Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17.s7.9

c17.s7.9

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