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Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17: XI. A. D. 1400-1600

Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17

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Contents

XI. A. D. 1400-1600

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A. D. 1400-1600

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A year before the dawn of the fifteenth century, Timur had claimed to have invaded Hindustan to destroy its infidels and idolators.¹ In the year 1400 India was predominantly Hindu; Muslims comprised less than 2 per cent of the population. The country south of the Krishna River right up to Cape Camorin formed the Vijayanagar empire and it was Hindu. On the west coast, the strip between Goa in the south to Chaul and (future) Bombay in the north was in the hands of independent Hindu rulers. In the Bahmani kingdom conversions and immigration were swelling Muslim numbers. But the whole of Central India with Rajasthan to the west and Gondwana to the east was Hindu. East U.P., Bihar and Orissa were also Hindu. Only in Baluchistan, portion of the Punjab west of the River Ravi, Sind and Bengal there were good number of Muslims, but there too the Hindus were in majority. In the heart of the Sultanate—the eastern Punjab, Delhi and its outlying regions, and western U.P.—Gujarat, and Malwa, Muslim numbers were rising but were not yet large. Timur might have made his declaration merely as a champion of Islam, and yet he was not wrong in his assessment of the proportion of Muslims in the overall population of India.

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¹ Sharafuddin Yazdi, *Zafar Nama*, Bib. Ind. Text (Calcutta, 1885-88), 2 Vols., II, p. 14. Also *Malfuzat-i-Timuri*, trs. in E and D, III, p. 429.

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After Timur's visitation, a number of developments took place. The Sultanate was weakened and Hindu rulers in northern India gathered strength. But a number of independent Muslim-ruled kingdoms like Gujarat, Malwa, Khandesh and Jaunpur also came into being at the expense of the weakened Sultanate. Bahmani kingdom had declared independence about the middle of the fourteenth century, and Bengal too had become virtually independent. Curiously enough the break up of the Turkish empire helped in the rapid rise of Muslim population in the fifteenth century. The Hindu rulers no doubt had gathered strength, but they had to keep on fighting against newly established Muslim kingdoms as well as the Delhi Sultanate and in the process, and whenever they were defeated, a number of their soldiers and subjects were captured and made Musalmans. Besides conversions of non-Muslims in India a large number of foreign Muslims also arrived from abroad during this period.

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To keep themselves in power, the Saiyyad and Lodi Sultans of Delhi (1414-1526) went on inviting Afghans from beyond the Indus to help them stay in power. Consequently, a large number of Afghan leaders and men came into India like "ants and locusts" and helped in the rise of Muslim population.² All these factors helped in swelling the ranks of Muslims. In this context it is worth remembering that this period was, it appears, marked by feverish Muslim proselytization even outside India. All the European visitors to India like Nicolo Conti, Athnasius Nikitin and Santo Stefano were compelled to convert to Islam on their way to India.³ In India itself, according to Barbosa, the sultans of Delhi had made life extremely difficult for the non-Muslims.⁴ Many of the northern Hindus, especially the Yogis, "unwilling to stay under the power of the Moors", became wanderers.⁵ Thus like the fourteenth century, the fifteenth also was a century of rapid rise of Muslim numbers through immigration and conversion. But in the latter half of the sixteenth century this process was by and large checked mainly due to the liberal policies of Emperor Akbar.

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² So much so that Rizqullah says that under Sikandar Lodi one half of the country was assigned to the Farmulis and the other half to other Afghan tribes. *Waqiat-i-Mushtaqi*, trs. in E and D. IV, p 547.

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³ Major, *India in the fifteenth Century*, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 7), Introduction.

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⁴ Barbosa, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 17), II, p. 230.

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⁵ *Ibid.*, I, 230-33.

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In this Section, therefore, we shall cursorily go through the history of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with a view to guaging the quantum of conversion and immigration in the various kingdoms of India, particularly those ruled by Muslim Kings, and see how Muslim numbers grew there. We shall then study the effects of Bhakti Movement, Akbar’s regulations, and Portuguese Chirstians’ proselytizing endeavour serving as brakes on the growth of Muslim numbers. And then we shall try to fix the proportion of Muslims in the demographic picture of India. In this study we are helped by a wider range of source materials than was available for the 1200-1400 period. Besides the writings of medieval chroniclers, a large number of accounts of foreign travellers are also available. The latter in particular come to our help in determining the proportion of Muslims in the population of India by the end of the sixteenth century.

