Mughal Army | |
---|---|
ارتش مغل | |
Founded | c. 1556 |
Disbanded | c. 1806 |
Headquarters | Exalted camp / Victorious camp[1] |
Leadership | |
Former Military | Timurid Army |
Padishah (Great Emperor) | Mughal Emperor |
Grand-Vizier | Mughal Vazere'azam |
Personnel | |
Military age | 15-25 years |
Available for military service | 911,400-4,039,097 infantry[2] 342,696 cavalry[2] 4.4 million[3]-26 million in total[4], age 15–49 |
Expenditure | |
Budget | 12,071,876,840 dams[2] |
The Army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselves, were in the cavalry-based armies of central Asia, its essential form and structure was established by the empire's third emperor, Akbar. The regular forces mainly recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.
During the 17th century, the Mughal empire possessed the largest military on earth,[5] with its strength numbering 911,400-4,039,097 infantry and 342,696 cavalry.[2] Alternatively, according to the census by Abul Fazl, the size of the army was roughly about flat 4.4 million, with less than half a million trained as cavalry.[6]: 89–90 [3] While modern India historians put far bigger number in 26 million personnels.[4]
The Mughals were considered as a dominant military force in India.[7] Employing their superior engineering to military affairs and logistic mastery. Historians has compared Mughal army with the Roman Empire or United States Armed Forces in term of their brute force,[8][9]: 276 [6]: 158 while the logistical superiority alone, the Mughals was comparable with the British Army during the Victorian Era.[10] Stephen Morillo also noted that western scholarship generally overlooked the destructive scale of Asian empire such as the Mughal were in their military operations, not unlike the Roman empire.[11]
British historian Jeremy Black viewed that the Mughal armies struggles until their decline in the wake of Nader Shah's invasion of India was reflected the Asiatic military development in the 17th century. Black's evaluation contrasted other modern military historians who opined that the Asian empires military during 17 century were influenced by in Military Revolution Europe.[12]
Other expert such as Irfan Habib and Farhat Hasan noted that Mughal cavalry are practically unmatched military organization in Indian subcontinent conflicts.[13][14] The superiority of their heavy cavalry discipline and shock charge were a staple of Mughal cavalry.[15][16] By the period of 16th-17th century, the horses for Mughal empire were imported mostly from the countries of Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia.[17]
Due to their military patronage of gunpowder warfare; Marshall Hodgson and his colleague William H. McNeill considered the Mughal as one of Gunpowder empires.[18] The mughal employed heavy cannons, light artillery, grenade, rockets,[6][19]: 133 [20] and heavy mortar among others.[21]Heavy cannons were very expensive and heavy for transportation, and had to be dragged by elephants and oxen into the battlefield.
The Mughal naval forces were named Amla-e-Nawara. It is recorded that In Dhaka alone, the Amla-e-Nawara fleet contains 768 ships with 933 foreigner crews of Portuguese origin and of 8,112 artillery personnel in the eastern part.[22] They maintained fleets of warships and transport ships.[23]
Stephen Rosen's calculations show that even the most conservative figures for Indian soldiers percapita are at least as high as those for Europe at the end of the Thirty Years' War (1650), that is, 550,000, or 0.5 percent of a population of some 105 million (Europewest of the Urals, including Scandinavia, Britain, European Russia, Spain, and the Balkans). He also states that the actual numbers may be closer to ten times the inci- denceofsoldierspercapitainEuropeduringthatwar.Furthermore,insharp contrast to European states, the Mughals controlled only a small propor- tion of the total military forces in India. The Ain-i-Akbari gives the empire's total number of soldiers in the 1590s as 4.4 million, which includes local militia, consisting mainly of foot soldiers outside of Mughal control. This represents 3 percent of an estimated population of 135 million in 1600.
harrison
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Mughal, Memorial Jon Guilmartin
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Societies and Military Power India and Its Armies; Stephen Peter Rosen
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Jeremy Black; Mughal logistic
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Others suggest that it was not artillery but cavalry that made the Mughals invincible in the
rockets were upgraded versions of Mughal rockets utilised during the Siege of Jinji by the progeny of the Nawab of Arcot
Masters of Warfare Fifty Underrated Military Commanders from Classical Antiquity to the Cold War; Pinzelli; Akbar
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Mughal Forts on Fluvial Terrains in Dhaka; UNESCO
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).NAVAL STRATEGY OF THE MUGHALS IN BENGAL
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).