Indian Muslims: Who Are They c5.s5.7

c5.s5.7

Under Muhammad Tughlaqs successor Firoz Tughlaq, Shams Siraj Afif notices a demographic recovery.⁷⁸ When he wrote about it, he was naturally thinking in terms of his co-religionists also. But after Firozs death civil wars and other disorders began to decimate Muslim numbers. Most of the 180,000 slaves were done away with by his son Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah.⁷⁹ Muhammad Bihamad Khani gives vivid details of how with the weakening of the Sultanate, Muslim forces were repeatedly defeated and destroyed by even local rulers like Adharan and Sumer, and how Muslims were ousted from Chandwar, Bhongaon, Bercha, Kalpi and many other places, of course with great losses in men.⁸⁰ As the fourteenth century closed, Timur arrived to kill indiscriminately, not only Hindus but also Muslims.⁸¹ Muslim numbers would also have contributed their share to famines, pestilences etc. commonly recurring in India.