Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c10.24

c10.24

During the fifteenth century exertions for proselytization through enslavement were going on in the Muslim ruled regions which had broken away from the Delhi Sultanate and established independent kingdoms like Gujarat, Malwa, Jaunpur, Khandesh, Bengal and the Deccan. Detailed accounts of these are found in my two books,³⁵ and one who wants to delve deep into the subject has to go through them. For obvious reasons, major portions of the books cannot be reproduced here though they are very relevant in the present context. However, a page or two from one of them may be repeated here for two reasons: (1) not to leave a gaping vacuum in the present narrative and (2) to give an idea of slave-making in South India because we have, by and large, concentrated only on the North in the preceding pages. The first Bhamani King, Alauddin Bahman Shah (1347-1358) despatched an expedition against the northern Canatic Hindu chieftains, and his booty included 1000 singing and dancing girls, *Murlis*, from Hindu temples.³⁶ 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 music³⁷ His successor Ahmad Vali (1422-36) marched through Vijayanagar kingdom, slaughtering men and enslaving women and children.³⁸ The captives were made Musalmans.³⁹ 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 half, the story of enslavement and conversions 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 plunder.⁴⁰ ⁴¹