Dair-al-Hindiya and the old Indian link to Iraq
Islam arrived in Iraq during the 7th century. Before Islam, Iraq was the heart of the Sassanid Empire of Persia 224-651 AD. Its capital was Ctesiphon at modern Salman Pak near Baghdad. The region was called Asuristan and Khvarvaran. The state religion was Zoroastrianism, but the population was mixed : Christians of the Church of the East, Jacobites, Jewish academies at Sura and Pumbedita where the Talmud was compiled, and Mandaeans in the south. With India, the link was trade and knowledge. Panchatantra was translated into Pahlavi as Kalila wa Dimna and Ayurvedic texts were studied at Jundishapur. Spices and goods from India flooded the markets.
Indian Trade With Sassanian Iraq
History informs that in the 6th century Iraq was a province of the Sassanian Persian Empire and its main port Ubulla near modern Basra was the gateway for Indian trade. Indian merchants and sailors from Sindh, Gujarat and Malabar were not permanent settlers but a seasonal diaspora colony, living for months waiting for monsoon winds, so much so that early Arab sources called the Faw Peninsula Ard al-Hind, Land of India.
Indian ships had to wait in Iraq because of the monsoon winds. In the 6th century there were no engines, only sails, so ships could not move against the wind. The wind in the Arabian Sea changes direction every six months. From November to February it blows from India towards Arabia and Iraq, allowing Indian ships to sail to Ubulla port near Basra. But from June to September it blows the opposite way, from Iraq back to India. So a merchant arriving in Iraq in winter could not return until summer. He had to stay for five to six months in Iraq waiting for the wind to flip, which is why Indian traders built warehouses and lived in a small colony there, and why early Arabs called the area Ard al-Hind.
By the 6th century BCE, overland trade between Iraq and India became an imperial road. After Cyrus and Darius I conquered both Mesopotamia and the Indus frontier, the Indus region was made the 20th satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, and Indian goods moved solely overland via the Royal Road system : from Taxila and the Punjab through Kandahar, Arachosia and Ecbatana to Babylon. Indian tribute recorded by Herodotus included gold dust, ivory, cotton, and teak, whilst Mesopotamia sent westward silver, horses, and woollen textiles; this state-maintained caravan route laid the foundation for what would later become the southern Silk Road.
Roman historian Procopius in 550 AD complained that Persian merchants bought whole cargoes of Indian ships as soon as they docked. From India came black pepper and other spices, fine cotton and Bengal muslin, teak and sandalwood for ships and furniture, sugar, indigo, ivory, pearls, diamonds and peacocks. In return, Iraq and Persia sent Arabian horses which were highly prized by Indian kings, Bahraini pearls, dates, frankincense and myrrh from Yemen, glassware, silver coins and woolen textiles. This trade made Iraq rich as middleman between India and Rome, and explains why Indians were present there long before Islam.
Jatts of Basra
Arabic sources like Tabari and Baladhuri call Indian Jatts as Az-Zutt, saying Sassanid kings brought them from Sindh and Punjab to Iraq and Bahrain as marsh guards and soldiers. After the Muslim conquest, they were kept by Caliphs as frontier troops in Basra and Kufa, and later Muawiya settled about 4,000 families in Antioch and Hajjaj bin Yusuf used them in his army, so they were not just hired mercenaries but settled military communities who later converted to Islam.
They served Yazdegerd III, later settled in Basra, guarded the treasury in Hazrat Imam Ali's time and fought for him at the Battle of the Camel in 656 CE.
Barmakis : The Buddhist Pramukhs of Balkh in Iraq
The Barmakis, Arabic Al-Baramika, were the most famous family of Abbasid Baghdad, but their origin was not Iraq. It was Balkh in modern Afghanistan.
Their name itself tells the story. Barmak is the Arabic form of Sanskrit Pramukha, meaning chief or abbot. In Prakrit it became Parmukh. Classical Arabic has 28 letters and there is no P. So when Arabs say a foreign word with P, they say it with B: Pepsi = Bebsi, Plastic = Blastik and Park = Bark. Accordingly, Parmukh becomes Barmukh in Arabic. And Barmukh shortened to Barmak or Barmaki. They were the hereditary high priests, the Pramukhs, of Nava Vihara or Nau Bahar, the great Buddhist monastery of Balkh. Some amongst the savants and scholars at Nav-Vihara were Kashmiri Brahmins who had become Parmukhs due to their learning and getting involved in the spread of Buddhism in Central Asia. In the 7th century, Balkh was a great centre of Buddhist learning. Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang described 100 Viharas there. The Parmukhs were the custodians of Nav- Vihara and are remembered as Indian Buddhist priests. Arab historians like Tabari and Masudi describe them as Khuddam of the Temple of Balkh.
Most of these Parmukhs converted to Islam. After the Arab conquest, some Parmukhs moved
to Iraq . Under the Abbasids, Khalid ibn Barmak and his family rose to become Viziers. Yahya ibn Khalid was tutor to Harun al-Rashid, and his sons Jafar and al-Fadl al-Barmaki practically ran the empire from Baghdad.
The Parmukhs of Nav Vihara were polyglots and great translators and in Iraq they brought Indian knowledge with them : medicine, astronomy, Kalila wa Dimna, and Sanskrit works and helped found kill the Bait al-Hikma, House of Wisdom. Thus the Buddhist and Hindu Pramukhs of Balkh became the Muslim builders of Abbasid Iraq.