The Sultanate—The Punjab, Sind and U.P.

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During Timur’s invasion the important places in the Punjab were systematically sacked. Punjab was always the first to bear the brunt of Muslim invasions directed against Hindustan, and Muslim invaders were keenly interesed in making conversions. The Ghaznavids and Ghorids had occupied it and converted many people to Islam. The Mongols had also ravaged it occasionally, and for many years at a stretch, during the reigns of Sultan Nasiruddin and Ghayasuddin Balban (1246-86), they had held the trans-Ravi and Sind regions under their sway. Under them conversions used to take place on a large scale.⁶ In the second quarter of the fifteenth century the successors of Timur were holding parts of the Punjab to ransom, and rebellions of Muslim adventurers were creating anarchical conditions.⁷ During this period and after, therefore, the Muslim population of the Punjab swelled considerably mainly due to proselytization. Immigration of foreign Muslims too was there on a good scale, for, as said earlier, the Saiyyad rulers, to deal effectively with foreign invaders and local rebels, and the Lodis to consolidate their position, invited large number of Afghans from across the Indus. Thus foreign immigration and campaigns helped in the rise of Muslim population in the fifteenth centutry Punjab.

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⁶ Mohammad Habib, *Some Aspects of the Foundation of the Delhi Sultanate*, Dr. K.M. Ashraf Memorial Lecture (Delhi, 1966), p. 20.

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⁷ For the anarchical conditions in the Punjab see Lal, *Twilight*, op. cit. (VI, n. 5), pp. 79-100.

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Uttar Pradesh formed part of the Sultanate from its very inception. Consequently “its invasion”, which brought converts, was ruled out. But in the fifteenth century, the region to the east and south of Delhi—Katehar, Doab, Bayana and Mewat—had become a problem tract under the Saiyyads, and there they contented themselves "with the ignoble but customary satisfaction of plundering the people,"⁸ and obtaining some converts in the bargain. In eastern U.P. the flourishing Muslim kingdom of Jaunpur again helped in the rise of Muslim numbers. However, the regular warfare between the Lodis and the Sharqis had made both of them compete for the friendship of neighbouring Hindu Rajas and Zamindars. Such a situation ruled out any aggressive proselytizing endeavour on the part of either. But when the Sultanate once again gathered stability, the policy of proselytization was revived. Sikandar Lodi is credited with sustained activity in this regard. His intolerance in Gwalior, Mathura, Banaras and Allahabad,⁹ his various "Islamic" regulations, and the fact that a "contemporary (inscription) declares him a staunch Muslim who made the foundations of Islam strong,"¹⁰ point to large additions to Muslim demography.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, pp. 101-109. Also C.H.I., III, p. 207.

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⁹ Lal, *Twilight*, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 5), pp. 77, 192.

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¹⁰ *Ibid.*, p. 187.

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By the fifteenth century Sind also contained a substantial population of Muslims, but when actually Sindhis converted to Islam in large numbers is not precisely known. However, Muslims had been growing in number there ever since the days of Mahmud of Ghazni. Like in Punjab, Ghaznavid governors had ruled over upper Sind.¹¹ Later on, the rule of Qubaicha, his defeat by Iltutmish, the pressure of Mongols, and the rule of the Sultanate of Delhi had all combined to Islamize northern Sind to a large extent. In Southern Sind the Sumras, a native Rajput tribe, was ousted by another Rajput tribe, the Sammas in the fourteenth century. The Sammas were Muslims and Hindus by turns,¹² but ultimately they seem to have "adopted Islam, and propagated the religion in their dominions,"¹³ so that when Firoz Tughlaq invaded Thatta in 1361, he prohibited the plunder or captivity of the people because they were Muslims.¹⁴ But the Hindus were also there in large numbers. When Sultan Mahmud of Gujarat received "complaints from Southern Sind where Muslims were said to be persecuted by Hindus," he marched to their relief in 1470. He met many leaders of Sumras, Sodas, and Kalhoras who "told him that they were professing Muslims but knew little of their faith or its rules, and were wont to intermarry with and to live as Hindus." Mahmud invited many of them to Gujarat, "where teachers were appointed to instruct them in the faith of Islam."¹⁵ In the first quarter of the sixteenth century, Shah Beg Arghun, driven from Qandhar by Babur, expelled Jam Firoz, the last of the Sammas, and his son Shah Husain took Multan in 1528. When Humayun took refuge in Sind (1541)¹⁶ Muslim population in the cities of Sind had grown considerably. The countryside had a mixed population in which half-converted Muslims and Hindus predominated.

