The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c13.15

c13.15

This process of gradual advance up to the Indus, was, in any case, interrupted by the political upheavals caused by the Mongol eruption. By the year 617/1220, the Khwarizmi empire was no more; from the Jaxartes to the Caspian Sea and from Ghazni to Iraq, Changiz destroyed flourishing cities and great centres of learning. Alauddin Muhammud, the Khwarizm Shah, was driven across his northern provinces to find refuge and eventual death in an island on the Caspian³; his crown prince, Jalaluddin Mangbarni, expelled from Khurasan, fled southwards to Ghazni. On the way he achieved a brilliant victory over the pursuing Mongols at Barwan but as Changiz himself moved against him from Talkan, he left Ghazni and took the road to the Indian frontier. He was overtaken on the Indus and compelled to turn round and fight in desperation. In the battle his courage and intrepidity evoked warm praise from the great Mongol, but his small force was easily overpowered. As the Mongols closed the escape routes, Mangbarni hastily put his family in a boat and sending them over to be drowned in the Indus waters, flung his horse into the river and crossed over to India¹.