² Mohan Lal, Travels in the Panjab, Afghanistan, & Turkmenistan to Balk, Bokhara, and Herat; and a Visit to Great Britain and Germany (London, 1846), 122–3.

³ He went on to write ‘As my object was only to examine the feelings of the slave-dealer, and also to gratify my curiosity, and not to purchase her, I came back to my camp without bidding farewell to the merchant.’ Ibid. 123.

⁴ Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore (Maharaja Ranjit Singh, 1799–1839) (New Delhi, 1991). V, 571.

⁵ I thank Dr. Francesca Orsini for proposing the term ‘moment of transaction’. Personal communication with the author. 12 January 2005.

⁶ Wilson, A glossary of judicial and revenue terms, and of useful words occurring in official documents relating to the administration of the government of British India (New Delhi, 1968). 128.

⁷ For an example of revisionist historiography of South Asia's eighteenth century, see Alam, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab, 1707–1748 (Delhi, 1986).

⁸ See generally Bush (ed.), Serfdom and Slavery: Studies in Legal Bondage (London, 1996).

⁹ This was similar to the percentage of the population slaves constituted in the Americas. Phillips, ‘Continuity and change in Western slavery: ancient to modern times’, in Bush (ed.), Serfdom and Slavery, 74.

¹⁰ Judaism's rather sympathetic attitude towards slaves influenced later Islamic doctrine. Interestingly, the Shias of Iran adopted many of the Jewish customs regarding slavery, including the manumission of slaves every seven years. Brunschwig, ‘Abd’, in Schacht (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1960), 39.

¹¹ See for instance Eltis, Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Oxford, 1987). Drayton, ‘The collaboration of labour: slaves, empires and globalization in the Atlantic world c. 1600–1850’, in Hopkins (ed.), Globalization in World History (London, 2002). Drayton, Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the ‘Improvement’ of the World (New Haven CT, 2000), 61–3, 93.

¹² While Central Asian ghulam military slaves had been historically important and prominent throughout Islamic history, slave-based armies had largely collapsed by the nineteenth century, instead replaced by free labour ones. Even the Ottomans and Mamluks, historically dependent on slave armies, moved away from reliance on ghulams and modernized their armies and recruitment systems. For example, the Ottomans eliminated the janissaries and introduced conscription during the tanzimat reforms.

¹³ William Phillips voices the traditional devaluation, or even dismissal of the productive importance of domestic labour, writing ‘Much of the employment of domestic slaves must be described as unproductive labour, for slaves were usually assigned to non-economic tasks; their employment was often totally independent of the normal modes of labour in the society. As servants, guards, and sexual partners, their primary function in many cases was to demonstrate the wealth and luxury enjoyed by their owners.’ Phillips, ‘Continuity and change in Western slavery: ancient to modern times’, in Bush (ed.), Serfdom and slavery, 72. For a reassessment of domestic labour as an economically productive activity, see for instance Mackintosh, ‘Domestic labour and the household’, in Burman (ed.), Fit Work for Women (London, 1979).

¹⁴ Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World (New York, 1989), 28.

¹⁵ Ibid. 25.

¹⁶ This practice was known as umm walad.

¹⁷ For a further discussion of this, see Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World, 76–81. In India, this was not the case as the majority Hindu population produced eunuchs.

¹⁸ In the case of South Asia, see Kunal Parker's discussion of the changing definition of prostitution regarding temple dancing girls and Gyan Prakash's article on Anglo-Indian legal concepts of bondage. Parker, “A corporation of superior prostitutes Anglo-Indian legal conception of temple dancing girls, 1800–1914”, Modern Asian Studies 32, 3 (1998). Prakash, ‘Terms of servitude: the colonial discourse on slavery and bondage in India’, in Klein (ed.), Breaking the Chains: Slavery, Bondage and Emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia (Madison WI, 1993).

¹⁹ Brunschwig, ‘Abd’, in Schacht (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Wilson, A glossary of judicial and revenue terms.

²⁰ Brunschwig, ‘Abd’, in Schacht (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 29.

²¹ Ibid.

²² Ibid.

²³ See for instance Curtin (ed.), The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex (Cambridge, 1990); Solow (ed.), Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System (Cambridge, 1991).

²⁴ Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India, 4.

²⁵ For a discussion of the relationship between racism and slavery in the Atlantic context, see Eric Williams' classic. Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (New York, 1961).

²⁶ For more on the phenomenon of Islamic slave states in South Asian, see generally Wink, Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World (Leiden, 1991).

