The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.272

v3.c20.272

In 1297 ‘Alā-ud-dīn resolved to undertake the conquest of the Hindu kingdom of Gujarāt which, though frequently plundered, had never yet been subdued, and had long enjoyed immunity, even from raids. Ulugh Khān and Nusrat Khān were selected for the task and invested and took its ancient capital, Anhilvāra, now Pātan, captured the wife of raja Karan, its ruler, and sent to Delhi as a trophy the idol which had been set up at Somnāth to replace that destroyed by Mahmūd. Raja Karan and his daughter, Deval Devī, fled, and found an asylum for a time with Rāmachandra of Deogīr. Nusrat Khān plundered the wealthy merchants of the port of Cambay and obtained, with much other booty, a Hindu eunuch nicknamed at first Kāfūr and afterwards *Hazārdīnārī*, ‘the thousand *dīnār* Slave’ from the price for which he had originally been bought. This wretch became successively the king’s vile favourite, lieutenant of the kingdom, and, for a short time before and after ‘Alā-ud-dīn’s death, its ruler.