The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s4.6

c8.s4.6

Like the procedure of recruitment, the schedule of training too was strenuous. If the Samanid traditions had not been given up in India, the training of a slave-soldier described in Nizamul-Mulks *Siyasat Nama* should have turned him into a veteran warrior in the course of a few years. In the first year after his purchase, the *ghulam* was trained as a foot-soldier, and was never permitted, under penalties, to mount a horse. In the second year, he was given a horse with plain saddle. After another years training he received an ornamental belt, and so on. By the seventh year alone was he fully trained and fit to become a tent-commander.¹³⁹ The training of a boy-slave recruit in the Sultanate might have been more or less similar. Details about such training are not available in medieval Indian chronicles, but Barani does hint at it when he speaks about Balbans trained soldiers (*tarbiyat-yafta lashkar*).¹⁴⁰ For experienced soldiers constant campaigns, tournaments, sports, *shikar* and regular reviews were enough to keep them fit and alert.¹⁴¹