History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c11.72

c11.72

Zafar Khān was so restless to fight the enemy that, even before the Mughal army could arrive near Delhi, he had sent a personal challenge to Qutlugh Khvājā to meet him in a duel.⁴⁶ Having ordered his rank and file to be ready for an assault on the Mughal left, he delivered it. Hajlak and his men were gripped in a hand to hand fight with Zafar Khān. Simultaneously Dilēr Khān, son of Zafar Khān, made a furious charge on the Mughals and created a consternation among them. Tamar Bugha could not withstand this attack and fell back. The Mughal army, broken and routed, was hotly pursued by the royalists while Tamar Bughā's men continued to shower arrows behind their back on their pursuers—a practice in which the Mughals were past masters. An assault by the enemy on the centre of the royal army was met by the Sultan, who repulsed it and killed a large number of them.⁴⁷ In this conflict the king rescued a large number of Indian soldiers whom the Mughals had captured as prisoners of war. 'Alāuddīn, however, did not pursue the retreating enemy.