The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s4.7

c8.s4.7

The Sultanates army comprised both cavalry and infantry. It had an elephant corps. Camels and ponies and other animals were also used for commissariat service. But the most important wing of the army was the cavalry. Cavalry comprises the man and his mount. In India, only in some places of eastern Punjab like the Shiwaliks, Samana, Sunnam, Tabarhind, Thanesar and the Country of the Khokhars, good quality horses were found in sufficient numbers.¹⁴² But these horses were inferior to the horses of West-Asia breed, and importation of war-horses from abroad became an imperative necessity for the Sultans of Delhi.¹⁴³ Medieval chroniclers speak of Yamani, Shami, Bahri and Qipchaqi horses as being in use by soldiers in India, and there was large-scale importation of horses into India from Arabia.¹⁴⁴ According to Ziyauddin Barani, Alauddin Khalji is said to have had 70,000 horses in his *paigahs* (stables) in Delhi.¹⁴⁵ The Arab geographer Ahmad Abbas Al-Umari states that Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq distributed to his retinue 10,000 Arab horses and countless others. Even Firoz Tughlaq, who is said to have neglected the army, maintained extensive *paigahs*.¹⁴⁶ Horses were a perishable commodity and deaths and even epidemics among them were common.¹⁴⁷ Therefore, foreign breed war horses were constantly imported in India at great cost to keep the *paigahs* well stocked.