²⁷ For a discussion of the nineteenth century Ottoman attitudes towards slavery, see Toledano, ‘Ottoman concepts of slavery in the period of reform, 1830s-1880s’, in Klein (ed.), Breaking the Chains.

²⁸ On the political importance of the harem in the Ottoman context, see generally Alderson, The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty (Oxford, 1956).

²⁹ Afnan, Black Pearls: Servants in the households of the Bab and Baha'ullah (Los Angeles, 1988), xv.

³⁰ Kopytoff and Miers, ‘African ‘slavery’ as in institution of marginality’, in Kopytoff and Miers (ed.), Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Madison WI, 1977), 40–47.

³¹ Meyendorf's report appears confused about the number of Russian slaves in Bukhara. At one point, the narrative places the number of Russian slaves in Bukhara at a mere ten, while it later insists there were 5–600 Russian captives. Scheidler, A Journey from Orenburg to Bokhara in the Year 1820 (Calcutta, 1870), 36, 61.

³² See for instance Burnes, Travels into Bokhara; together with a narrative of a voyage on the Indus (Lahore, 2003), 136–7; IOR L/PS/5/109, Dispatch from Moorcroft to George Swinton, 6 June 1825.

³³ As a revenue source, Kamran's Shias do not appear to have been a boon to the treasury, with between twelve and twenty of them being bartered for a horse. Lawrence, Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Runjeet Singh (Karachi, 1975), 141. See also NAI Pottinger to Macnaghten, 11 July 1838;IOR L/PS/5/127, Copy of a letter from the Persia Envoy Extraordinary: McNeill to Macnaghten, 22 January 1837;IOR L/PS/5/130, Notice on Herat, with a Sketch of the state of affairs in the surrounding counties (Burnes to Wade), 7 February 1838.

³⁴ Alexander Burnes related his experience of examining a young Kafir boy who had been kidnapped and enslaved in Kabul. See IOR V3320, On the Siah-Posh Kaffirs, with Specimens of their Language and Costume, 14 February 1838.

³⁵ Between their enslavement and forced relocation, Moorcroft claims only a fifth of the original population of Badakhshan survived. IOR L/PS/5/109, Dispatch from Moorcroft to George Swinton, 6 June 1825. See also IOR V3320, A Memoir on the Uzbek State of Kundooz and the power of its present Ruler Mahomed Murad Beg, 1838.

³⁶ For a rather weak discussion of this, see Poladi, The Hazaras (Stockton, CA, 1989), 237–56;Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study (London, 1998), 93–4.

³⁷ Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Cabul (Karachi, 1991), vol. 1, 320–1.

³⁸ See generally Edwards, Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier (Berkeley, 1996); Ahmed, Pukhtun Economy and Society: Traditional structure and economic development in tribal society (London, 1980).

³⁹ See Geiss, Pre-Tsarist and Tsarist Central Asia: Communal commitment and political order in change (London, 2003), 65.

⁴⁰ The Safavids combined the role of tribal levy and Turkish ghulam in their recruitment of Qizilbash Turkic tribesmen as religious devotees of Shah Ismail and the later basis of their military power.

⁴¹ For a discussion of the South Asian military labour market, see generally Alavi, ‘The Makings of Company Power: James Skinner in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, 1802–1840’, in Gommans and Kolff (ed.), Warfare and Weaponry in South Asia, 1000–1800 (New Delhi, 2001), Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: the ethnohistory of the military labour market in Hindustan, 1450–1850 (Cambridge, 1990). Vijay Pinch's recent article on the ‘dimilitarization’ of ascetic orders in British India in the first half of the nineteenth century touches upon the role of slavery in recruitment to the orders, specifically through the purchase of orphaned children. Pinch, ‘Goswain Tawaif: Slaves, sex and ascetics in Rasdhan, ca. 1800–57’, Modern Asian Studies 38, 3 (2004). 568.

⁴² Although some rulers maintained ghulam contingents as household guards, etc, tribal levies, peasant recruits and mercenaries constituted the bulk of military forces. One such local example was the ruler of Maimana, in northwest Afghanistan, who maintained a household guard of almost 500 ghulams well into the nineteenth century. Lee, The Ancient Supremacy: Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901 (Leiden, 1996). 139.

