Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c10.53

c10.53

But knowledgeable people in India itself were aware of a demographic decline, so that by the time Muhammad bin Tughlaq died, it had become obvious that the population had greatly dwindled because of constant warfare, foreign invasions, famines and pestilence.⁵² That is why when during Firoz Tughlaq's reign (A.D. 1351-88), no Mongol invaders crossed the Sindh,⁵³ and the sultan himself renounced the path of war and destruction, his contemporary chronicler Shams Siraj Afif, noticed a rise in population. He writes, "the subjects of the Sultanate increased to such an extent and there was such increase in population that in every *iqta* and *pargana*, a village was established (inhabited) at every four *kos*."⁵⁴ The Sultan's water-courses and canals gave the benefit of extended cultivation to hundred of miles. His bringing under cultivation waste or "dead" land, his clearings of old fields and new settlements lent a helping hand in demographic recovery.⁵⁵