Twilight of the Sultanate c7.s4.20

c7.s4.20

In the course of a month's campaigning in the Siwālik (16 Jamadiul Avval to 16 Jamadiul Ākhir), says Sharafuddīn, Tīmūr had twenty conflicts with the Hindus and had taken seven fortresses.¹⁵⁴ One such was the citadel of Shaidhū, a relation of Malik Shaikha Khokar. Shaidhū made his submission, but the inhabitants refused to pay the blackmail. To disarm them Tīmūr had resort to a strategem. He offered them high prices for their weapons, even for the rusted and damaged ones. When from greed of profit they had sold away all their arms,¹⁵⁵ Tīmūr asked them to depute forty men to serve under Hindu Shāh, the Master of the Exchequer. Though unarmed they refused to obey the order, and “it became necessary for the soldiers of the faith to exact vengeance”.¹⁵⁶ The fort was assaulted; many persons were killed and many others enslaved. Similarly the fort of Deva Rai and five other fortresses were taken with equal ease.¹⁵⁷