Muslim Slave System in Medieval India is a book written by historian K.S. Lal. It was published in 1994. It is a detailed study of the Muslim slave system in medieval India.

Slave System [ edit ]

Slavery in India was already a common practice under the rule of Muhammad bin Qasim. Female slaves were sent by Muhammad bin Qasim to Hajjaj who forwarded them to Walid the Khalifa, or they were given to the soldiers. Lal claims that "Obviously a few lakh women were enslaved in the course of Arab invasion of Sindh." and he says that "If such were the gains of the ‘mild’ Muhammad bin Qasim in enslaving kaniz wa ghulam in Sindh, the slaves captured by Mahmud of Ghazni, “that ferocious and insatiable conqueror”, of the century beginning with the year 1000 C.E. have of course to be counted in hundreds of thousands." He gives some details about Mahmud of Ghazni, about whom he writes: "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. 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."

K.S. Lal also claims that the slave-taking added significiantly to the Growth of the Muslim population in India: "It needs no reiteration that every slave captured in war or purchased in the market or sent in lieu of revenue or tribute was invariably converted to Islam, so that slave-taking in medieval India was the most flourishing and successful missionary endeavour." Lal writes that Akbar disapproved of the enslavement of women and children. In one chapter, he writes in detail about Ghilmans and Eunuchs in Medieval India.

Sex Slavery [ edit ]

About Sex Slavery, Lal writes that "In this background, it would be an unremitting task both in volume and repetition to give all anecdotes, facts and figures of enslavement and concubinage of captive women in the central and provincial kingdoms and independent Muslim states found mentioned in the chronicles. This would only lead to repetition resulting in the book becoming bulky."

Preface [ edit ]

In my book The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India, I had said that "It is not, pertinent here to make a detailed study of the Muslim slave system which was an institution as peculiar as it was unique." A detailed study of the Muslim slave system in medieval India is being made here. In The Legacy I had also said that "the best way to understand the content and spirit of Muslim rule in India" is by going through Muslim scriptures (as) all medieval chroniclers were scholars of Muslim law." In their writings they often quote from their holy books to vindicate the actions of their conquerors and kings. Hence Muslim scriptural sources are referred to quite often in the present work which is a study both in the theory and practice of Islamic slavery



