Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi

Also called: Abd al-Razzaq · Topic: Medieval India through Travellers' Eyes · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"; Class 12, Ch 3 "An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara"

Meaning

Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi (1413–82), also called Abd al-Razzaq, was a Persian-writing court official and diplomat from Samarqand. The Timurid ruler Shahrukh sent him from Herat as an ambassador, and he reached Calicut in 1442. [2] He is the main 15th-century eyewitness for the city of Vijayanagara. His mixed reactions also show students that a traveller's view of India was personal, not neutral.

Explanation

Background: who he was and why he came

• He was born in Samarqand (Central Asia) and served at the court of the Timurid ruler Shahrukh, whose capital was Herat. [2]
• At court he held three roles:
• trustee (a person who looks after property for others)
• legal officer

• ambassador [2]

• His diplomatic missions took him across Eurasia. One of them brought him to Calicut on the Malabar coast in 1442. [2]

• He belongs to the Indo-Persian travel writing of 1400–1800. This is the biggest single block of medieval travel writing about India.

What he wrote: one traveller, opposite reactions

• At Calicut he felt disgust.
• He called the people "a strange nation... the likes of whom I had never imagined".

• He was judging them by the customs of his own Central Asian court.

• Near Mangalore he felt awe.

• He saw a temple covered in bronze.
• Inside was a gold statue whose eyes were rubies.

• He exclaimed: "What craft and artisanship!"

• At Vijayanagara he felt wonder.

• He wrote that the pupil of the eye had never seen a place like this city. He added that the ear of intelligence had never heard of its equal anywhere in the world. [2]
• According to the NCERT chapter on Vijayanagara, he was struck by its fortifications. He described seven lines of forts, with fields and gardens inside the walls.

Where his account survives

• His travel account is part of his large Persian chronicle, Matla-us-Sadain wa Majma-ul-Bahrain ("The rising of the two lucky stars and the meeting of the two oceans"). [2][3]
• A manuscript copy of this work is held by the Library of Congress. [3]
• It was written in Persian and copied by hand. Unlike later European printed books, it was read by only a small elite.

What his account teaches the historian

• The same traveller could dislike one place and admire the next one. There was no single fixed "foreign view" of India.
• His disgust at Calicut and his awe at Mangalore both came from his own standards, not from any neutral way of measuring.
• So his account is rich evidence for 15th-century south India. It must still be checked against inscriptions, archaeology and other sources.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 15th century. He lived from 1413 to 1482, and his visit to south India was in the 1440s (Calicut, 1442). [2]
• Sender: Shahrukh, the Timurid ruler at Herat. [2]
• Places in India: Calicut (port on the Malabar coast), a temple near Mangalore, and Vijayanagara (capital of the Vijayanagara empire in the Deccan).
• Key text: Matla-us-Sadain wa Majma-ul-Bahrain, in Persian, with a manuscript at the Library of Congress. [2][3]
• How we know: his own eyewitness account inside this chronicle. In the NCERT chapter on Vijayanagara, it sits alongside later visitors' accounts and the ruins of the city at Hampi.
• Place in the corpus: he comes after Al-Biruni (11th c.) and Ibn Battuta (14th c.), and before Afanasii Nikitin (Russian, in India 1466–72).

Don't confuse with

• Ibn Battuta: a 14th-century traveller from Tangier, Morocco. He wrote the Rihla in Arabic and mainly described Delhi and the north. Abdur Razzaq came in the 15th century, wrote in Persian, and is the key source for Vijayanagara.
• Afanasii Nikitin: also a 15th-century traveller, but Russian (in India 1466–72). Abdur Razzaq was a Timurid diplomat from Samarqand/Herat.
• Mahmud Wali Balkhi: also part of the Indo-Persian tradition, but from Balkh, in India 1626–31. He loved India so much that he became a sort of sanyasi (a wandering holy man who gives up worldly life). Abdur Razzaq felt disgust at Calicut and was no convert.
• Matla-us-Sadain vs Kitab-ul-Hind: Matla-us-Sadain is Abdur Razzaq's Persian chronicle. Kitab-ul-Hind is Al-Biruni's 11th-century Arabic study of India and its caste system.

Prelims Hooks

• Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi (1413–82) was from Samarqand, sent as a diplomat from Herat by the Timurid ruler Shahrukh, and reached Calicut in 1442. [2]
• His account sits in the Persian chronicle Matla-us-Sadain wa Majma-ul-Bahrain. A manuscript copy is held by the Library of Congress. [2][3]
• Calicut = disgust ("a strange nation"). Mangalore = awe at a bronze-covered temple with a gold statue with ruby eyes.
• He is the main 15th-century eyewitness for Vijayanagara. NCERT notes that he described its seven lines of forts.
• Chronological order of travellers: Al-Biruni (11th c.) → Ibn Battuta (14th c.) → Abdur Razzaq (1440s) → Afanasii Nikitin (1466–72) → Bernier (1658–69).
• Trap: Abdur Razzaq wrote in Persian, not Arabic. Al-Biruni and Ibn Battuta wrote in Arabic.

Mains Points

• Travellers' accounts are shaped by who is looking. Abdur Razzaq disliked Calicut and admired Mangalore and Vijayanagara on the same journey. His reactions followed his own Central Asian court standards. This shows that such texts must be read alongside inscriptions, chronicles and archaeology, never on their own.
• He is a key source for rebuilding Vijayanagara. His 15th-century praise of the city and its rings of fortification gives historians an eyewitness picture. Together with the ruins at Hampi, it helps rebuild what the imperial capital was like.
• His account is part of a wider chain, and it has gaps. He belongs to the Indo-Persian tradition, where writers had often read earlier travellers like Al-Biruni and Ibn Battuta. As an elite diplomat moving through courts and ports, he gives only a small glimpse of women, labourers and village life. Rich evidence, but always partial.

Related concepts

• Indo-Persian travel writing
• Mahmud Wali Balkhi
• Afanasy Nikitin
• Antonio Monserrate
• Ma Huan

Read more

• The wider corpus and the circulation of images of India