Demography and migration

Abstract

A number of suggestions have been made for estimating urban populations for periods from which no direct data are extant, some being more convincing than others. The Islamic conquest led to the immigration into what is today Spain and Portugal of both Berbers from western North Africa and of Arabs who themselves had arrived in the Maghrib only a few generations earlier. Throughout the history of al-Andalus, nomads were never of any significance. Another major consequence of caliphal rule was the entry of Turks into the Middle East, and also into India. Under Ottoman rule Mamluks disappeared from Syria. In the first decades of Mongol domination in Iran the underground water channels were often destroyed. Anatolian and Balkan nomads of the 900s/1500s showed a certain propensity to settle down, or at least this is the impression conveyed by the tahrirs. Some information is available concerning the demographic effects of the plague in Syria and Egypt during the Mamluk period. © Cambridge University Press 2010.