Indian Muslims: Who Are They c6.s5: The Deccan
Indian Muslims: Who Are They c6.s5
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The Deccan
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The Bahmani or the kingdom of the Deccan had come into being in 1347. With the extension of its dominion and power, Muslim population saw a rapid rise. Continual war with Vijayanagar, Orissa and other smaller Hindu kingdoms brought slaves who in course of time became Musalmans. Nobles and soldiers of foreign extraction filled the army and political life of the Deccan. A few instances of these would suffice to give an idea of the acceleration of Muslim numbers in the Deccan.
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The first Bahmani king, Alauddin Bahman Shah (1347-1358) despatched an expedition against the northern Carnatic Hindu chieftains, and his booty included 1000 singing and dancing girls, *Murlis*, from Hindu temples.⁴⁰ In 1406 Sultan Tajuddin Firoz (1397-1422) fought a war with Vijayanagar and captured 60,000 youths and children from its territories. When peace was made Bukka gave, besides other things, 2,000 boys and girls skilled in dancing and music.⁴¹ Incidentally Firoz had a harem of 800 women of various nations, but of course all Muslims.⁴²
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His successor Ahmad Vali (1422-36), marched through Vijayanagar kingdom, slaughtering men and enslaving women and children.⁴³ The captives were made Musalmans.⁴⁴ Sultan Alauddin (1436-58) collected a thousand women in his harem. When it is noted that intermittent warfare between the Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms continued for more than a century and a half, the story of enslavement, conversions, and harems of kings and nobles need not be carried on. Even ordinary soldiers used to get many slaves, and at the end of the battle of Talikot (1565), large number of captives consigned to slavery, enriched the whole of the Muslim armies, for the troops were permitted to retain the whole of the plunder⁴⁵ Capture of women and children in wars with Telingana and southern chieftaincies too added to Muslim population.
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The Deccan was also full of foreign Muslims. Most of Bahman Shahs nobles were foreigners. His Afghan minister was succeeded by a Persian from Shiraz and he again by a native of Basrah.⁴⁶ Ahmads son Alauddin also surrounded himself with foreigners. No wonder that in the Bahmani kingdom two parties sprang up - Foreigners (better termad as Afaqis) and Deccanis.⁴⁷ Both were at daggers drawn for power and in politics. Humayun (1458-61) bestowed his favours upon the Foreign faction. His renowned minister Mahmud Gawan was a foreigner, who kept an army of 20,000 men.⁴⁸ Another Malik-ul-Tujjar, the governor of Daulatabad, had with him 7,000 foreign horse.⁴⁹ Sultan Ahmad had a special corps of 3,000 archers from Iraq, Khurasan Transoxiana, Turkey and Arabia.⁵⁰
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There were thus foreigners of all extractions in the Deccan - Arabs, Afghans, Abyssinians, Egyptians, Persians and Turks. Names of some officers like Saiyyad Husain Badakhshi, Mir Ali Sistani, Abdulla Kurd, Qara Khan Kurd, Ali Khan Sistani and Iftakhar-ul-Mulk Hamadani are indicative of their foreign extraction and predominant position.⁵¹ Besides the Bahmani kingdom, Vijayanagar also employed a large number of Muslims in its armies.
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One class of foreigners, the Africans, need special mention. Their dark skin made them a class apart, not being considered equal by the other fair-skinned foreigners. To the negroes were added the *Muwallads*, a name applied to African fathers and Indian mothers.⁵² In politics they were partisans of the Deccanis, in status low caste, in number very large. It would not be unsafe to assume that at the end of the fifteenth century foreigners in the Deccan were in the neighbourhood of a million.