The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.30

v3.c30.30

Among other monuments of ‘Alā-ud-dīn at Delhi two that merit notice are the City of Sīrī—the second of the seven cities of Delhi—and the Hauz-i-‘Alāī or Hauz-i-Khās tank, on the banks of which the army of Tīmūr encamped after his defeat of Mahmūd Tughluq. To the latter there will be occasion to allude again in connexion with the buildings of Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq¹. The former was built by ‘Alā-ud-dīn about 1303 in order to protect the ever-growing population of the suburbs. Nothing is now left of this city except some fragments of the encircling walls, but even these few remnants, with their round and tapering bastions, their lines of loopholes, their flame-shaped battlements inscribed with the *Kalima*, and their inner berm supported on an arched gallery, are of value and interest for the light they throw on the military architecture of the period.