Twilight of the Sultanate c6.s1.20

c6.s1.20

Having collected a force of fifty thousand horse and "innumerable" foot¹⁴ Nāsiruddīn Muhammad once again marched towards Delhi in July-August, 1389 (Sh‘abān, 791 H).¹⁵ He met the army of Abū Bakr near the village of Kandli, about 46 miles north-east of Delhi.¹⁶ "There were heavy casualties on both sides,"¹⁷ but in the end Muhammad was defeated. Shortly afterwards his son Humayūn, who had arrived from Samana, was also beaten back at Panipat.¹⁸ But in spite of these discomfitures, Muhammad's authority was acknowledged in Multan, Lahore, Samana, Hansi, Hisār Fīrōzā and most of the districts to the north of Delhi. He cleared these districts of all disaffected elements by ordering the massacre of Fīrōz Shahī slaves there. Consequently in most of these places blood-baths took place, houses were burnt down and roads closed for traffic. Taking advantage of this confusion in which stable government had ceased to exist, the zamindars of the countryside withheld the payment of taxes.¹⁹