Most of Akbar’s mansabdars were descendants of nobles who had migrated from Central Asia to India, or new migrants. A few, as we have seen, were indigenous Hindus. It does not appear that Punjabi Muslims—whether converts or descendants of converts—were among them. Even Akbar’s army did not contain many Punjabis. It seems that ‘the newly converted Muslims of the Punjab… were never recruited in the Mughal armies’.
