Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c11.66

c11.66

Lahore was very populous. According to Monserrate, it was second to none either in Asia or in Europe, and "its population is so large that men jostle each other in the streets."⁴⁸ A little before the great Plague of 1616-24 William Finch noted it to be "one of the greatest cities in the east"⁴⁹ and Thomas Coryat (1612-17) considered it to be "larger than Constantinople."⁵⁰ He also says that Agra was not as large as Lahore but it was larger than Rome. The population of Constantinople in 1573 was over 300,000.⁵¹ Lahore therefore had 400 to 500,000 inhabitants in 1600.