The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.59

v3.c20.59

In the autumn of this year Mahmūd made his last incursion into India, a punitive expedition against the Jāts who had harassed his retreat. He marched to Multān and there prepared a fleet of 1400 boats, each armed with an iron spike projecting from the prow and similar spikes projecting from the gunwale on either side and carrying a crew of twenty men armed with bows and arrows and hand grenades of naphtha. The Jāts launched four, or, according to some authorities, eight thousand boats and attacked the Muslims, but their boats were pierced or capsized by the spikes and the victory was so complete that the Jāts, almost to a man, were drowned or slain. The Muslims then disembarked on the islands where the Jāts had placed their wives and families for safety and carried off the women and children as slaves.