The Sanskrit word raj means king and the Persian word stan means garden, country, land. Rajasthan is the land of kings. It is a region of India where there are incredible fortresses and palaces. There is even a white palace, now a hotel, which is in the middle of a lake.
Jodhpur is famous because the majority of its houses are blue, it is called the Blue City and Jaipur, where the majority of houses are pink is called the Pink City.
The region was once ruled by a group called the Rajputs.
Who are the Rajputs?
Rajput means son of kings and they make up the majority of the inhabitants of Rajastan. The Rajputs belong to the Kshatriya caste, which is the warrior caste of Hinduism. They practiced what is known as jauhar and it was because of the Muslims.
What is Jauhar?
Jauhar was the Rajput custom of voluntary death by burning yourself and it was practiced by the women of the Rajput warriors when the defeat of a city or fort was inevitable. They did it:
1.To avoid being raped by Muslim soldiers.
2.To avoid enslavement by Muslims.
3.And because slavery meant becoming the sex slave of a Muslim in a harem.
Jauhar was reserved for the Rajputs, the governing caste. The rest of the population, including the Brahmins, or priests, who also were part of the upper caste, plus the lower castes, did not practice this sacrifice because they generally expected to survive the capture of a city. However, in some cases, as in Chittor in 1568, all the people were killed by the Muslims.
The Difference between Sati and Jauhar
The Hindu custom of sati was that the widow would throw herself into the funeral pyre of her husband so as not to live without him, and theoretically it was voluntary.
The jauhar was to avoid becoming a sex slave of the Muslims.
A Description of a Jauhar
By extension, this term describes the practice of mass suicide from 1300 to 1600 observed by Rajput women as well as by entire communities when the taking of a city was considered certain. When the outcome of the battle left no doubt, the men rushed to certain death while the clan members who could not fight – women, children, the old and the sick – threw themselves into a fire.
Sometimes women and children were killed by the husband and father before they went out to die in combat.
The Three most Famous Jauhars
It was at the fort of Chittor in Rajasthan:
Example 1:
In 1303, when Queen Padmini, the wife of King Rattan Singh, famous for her extraordinary beauty, practiced jauhar to escape the lust of Alauddin Khilji, Sultan of the Sultanate of Delhi, the Muslim kingdom in northern India, who wanted her to be his sex slave. The queen and the other women of Chittor committed mass suicide.
Example 2:
In 1535, during the siege by Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, where 13,000 Rajput women committed suicide plus the fight to the death of 32,000 Rajput soldiers.
Example 3:
In 1568, during the siege by Akbar (1542-1605),the Mughal Emperor. He had a harem of 5,000 Hindu sex slaves and was known to like adding to his collection.
The Chanderi Jauhar
The founder of the Mughal dynasty in India was Babur (1483-1530) and in 1528 he took the fortress of Chanderi. Between 600-1,500 Rajput women (including the Queen) killed themselves to avoid becoming the sex slaves of Muslims.
Another Jauhar:that of the City of Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer has witnessed two occurrences of jauhar:
1.One in the year 1294 during the reign of Alauddin Khilji.
2.And the second during the reign of Ferozshah Tuglaq (died 1388), the Sultan of Delhi, who was a great persecutor of Hindus.
The situation of making women slaves and that a Muslim man,even if married,can have sex with her,is approuved in the Koran.
“You are taking it out of Context!”
That is the accusation made by Muslims and some non-Muslims. They mean to say: ”There is something in the Koran that limits the slavery passages to the 23 year career of Muhammad, who died in 632.”
Not according to Muhammad’s closest Companions
In reality there is nothing that limits it to Muhammad’s life. Slavery has been part of Islamic law for some 1300 years and the first 4 caliphs of Islam were friends and even relatives of Muhammad:
1.Abu Bekr: his father-in-law (ruled 632-634)
2.Omar (ruled 634-644,assasinated)
3.Othman (ruled 644-656,assasinated)
4.Ali:cousin and son-in-law (ruled 656-661,assasinated)
They all,as far as we can tell,approved of enslaving others.
Verses that a Married Muslim can have Sex with a Slave Woman to who he is Not Married (4 Examples)
Example 1:
It begins by Muhammad as a Example. Notice that a in other cultures a married man sleeping with a woman to who he is not married (whether she is his slave or not) would be committing adultery.
Chapter 33:50-52:
“O Prophet, We have made lawful for you(note: for sex):
1.Your wives who you have given their wages
2.And what your right hand owns (Note: slaves), spoils of war that God has given you,
3.And the daughters of your uncles paternal and aunts paternal, your uncles maternal and aunts maternal, who have emigrated with thee, and any woman believer, if she give herself to the Prophet and if the Prophet desire to take her in marriage, for you exclusively, apart from the believers.
4.We know what We have imposed upon them touching their wives and what their right hands own (note: slaves)that there may be no fault in you; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate………………………..Thereafter women are not lawful to you(Note: for sex), neither for you to take other wives in exchange for them, though their beauty please you, except what your right hand owns (Note: slaves); God is watchful over everything.”
Analysis
Notice that 2 times there is a distinction of the women into 2 different groups:
a.The wives of Muhammad
b. And his female slaves, which he had got through war.
So Muhammad could sleep with a woman who was not his wife, it was not adultery, if she was his slave.
Example 2:
Chapter 23:1-7:
“Prosperous are the believers who in their prayers are humble and from idle talk turn away and at almsgiving are active and guard their private parts(Note: for sex) save from their wives and what their right hands own (Note: slaves) then they are not guilty.”
Example 3:
Chapter 4:23-24:
“Forbidden to you(Note: for sex) are:
1.Your mothers and daughters, your sisters, your aunts paternal and maternal, your brother’s daughters, your sister’s daughters, your mothers who have given suck to you, your suckling sisters, your wives’ mothers, your stepdaughters who are in your care being born of your wives you have been in to, but if you have not yet been in to them it is no fault in you, and the spouses of your sons who are of your loins, and that you should take to you two sisters together, unless it be a thing of the past; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate;
2.And wedded women, save what your right hands own(Note: slaves).”
Analysis
Notice the married Muslim can sleep with his slave woman even if she is a married slave woman,married to somebody else.
“So God prescribes for you. Lawful for you, beyond all that, is that you may seek, using your wealth, in wedlock and not in licence. Such wives as you enjoy thereby, give them their wages apportionate; it is no fault in you in your agreeing together, after the due apportionate. God is All-knowing, All-wise.”
Example 4:
Chapter 70:27-31:
“And go in fear of the chastisement of their Lord, from their Lord’s chastisement none feels secure, and guard their private parts (Note: for sex)
save:
1.From their wives
2.And what their right hands own, then not being blameworthy
but who seeks after more than that, they are the transgressors.”
To verify the Koranic citations go to quranbrowser.com, which has:
1.Six translations by Muslims.
2.Four translations by Non-Muslims.
3.The text in Arabic, with Latin letters.
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