The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c20.s5: Invasion of Timur, 1398-99
The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c20.s5
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Invasion of Timur, 1398-99
c20.s5.1
Amir Timur was born in 1336 at Kech in Trans-Oxiana. His father, Amir Turghay, was the chief of the Gurgan or Chagtai branch of the Barlas Turks. Timur ascended the throne of Samarqand in 1369 when he was thirty-three years old. Being an extremely ambitious and enterprising prince, he undertook aggressive conquests of Persia, Afghanistan and Mesopotamia. These successes whetted his appetite for further conquests. The fabulous wealth of Hindustan attracted his attention. The Delhi Sultanate was fast tottering and afforded an opportunity to the Turkish conqueror to help himself at its expense. But, being a clever diplomat, he pretended that his main object in undertaking an expedition to India was to put down idolatry which was tolerated by the Sultans of Delhi. He had no desire whatever of conquering Hindustan and ruling over it either directly or indirectly.
c20.s5.2
Timur sent the advance guard of his army under his grandson, Pir Muhammad, who besieged and captured Multan early in 1398. He himself started from Samarqand in April 1398, with a very powerful force and, crossing the Indus, the Jhelam and the Ravi, besieged Talamba, seventy-five miles to the north-east of Multan, in October.
c20.s5.3
After plundering the town and massacring its inhabitants, he reached the vicinity of Delhi in the first week of December 1398, travelling *via* Pak Patan, Dipalpur, Bhatner, Sirsa and Kaithal, plundering and burning the country and massacring the people on the way. On his approach Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud Tughluq and his prime minister, Mallu Iqbal, made an attempt to oppose him. Before fighting the Tughluq army, Timur, who wanted to get rid of the embarrassing presence of the prisoners he had made on his way to Delhi, butchered one lakh of Hindu captives in cold blood. Then he fought and defeated Mahmud on 17th December, 1398. The Indian army consisted of ten thousand cavalry, forty thousand infantry and one hundred and twenty elephants, and yet it easily fell before the onslaught of the invading force. Sultan Mahmud fled to Gujarat and Mallu Iqbal to Bulandshahr.
c20.s5.4
Timur occupied Delhi on 18th December, 1398. The citizens of the capital, headed by the *ulema*, waited on the conqueror and begged quarter. Timur agreed to spare the citizens; but, owing to the oppressive conduct of the soldiers of the invading force, the people of the city were obliged to offer resistance. Timur now ordered a general plunder and massacre which lasted for several days. Thousands of the citizens of Delhi were murdered and thousands were made prisoners. A historian writes : “High towers were built with the heads of the Hindus, and their bodies became the food of ravenous beasts and birds . . . . . such of the inhabitants who escaped alive were made prisoners.” The conqueror acquired immense riches. Every soldier in his army became rich overnight and “there was none so humble but he had at least twenty slaves.” Timur picked up the best artisans of Delhi and sent them to Samarqand to build for him the famous Friday Mosque.
c20.s5.5
The conqueror remained at Delhi for fifteen days. He had no desire to stay in India and to rule over it. He quitted Delhi on January 1, 1399, on a return march to Samarqand. Passing through Firozabad (Delhi), he reached Meerut which he stormed on 19th January, 1399. He had to engage and defeat two Hindu armies near Hardwar. He then proceeded along the Sivalik Hills to Kangara, plundering and sacking that town and Jammu—everywhere the inhabitants being slaughtered like cattle. Before quitting the borders of our country, the conqueror appointed Khizr Khan, who had been expelled by a rival (Sarang Khan) from the governorship of Multan, to the government of Multan, Lahore and Dipalpur. He crossed back the Indus on 19th March, 1399 "after inflicting on India. more misery than had ever before been inflicted by any conqueror in a single campaign."