The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c8.s3.2

c8.s3.2

Bactrian camels who, too, were trained to fight and must be reckoned as combatants. He was joined near Makran by some more troops under Muhammad Harun, while his artillery, which consisted of five catapults, was sent by sea to join him at Debal. Each of these five catapults or *balistas* was worked by 500 trained men, making the total of his artillery men 2,500. Add to this the Arab advance guard under Abul Aswad Jahan who was sent to join his chief on the border of Sindh and we have a total of about 25,000 troops which constituted the Arab army of invasion under Muhammad bin Qasim. His numbers continued to swell as the result of his initial success and reached the figure of 50,000. This (50,000)⁹ was the strength of his army when Muhammad bin Qasim proceeded to Multan after the subjugation of Sindh. These figures did not include his troops who fell in various battles during the campaign and those that were left in garrisons in the towns of Sindh.