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¹¹ *Tuhfat-ul-Kiram*, E and D., I, pp. 341-42.

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¹² *Ibid.*, p. 337.

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¹³ *C.H.I.* III, *op. cit.* (II, n. 25) p. 501; also *Tarikh-i-Masumi*, E and D, I, pp. 224-26, and *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1845, pp. 159-60.

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¹⁴ Afif, *op cit.* (II n. 15), p. 233. In Sind, "Compulsory conversions to Mahometanism were not infrequent, the helpless Hindoo being forcibly subjected to circumcision on slight or misconstrued profession, or the false testimony of abandoned Mahometans." *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1841, p. 20. Even in the nineteenth century Hindus in the service of the Amir were obliged to wear beards like the Muslims. Thornton *op. cit.* (I, n. 7), IV, p. 296.

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¹⁵ *C.H.I.*, III, *op. cit.* (II, n. 25), p. 309. Also Ferishtah *op. cit.* (II, n. 6) II, p. 317.

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¹⁶ *Ibid.*, pp. 501-502.

Kashmir

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Kashmir's conversion to Islam on a large scale also dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century. Mahmud of Ghazni had made some stray efforts at proselytization. Later on arrived in Kashmir one Shah Mirza in saintly robes from Swat in 1315. He entered the service of Sinha Deva, the ruling prince. Shah Mirza helped to oust the Hindu dynasty, and finally he himself ascended the throne in 1346.¹⁷ Thus there were Muslim kings in the Kashmir Valley from the middle of the fourteenth century. However, it was during the reign of Sikandar Butshikan (1394-1417), that the wind of Muslim proselytization blew the hardest. Under him the Kashmiris were offered the choice between Islam and exile. Some Kashmiri Brahmans committed suicide, many left the land, others embraced Islam, and a few began to live under Taqīya, that is, they professed Islam only outwardly.¹⁸ It is said that the fierce intolerance of Sikandar had left in Kashmir no more than eleven families of Brahmans.¹⁹ Thus it is due to his zeal that today in the Kashmir Valley "there are no more than 524 Hindus in every 10,000 of the population." The Raja of Jammu had been converted to Islam by Timur,²¹ but the Jammu region remained mostly Hindu.

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¹⁷ Ferishtah, *op. cit.* (II, n. 6), II, p. 337.

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¹⁸ *Ibid.*, II, p. 341.

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¹⁹ C.H.I., III, *op. cit.*, (II, n 25) p. 281. Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-1470), the Akbar of Kashmir, recalled the exiles, assuaged the fears of the Hindus, and abolished the Jiziyah, but the converts continued to remain Musalman.

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²¹ *Zafar Nama*, *op cit.* (n. 1), II, pp. 168-69. Lal, *Twilight*, *op. cit.* (VI, n 5), p. 39.

Bengal

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Most descriptions of Bengal given by European writers point to a mixed population. But "it is evident, from the numerical superiority in Eastern Bengal of the Muslims...that at some period an immense wave of proselytization must have swept over the country and it is most probable that that period was the period of Jalaluddin Muhammad [converted son of the Hindu Raja Ganesh] during whose reign of seventeen years (1414-1431) .....hosts of Hindus are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam." Other causes of large-scale conversions are said to be rivalry between Buddhism and Hinduism, the former joining hands with the Muslims,²³ excesses of the Brahmins in making *Hindus turn away from them*,²⁴ and the capture of Hindu places of worship which continued to be visited and revered by Hindus even after they had been turned into Dargahs presided over by a Shaikh in place of a Brahmin.²⁵ Muslim Sufi Shaikhs *also* converted people in large numbers by methods both of war²⁶ and of peace.²⁷ Usual mixed marriages²⁸ would have added to Muslim population. Employment prospects also helped in the rise of Muslim population, for says Barbosa: "It is obviously an advantage in the sixteenth century Bengal to be a Moor, inasmuch as the Hindus 'daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers.'"²⁹

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²⁰ *Ibid.*, p. 280.

