Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c22.s4.3

c22.s4.3

It has been seen in the earlier chapter that the largest number of converts were obtained during wars through enslavement. Many people embraced Islam to escape death; and captive women and children "used to be converted to Islam".³⁰ But early in his reign (1562) Akbar abolished the custom of enslaving helpless people in times of war.³¹ These humanitarian but revolutionary steps would have automatically put a check on large-scale conversions.