South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c16.7

c16.7

‘Nizamu-d-din Ahmed relates, that he has seen, in some respectable works, that the tribe of Khalich or Kalij, is descended from Khalich Khan, a son-in-law of Chengiz Khan, and that his history is this:—Kalij Khan and his wife constantly disagreed, but he was afraid of throwing her off on account of the power of his father-in-law. At length when Chengiz Khan, having pursued Jalalu-d-din Khwarazm Shah to the banks of Indus, was on his return towards Iiran and Turan, Kalij Khan, being well acquainted with the mountainous country of Ghur and Jurjistan, watched his opportunity to throw off his allegiance to Changiz Khan, and remained with his tribe, amounting to 30,000 families, in those hills. Upon the death of Chengiz Khan, none of his descendants thought fit to persecute Kalij Khan, who remained ever since in those hills; and as the race of Ghur was now seated on the throne of India, the Khiljis, on account of their vicinity, went to Delhi in parties, and remained there. Jalalu-d-din Khilji of Delhi; and Sultan Mahmud Khilji of Mandu, are both descended from Kalij Khan, vulgurly called Khalij Khan, and from him the tribe is called Khilji. But, according to the author of Saljuqnāma, Turk, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, had eleven children, one of whom was called Khulich; and from him are descended the Khilichis or Khiljis. I conceive this account the most probable of the two, because the Khiljis are often mentioned in the histories of the kings of Ghazni, particularly in the reigns of Subukhigin and Sultan Mahmud; and it is certain, that they existed anterior to the time of Chengiz Khan; but it is possible that Kalij Khan might be of the tribe of Khalji, and that the father of Jalalu-d-din, and the ancestor of Sultan Mahmud of Malwa, may have both been descended in a direct line for him.’