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²² C.H.I., III, *op. cit.* (II, n. 25), p. 267.

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²³ R.C. Mitra, *The Decline of Buddhism in India* (Vishvabharati, 1954), pp. 78-79.

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²⁴ Abdul Karim, *Social History of the Muslims in Bengal*, *op. cit.* (X, n. 20), pp. 143-44.

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²⁵ *Ibid*, pp. 136-38.

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²⁶ *Ibid*, p. 125.

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²⁷ *Ibid.*, pp. 130-38.

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²⁸ *Ibid*, pp. 145-46.

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²⁹ Barbosa, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 17), II, p. 148. Also Castanheda, II, p. 441 cited in Lach, *op. cit.* (V, n. 24), I, p. 415.

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Foreign Muslims were there too in large numbers in Bengal. They migrated on several occasions and for various reasons. Some came in the wake of conquest, others as traders and businessmen.³⁰ Ruknuddin Barbak Shah (1460-74) was probably the first ruler who maintained a large number of Abyssinians as protectors of his throne. He recruited 8,000 Habshis and gave them key positions in his government. Aside from the Abyssinian eunuchs at the court, it was common for other eunuchs to act as harem guards.³¹ In addition to the Abyssinians, Bengal played host to other foreigners, especially merchants from Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and other parts of India. Many stayed on in Bengal because of its fertility, riches and cheap food.³² "Little is reported by European writers about the Hindu population of Bengal beyond remarks to the effect that their children are sometimes sold to be eunuchs, that many of them become converts to the Muslim faith, and that they constitute the majority of the population outside the port cities".³³ While European accounts of Gaur talk of a mixed population of Muslims, Hindus and foreigners (Moors), the *Manasa Vijaya* of Virpradasa (composed 1495) mentions large population of Muslims in Satgaon. It says, "The Muslim population of Saptagrama is innumerable; they belong to the Mughals, Pathans and Mokadims, Saiyyads, Mullas and Qazis……"³⁴ Obviously Bengal cities had a good number of Muslims in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

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³⁰ Abdul Karim, *op. cit.* (X, n. 20), p. 140-41.

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³¹ Barbosa, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 17), II, 147.

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³² Lach, *op. cit.* (V, n. 24), I, 416.

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³³ *Ibid.*, I, pp. 417-18.

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³⁴ Sukumar Sen, *Bangla Sahityer Itihasa* (Calcutta, 1940), p. 114, cited in Abdul Karim, *op. cit.*, p. 153.

Gujarat

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The kingdom of Gujarat was established in 1396 and its rulers were descended from Wajih-ul-Mulk, a converted Rajput. This dynasty made great efforts to spread Islam. One of its famous rulers, Ahmad Shah (1411-1442), was responsible for many conversions. In 1414 he introduced the Jiziyah, and collected it with such strictness, that it brought a number of converts to Islam.³⁵ This Jiziyah was not rescinded till Akbar's conquest of Gujarat in 1573. Even after that it took time to go,³⁶ bringing converts all the while. In 1420 Ahmad Shah punished the 'infidels' of Satpura; in 1433 raided Dungarpur and in 1440 he brought about Idar's submission.³⁷ All his conquests were accompanied by conversions and boosted Muslim demography. Mahmud Beghara's (1458-1511) exertions in the field of proselytization were equally impressive. In 1469 he led an army into Sorath against the Mandalik of Girnar. To the Raja's protests that he had paid the tribute regularly, Mahmud replied that he had come "neither for tribute nor for plunder, but to establish the true faith in Sorath." The Raja went on fighting and fleeing and resisting for a whole year, but then had to accept Islam,³⁸ and received the title of Khan-i-Jahan. It stands to reason that he did not convert alone. In 1473 a raid on Dwarka brought in some more converts. In 1484 the son of the Raja of Champanir was made Musalman (again, not alone) and in the next reign became the Amir of Idar, receiving the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk.

