Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c6.s1.22

c6.s1.22

Let us take another fourteenth century historian, Shams Siraj Afif. If Barani has a weakness for 100,000, Afif is very fond of '180,000', so that the slaves of Firoz Tughlaq numbered 180,000, the revenue from his 1200 gardens was 180,000 *tankahs*, and in his war with Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah (A.D 1353), he killed 180,000 men in Bengal.¹⁵ The immensity and coincidence of the numbers create misgivings. On checking up it appears that while the figure in the case of slaves and revenue from gardens seems to be more or less correct, the numbers of people killed in Bengal are exaggerated.¹⁶ To make us believe him, Afif gives detailed description of the war in Bengal. The army of Ilyas consisted of 10,000 horse and 200,000 foot. He was almost lured into an ambush. The slaughter of Bengalis went on for a whole day and in an area of seven *kos* around. After the massacre the Sultan ordered his soldiers to collect the heads of the slaughtered, promising to give one silver *tankah* for each head. The troops therefore took to the task in all earnestness. The heads were counted in the Sultan's presence and were found to be 180,000.¹⁷ The chronicler has left no stone unturned to convince us of his veracity. Still the figure seems to be unduly. large for Firoz Tughlaq; it could have fitted in with the narrative of massacres of Chingiz or Timur. And then there is the authority of the *Sirat-i-Firoz Shahi*, which says that only 60,000 were killed.¹⁸