Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c5.s1: Persian and Arabic Works
Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c5.s1
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Persian and Arabic Works
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Arabic and Persian works have been evaluated time and again by scholars of medieval Indian history, but primarily with a view to assessing their importance, authenticity and reliability as sources of political and social history. Here we have to see how far they are helpful in the study of medieval population. Medieval Indian historians, like all others in the medieval world, were not interested in the study of population as such. But on going through their works a little minutely, one does come across a good deal of information, and sometimes even data and statistics, which help in demographic study. It is from them that we learn that many rulers, for varied reasons, were keen on knowing about the number of their subject people. For instance, we are told by Ibn Battuta that once during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, when relief measures were undertaken at the time of a famine ‘all over Hind and Sind’, ‘jurists and judges set out registering the names of inhabitants in different streets, sending for the people and giving them provisions¹’. Akbar indeed ordered a regular census in the twentyfifth year of his reign.² Right up to the time of Aurangzeb do we hear of *sar shumārī*³ (counting of heads, census ?), which goes to show that some sort of estimate of the number of people used to be kept. Even though we have no access to such records now, stray references in the chronicles about population trends are not altogether lacking.
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¹ *The Rehla of Ibn Battuta*, English trs with commentary by Mahdi Husain, Oriental Institute (Baroda, 1953), p 84 Also p. 117.
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² Abul Fazl *Akbar Namā*, trs. in Elliot and Dowson, *History of India as told by its own historians*, 8 vols (London, 1867-77), hereafter abbreviated as E and D, VI, p. 61. I have not been able to locate this passage in the Bib. Ind. text, vols. I-III or its English trs. by H. Beveridge (Calcutta, 1948).
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³ Khafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim, *Muntakhab-ul-Lubab* (Calcutta 1889-1925) II, pp 157 ff. Also E and D, *op. cit.*, VII, (pp. 207-533) p. 247.
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For the period A.D. 1000 to 1200 one important source of information is Arab geographers and travellers. The ‘geographers’ usually travelled widely and collected all sorts of information—on the habits, manners and customs of the people, their religious and social life, articles of trade and manufacture, life at the sea-ports, regions with concentrated or dispersed population etc.—about countries whose ‘geography’ they were writing. Consequently, their notices on India have a bearing on its population structure also. A few historians also throw light on such events as hint at the rise or fall of population. For example, Alberuni, Utbi, Baihaqi and Ibn-ul Asir all write about the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni and similar happenings, and the loss or dispersal of the Indian population in the process.
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From the thirteenth century right up to the eighteenth, however, there is no dearth of Persian chronicles. These are mainly contemporary political histories, but occasionally they give description of cities and towns, figures of revenue of regions and kingdoms, centres of manufacture and trade, areas under cultivation, prices of commodities, strength of armies, people killed in wars and famines as well as periodical immigrations, and sometimes, though rarely, even mention about rise and fall of population. All this assortment of information is very useful for the study of medieval Indian population, its structure and trends. Listing such chronicles is here uncalled for; those which shed light on any area helping in population study have been referred to in their proper context. However, it may be mentioned that the important contemporary chronicles of the Sultanate period are those of Ziyauddin Barani, Amir Khusrau, Isami, and Shams Siraj Afif, and for the Mughal period there are the authentic works of Babur, Abul Fazl, Nizamuddin Ahmad, and Khafi Khan. Ferishtah, a very descriptive writer, is a great help.
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Thus there is sufficient source material in the Persian language for the period eleventh to eighteenth century. Still from the sixteenth century onwards Persian historians tend to become more informative and provide very valuable information helping demographic study. Abul Fazl's first volume of the *Ain-i-Akbari*, for example, gives prices of commodities of daily use, and the second statistics of troops who could be called to duty in field from each and every parganah of Akbar's empire. Even other sixteenth and seventeenth century writers are better equipped with information and statistics on population. In the eighteenth century the position improves still further, and Marathi and Persian works give detailed description of casualties consequent upon Aurangzeb's wars in the Deccan, Nadir Shah's invasion, Abdali's raids on the Punjab and the Third Battle of Panipat. In addition, Muslim writers many times give figures and names of those who converted to Islam from time to time, helping in the assessment of the growth of Muslim population in medieval India.