Twilight of the Sultanate c7.s5.9

c7.s5.9

Still more amazing is the haste with which Tīmūr returned to his country. He did have problems in Samarqand needing his immediate attention, but this does not justify his indifference to receiving tribute from the king of Kashmir, or his surrendering the reins of his acquisitions into the hands of Khizr Khan, without leaving any army to help him. He left the country as if he had nothing more to do with it. More than a century later a descendant of his house found it convenient to lay claim to Hindustan on the basis of Tīmūr's victory, but one is compelled to conclude that in spite of what he or his chroniclers have written, his was an aimless visitation, and its memory lingered for long. The victor had hardly gained much, but the vanquished had lost everything. The Sultan of Delhi was a fugitive, the nobles were dispersed, and the Tughlaq monarchy, which had rapidly declined during the last decade, was now beyond any hope of redemption.