Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17.s6.6

c17.s6.6

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