The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.198

v3.c20.198

Kishlū Khān had been reinstated in Multān and Uch during Raiḥān's ascendency and had since thrown off his allegiance to Delhi and acknowledged the suzerainty of the Mughul Hulāgū, whose camp he visited and with whom he left a grandson as a hostage for his fidelity. When the army returned from Sirmūr to Delhi he was in the neighbourhood of the Beās and marched north-eastwards until he was joined by Qutlugh Khān, when their combined forces marched southwards towards Sāmāna. Balban marched from Delhi to meet them and came into contact with them in the neighbourhood of Kaithal. A faction of discontented ecclesiastics had written from Delhi, urging the rebels to advance fearlessly and seize the capital, but the intrigue was discovered and at Balban's instance the traitors were expelled from the city. The rebels followed, however, the advice of their partisans, eluded Balban, and, after a forced march, encamped on June 21 before Delhi, hoping to find the city in friendly hands, but were disappointed to learn that the loyal nobles were exerting themselves to assemble troops and repair the defences, and that the governor of Bayāna was approaching the city with his contingent. Balban remained for two days in ignorance of the rebels' march to Delhi but they knew that he might at any moment cut off their retreat, and many disaffected officers who had joined them now deserted them and made their peace with the king, and on June 22 Kishlū Khān and Qutlugh Khān fled towards the Siwāliks, whence the former, with the two or three hundred followers who still remained to him, made his way to Uch.