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³⁵ Ferishtah, *op. cit.* (II, n. 6), II, pp. 184-85. Also Satish C. Misra, *The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat* (Bombay, 1963), p. 175.

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³⁶ R.P. Tripathi, *Some Aspects of Muslim Administration* (Allahabad, 1936), p 318.

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³⁷ C.H.I., *op. cit.* (II, n. 25), III, pp. 298-300.

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³⁸ *Ibid.*, pp. 305-06.

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About *conversions through enslavement*, Dr. Satish C. Misra, who has made a special study of the history of Gujarat, writes that "the conflict (in Gujarat) veered round two main objectives—land and women. The conqueror inexorably demanded, more often forcibly wrested, both land and women..."³⁹ Surely a large number of women would have been made Musalman during these wars.

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³⁹ S.C. Misra, *op. cit.* (n. 35), p. 205.

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Immigration of foreign Muslims was also not inconsiderable. Ferishtah writes that following the example of sultan Barbak Shah of Bengal, the sultans of Gujarat and the Deccan also invited groups of Abyssinians and gave them "positions of respect and trust".⁴⁰ But Gujarat needed no lessons from Bengal. She abounded in port-towns, and these were doing brisk trade. Her industry was also well-developed. Traders arrived from abroad as well as slaves and soldiers. "Because of the constant threat from the Rajputs and other neighbouring peoples, the Sultan of Gujarat (maintained) a large standing army, recruited mostly from foreign Muslim adventurers to whom he (paid) handsome salaries." On the basis of the writings of Barbosa, Cortesão and Azevedo, Professor Donald F. Lach summarises the situation thus: "Moors from all over the Islamic world congregate in the cities of Gujarat to carry on trade or to find employment as soldiers of the sultan. In addition to the native Moors and their co-religionists of Delhi, a cosmopolitan flavour is given to life by the presence of Turks, Mamalukes, Arabs, Persians, Khurasanis, Turcomans, Abyssinians, and a sprinkling of renegade Christians."

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⁴⁰ Ferishtah, *op. cit.* (II, n. 6), II, p. 298.

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In Cambay, Ratanpur and Rander, the Portuguese found a number of foreign and Indian Muslims.⁴³ According to Orta, who wrote around 1560, there were a few local Muslims and some low caste Hindus in Bassein when the Portuguese took it in 1535-36.⁴⁴

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⁴³ Barbosa, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 17), I, p. 140; Orta and Pires in Lach, I, 404.

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⁴⁴ Lach, I, 405.

Malwa

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Since the days of Khalji and Tughlaq sultans of Delhi, there were large number of Muslims in Malwa, both indigenous and foreign.⁴⁵ These numbers went on growing during the rule of the independent Muslim rulers of Malwa, the Ghoris and Khaljis (1401-1562). The pattern of growth of Muslim population in Malwa was similar to that in the other regions. Captives made in campaigns against Kherla, Orissa, and Gagraun, in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, would have added to Muslim numbers. Similarly when sultan Mahmud led an expedition against the Hara Rajputs in 1454, he put many of them to the sword, "and sent their children into slavery at Mandu." In 1468 from the ravaged and burning town of Karahra (near Chanderi), 7,000 prisoners were taken.⁴⁷

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⁴¹ Castanheda, *Historia do descobrimento e conquista de India pelos Portugueses* (Third Ed. Coimbra, 1928), II, p. 316. Mentioned in Lach, *op. cit.* (V, n. 24), p. 399.

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⁴² Lach, I, 401.

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⁴⁵ U. N. Day, *Medieval Malwa* (Delhi, 1967), pp. 6-7.

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⁴⁶ *C.H.I.*, III, *op. cit.*, (II, n. 25) p. 356.

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⁴⁷ *Ibid.*, p. 360.

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The harem of Malwa sultans formed a great source of proselytization. The seraglio of Ghayas-ud-din (1469-1500) was filled with beautiful slave girls and daughters of Rajas and Zamindars.⁴⁸ The number of its inmates was 16,000 according to Nizam-ud-din and 10,000 according to Ferishtah.⁴⁹ However, with the rise of Rajputs to power in Malwa, the enslavement of Hindus and the proselytizing activity of Malwa rulers may not have been as sustained as in other regions. Foreign elements in the Malwa army and administration were also not conspicuous.

