Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c5.s1.6

c5.s1.6

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.