Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c9.4

c9.4

The region of Mahmud's activity extended from Peshawar to Kanauj in the east and from Peshawar to Anhilwara in the south-west. So the loss of population was only in northern India. Many of the places that he attacked were deserted². But dissemination of the Indian population due to foreign invasions had started even before Mahmud's time (especially during Muhammad bin Qasim's invasion of Sind³ and Subuktagin's attacks), and was continued thereafter. For instance from the *Tarikh-i-Subuktagin* of Baihaqi we learn about the attack on Banaras in A.D. 1033, only three years after Mahmud's death, by his successor Masud, resulting in great loss of life. "This year is also recorded by Indian historians", says Baihaqi, "as remarkable for a great drought and famine in many parts of the world, especially in Persia and India, in which entire provinces were depopulated."⁴