WHEN MOHAMMEDAN RULE was at the height of its spendor in India there was a considerable influx of Ethiopians, some coming as traders, but the majority as mercenaries and slaves. In time they emerged from the mass to become prime ministers, great military and naval commanders, hereditary admirals, and in several instances, sultans. As late as 1833 three of the ruling princes of India were Negroes.

These Ethiopians, or Sidis, as they are better known, first appeared in India about 1300, when a force of them seized the island-fort of Janjira, the site of Bombay. Legend has it that one of their number, disguised as a merchant, obtained permission to land 300 boxes supposed to contain imported wares but in which armed soldiers were actually concealed. Once ashore, the soldiers took the garrison by surprise and captured the island.

Finding commerce unprofitable, the Ethiopians engaged themselves as soldiers in the armies of the Brahmans. They brought tens of thousands of their women and their slaves to settle there, and in time they became the backbone of the armies. Under their own commander, they eventually became the source of central power, as did the Mazois under the Pharaohs, the Zenghs under the caliphs, and the Bokkharas in Morrocco.

Ethiopian industry, skill, and statesmanship helped greatly in making India the rich and prosperous country which the Portuguese, English, and French later found it. The principal regions in which they settled were Bombay, Gujarat, and the Deccan to the west and Bengal to the east.

The most distinguished of the Negro rulers of western India was Malik Ambar, who, beginning as a slave under Queen Chand Bibi, the Queen Elizabeth of India, rose to the top, becoming commander-in-chief of the armies of the Bombay empire.

When Queen Chand was slain by rebels in her palace in July, 1600, Malik Ambar remained loyal to the ruling dynasty. By a brilliant coup he captured Ahmadnagar, the principal fort, from the rebels, and proceeding to the city of Aurangabad, which he himself had built, he proclaimed Mustaza II, grandson of Nizan Shah, ruler with himself as regent. Seven years later, however, Malik Ambar deposed the king and seized the throne.

Malik Ambar's kingdom lay in the vast tableland of the Deccan, which lies to the east of Bombay. His nominal overlord was Jahangir, the great Mogul emperor. Soon after he took the throne, however, there was an outburst of dissension among the Moguls, and Malik Ambar, taking advantage of it, took much of their territory and even threatened Jahangir's power.

In a long war between Malik Ambar and Jahangir, fortunes shifted. Now one was victorious, then the other. Jahangir's wrath was not confined to military operations--he even took up the pen against Malik Ambar. In his writings he calls Malik Ambar many hard names, among them "black-faced wretch."

Sometimes Malik Ambar, beaten, was forced to pay large sums in tribute; at other times Jahangir's throne hung by a thread. His Ethiopian compatriots stood behind Malik Ambar to a man. On one occasion he defeated, by sheer strategy, Jahangir's force of 40,000 against which he moved with only 10,000 men. Invading the coast, Malik Ambar seized the ships of the emperor and forced the city of Bijapur, in which he started his career as a slave, to pay him tribute. Golconda, a city whose name was once synonymous all over the world with wealth, was similarly dealt with.

When in 1628 the English came to India their first contact was with Malik Ambar. He was then master of the island of Janjira, which the English, like the Ethiopians of three centuries before, wanted as a base for commerce with the interior. With gifts, promises, and flattery they tried to gain a foothold on the island, but Malik Ambar would not succumb to their blandishments.

When they tried to oust him by a conspiracy, Malik Ambar retaliated by seizing one of their caravans valued at 200,000 rupees. The English took one of his ships and demanded the return of their money. With characteristic humor, Malik Ambar sent word to the British asking if they were so absentminded as to have forgotten that they had his ship.

With rockets, cannon, and armed elephants Malik Ambar defeated Abdullah, an ally of Jahangir's, in a decisive battle in 1628, and it seemed as if Jahangir were doomed. But then Malik Ambar died, at the age of eighty.

Motamid Khan, an Indian historian, says of Malik Ambar:

This Ambar was a slave, but an able man. In warfare, in command, in sound judgment, in administration, he had no rival or equal. He well understood that predatory warfare which in the language of the Deccan, is called bargi-giru. He kept down the turbulent tribes and maintained his exalted position to the end of his life and closed his career in honor. History records no other instance of an Abyssinian slave at such eminence."

Relics of this great ruler are still to be found in his city of Aurungabad. Ferishta, another Mohammedan, historian, says of him:

Such is the esteem in which his character is held that notwithstanding the lands dedicated to the support of the attendants of his tomb, are yet left incorporated for that purpose. He was the first general, politician, and financier of his age, and his country was the best cultivated and his subjects the happiest of any in the Deccan. He founded Ghurkeh, now called Aurungabad, and ornamented it with a magnificent palace, gardens, and noble bodies of water, lined with stones, which yet remain. His charities and his justice are yet celebrated, and he was also eminent for pieties.

Nawaz Khan, another Arab historian, says similarly, "In military acts and in statesmanship and right judgment, Malik Ambar was unique."

A poet of the times compared him with Bilal, another Negro, who was Mohammed's companion and inspiration. He said:

There was Bilal, the servant of the Apostle of God

After one thousand years, there came Malik Ambar

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