Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c6.s1.38

c6.s1.38

In this context it may be necessary to say a word about how the information and data about casulties in war were obtained by medieval writers. Killing the ‘enemy’ and counting the dead in *field have been a pleasure and a pastime of the strong through the ages.* In primitive societies the victors used to cut the thumbs of those whom they killed, make garlands of these, and wear them as trophies. Necklaces of skulls are also not unknown. Similarly in ancient Egypt, “the military secretaries, immediately after the conclusion of a battle reckoned the number of the slain in the presence of the king. This counting was done by cutting off the hands......”²⁷ In medieval times we come across repeated references to the raising of “towers of skulls” after battles, or to the actual sending of heads of the killed to the court,²⁸ which would have helped in computing the numbers of the killed.