⁴³ Meyendorf reported there were between 25–40,000 Persian slaves alone in Bukharan territories. The average price of a ‘well-built man’ was between 640–800 Francs, while a skilled craftsman such as a blacksmith could fetch up to 16,000 Francs. Women apparently sold for less, but beautiful ones could be sold for as much as 2400 Francs. He estimated that wealthy Bukharans had an average of forty slaves. Scheidler, A Journey from Orenburg to Bokhara in the Year 1820, 61–2.

⁴⁴ See Colley, Captives: The Story of Britain's Pursuit of Empire and How Its Soldiers and Civilians were held Captive by the Dream of Global Supremacy, 1600–1850 (London, 2003). 23–72.

⁴⁵ Scheidler, A Journey from Orenburg to Bokhara in the Year 1820, 61.

⁴⁶ Quoting a Persian emissary from 1851, Holdsworth states Persian slaves accounted for half of the settled population of Khiva in the mid-nineteenth century. The khanate reportedly had a population of around 700,000, with the Uzbek ruling elite numbering near 40,000. The nomadic Turkmen, who were the main slave raiders, constituted a third of the population. Holdsworth, Turkestan in the Nineteenth Century: a brief history of the khanates of Bukhara, Kokand and Khiva (Oxford, 1959). 21–2.

⁴⁷ See for example Ahmed, Pukhtun Economy and Society: Traditional structure and economic development in tribal society (London, 1980), 76–8.

⁴⁸ For a summary of Russian activities in Central Asia, see Krausse, Russia in Asia (London, 1899), Geiss, Pre-Tsarist and Tsarist Central Asia: Communal commitment and political order in change (London, 2003).

⁴⁹ See IOR L/PS/5/128, Copy of a dispatch from the Political Agent at Loodiana, 27 June 1837.

⁵⁰ See, for example the published Russian notice justifying its interference in Khiva in Vinge, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan and of a Residence at the Court of Dost Muhamed with Notices of Ranjit Singh, Khiva and the Russian Expedition (Lahore, 1999), 465–6.

⁵¹ Holdsworth, Turkestan in the Nineteenth Century, 51.

⁵² Vinge, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan, 450.

⁵³ IOR L/PS/5/109, Dispatch from Moorcroft to George Swinton, 6 June 1825.

⁵⁴ By the 1840s however, there was an emerging consensus within the Russian government the institution of serfdom was becoming increasingly untenable. As early as 1839, the Third Department, or political police, argued in their annual report the Tsarist government should pre-empt potential difficulties through early emancipation. Kolchin, ‘In defense of servitude: American proslavery and Russian proserfdom arguments, 1760–1860’, The American Historical Review 85, 4 (1980), 820–1.

⁵⁵ Kolchin, ‘Some controversial questions concerning nineteenth-century emancipation from slavery and serfdom’, in Bush (ed.), Serfdom and Slavery, 50.

⁵⁶ Kolchin, ‘In defense of servitude’, 815; Mironov, ‘When and why was the Russian peasantry emancipated?’ in Bush (ed.), Serfdom and Slavery, 339.

⁵⁷ Even this objection was not born out in practice. In its recently conquered Caucasian provinces, Tsarist authorities actively participated in the region's slave trade which was carried out under the precepts of the sharia. Bivar, ‘The portraits and career of Mohammed Ali, son of Kazem-Beg: Scottish missionaries and Russian Orientalism’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London vol. 57, no. 2 (1994), 285.

⁵⁸ Such attitudes represented a reversal of the integrationist policies of Catherine II. See for example Fisher, The Russian Annexation of the Crimea, 1772–1783 (Cambridge, 1970), 148–50.

⁵⁹ NAI MacDonald to Lt. Col. MacDonald, 10 July 1829; NAI MacDonald to the Secretary to Government, Political Department, 12 June 1829. For a recent history of this incident, see Kelly, Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran: Alexander Griboyedov and Imperial Russia's mission to the Shah of Persia (London, 2002).

⁶⁰ For a palpable sense of Evangelical sentiments towards Central Asian slavery and how the practice was depicted by Evangelicals who visited the region, see generally Conolly, Journey to the North of India, Over the Land from England through Russia, Persia and Afghanistan (London, 1834).;Wolff, Travels and Adventures (London, 1861).

