Question

Read Ibn Battuta’s description of Daulatabad: In Daulatabad there is a marketplace for male and female singers, which is known as Tarababad. It is one of the greatest and most beautiful bazaars. It has numerous shops, and every shop has a door which leads into the house of the owner... The shops are decorated with carpets and at the centre of a shop there is a swing on which sits the female singer. She is decked with all kinds of finery and her female attendants swing her. In the middle of the marketplace there stands a large cupola, which is carpeted and decorated and in which the chief of the musicians takes his place every Thursday after the dawn prayers, accompanied by his servants and slaves. The female singers come in successive crowds, sing before him and dance until dusk, after which he withdraws. In this bazaar there are mosques for offering prayers ... One of the Hindu rulers ... alighted at the cupola every time he passed by this marketplace, and the female singers would sing before him. Even some Muslim rulers did the same.

Why do you think Ibn Battuta highlighted these activities in his description?

Answer 1

Ibn Battuta highlighted the unique activities of the Tarababad bazaar in Daulatabad for several key reasons:

• Uniqueness of the Space: A marketplace entirely dedicated to performing arts (male and female singers) was completely distinct from the purely commercial markets he had seen in North Africa and Western Asia.
• Wealth and Urban Prosperity: The luxurious description of shops decorated with fine carpets, singers dressed in rich finery, and a grand central cupola served as a testament to the immense economic wealth and sophisticated urban culture of the Indian subcontinent.
• Highly Organised Performing Community: He noticed that musicians were highly institutionalised and organised. The weekly ritual every Thursday, where a “chief of musicians” held a formal court, showed that entertainment was a respected profession integrated into the city’s structure.
• Shared Religious and Cultural Space: He explicitly pointed out that the bazaar contained mosques for prayer, yet both Hindu and Muslim rulers stopped by the central cupola to enjoy the music. This highlighted a vibrant, cosmopolitan culture where rulers across different faiths shared the same artistic spaces.