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⁴⁸ Day, *op. cit.* (n 45), p 244. *Ferishtah*, *op. cit.* (II, n. 6), II, p. 255.

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⁴⁹ *Tabqat-i-Akbari*, *op. cit.* (VI, n. 83) III, p. 351. Ferishtah, *op. cit.* (II, n. 6), II, 255. Dr. U.N. Day, *op. cit.* (n. 45) pp. 244-46 thinks that the figure of Nizamuddin is exaggerated. Probably it is not. When it is realised that Ghayasuddin had two battalions of Habsh and Turkish women guards, each of 500, the figure of 1600 (given by Wolseley Haig) appears to be too small to be true. In fact according to Pires, who wrote between 1512 and 1515, the king of Malwa was said to have 2,000 women warriors who rode out to battle with him (*The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires* (London, 1944), I, p. 37 cited in Lach, I, p. 420). A harem of 1600 inmates would have hardly aroused any comment from medieval chroniclers. But Ghayas's seraglio was an unique institution. It was built with beauties collected from all over the world (Ferishtah). Girls were also abducted to supply its requirements. "Besides the musicians, singers, and dancers, usually found in a royal seraglio there were goldsmiths, black-smiths, shoemakers, weavers, potters, tailors, makers of bows, arrows, and quivers, carpenters, wrestlers, and jugglers, each of whom received fixed wages, their officers, also women, being paid at high rates...". (W. Haig and Ferishtah). The wages—two seers of grain and two tankahs per head per day—given to harem inmates were so low as to make one feel that it was a stable for women rather than a harem. If the number was manageable the women would have been paid and looked after better. In view of all this, the figure of 16,000 may not, after all, be an exaggeration.

The Deccan

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The Bahmani or the kingdom of the Deccan had come into being in 1347. With the extension of its dominion and power, Muslim population saw a rapid rise. Continual war with Vijayanagar, Orissa and other smaller Hindu kingdoms brought slaves who in course of time became Musalmans. Nobles and soldiers of foreign extraction filled the army and political life of the Deccan. A few instances of these would suffice to give an idea of the acceleration of Muslim numbers in the Deccan.

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The first Bahmani king, Alauddin Bahman Shah (1347-1358), despatched an expedition against the northern Carnatic Hindu chieftains, and his booty included "1000 singing and dancing girls, *Mūrlis* from Hindu temples."⁵⁰ In 1406 Sultan Tajuddin Firoz (1397-1422) fought a war with Vijayanagar and captured 60,000 youths and children from its territories. When peace was made Bukka gave, besides other things, 2,000 boys and girls skilled in dancing and music.⁵¹ Incidentally Firoz had a harem of 800 women of various nations, but of course all Muslim.⁵²

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⁵⁰ C.H.I., III, *op. cit.* (H. n. 25) p. 375-76.

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⁵¹ Sewell, *op. cit.* (H. n. 21), pp. 57-58.

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⁵² C.H.I., III, p. 391.

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His successor Ahmad Vali (1422-36), marched through Vijayanagar kingdom, "slaughtering men and enslaving women and children."⁵³ The captives were made Musalmans.⁵⁴ Sultan Ala-ud-din (1436-58) collected a thousand women in his harem. When it is noted that intermittent warfare between the Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms continued for more than a century and a half, the story of enslavement, conversions, and harems of kings and nobles need not be carried on. Even ordinary soldiers used to get many slaves, and at the end of the battle of Talikot (1565), "large number of captives consigned to slavery, enriched the whole of the Muslim armies, for the troops were permitted to retain the whole of the plunder..."⁵⁵ Capture of women and children in wars with Telingana and Southern chieftaincies too added to Muslim population. The Deccan was also full of foreign Muslims. Most of Bahman Shah's nobles were foreigners. "His Afghan minister was succeeded by a Persian from Shiraz, and he again by a native of Basrah."⁵⁶ Ahmad's son Alauddin also surrounded himself with foreigners. No wonder that in the Bahmani kingdom two parties sprang up—Foreigners (better termed as Afaqis) and Deccanis⁵⁷ who were at daggers drawn for power and in politics. Humayun (1458-61) bestowed his favours upon the Foreign faction. His renowned minister Mahmud Gawan was a Foreigner, who kept an army of 200,000 men.⁵⁸ Another Malik-ul-Tujjar, the governor of Daulatabad, had with him 7,000 foreign horse.⁵⁹ Sultan Ahmad had a special corps of 3000 archers from Iraq, Khurasan Transoxiana, Turkey and Arabia.⁶⁰

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⁵³ *Ibid.*, p. 397.

