Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c15.30

c15.30

Aibak entered upon a series of conquests. He despatched Ikhtiyaruddin Bakhtiyar Khalji to the East and himself captured Kol (modern Aligarh) in 1194. There "those of the garrison who were wise and acute were converted to Islam, but those who stood by their ancient faith were slain with the sword."\∗24 In 1195 when Raja Bhim of Gujarat was attacked, 20,000 prisoners were captured,²⁵ and in 1202 at Kalinjar 50,000,²⁶ "and we may be sure that (as in the case of Arab conquest of Sind) all who were made slaves were compelled to embrace the religion of the masters to whom they were allotted."\∗27 Ferishtah specifically mentions that on the capature of Kalinjar "fifty thousand *kaniz va ghulam*, having suffered slavery, were rewarded with the honour of Islam."\∗28 According to Ferishtah three to four hundred thousand Khokhars and Tirahias were also converted to Islam by Muhammad Ghori.²⁹ But some of these lived in the trans-Indus region.³⁰ Therefore the number of Khokhars who became Musalmans in India could not have been more then a hundred thousand at the most.