History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c17.s2.4

c17.s2.4

(On lines similar to these were fixed the prices of slaves and cattle.) In medieval times slaves of both sexes, like any other commodity, were sold in the market and the sultan fixed prices for them also. The standard price of a working girl was fixed at from 5 to 12 *tankahs*, and that of a good-looking girl from 20 to 30 and even to 40 *tankahs*. If a very beautiful slave girl of a very high price, say of 100 or 200 *tankahs*, was offered for sale in the market, nobody dared to buy her for fear of the *munhiyāns* (secret police), lest the king should be informed that a particular person was rich enough to pay so high a price for a slave girl. The prices of boys were fixed from 20 to 30 *tankahs*. The slave-boys were classified according to their looks and working capacity. As was the case with the horse market, in the slave market also it was not possible for the dealers and monied men to go about showing or seeing slave boys or girls or tampering with their prices. The punishments inflicted on brokers for contravening the orders of the king were very severe and Barani exaggeratingly, though not untruthfully, says that such penalties were inflicted on the brokers that even life became distasteful to them, and they longed for death.