History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c45.s4.4

v3.c45.s4.4

In this later age, particularly among the Turks, who were new converts to Islam and had all the fiery zeal of neophytes, the old Arab toleration of false faiths appeared sinful and the suppression of infidels, however accomplished, a supreme merit in the eyes of God. Outside their own realms, the destruction of temples and the slaughter of Hindus sanctified every war of aggression. Thus a frame of mind was produced in the Muslim community which habitually regarded plunder and homicide as the purest of human acts, as "exertion in the path of God." When Timur, for instance, was tempted by the report of the vast wealth of India to come and plunder it, he announced his aim to be "to overthrow their temples and idols and become ghazis and mujahids before God;...since the inhabitants are chiefly polytheists and infidels, and idolators and worshippers of the Sun, by the order of God and