The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c10.s3.9

c10.s3.9

In Uttar Pradesh the region to the east and south of Delhi - Katehar, Doab, Bayana and Mewat - had become a problem tract in the fifteenth century, and there the Saiyyad and Lodi sultans contented themselves with the ignoble but customary satisfaction of plundering the people, and obtaining converts in the bargain.⁹⁰ Muhammad Bihamad Khani, the author of *Tarikh-i-Muhammadi*, gives a clear idea of the keenness of the Muslim sultans and their subtle methods in obtaining converts. He writes that sultan Mahmud while fighting Rai Sumer in the vicinity of Irich concluded that if he allowed his brave warriors to wage the war (outright), they would undoubtedly extirpate the infidels but he deemed it fit to delay the operation (or advance slowly) in the hope that the infidels might accept Islam.⁹¹