⁶¹ Moorcroft and Conolly provide more than simply an interesting intellectual contrast. Both died while on semi-official missions to Central Asia/Afghanistan, largely due to their treatment by local rulers. Amir Nasrullah of Bukhara beheaded Conolly, along with Col. Stoddart, in 1842. Conolly had volunteered to go to Bukhara and attempt to secure Stoddart's release, who had been earlier deputed on a mission to the khanate to explain British actions in Afghanistan. Conolly used his mission to champion abolition to the Amir, but British actions in Afghanistan made both men's position untenable. Moorcroft, on the other hand, died of a fever outside of Balkh, reportedly due to the mistreatment he received at the hands of Mir Murad Beg. He was returning from Bukhara, whence he had been granted leave by the East India Company to explore the breeding grounds of the famed horses of Turkistan. Moorcroft was the Superintendent of the Company stud. He had actually been recalled just beyond Peshawar, but decided to ignore his orders. SeeNAI Moorcroft's Recall, 19 August 1825; IOR L/PS/6/34, Amherst to Secret Committee, 9 January 1824.

⁶² ‘From what I have seen of the condition of the transplanted Badakshees I verily believe that if they could see the lot of the Negroes in our West India Islands they would most joyfully exchange situations with them and find themselves great gainers by the bargain.’ IOR L/PS/5/109, Dispatch from Moorcroft to George Swinton, 6 June 1825.

⁶³ Conolly, Journey to the North of India, 65–6. Conolly was a personal friend of the evangelical campaigner Wilberforce. Lee, The Ancient Supremacy: Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901 (Leiden, 1996). 197.

⁶⁴ See generally Stokes, The English Utilitarians and India (Oxford, 1963).;Washbrook, ‘India, 1818–1860: the two faces of colonialism’, in Louis, Porter and Low (ed.), Oxford History of the British Empire (Oxford, 1999).

⁶⁵ See for instance Drescher, ‘Whose abolition? Popular pressure and the ending of the British slave trade’, Past & Present 138, (1993). Walvin, Eltis and Green-Pedersen, (ed.), The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: origins and effects in Europe, Africa and the Americas (Madison WI, 1981).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ In Rustam's account of his captivity, he related one of his kidnapped compatriots who informed him what to expect gained his knowledge from a previous experience as a slave. He apparently had recently been freed and found himself again kidnapped and enslaved. Khan-Urf, The Diary of a Slave (London, 1936), 67.

⁶⁷ Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Cabul, vol. 1, 318.

⁶⁸ Vinge, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan, 237–8.

⁶⁹ Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Cabul, vol. 1, 318.

⁷⁰ Golden, An Introduction to the Turkic Peoples. Ethnogenesis and state formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East (Wiesbaden, 1992), 4–5.

⁷¹ Burton, Sindh and the Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus (Karachi, 1973), 253. Leopold von Orlich's account largely corroborated Burton's later observations, while giving slightly more detail. He claimed Abyssinian boys regularly sold for Rs. 60–100, while girls went as high as Rs. 250. Additionally, Orlich asserted that ‘Georgians were occasionally imported for the harems of the rich.’ Orlich, Travels in India, including Sinde and the Punjab (London, 1845), 79.

⁷² These traders are sometimes known as powindahs as well. Vinge, in describing Lohani women, noted that most were either Kafir slaves or their offspring, taken because of their beauty. Vinge, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan, 43.

⁷³ For an overview discussion of the different types of servitude and bondage prevalent throughout the subcontinent, see generally Kumar, ‘Colonialism, bondage, and caste in British India’, in Klein (ed.), Breaking the Chains.

⁷⁴ Gyan Prakash offers an interesting examination of the language of the Anglo-Indian legal conceptualization of bondage. See Prakash, ‘Terms of servitude: the colonial discourse on slavery and bondage in India’, in Klein (ed.), Breaking the chain.

⁷⁵ See generally Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India.

⁷⁶ For an example of the variety of positions and statuses female ‘slaves’ and ‘concubines’ held in the Indian domestic sphere, see Pinch's discussion in Pinch, ‘Goswain Tawaif: Slaves, sex and ascetics in Rasdhan’, 591–2.

⁷⁷ See, for example the role played by Chehtee Begum, described as a Muslim concubine, in the succession of Narindargiri leadership of a gosain order in Bundelkhand. Ibid. 580–85.

⁷⁸ Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World, 82.

⁷⁹ Noelle, State and Tribe in 19th Century Afghanistan: the Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, 1826–1863 (London, 1997), 17–19.

⁸⁰ Pellat, ‘Kayna’, in Pellat (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1978), 821–2.

⁸¹ Upon fleeing Bukhara, the Amir abandoned his female harem to Soviet soldiers, but rescued at least some of his boys. So proud of this harem was he that he had gold medals minted and given to the parents who offered their boys to his service. Rustam claimed to have seen a number in circulation. Khan-Urf, The Diary of a Slave (London, 1936). 41.

