Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c7.7

c7.7

When Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked Waihind 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 5000.¹⁰ 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 Punjab (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 (in Ghazni).¹¹ His statement finds confirmation in later chronicles including 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.¹² Thereafter slaves were taken in Baran, Mahaban, Mathura, Kanauj, Asni etc. When Mahmud returned to Ghazni in 1019, the booty was found to consist of (besides huge wealth) 53,000 captives. Utbi 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 Mawarau-un-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 750,000.¹³