The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c32.6

c32.6

In the briefest possible summary, the historian's narrative is as follows. Muhammad, son of Bakhtyār, a man of the Turkish Khalj tribe, failed to obtain employment from Kutb-ud-dīn after the capture of Delhi in A. H. 589. When some time, apparently a considerable interval, had elapsed, he acquired a certain amount of military power and obtained a fief in the Mīrzāpur district from which he was 'in the habit of making incursions into Manēr (in the north-west of Patna District)¹ and Bihār', until he collected 'ample resources in the shape of horses, arms, and men'. We are further told that he 'used to carry his depredations into those parts' until he organized a final attack upon the fortified city of Bihār. He captured the city, as related in the text, and brought great booty to the presence of Kutb-ud-dīn, who was, perhaps, then at Mahobā in Bundelkhand. The favour with which he was received excited jealousy, which was not allayed until Muhammad justified himself by defeating a furious elephant. After that incident he departed for Bihār. Meantime, many of the inhabitants of Nūdīah became alarmed and deserted their king, Rāe Lakhmaniya, or Lakshmaṇasena. 'The following year after that, Muhammad-i-Bakhtyār caused a force to be prepared, pressed on from Bihār, and suddenly appeared before the city of Nūdīah', as described in the text.²