Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c12.42

c12.42

In the seventeenth century a larger number of European travellers than in the previous one came to India ; and their impressions of Indian towns and cities point to an upward trend of the population.²⁸ On the west coast the great city of Cambay was on the decline because of the difficulties of berthing the ships,²⁹ but many other port towns were rising to importance. Thatta³⁰ and Multan³¹ were also on the decline. But otherwise a number of new towns sprang up and small villages and towns developed into cities. Ahmedabad was founded in 1411, but by the time De Laet wrote