Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c11.11

c11.11

Political history provides good guidelines for population assessment But the notices of a large number of foreign visitors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries help even more in estimating the population of the country during this period. Their accounts share the weakness of Ibn Battuta's narrative. They could not possibly notice any striking change in the demographic scene. But their narrative is very important in two respects. They usually write in some detail about the kingdoms and regions they visit, and often also compare Indian cities with those of Europe, and since the number of inhabitants of many European towns is now known, it helps in fixing the size of the population of Indian regions and cities in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.⁶