The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c25.s3: Iltutmish and the Mongols

c25.s3.1

By 1220 the Mongol hordes under their great leader, Changiz Khan, had brought about the complete annihilation of the Khwarizm empire and driven its ruler, Ala-ud-din Muhammad, into the Caspian Sea to die there (1220). Ala-ud-din's heir, Jalal-ud-din Mangbarni, too, fled in terror from Khurasan to Ghazni. As Changiz pursued him from Talkan, he quitted Ghazni and fled to the frontier of our country. Being overtaken on the Indus, he was obliged to turn back and fight, but he was defeated. In sheer desperation he sent his family in a boat to be drowned in the Indus, and, flinging his own horse into the river, crossed over to the left bank and sneaked into the Sindh Sagar Doab. It was lucky that Changiz Khan, who stayed near the right bank of the Indus for three months, did not decide to pursue the fugitive prince across the river and thus violate the independence of the Sultanate of Delhi. Had he chosen to do so, the nascent Turkish kingdom in India would have succumbed to the Mongol onslaught, as the older and more powerful Muslim kingdoms of Central Asia had already done. But Iltutmish seems to have arrived at some kind of understanding with the Mongol leader, whereby he had, probably, agreed not to provide any shelter or protection to the fugitive Mangbarni. At any rate, he wisely followed the policy of keeping the Khwarizm prince at an arm’s length so as to avoid giving provocation to the Mongols. In view of the Sultan’s friendly attitude, Changiz’s reported decision to return to Karaqoram through India, for which he is said to have asked Iltutmish’s permission, was abandoned and the Sultanate was saved from a great catastrophe. Changiz Khan returned to his country through the Hindukush in the winter of 1222.