Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c11.58

c11.58

Ahmedabad, the capital of the province of Gujarat, was equally prosperous and populous. Founded by Ahmad Shah of Gujarat (1411-42), it rapidly developed into a great city. Abul Fazl's description that the city had 380 wards, "each of which is like a city", may be exaggerated.⁴² But Ali Muhammad Khan, the author of *Mirat-i-Ahmadi*, repeats the information of Abul Fazl and says that each of the 360 to 380 *puras* (residential quarters with bazars) was surrounded by a wall. He mentions 110 *puras* by name and gives details about their situation. Amin Ahmad Razi, the author of *Haft Aqlim*, completed in 1593, also praises it in glowing terms.⁴³ M.S. Commissariat also observes that "by the end of the sixteenth century...Ahmedabad came to be regarded as the largest city in Asia".⁴⁴ There is no doubt that the city and its suburbs had a very large population, but the arbitrary estimate of two to three millions by T. C. Hope in his *Architecture of Ahmedabad* (1866) is based on no authority.⁴⁵ Fedrici who returned to Venice in 1581 says that Ahmedabad was like Cairo.⁴⁶