The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c20.s5.3

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.