⁸² For an interesting, although truncated discussion of the significance of concubines and dancing girls at the Peshwa of the Marathas, see Rege, ‘The hegemonic appropriation of sexuality: the case of the lavani performers of Maharashtra’, in Uberoi (ed.), Social reform, sexuality and the state (New Delhi, 1996).

⁸³ For a dated overview of Bentinck's term and reforms, see generally Bearce, ‘Lord William Bentinck: The application of liberalism to India’, The Journal of Modern History 28, 3 (1956).

⁸⁴ Jacquemont, Letters from India: Describing a journey in the British dominions of India, Tibet, Lahore, and Cashmere during the years 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831 undertaken by order of the French government (Karachi, 1979). 65.

⁸⁵ Ibid. 65, 74–5.

⁸⁶ Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore, vol. 5, 565. See also Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India, 22; Caplan, ‘Power and status in South Asian slavery’, in Watson (ed.), Asian and African Systems of Slavery (Oxford, 1980). 183. Hindu law permitted the sale of children, although it placed restrictions on the practice. Parker, “A corporation of superior prostitutes”, 580.

⁸⁷ This was especially true of Kashmir, whose famed shawls fell out of favour because of trade disruptions and changes in tastes. NAI Moorcroft to Swinton, 10 October 1823. See also Rizvi, Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh (New Delhi, 2001), 59.

⁸⁸ Although Lawrence's Adventures was a fictionalized account of a European officer in Ranjit's service, this particular quotation comes from a factual footnote to the text discussing slavery in the Punjab and beyond. Citing the reports of Majors Sleeman and Crawford, Lawrence went on to say that ‘. . .westward of that river [the Indus], especially in the countries bordering upon Turkistan, men and women are equally made the subjects of barter.’ Lawrence, Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Runjeet Singh (Karachi, 1975), 140–41.

⁸⁹ Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore, V, 565–6.

⁹⁰ Ibid. 564–5.

⁹¹ Ibid. 563.

⁹² Lawrence, Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Runjeet Singh, 141.

⁹³ Kopytoff and Miers, ‘African ‘slavery’ as in institution of marginality', 6.

⁹⁴ See generally Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage and the status of women slaves in early colonial northern Nigeria’, Journal of African History 29, 2 (1988).

⁹⁵ Macauley's Law Commission and its proposed legal reforms likewise blurred the lines between marriage and concubinage, stating ‘. . .those who live in the zenanas may be considered as coming under this class, the connection in this case is a quasi-marriage.’ Indrani Chatterjee argues that, ‘In the face of an abolitionist agitation, the simple reduction of the complex and different grades of slavery into ‘marriage’ relations by the Law Commission absolved the Company of any responsibility to legally end slave-concubinage in the English officers and soldiers' households. On the other hand, the acute awareness of slave-concubinage within the indigenous ruling houses enable administrators to manipulate political succession and finances. Furthermore, this manipulation, as Lovejoy and Hagendorn argue, entailed curtailing the web of claims and rights accorded to slaves and slave-born in Islamic and indigenous legal structures.' Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India, 20–1. Kunal Parker argues the later exclusion of concubine relations from marriage had important implications for the development of Hindu legal norms. Parker, “A corporation of superior prostitutes”, 622.

⁹⁶ Alderson, The structure of the Ottoman Dynasty, 79–81.

⁹⁷ This was in addition to his four wives. Orlich, Travels in India, including Sinde and the Punjab, 108.

⁹⁸ Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage and the status of women slaves’, 263.

⁹⁹ This also had important political implications as Persian was the language patronized by Ranjit Singh's court.

¹⁰⁰ Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore V, 570.

¹⁰¹ Osborne, The Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh (Karachi, 1973), 96.

¹⁰² Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore, vol. 5, 571.

¹⁰³ A dancing girl named Kaira, who was renowned to be the best singer in Ranjit's entourage, entertained Lord Bentinck. Hugel, Travels in Kashmir and the Panjab: containing a particular account of the government and character of the Sikhs (London, 1845), 345.

¹⁰⁴ Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore, vol. 5, 565. The tomb of Anarkali houses the remains of Anarkali, Jahangir's famous Sufi mistress killed by his father Akbar. Ranjit originally gave the tomb to Ventura as his home, but Ventura later moved next door to the same building Lawrence later occupied, instead housing his harem in the tomb. After the British annexation of the Punjab, the tomb served as an Anglican church. At the turn of the twentieth century, it again changed function, transforming into the home of the Punjab Provincial Archives, a function it still serves.

