Women: slaves, sati and labourers

Slaves were openly sold in markets, like any other commodity, and were regularly given as gifts. When Ibn Battuta reached Sind, he bought horses, camels and slaves as gifts for Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

Female slaves did many kinds of work: some were skilled in music and dance; the Sultan employed some to spy on his nobles; most did domestic work, and some carried people in palanquins. Slaves were cheap: few families could afford to be without one.

Bernier described the practice of sati in great detail. He wrote of a twelve-year-old widow at Lahore, who was forced to her death on her husband's funeral pyre, though she was clearly unwilling and terrified.

Women's labour was crucial, in agriculture and in crafts like spinning and weaving, though travellers rarely noticed it. Some merchant women carried on trade, and even went to court to settle disputes.

Travellers' views were shaped by the context they came from: they noticed the spectacular (sati, slave markets), but much of women's everyday lives went unnoticed.