Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c5.s1.5

c5.s1.5

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.