The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s6.4

c11.s6.4

So, from the days of Muhammad bin Qasim in the eighth century to those of Ahmad Shah Abdali in the eighteenth, enslavement, distribution and sale of captives was systematically practised by Muslim invaders. A few instances are necessary to have a clear idea of the monstrous practice of taking captives. When Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked Waihind (near Peshawar) in 1001-02, he took 500,000 persons of both sexes as captive. This figure of Abu Nasr Muhammad Utbi, the secretary and chronicler of Mahmud, is so mind-boggling that Elliot reduces it to 5000.⁹⁹ The point to note is that taking of slaves was a matter of routine in every expedition. Only when the numbers were exceptionally large did they receive the notice of the chroniclers. So that in Mahmuds attack on Ninduna in the Salt Range (1014), Utbi says that slaves were so plentiful that they became very cheap; and men of respectability in their native land (India) were degraded by becoming slaves of common shopkeepers (of Ghazni).¹⁰⁰ His statement finds confirmation in Nizamuddin Ahmads *Tabqat-i-Akbari* which states that Mahmud obtained great spoils and a large number of slaves. Next year from Thanesar, according to Farishtah, the Muhammadan army brought to Ghaznin 200,000 captives so that the capital appeared like an Indian city, for every soldier of the army had several slaves and slave girls.¹⁰¹ Thereafter slaves were taken in Baran, Mahaban, Mathura, Kanauj, Asni etc. so that when Mahmud returned to Ghazni in 1019, the booty was found to consist (besides huge wealth) of 53,000 captives according to Nizamuddin. But Utbi is more detailed. He says that the number of prisoners may be conceived from the fact, that each was sold for from two to ten *dirhams*. These were afterwards taken to Ghazna, and the merchants came from different cities to purchase them, so that the countries of Mawaraun-Nahr, Iraq and Khurasan were filled with them. The *Tarikh-i-Alfi* adds that the fifth share due to the Saiyyads was 150,000 slaves, therefore the total number of captives comes to 750,000.¹⁰²