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⁵⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 398.

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⁵⁵ *Ibid.*, III, 449; Also Sewell, *op. cit.* (H. n. 21), p. 198.

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⁵⁶ *Ibid.*, III, pp. 403-404.

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⁵⁷ H.K. Sherwani, *Mahmud Gawan, op. cit.* (H. n. 20), pp. 61-71, esp. p. 63 and n. 50.

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⁵⁸ C.H I., III, p 432.

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⁵⁹ *Ibid*, p. 406

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⁶⁰ Sherwani, *op. cit.* (II, n. 20), p. 65

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There were thus foreigners of all extractions in the Deccan—Arabs, Afghans, Abyssinians, Egyptians, Persians and Turks. Names of some officers like Saiyyad Husain Badakhshi, Mir Ali Sistani, Abdulla Kurd, Qara Khan Kurd, Ali Khan Sistani and Iftakhar-ul-Mulk Hamadani are indicative of their foreign extraction and predominant position.⁶¹ Besides the Bahmani kingdom, Vijayanagar also employed a large number of Muslims in its armies.

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⁶¹ *Ibid.*, pp. 65-68.

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One class of foreigners, the Africans, need special mention. Their dark skin made them a class apart; not being considered equal by the other fair-skinned foreigners. "To the negroes were added the *Muwallads*, a name applied to African fathers and Indian mothers."⁶² In politics they were partisans of the Deccanis, in status "low caste", in number very large. It would not be unsafe to assume that at the end of the fifteenth century foreigners in the Deccan were in the neighbourhood of a million.

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⁶² C.H.I., III, p. 404.

The Malabar Coast

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In Malabar, Muslim population increased considerably during the period of fourteenth-fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. In Quilon, the pearl fishery was monopolized by the Muslims who were there in large numbers. Such was their strength and influence that, although the ruler of Quilon and his armed retainers were always close by the city, the real arbiters of justice in local affairs seemed to be the wealthy "Moors" who ran the fishery.⁶³ Both Barbosa and Barros talk of the large number of Muhammadans, both foreign and indigenous, in Malabar. The foreigners included Arabs, Persians, Gujaratis, Khurasanis and Deccanis. The local ones were called Moplahs. They were mostly Sunnis, lived in cities and made their living by trade. They comprised about 20 per cent of the total population.⁶⁴ Barbosa contends that they were so numerous that the advent of the Portuguese alone prevented Malabar from becoming "a Moorish state."⁶⁵ A letter from Goa of the year 1568 asserts that "the Malabar nation is Muslim, and they are almost all pirates and hostile to the Christians."⁶⁶

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⁶³ Barbosa, *op. cit* (VI, n. 17), II, pp. 122-23.

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⁶⁴ W. Logan, *Malabar* (Madras, 1951), I, p. 199. Also Lach, 368-69, on the impression of Barbosa and Barros

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⁶⁵ Barbosa, II, p. 74.

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⁶⁶ Lach, *op. cit.* (V, n. 24), I, p. 447.

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Thus the rise of Muslim population through conversions was rather rapid in the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century. But proselytization to Islam received some check in the sixteenth century due to a number of factors. One was the work of the Bhakta religious reformers of the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. The aim of these reformers may not have been to stop conversions to Islam or to reconvert people to Hinduism. but as will be seen at a later stage, their message and work did help check conversions to Islam.

