Abraham Eraly - The Age of Wrath - A History of the Delhi Sultanate

In Kerala the chieftains there had the odd custom of turning battles into duels, which, though a savage sport, had the advantage of minimising bloodshed. ‘When they are in battle, and one army is distant from the other two ranges of a crossbow, the king says to the Brahmins, “Go to the camp of the enemy, and tell the king to let one hundred of his Naeri come, and I will go with a hundred of mine.” And thus they both go to the middle of the space, and begin to fight in this manner,’ reports Varthema. ‘And when four or six on either side are killed, the Brahmins enter into the midst of them, and make both parties return to their camp. And the said Brahmins immediately go to the armies on both sides, and say, “ Nur manezar hanno ?” The king answers, “ Matile ?” That is, the Brahmins ask, “Do you wish for any more fight?” And the king answers, “Enough, no?” And the rival king does the same. In this manner they fight, one hundred against one hundred. This is their mode of fighting.’

THIS MODE OF battle was evidently feasible only in small kingdoms with small armies. Major Indian kingdoms, of Hindus as well as of Muslims, but particularly Hindu kingdoms, deployed immense armies in battle, sometimes as many as several hundred thousand soldiers.

These armies consisted of a number of permanent divisions, as well as a large number of temporary recruits. In the case of the permanent Delhi Sultanate army, its core was made up of a central elite corps, a major division of which was stationed in the royal capital and it always accompanied the sultan on his campaigns, and served as his bodyguards. The other divisions of this elite army were stationed in various provincial forts and along the frontiers of the empire. Apart from this central army, the Sultanate army had several other contingents, recruited and maintained in the provinces by the fief ( iqta ) holders of the empire, and these contingents made up the bulk of the Sultanate army. The overall command of the entire army of the Sultanate was with an officer titled Ariz-i-mumalik, who functioned directly under the sultan.

The soldiers of the central elite corps were recruited with great care, their strength and skill tested in various ways, and their salaries adjusted according to their merit. ‘When anyone comes desiring to be enrolled in the army as an archer, he is given one of the bows to draw,’ reports Battuta. ‘They differ in stiffness, and his pay is graduated according to the strength he shows in drawing them. Anyone desiring to be enrolled as a trooper sets off his horse at a canter or gallop, and tries to hit a target set up there with his lance. There is also a ring there, suspended from a low wall; the candidate sets off his horse at a canter until he comes level to the ring, and if he lifts it off with his lance he is considered a good horseman. For those wishing to be enrolled as mounted archers there is a ball placed on the ground, and their pay is proportioned to their accuracy in hitting it with an arrow while going at a canter or gallop.’ There were presumably similar procedures for the recruitment of soldiers in the provincial armies of the Sultanate as well.

All soldiers were required to keep themselves fighting fit always, but the rigour of the royal control of the army varied from sultan to sultan, Balban and Ala-ud-din being particularly strict about it. On the whole, the Indian armies of the age were usually in fine fettle, as they were almost continuously engaged in wars.

THE MAIN WEAKNESS of the Indian armies was that none of them were cohesive forces, but were made up of different groups of soldiers based on their race, language and religion. In addition to these, Hindu soldiers were further divided by inviolable sect and caste taboos. These Hindu social divisions affected the armies of Muslim kings also, for they all had a large number of Hindus in them, particularly in the infantry.

The custom of recruiting Hindus into Muslim armies began right from the very first Muslim military penetration into India, the Arab conquest of Sind in the early eighth century. The practice continued under the Ghazni and Ghuri sultans, and it became quite pronounced under the Delhi sultans. The provincial armies of the Delhi Sultanate in particular had a large proportion of Hindus. The dependence of the sultans on Hindu recruits became even more pronounced when the migration of Turks into India dwindled soon after the founding of the Delhi Sultanate, because of the interposition of Mongols between India and Central Asia. Later a small number of Europeans, mainly the Portuguese, joined the Indian armies, particularly in the Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms.

And just as a large number of Hindu soldiers served under sultans, so also a fair number of Muslim soldiers served under rajas. Both these practices began from the very beginning of the history of the Hindu-Muslim military engagements — while Muhammad Qasim, the commander of the very first Muslim army invading India, had a number of Hindus in his army, his adversary, Dahar, the raja of Sind, had some 500 Arabs in his army. Similarly, in the mid-twelfth century, half a century before the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, a number of Muslim soldiers are known to have served in the army of the Hoysalas in peninsular India. Later, the rajas of Vijayanagar also recruited a good number of Muslims for their armies.

There was a general preference in India at this time, in Muslim as well as Hindu kingdoms, to recruit foreigners for the army, particularly as cavalrymen, cannoneers and musketeers. According to Ferishta, the sultan of Bijapur employed in his army a large number of foreign soldiers, such as Afghans, Abyssinians, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Uzbeks, and so on. And both Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms had several European soldiers in their armies, serving as cannoneers and musketeers. A number of Portuguese marksmen are recorded to have served in the army of Krishnadeva of Vijayanagar during his campaign against Adil Shah of Bijapur, and were particularly effective in shooting down the defenders on the fort walls of Raichur.

THE OFFICERS OF the Delhi Sultanate were paid their salaries either in cash or by assigning to them the revenues of particular tracts of land. Of these two modes of payment, the land revenue assignment, iqta , was generally preferred by the Delhi sultans — as well as by most Hindu kings — as it substantially reduced the administrative burden of the state. The officers who were thus allotted lands were required to meet, from the revenue of the lands given to them, the administrative expenses of their fiefs, maintain the military contingent assigned to them, and take their own salary.

The revenue from iqta lands was however only a part of the income of army officers. A major part of their income, as well as of the income of common soldiers, came from their share of war booty. Even though they were in medieval Indian sultanates generally allowed to keep only one-fifth of the booty they collected — instead of the four-fifth they were originally allowed to keep under the Sharia prescription — this restriction was probably more than compensated by the abundance of booty they could collect during the innumerable wars waged by their kings. Cavalrymen, who played the most decisive role in medieval wars, were usually paid double the salary of infantrymen, and those who showed high valour in battle received special bonuses from the king.

Most Indian kingdoms maintained incredibly large armies, but it is hard to believe some of the figures given in medieval chronicles. Muhammad Tughluq’s army, according to Barani, was ‘as numerous as a swarm of ants or locusts.’ Arabic sources claim that the sultan’s army, central and provincial forces together, had a total strength of 900,000 soldiers! And Afif states that when Firuz Tughluq campaigned in Bengal he led an army that ‘consisted of 70,000 cavalry, innumerable infantry, 470 warlike elephants, and many barrier-breaking boats,’ and that the army that he led into Sind ‘consisted of 90,000 cavalry and 480 elephants.’