Twilight of the Sultanate c19.s3.48

c19.s3.48

It will thus be seen that in the eleventh century when Alberunī wrote the Afghan tribes were established in eastern Afghanistan where they are to this day. They were not yet converted, and they were impatient of control.³⁶ Tall and fair, strongly built and warlike, they lived in penury, tending their sheep and at times supplementing their income by plunder. Their warlike character attracted the notice of conquerors to India who freely enrolled them in their armies. From the eleventh century onwards, the Afghans started coming into India as soldiers of fortune in the armies of various conquerors beginning from Mahmūd of Ghaznī. Mahmūd led many Afghan contingents into India and Muhammad Ghorī in his last expedition brought ten thousand Afghan horsemen with him.³⁷ One of his commanders-in-chief was Malik Mahmūd Lodī, and "the ascendancy of the Lodīs dates from this time".³⁸ In the time of Iltutmish, Jalāluddīn of Khawarizm, fleeing before Chingīz Khan, brought many Afghan soldiers with him. Some of them returned to their homeland, but many others under their leader Malik Khan took service under Iltutmish.³⁹ Balban employed three thousand Afghan horse and foot in the campaign against the Mewātīs,⁴⁰ and appointed a large number of Afghan officers and men for garrisoning outposts. The Afghans must have by this time got accustomed to the adventure of soldiering in India, and there is reason to believe that they joined in large numbers in the various Mongol invasions during the time of the Khaljī monarchs—Jalāluddīn and 'Alāuddīn. Muhammad Tughlaq perhaps for the first time appointed an Afghan as the governor of Daulatabad,⁴¹ and Fīrōz Tughlaq appointed Malik Bīr Afghan as the governor of Bihar.⁴²