The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c13.121

c13.121

This forbearance on the part of both Delhi and the Mongols suggests an understanding among them and some kind of agreement to respect each other’s territorial suzerainty. Delhi in any case tacitly acquiesced in the transference of the whole of Sind and western Punjab to the Mongols. Ulugh Khan was even constrained to take active steps to avoid hostility with their vassals. Ever since Sher Khan’s reappointment in Bhatinda he aimed at reacquiring Multan and Uch and was found to be conducting hostile operations against Kashlu Khan. As this was bound to involve Delhi in hostilities with the Mongols, Ulugh Khan, in 657/1258, had him transferred to Kol, Gwalior and the adjacent provinces to the east, “in order to avoid strife on the frontier”³. Malik Nusrat Khan, on whose prudence the government of Delhi could rely, was then placed in charge of the provinces of “Bhatinda, Sunam, Samana, Hajner, and Lakhwal (?) and the frontiers as far the ferries of the river Beah”⁴. The same year, an agent of Ulugh Khan, conveying his assent to the proposal of his son’s marriage with a daughter of Hasan Qarlugh’s son Nasiruddin, (who had finally settled down in Baniyan as a Mongol vassal,) on passing through Kashlu Khan’s territories was stopped by Mongol officers. He demanded to be sent to Hulaku in Khurasan, to whom he presented a friendly letter from Delhi containing, it may be presumed, assurances of non-aggression¹. Hulaku appreciated these gestures and next year, 658/1259, Minhaj records the arrival in Delhi of envoys from Hulaku who were received with great honour and ostentation². No resulting formal agreement, however, is recorded, but Hulaku, we are told, issued strict order to his commanding officers on this occasion to respect the Delhi frontier.