en masse to more lenient neighboring countries, particularly Ladakh. As a symbolic assertion of power, the Sikhs regularly desecrated Muslim places of worship, including closing of the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar and the conversion of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore to an ammunition store and horse stable, but the empire still maintained Persian administrative institutions and court etiquette; the Sikh silver rupees were minted on the Mughal standard with Persian legends. A group of Persian Jewish refugees from Mashhad, escaping persecution back home in Qajar Persia, were granted rights to settle in the Sikh Empire around the year 1839. Most of the Jewish families settled in Rawalpindi (specifically in the Babu Mohallah neighbourhood) and Peshawar. Administration The empire was divided into various provinces (known as Subas), them namely being (with their estimated population in the year 1838): Lahore (est. population of 1,900,000) Multan (est. population of 750,000) Peshawar (est. population of 550,000) Derajat (est. population of 600,000) Jammu and Hill States (est. population of 1,100,000) Demography The population of Khalsa empire during the time of Ranjit Singh’s rule was estimated to be around 12 million people. There were 8.4 million Muslims, 2.88 million Hindus and 722,000 Sikhs. The religious demography of the empire is estimated to have been just over 10% to 12% Sikh, 80% Muslim, and just under 10% Hindu. Surjit Hans gave different numbers by retrospectively projecting the 1881 census, putting Muslims at 51%, Hindus at 40% and Sikhs at around 8%, the remaining 1% being Europeans. The population was 3.5 million in 1831, according to Amarinder Singh's The Last Sunset: The Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar. Hans Herrli in The Coins of the Sikhs estimated the total population of the empire to be around 5.35 million during 1838. An estimated 90% of the Sikh population at the time, and more than half of the total population, was concentrated in the upper Bari Doabs, Jalandhar, and upper Rechna Doabs, and in the areas of their greatest concentration formed about one third of the population in the 1830s; half of the Sikh population of this core region was in the area covered by the later districts of Lahore and Amritsar. Revenue Decline After Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the empire was severely weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. This opportunity was used by the British East India Company to launch the First Anglo-Sikh War. The Battle