The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c21.15

c21.15

Like all foreign invaders the Turks followed a line that was calculated to offer the least resistance and yet enable them to live on the land. The first push carried them into the Central Provinces, the Himalayan regions, Southern Rajputana and even Assam. But they succeeded in establishing a durable hold only on a narrow belt of land along the Ganges and the Jumna while the Indus and its branches outlined their dominion in the northwest. The hold on Rajputana was never strong and towards the end of the century they were practically thrown out of the country. The Turkish dominion thus embraced a very small part of north India but it contained the most fertile regions, which explains the foreigners' continued ability to resist the determined hostility of the Hindu states and also of the all-conquering Mongols.