Export industries and handicraft production under the Sultans of Kashmir

Abstract

This article examines the evidence of change and growth in the external trade of the Vale of Kashmir under the rule of the independent Sultans of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The fertility and temperate climate of the enclosed lacustrine plain (‘Vale’) of Kashmir, situated on a caravan-route between hot and cold zones, was capable of sustaining a considerable artisanal population. The historical vectors of an industrial expansion at the beginning of the fifteenth century included the changed political configuration of Transoxania and Iran, which followed the conquests of Amir Timur Gurkan (d.1405 AC). From this direction, innovatory techniques of manufacture and novel aesthetic criteria were probably introduced into Kashmir via the presence of recently imported artisans in Timur's new metropolis of Samarqand. Of importance among the profitable export handicrafts produced in this favourable location were the famous Kashmir shawls made from the fine hair of high-altitude (‘Tibetan’) goats, woven in a ‘twill-tapestry’ technique. The looms for these textiles, which are of a type not attested at an earlier date elsewhere on the Indian subcontinent, may be derived from those of weavers recently deported and settled in Samarqand as a result of Timur's military campaigns and conquests. The planned import into Kashmir of innovations in weaving and other handicraft industries intended for export can be attributed to the Sultan Zayn al-‘Abidin (r., 1520–70 AC). There is also evidence of the continued production in Kashmir of such manufactures for export through the sixteenth century. These manufactures were of economic importance when Kashmir was annexed to the Indian Mughal Empire at the close of the sixteenth century. After the extension of Mughal rule to Kashmir, visitors to the valley noted the prosperity of Kashmiri merchants engaged in long-distance export trade.