Hazrat Imam Ali And Non-Muslims
The exemplary conduct of Hazrat Imam Ali towards non-Muslims is considered a model of justice and humanity. It is authenticated in early sources including Nahj al-Balagha, Tarikh al-Tabari, and Al-Baladhuri. The most authentic text is his instruction letter to Malik al-Ashtar when he appointed him Governor of Egypt in 657 CE. He wrote:
"Habituate your heart to mercy for the subjects and to affection and kindness for them. Do not stand over them like a greedy beast wanting to eat them. For they are of two kinds: either your brother in religion, or your equal in creation [imma akhun laka fi al-din wa imma nazirun laka fi al-khalq]. Show mercy to them as you would wish God to show mercy to you."
For this reason, non-Arab and non-Muslim groups found protection under his rule.
During the caliphate of Hazrat Imam Ali in Kufa from 656 to 661 AD, trade with India continued through the Persian Gulf, though not as a formal state treaty. Indian goods like pepper, cardamom, muslin, teak, pearls and wootz steel reached Iraqi markets via Basra. Despite civil wars of Jamal and Siffin, Basra remained active and its customs duty was collected in Kufa's Bait al-Mal. Hazrat Imam Ali's famous Letter to Malik al-Ashtar in Nahj al-Balagha instructs care for merchants who bring goods from distant lands, showing his trade policy. Sind was still under Hindu kings, so trade was merchant to merchant, not government to government.
The Link between Hazrat Imam Ali and Indians
The link between Hazrat Imam Ali and Hindus is both historical and spiritual and it flows through the Mohyal Brahmins who became Hussaini Brahmins. Long before Karbala, there was an Indian settlement near Baghdad called Dair-al-Hindiya, the Indian Quarter, where families of Hindu traders, scholars, Vaids and warriors lived.
According to Mohyal community history in books like Mirat-ul-Mohyali, Gulshan-e-Mohyali and The History of the Muhiyals 1911 by T.P. Russell Straceyac , this settlement is remembered as having about 1400 Mohyal Brahmins.
Mohyals are the seven clans of Saraswat Brahmins of ancient Gandhara - Bali, Bhimwal, Chhibber, Datt, Lau, Mohan and Vaid. Tradition says Parashurama militarised this priestly community to defend the frontier. According to community history, they ruled as the Hindu Shahi kings of Gandhara and Kabul, blocking invasions at the Khyber for 300 years, fought Arab invaders and Ghaznavids and later Mughals, and later formed the martial core of Guru Gobind Singh's Khalsa. Historians note that the Hindu Shahis were indeed Brahmin kings of Kabul and Gandhara who resisted the early Arab and Ghaznavid advances, and Mohyal tradition identifies them with Mohyal clans. Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das, martyred with Guru Tegh Bahadur, were Mohyals of Chhibber clan . This is well documented.
According to Mohyal tradition, when Hazrat Imam Ali moved his capital to Kufa in 36 AH and held open courts as Bab al-Ilm, Gate of Knowledge, the elders of Indian quarter were drawn to his teachings on justice and equality, especially his letter to Malik al-Ashtar.
Out of deep reverence, in their devotional language the Mohyals remember Hazrat Imam Ali as " Om Murti" . This is a respectful title given within the Mohyal community tradition . The tradition further holds that this bond continued to Karbala in 680 CE. The story is preserved as a faith tradition of sacrifice within the Mohyal community. After Karbala, Hazrat Zainab is remembered in this tradition as having blessed them, and they came to be known as Hussaini Brahmins.
Today their saying is well known: Wah Dutt Sultan, Hindu ka dharm, Musalman ka iman. Before Partition of the country ( 1947 ), in Lahore and Amritsar, it is said no Taziya would rise during Muharram until a Hussaini Brahmin gave his shoulder to it.
Some Prominent Hussaini Brahmins of the 20th Century are :-
1. Sunil Dutt (actor-MP)
2. Jamna Das Akhtar (journalist,poet )
3. Sanjay Dutt (actor)
4. Priya Dutt (MP)
5. Chaman Lal Dutt (Gurdaspur Punjab)
6. Ram Nath Bali (Jammu ,social worker)
7.Krishan Lal Chhibber (Poonch Azakhana keeper)
8. Bhai Parmanand Mohan (freedom fighter)
9. Prof. J. N. Dutt (historian)
10. Brij Lal Dutt Shastri (Delhi poet)
11. Dr. M. L. Vaid (Ajmer Majlis organiser)
12. P. N. Mohan (Pune Hussaini Brahmin Panchayat Head)
13. K. K. Lau (Chandigarh )
14. Pandit Shamboo Dutt (Dina Nagar,Punjab)
15. R. C. Dutt (Delhi organiser)
16. Om Prakash Bali (Dehradun educationist who built Hussaini Dharamshala)
17.B. R. Dutt Bhimwal (Muzaffarabad-Jammu writer on Mohyal history)
18.Iqbal Krishna Lau (Lucknow journalist, Urdu Majlis writer)
19.Trilok Nath Chhibber (Mirpur businessman who also funded the Karbala Shrine renovation in Iraq)
20.Satish Kumar Dutt (Pune, secretary of All India Hussaini Brahmin Samaj in 1970s-80s)
In this way, documented history of Indians in Iraq, and the living tradition of Hussaini Brahmins, show an old bridge of respect.
( Avtar Mota )
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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