The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c28.86

v3.c28.86

The relations of the Bahmanids with their subjects closely resembled those of their contemporaries and co-religionists with the peoples of northern India, and where it differed, differed, perhaps, for the worse. Little heed was paid to the interests of the Hindu peasantry, and the Russian merchant, Athanasius Nikitin, describes the poverty and misery of the children of the soil and the wealth and luxury of the nobles. Muhammad III who was reigning when he was sojourning in the Deccan was, even in 1474, described as being ‘in the power of the nobles,’ of whom the chief was Mahmūd Gāvān, Malik-ut-Tujjār, who kept an army of 200,000 men. Another kept 100,000 and another 20,000 men, and many *khāns* kept 10,000.