Indian Muslims: Who Are They c5.s6.4

c5.s6.4

By the close of the fourteenth century, the situation was like this. Kashmirs introduction to Islam had started since the days of Mahmud of Ghazni. Sind and Punjab were being effectively Islamised by rulers and Mongol invaders. In Gujarat, Deccan and Malwa also, because of the campaigns of local Muslim rulers against Hindu chiefs, the number of Muslims had risen. By the last years of the century, in the heartland of Muslim power, Muslim population of Delhi and its adjoining regions rose greatly, a fact which prompted Afif to write from the qasba of Indrapat (present Indraprastha Estate) to the Kaushik-i-Shikar (present Delhi University area), five kos apart all the land was occupied There were eight public mosques, and one private mosque The public mosques were each large enough to accommodate 10,000 suppliants.⁸⁵ This clearly indicates a fairly large Muslim population in the capital city.