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Moreover, the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605) gradually removed all modes of pressures which used to compel people to become Musalmans. In 1562 he abolished the custom of enslaving helpless people in times of war ; it was mostly such captives who used to be converted to Islam by their Muslim captors and masters. In 1564 he abolished the Jiziyah : Firoz Tughlaq is witness to the fact that its strict enforcement brought many converts to Islam. Earlier in 1563 he had abolished the Pilgrim Tax on the Hindus. Thus in Akbar's time conversion to Islam by force, through enslavement, or economic pressure seems to have been restricted. Hindus could get high jobs as Hindus : conversion was not necessary to obtain them. Akbar even permitted such Hindus as had been forcibly converted to Islam to return to their original faith. Although contemporary accounts are silent on the numbers that went back to Hinduism as a result of this permission, yet it would be correct to presume that Akbar removed obstructions in a practice which was probably prevalent.

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The arrival of the Portuguese also provided a check and a challenge to Muslim proselytizing endeavour. They had captured Goa, Daman and Diu in the early years of the sixteenth century. In their triumphal entry into Goa (A.D. 1510), "the clergymen were fore the largest number of conversions probably took place under the Turks and the Afghans who ruled between c. 1300 and 1556. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Muslim rule also spread in all parts of the country either under the central authority of Delhi or under independent Muhammadan kings. Consequently, the largest number of conversions in India took place during this period.

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There is one contemporary source which gives precise information about the proportion of Muslims in the total population, but it is not reliable. In the *Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi*,⁸¹ an autobiographical memoir, Akbar's son and successor Jahangir is claimed to have written that on one occasion in a conversation with his father, Akbar is reported to have said : "My dear child......with all of God's creatures, I am at peace ; why should I permit myself, under any consideration, to be the cause of molestation or aggression to any one ? Besides, are not five parts in six of mankind either Hindus or aliens to the faith ; and were I to be governed by motives of the kind suggested in your inquiry, what alternative can I have but to put them all to death ? I have thought it therefore my wisest plan to let these men alone."⁸²

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⁸¹ "Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir, written by himself, and translated from a Persian Manuscript" by Major David Price (London, 1829), p. 15. Calcutta Edition (Bangabasi Press, 1906) pp. 21-22. This work, according to Sir Henry Elliot, does not comprise the real *Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri* or *Memoirs of Jahangir*. He also points out a number of exaggerations in which the *Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi* indulges (E and D, VI, pp. 256-264), and adds that "some parts at least...must be ranked in the same class" as fiction. (E and D, VI, p. 257). Dr. Beni Prasad, writing on the *Tarkikh-i-Salim Shahi* says : "The name of the author is unknown. On several points it is fuller than the genuine memoirs. But the work as a whole is a fabrication". (*History of Jahangir*, *op. cit.* (VII, n. 1), pp. 387-88.

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⁸² *Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi* (Calcutta Edition), pp. 21-22.

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Jahangir is supposed to have repeated this ratio at another place. "Of the whole population of Hindustan it is notorious that five parts in six are composed of Hindus, the adorers of images, and the whole concerns of trade and manufacture......are entirely under the management of these classes. Were it, therefore, ever so much my desire to convert them to the true faith, it would be impossible, otherwise than through excision of millions of men...but the massacre of a whole people can never be any business of mine.'"⁸³

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⁸³ *Ibid*., p

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These statements, attributed to Jahangir, about the proportion of Muslim population could not have been easily brushed aside but for the fact that they appear to be obviously wrong. From what we know of Akbar and Jahangir, such anti-Hindu sentiments and statements cannot be attributed to them. Whosoever be the writer of the *Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi*, he cannot delude us because, as will be seen later, Muslims were not one-sixth of the Hindu population even as late as the year 1800.

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We have, therefore, only one choice left to arrive at a tentative percentage of Muslims in A.D. 1600. It is by calculating on the earlier basis, keeping in view the periods when there was a rapid growth of Muslim numbers and when it was not so rapid. If during the period of acceleration the Muslim population became double in sixty to seventy years' time, then the 3.2 million estimated for the year 1400 would have become 6.4 in 1470 and 12.8 in 1530. Thereafter, because of the Bhakti movement and Akbar's policies, there would have been a brake put on this accelerated growth, and by 1600 Muslim numbers may not have risen beyond 15 million. In that year the total population of India has been estimated at 140 millions. Muslims would have formed about one-ninth to one-tenth of India's total population.

Cites (1)