Mercantilism’: Two themes in Bay of Bengal, 1400–1700”, in Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, pp. 47–85; Masashi Haneda, “Emigration of Iranian Elites to India during the 16th-18th centuries”, Cahiers d'Asie Centrale, Vols. 3–4 (1997), pp. 129–143; Luís Filipe Thomaz, “La présence iranienne autour de l'Océan Indien au XVIe siècle d'après les sources portugaises de l'époque”, Archipel, Vol. 68 (2004), pp. 59–158.

61 Aubin, Jean, “Les Persans au Siam sous le règne de Narai (1656–1680)”, Mare Luso-Indicum, IV (1980), pp. 95–126Google Scholar; Nagashima, Hiromu, “Iranians who knocked the ‘closed door’ of Japan in the Edo period”, JCAS Symposium Series Vol. 17 (2005), pp. 305–319Google Scholar.

62 Diary of J. Berckhout and J. Tack of the voyage between Agra and Delhi, 26 December 1652 to 31 March 1653; The Hague, Algemeen Rikjkarchief, Overgekomen Briefen en papieren, VOC 1201, ff. 759–75 [764] (translated by Natália Tojo). From Mandu, John Drake reported in 1636 about Mir Musa's anxiety regarding the possibility of not recovering his position as governor of Surat (J. Drake to Surat Presidency, 7 September 1636, EFI, 1634–1636, p. 288).

63 Mir Musa may have been at some point close to Aurangzeb, since William Fremlen notes that in 1639 the Portuguese asked him to persuade the then governor of the Deccan not to attack Daman (Foster, “President Fremlen's Journal”, pp. 310–311).

64 Athar Ali, Apparatus, S 274, 287, 359, 582, 847, 886, 1064, 1106, 1134, 1487, 1701, 2242, 2310, 2664, 2777, 2586, 3502, 3708, 3812, 4023, 4316, 4344, 4347, 4362, 4521, 5202, 5473, 6925, 7713.

65 “. . .the two are deadly enemies, and Asaph Ckaune . . . would then contrary whatsoever Meer Moza should prosecute”; John Drake to the Surat Presidency, Kirki, 4 June 1636, EFI, 1634–1636, pp. 262–263. Muqarrab Khan also had a conflict with Asaf Khan (The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe, p. 230).

66 The diary of President Methold recorded a ship owned by Mir Musa leaving from Surat to Bengal in 1636 (EFI, 1634–1636, p. 255).

67 His brother, a certain Mir Jafar, was placed in Gujarat too; Surat Presidency to Ahmadabad, 11 October 1630, in Maloni, Ruby, European merchant capital and the Indian Economy. Surat Factory Records 1630–1668 (New Delhi, 1992), pp. 156–157Google Scholar; Gokhale, Surat in the seventeenth-century, pp. 59–61.

68 AHU, Conselho Ultramarino, cod. 218, f. 197; Diary of the viceroy Count of Linhares [3 March 1630 to 6 February 1631], BA, Miscelâneas Manuscritas, cod. 51-VII-12, f. 42 [hereafter Diary Linhares 1]; Diário do 3º Conde de Linhares, vice-rei da Índia [6 February 1634 to 21 January 1635] (Lisbon, 1937), p. 256 [hereafter Diary Linhares 3]; Malony, European Merchant Capital, pp. 444–445.

69 Diary Linhares 1, ff. 41–42v, 61v-64. The viceroy of Goa exchanged correspondence throughout his government with Mir Musa (Diary Linhares 2, f. 53v), besides having access to letters sent by the mutasaddi of Surat to Jesuit missionaries (see two letters from Mir Musa to Father Paulo Reimão, respectively 10 and 12 December 1634, in Diary Linhares 3, pp. 254–256).

70 AHU, Conselho Ultramarino, cod. 218, ff. 121v, 122, Diary Linhares 3, pp. 254–256.

71 Goa, 3 August 1630, Assentos do Conselho do Estado, Vol. I, pp. 283–286.

72 Cf. Elizabeth Lambourn, “Of Jewels and Horses: the career and patronage of an Iranian merchant under Shah Jahan”, Iranian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2 (June 2003), pp. 213–249 (+16 plates), esp. pp. 238, 240; Ahmadabad to Surat Presidency, 2 February 1647, EFI, 1646–1650, p. 100.

73 “Assento tomado sobre hua nao de Aly Acabar hir a China e partir de Surrate”, Goa, 22 February 1640; HAG, Conselho da Fazenda, book 5, ff. 85v-9 (includes the Portuguese translation of the letter from Mir ‘Ali Akbar to the Portuguese, Cambay, 15 January 1640). More about the dealings between Mir ‘Ali Akbar and the Portuguese in 1647 (ibid., book 6, ff. 243v-4).

74 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay and Bayly, C. A., “Portofolio capitalist and the political economy of early modern India”, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (1988), pp. 401–424CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 Subrahmanyam, “Of Imarat and Tijarat”.

76 Gupta, Ashin Das, “The Maritime Merchant of India, c. 1500–1800”, in The World of the Indian Ocean Merchant, 1500–1800. A collection of essays of Ashin Das Gupta, (ed.) Gupta, Uma Das, intro. Sanjay Subrahmanyam (New Delhi, 2001), p. 97Google Scholar.

77 Subrahmanyam, , “Mughal Gujarat and the Iberian World in the transition of 1580–1”, in Explorations in Connected History. Mughals and Franks (New Delhi, 2005), Chapter 3Google Scholar; A. Das Gupta, The World of the Indian Ocean Merchant, p. 275.

78 F. Hasan, who tends to portray the mutasaddis as ‘hostages’ of Gujarati merchants and other local economic and social forces, provides earlier evidence (dating back to 1636) of this phenomenon (State and Locality, p. 42).

79 Gupta, Ashin Das, Indian Merchants and the decline of Surat, 1700–1750 (Wiesbaden, 1979)Google Scholar; ibid., The World of the Indian Ocean Merchant, esp. Chapter 19 (“The Merchants of Surat, c. 1700–1750”), pp. 315–341.

80 Manuel da Silva, “Das cousas que soube delRey Mogor”, Surat, 27 October 1629, in Assentos do Conselho do Estado, Vol. I, p. 284.

81 Asher, Catherine B., Architecture of Mughal India (The New Cambridge History of India, Vol. I:4) (Cambridge and New York, 1992), pp. 228–229CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jahangirnama, pp. 244, 317.

82 Lambourn, “Of Jewels and Horses”.