Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c5.s4.t2.59

c5.s4.t2.59

They are said to have come to India from Roh, a territory between Hasan Abdal and Kabul, and claimed to be descended from the Sultans of Ghur. Firuz Shah Tughluq was the first monarch who extended his favours to the Afghans though the latter had come and settled in Hindustan long before.¹ The Mongol invasions introduced a small element of Mongols who accepted Islam and were favoured by the State in the beginning. They were given the appellation of *Nau-Muslims* or new-converts to Islam. 'Ala-ud-din Khalji massacred them wholesale on the rebellion of some of them in Gujarat.² The Tughluqs are supposed to be of a 'mixed breed' being originally the slaves of Sultan Balban who had intermarried with the Jats in Hindustan.³ The later Mughal conquest of India introduced many Persians, Mongols, and Turks into the existing classes of nobles. In coastal towns, especially on the coast of Gujarat, all sorts of Muslim foreigners—the Arabs, the Abyssinians, the Persians, the Afghans, the people of Java, the Turks, the Egyptians, and still others, came to be domiciled and added to the variety of the racial stock of the Muslim upper classes of Hindustan.⁴ More important among these classes were the Turks in the beginning, and the Afghans and the Mughals at the close, of the period. The relations between the Mughals and the Afghans were not very pleasant for a while, until at last the passage of time healed all rancours and reconciled the latter to the dominion of the former.⁵ We may add to these classes the Rajput chiefs of Rajputana who stoutly held to their ground in opposing the Muslim domination, until at last the Sultanate recognized their status. We meet these chiefs earlier in the period as vassals at the Court of the Sultan or occasionally at the Courts of his.