History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c11.2

c11.2

Though the situation of the Deccan has invested it with a security which few provinces possess, it is not impenetrable, for the Vindhya and the Satpura ranges that divide it from the north are not impassable, and the foreigners have not found it impossible to cross them. The fabulous wealth of the Deccan fired the lust of Muhammadan adventurers and invested their expeditions, in their eyes, with the character of a *Jihād*. But no Muhammadan rulers of Dihli thought of conquering the Deccan owing to the half-established character of their governments until ‘Ala-al-Din developed a far-reaching imperialistic policy, which gave him a large and extensive empire greater than that of any of his predecessors. The Muslim power paralysed all opposition, and for the time being the old culture and civilisation of the Hindus was crushed by the might of the conquering class. The followers of Islam easily overpowered their enemies, whose philosophical quietism placed them at a considerable disadvantage, when they were pitted against a warlike community which was bound together by the closest affinities of caste and creed. The success of the Muhammadans in the Deccan was due to the lack of unity and organisation among the Hindus of the south, and their mutual dissensions. The Muslim conquest opened a dark chapter in the history of the Deccan.¹ The superior might of the Muslims, their warlike spirit, and their iconoclastic zeal