Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c14.17

c14.17

The cheapness of price of young slaves is indirectly attested to by Ibn Battuta also. Such was their influx that at one place he writes, Once there arrived in Delhi some female infidel captives, ten of whom the Vazir sent to me. I gave one of them to the man who had brought them My companion took three young girls, and I do not know what happened to the rest.³⁴ Thousands of slaves were captured in the minor yearly campaigns of Firoz Tughlaq and obviously sold, for, says the contemporary chronicler Shams Siraj Afif that in places which are sacked and looted the captives are selected as per royal regulations. Those fit for royal service (alone) are sent to the court.³⁵ The others were sold. It was under such a system that one of Firozs slaves Bashir Sultani could buy with money 4,000 slaves (*mal kharida*) for his personal service.³⁶