The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c21.2

c21.2

The rapidity with which the Turks overran the whole of north India within a period of less than 15 years was phenomenal. In the western provinces the easy establishment of Muizzuddin's rule has an apparent explanation, for there, from the dawn of history, incursions from Central Asia had heavily diluted the people's racial and religious consciousness; the Ghaznawide and Shansabani attacks encountered little beyond mere political opposition. But in Hindusthan, which had known not many foreign invasions and dynasties, powerful kingdoms were overthrown with equal ease; even the Hindushahiyas of Waihind, under Anandpal and Triclochanpal, offered more sustained opposition to Mahmud of Ghazni. That defeat in a single battle should have been final and irreparable appears all the more strange when we remember the limited number of the conquerors and the distance from their homeland. On a careful analysis of the situation in India the course of events, however, appears almost inevitable.