History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c9.80

c9.80

problematical. After the fiasco of the Persian expedition Muhammad must have grown wiser, and prudence and policy alike dictated the abandonment of any such grandiose plan, if it was ever entertained. Besides, if the conquest of Persia was impossible, the conquest of China was far more so. Separated from India by an impassable barrier of huge mountains, which are for the most part of the year covered with snow, it was impossible for the invading army of Hindustan to maintain itself in that difficult country. Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji's precedent cannot be cited to prove the possibility of the Chinese conquest, for that was only an attempt to raid a distant portion of the empire. Probably, as Rennell says, he had not crossed the Assam valley, when he was forced to retire, and it was then that he realised the futility of his plan.⁴⁰ The real object of the expedition was to extend the sovereignty of Dihli over a hill state and not to replenish, as Firishta says, the empty coffers of the state by robbing the great wealth of China. It was a necessary move. Muhammad had placed strong guards on the frontiers of his vast dominions; towards the north-west Bahram Aiba had been defeated, and his attempt at independence foiled; the governor of Bengal in the north-east was a feudatory of Dihli; the south had been subdued, and the Sultan maintained a vigilant watch over the unruly chiefs and princes in that hostile country. But the northern frontier was not yet safe. The fort of Nagarkot had been reduced, and the Sultan wished to complete the line of his northern frontier by conquering the hill states which were independent or wavered in allegiance, and were not altogether unwilling to own the suzerainty of China.