The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c12.36

c12.36

As in the feudal array of Europe, the cavalry arm was supreme and formed the backbone of the army. It was the cavalry of Dehlī which so successfully kept the Mongol hordes at bay and struck terror into their hearts.⁶ We are fortunate in having the likenesses of horsemen engraved on some coins of the earlier sultans; of special interest are the coins struck by Īltutmish “where the horse is seen at full charge, and the rider with upraised mace... The form of the saddle, the seat of the horseman, the chanfrein or head armour of the steed and his erect tail, all seem to point to Turki ideals.” The rider’s helmet has a flowing fall at the back.⁷ The Dehlī cavalryman must have resembled the horsemen whom Barbosa saw and admired in Gujrāt. “They are also very skilful horsemen,” he writes, “they sit on high pommelled saddles and carry strong round shields.” They were armed “with two swords, a dagger and a Turkish bow, with very good arrows”; others carried maces. Many of them wore coats of mail, and others jackets quilted with cotton. The horses were caparisoned with steel. Yet they were so light that they took part in the game of chogān.¹ A little later he says about the cavalry in the Deccan, " They carry maces and battle-axes and two swords (each with its dagger), two or three Turkish bows hanging from the saddle, with very long arrows, so that every man carries arms enough for two."² Barbosa omits to describe the Dehlī cavalry but praises their skill, fighting qualities and horses.³ The smartness of the soldiers of the sultanate was noted by other travellers as well.⁴ A necessary precaution in those days was to provide extra horses, so that the cavalry was divided into murattab, sawār and do-aspah, that is, men with two horses each, with single horses and with no horses of their own.⁵ Mu'izz-u'd-dīn Muḥammad Ghorī is reported to have invaded the Ghaznavid kingdom of Lāhor with twenty thousand do-aspah, sih-aspah cavalry.⁶ Murattab cavalry are mentioned in 'Alā-u'd-dīn Khaljī's reign. The sultans had to take care that their army did not run short of horses. There was a thriving trade in horses between India on the one hand and Arabia, Turkistān and Russia on the other.⁷ Nor did the sultans neglect the breeding of good animals in India itself. In the royal pāigāhs near the capital and in the provinces they bred large number of horses.⁸ Balban is reported to have boasted that he could maintain the necessary supplies even if animals from the Mongol territories did not reach India.⁹ Actually during the Mongol terror, the trade in horses had almost ceased; those of foreign breeds were found mostly in the capital.¹⁰ 'Alā-u'd-dīn Khaljī had seventy thousand horses in the city of Dehlī and its vicinity.¹¹ Even Fīrūz Shāh, whose neglect of the army is notorious, maintained extensive pāigāhs.¹² Large numbers of led horses accompanied every army so that those lost in battle might be replaced at the royal expense.¹