History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.231

Language: English

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As the government was a military despotism, the maintenance of a large standing army was a necessity for, without it, it was impossible to manage such a huge empire, greater in extent than that of Akbar. The author of the *Masālik-al-Absār*, who derived his information in certain cases from men who had served in the army of the Sultan of Dihli writes⁹³ that the royal army consisted of 900,000 horsemen, some of whom were stationed near the Prince and the rest were distributed in the provinces, 3,000 caparisoned elephants with *howdahs* (towers) placed upon them, each carrying from six to ten fighters, and 20,000 Turkish mamluks, who marched by the king's side and fought in front of him. Besides these there were 10,000 eunuchs, 1,000 spearmen, 1,000 *bashmaqdārs* and 200,000 slaves who marched with the Sultan.⁹⁴ These figures seem to have been considerably exaggerated, but there is no doubt that the strength of the imperial army in these times was formidable. Barani and Ibn Batūṭah mention the huge armies which the Sultan collected in order to lead his expeditions against hostile chiefs.

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According to Barani, when the Sultan formed the project of a Khorasanese expedition, 370,000 horsemen were enrolled in the muster-master's office (Diwān-i-'Arz) and lakhs and Crores were spent from the public treasury in maintaining them for one year.⁹⁵ This does not include the provincial auxiliaries, for surely the provinces could not have been depleted of their troops for an expedition outside Hindustan. Ibn Batūṭah in his account of the Qarājīl expedition estimates the royal army which marched under the command of Malik Nukbah at one hundred thousand horse and foot.⁹⁶ Excepting the figures given by the author of the *Masālik* there are no data which can enable us to arrive at the correct numbers of the army. A study of later military systems will enable us to form some idea of the military strength of Muhammad Tughluq. Sultan Firuz whose empire was confined merely to the northern region had 90,000 horse in Dihli in addition to the provincial garrisons and the slave corps which numbered 180,000.⁹⁷ That the army of Firuz was sufficiently large is indicated by the huge levies which he mobilised to suppress rebellions in the provinces. During his first expedition against Lakhnauti the army contained 90,000 horse and during the second it contained 70,000 cavalry, 470 elephants and a large number of boats. The infantry too must have been considerable, for we find it mentioned in the case of the provincial armies.

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Shams-al-Din of Bengal opposed the Sultan with 10,000 horse, lakhs infantry and 50 elephants and Jām Bābiniyah of Sindh was able to collect 20,000 cavalry and 4 lakhs infantry. Even if we make allowance for the fact that a large number of men must have been irregulars, it must be admitted that the strength of the royal army was considerable. The number of slaves given by the *Masālik* in Muhammad’s reign, does not seem to be correct for in speaking of the slave-system of Firuz, Shams-i-Siraj ‘Afif writes that the number of slaves had increased out of all proportion. He further adds that none of the Sultan’s predecessors had ever collected so many slaves. The largest corps was 50,000 under ‘Ala-al-Din and after him no Sultan had raised a large body of them until the time of Firuz.⁹⁸ The strength of Sher Shah’s army is given as one lakh fifty thousand cavalry, 25,000 infantry, 5,000 elephants exclusive of the garrisons in the 47 Sarkārs of his empire.⁹⁹ Muhammad must have surely needed a larger army than that of Firuz and Sher Shah, for he had to rule a vast empire teeming with hostile races. The army consisted of men of all nationalities—Turks, Khātians, Persians and Indians. There were among them not only skilled horsemen and soldiers, but also excellent athletes and numerous archers who possessed strong bodies and who were well-versed in the art of fighting.¹⁰⁰ Foreigners were largely employed in the army so that the amirs sadah were to be found in all parts of the empire.

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All these were entered in the registers of the muster-master’s office In times of need the Sultan could summon forces from the provinces and Barani and Ibn Batūṭah both agree that during the revolt of ‘Ain-al-Mulk forces were called from Samana, Amroha, Baran, Kol, and Ahmadabad.¹⁰¹