Historical analyses of slavery in India generallyemphasize the escalation of this social institutionduring the era of Muslim domination in north India.The present study is not an exception to this rule.However, while historical records make it clear thatthe Delhi Sultans and Mughal emperors retainedslavery in order to suit their political andeconomic needs, it should be emphasized that Muslimrulers did not introduce slavery to thesubcontinent. Sources such as theArthaśāstra, theManu-smrti and theMahābhārata demonstrate thatinstitutionalized slavery was well established inIndia by the beginning of the common era. Earliersources suggest that it was likely to have beenequally widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha(sixth century BC), and perhaps even as far back asthe Vedic period. Furthermore, just as slavery wascommon in India long before the eighth-centuryIslamic conquests in Sind, recent work demonstratesthat the institution continued, in variousmanifestations, well after the decentralization ofthe Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century.Still, it is argued here that the expansion ofslavery in Muslim India is an important component ofthe medieval and early modern history of the regionand, at least in terms of its role in the commercialand cultural relations of India and Central Asia, itis a subject that would benefit from furtherhistorical analysis.