¹⁰⁵ Hugel, Travels in Kashmir and the Panjab, 344.

¹⁰⁶ Hugel claimed none of Ranjit's dancing girls were slaves or forced to enter his service. This assertion, however, conflicts with the opinions of a number of other travellers, including Osbourne and Jacquemont. Ibid.

¹⁰⁷ Osborne, The Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh, 86.

¹⁰⁸ The wife of Muhammad Khan Barakzai, Afghan sirdar of Peshawar and brother of Dost Mohamed Khan the ruler of Kabul, sold Ranjit Singh a slave girl of particular interest to him for an undisclosed price. Gupta, History of the Sikhs: the Sikh Lion of Lahore, V, 564.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid. vol. 5, 565.

¹¹⁰ See generally Ghosh, ‘Colonial companions: bibis, begums and concubines of the British in North India, 1760–1830’ (Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, 2000). Bibi was a term of great respect for women in Persia. Personal communication with Dr. Christine van Ruymbeke. 12 January 2005.

¹¹¹ See Pran, Rare Glimpses of the Raj (Mumbia, 1998), 6. Illicit relationships between local women and British officers are well documented. Charles Metcalfe, later Governor General of Jamaica and at one time thought likely to succeed Lord Bentinck as Governor General of India, had an Indian mistress he met at the court of Ranjit Singh. They had three children together. James Skinner reportedly had a harem of fourteen wives with over eighty children, although the family always insisted it was no more than seven. Hyam, Empire and Sexuality: the British experience (Manchester, 1990), 114, 117.

¹¹² Despite Parliamentary support for a ban on slavery in India engineered largely by Charles Grant, Lord Bentinck decided not to press the issue on a conservative Board of Directors and likely recalcitrant Indian ruling class. Bearce, ‘Lord William Bentinck: The application of liberalism to India’, The Journal of Modern History 28, 3 (1956). 245.

¹¹³ Eden enjoyed the nautch at Col. Skinner's considerably more than the one hosted by the Rajah of Benares for her brother. She commented that Skinner had Delhi's best singers and dancers in attendance. Eden, Up the Country: letter written to her sister from the Upper Provinces of India (London, 1978). 28, 101. Dated 22 November 1837 and 25 February 1838 respectively.

¹¹⁴ Ibid. 124. Dated 2 April 1838.

¹¹⁵ See generally Ghosh, ‘Colonial companions: bibis, begums and concubines of the British in North India’; Hyam, Empire and Sexuality.

¹¹⁶ Pinch, ‘Goswain Tawaif: Slaves, sex and ascetics in Rasdhan’, 571–2.

¹¹⁷ Ibid. 593.

¹¹⁸ IOR F/4/1345/53440, Further papers regarding Shah Shuja—one of the wives of Mirza Muhammad Timur, the Shah's eldest son, escapes from the royal zenana along with two female slaves—they are eventually sent to Delhi—a brick wall is built to separate Shuja's living quarters from the rest of the Ludhiana cantonment, May 1818–Dec 1830;NAI Wade to Hawkins, 12 March 1830;NAI Wade to F. Hawkins, Officiating Delhi Resident, 12 March 1830;NAI Petition of Binnee Begum to Lt. Col. Faithfull, 12 March 1830.

¹¹⁹ This was not the first instance where the sanctity of the Shah's zenana had been disturbed, and his honour thus compromised. See also PPA Wade to Colebrooke, 27 September 1827; PPA Murray to Birch, 24 April 1818.

¹²⁰ The first part of Rustam's diary gives a short account of his personal history. Born into a moderately wealthy Pashtun family, his father sent him to Britain to pursue a scientific education. His father's untimely death cut his studies short and forced him to seek employment, which he found as a personal secretary to a native prince in India. After serving a number of princes, he decided to go into business. Khan-Urf claims he ended up in Central Asia after being inspired by the business opportunities there, which a rug dealer in Chandi Chowk, Old Delhi, told him of. At the time of his enslavement, he had spent a number of months purchasing rugs wholesale in Bukhara and was off to the countryside to attempt to buy the rugs direct from some of their tribal weavers. Khan-Urf, The Diary of a Slave.

¹²¹ Ibid. 201.

¹²² Ibid. 202–10.

¹²³ Ibid. 215–62.

¹²⁴ Ibid. 69.

¹²⁵ For a discussion of the economies of the Central Asian khanates, see Holdsworth, Turkestan in the 19th Century.