The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c13.7

c13.7

To the Moghul emperors of India, the advance upto the Kabul-Ghazni-Khandahar line was a major policy of expansion; to the newly-arrived Turks of the 13th century, control of the line to secure communications with their homeland was a vital necessity. As long as the kingdom of Ghor was strong enough to hold its ground in Afghanistan, Delhi was safe and communications uninterrupted. But its inclusion in the Ghoride empire exposed it to the ever changing political forces of Central Asia. In an earlier chapter reference has been made to the great concern which Aibak felt on this score after Muizzuddin's death, and to his policy directed to separating Delhi from Central Asiatic complications. With the absorption of Ghazni in the empire of the Khwarizm Shah, whose eastern frontier touched the Indus², Delhi's security was directly threatened. Shortly afterwards the Mongols changed the whole map of Asia. Mongol outposts were established in Ghazni, Peshawar and other places in Afghanistan, and the Indus nearly disappeared as a political boundary. Delhi's administrative frontier was, as a consequence, pushed back far into what is now modern Punjab. For the rest of the century the Memelukes were thrown on the defensive and their forward policy in this direction aimed only at extending control over the Chinab basin rather than reaching the scientific frontier. The Indus remained only the geographical boundary of ‘Hind and Sind;” and the tract east of the river was turned into a kind of no-man's land.