A History of Agriculture in India v2.c63: Chapter 11. Sultanate of Delhi: The Mongols: Amir Timur

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c63

Language: English

v2.c63.s1 Timur's Invasion of India — 8 parts
v2.c63.s2 Sayyid Dynasty — 2 parts
v2.c63.s3 Afghan Rule: Lodi Dynasty — 4 parts

Chapter 11. Sultanate of Delhi: The Mongols: Amir Timur

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A.D. 1398–1526 INVASION OF TIMUR SAYYIDS AND LODI AFGHAN DYNASTIES SLUMP IN PRICES OF FOODGRAINS

AFTER the death of Firoz Shah in A.D. 1388, a period of anarchy followed. Sultan Mahmud, a grandson of Firoz Shah, was recognized king in Old Delhi; a few miles away at Ferozabad, Nusrat Shah claimed to be the Sultan.

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THE MONGOLS

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While the two Sultans were busy fighting each other, a new menace threatened India in the north. These were the Mongols again. Here it would be pertinent to recapitulate the history of Mongols. In the middle of the thirteenth century, the great Mongol Empire was funded by Chingiz Khan. It extended from China to Eastern Europe and included a good bit of Russia. Chingiz Khan died in A.D. 1227. His successor, Ogdai, had conquered northern China, and his nephew Batu had led the Western Mongols into Europe. By A.D. 1240 they had reached the Dnieper, and destroyed Kiev. "Princes, bishops, nuns, and children were slain with savage cruelty. It is impossible to describe the barbarities that prolonged the death of the unfortunate inhabitants. None remained to weep or to tell the tale of disaster." They moved on into eastern Europe in two columns, the northern against Poland and the southern against Hungary. In A.D. 1241 the whole of Silesia was devastated, while Batu destroyed an Hungarian army, took Pesth and Gran, and sent expeditions into the Balkans. Central and Western Europe was saved only by the death of Ogdai in that year, which compelled Batu and the other Mongol chieftains to go back to Karakorum in Mongolia for the election of a new khan. The Mongols later returned to Poland and Silesia, took Cracow and Beuthen, and drove away great numbers of slaves, but contented themselves with imposing their suzerainty on Russia.

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The Yuan dynasty founded by Kublai Khan ruled China from A.D. 1280 to 1368. Hulagu, grandson of Chingiz Khan, captured Baghdad in A.D. 1258, thus bringing the Abbasid dynasty to an end. The above-mentioned Mongol rulers were not Muslims. Their religion was Shamanism.

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The Mongols were again led by a military genius, Amir Timur. Timur was born in A.D. 1336 and became the Great Khan of Samarkand in A.D. 1369. Timur, unlike Chingiz, was a Muslim. His father was one of the earliest converts to Islam.

Timur's Invasion of India

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When Timur started on his career of conquests the choice before him was China or India. Both these countries were inhabited by infidels.

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Fig. 6. The extent of the Sultanate of Delhi in 1398 and the route of Timur's invasion of northern India.

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Why he chose to attack India is thus described in his autobiography. 'About this time there arose in my heart the desire to lead an expedition against the infidels, and to become a ghazi; for it had reached my ears that the slayer of infidels is a ghazi and if he is slain he becomes a martyr. It was on this account that I formed this resolution, but I was undetermined in my mind whether I should direct my expedition against the infidels of China or against the infidels and polytheists of India. In this matter I sought an omen from the Kuran, and the verse I opened upon was this, "O' Prophet, make war upon infidels and unbelievers, and treat them with severity."

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'My great officers told me that the inhabitants of Hindustan were infidels and unbelievers. In obedience to the order of Almighty God, I determined on an expedition against them. Throwing themselves upon their knees they all wished me good fortune. I demanded of the warrior chieftains whether I should direct my expedition against the infidels of Hindustan or China. At first they repeated fables and wise sayings, and then said, in the country of Hindustan there are four defences, and if any one invading this extensive country breaks down these four defences, he becomes the conqueror of Hindustan.'¹

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¹ *Malfuzat-i Timuri*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. III, pp. 394, 395

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In the autumn of A.D. 1398 Timur crossed the Indus, the first defence of India, with a cavalry force of ninety thousand. He defeated Mahmud Tughlak at Loni and again near Delhi. Then he carried out his notorious massacre of the inhabitants of Delhi. The economic prosperity of the Delhi Sultanate was completely shattered by the catastrophe of Timur's invasion. All the four cities of Delhi were thoroughly and mercilessly sacked and an immense booty consisting of male and female slaves, precious stones and pearls, as well as gold and silver, was taken away from the unfortunate inhabitants of the capital. He also carried away skilled artisans whom he employed in construction of his monuments at Samarkand.

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After his conquest of northern India, Timur conquered Iran and Syria. At Isfahan he massacred the entire population. He defeated Bayezid, Sultan of Turkey, at Angora in A.D. 1402. Tamerlane failed to take advantage of his victory. His empire was too loose and too far-flung, too much the product of marauding successes, to have any permanence. It began to disintegrate almost as soon as it was formed. Only in northern India it survived as a compact state. From Asia Minor, the Mongols soon disappeared, leaving the Turks in control.

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Timur destroyed the cities of Islamic Iran and Turkey and Hindu India with equal impartiality. He slaughtered lakhs of men, burnt many cities, and laid waste one-half of the then civilized world. There was a strange blend of cruelty and artistic sensibility in this man; while he enjoyed raising pyramids of skulls at Isfahan and Dehli, he also created gardens of great beauty at Samarkand, where he died in A.D. 1405 in the midst of his Chinese campaign.

Sayyid Dynasty

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A.D. 1414--1451

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After the departure of Timur, the neighbourhood of Delhi, and all those territories over which his armies had passed, were visited with pestilence and famine. All semblance of government in northern India was destroyed. For fifteen years there was no regular government at Delhi. In A.D. 1414 Khizr Khan, governor of the Punjab, who claimed to be a Sayyid, became the Sultan of Delhi. Khizr Khan ruled for seven years. He was succeeded by Mubarak Shah in A.D. 1421. Mubarak Shah was assassinated in 1434. He was followed by Muhammad-bin-Farid, who proved to be a worthless ruler.

Afghan Rule: Lodi Dynasty

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A.D. 1451--1526

Buhlol Lodi

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A.D. 1451--1489

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In A.D. 1451 Buhlol Khan, an Afghan of the Lodi tribe, who was governor of the Punjab, seized the throne. He restored the old frontiers of the Delhi kingdom as far as Bihar.

Sikander Lodi

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(A.D. 1489--1517)

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Sikander Lodi was a bigot who destroyed Hindu temples recklessly. Abdulla states, ‘He was so zealous a Musulman that he utterly destroyed diverse places of worship of the infidels, and left not a vestige remaining of them.’² His reign was marked by exceptionally low prices of foodgrains. He generally resided at Agra, which became a city in his time. Before that it was merely a large village. Sikandra, the suburb of Agra, is named after him. Under his orders, the Argar-maha-bedak, on the science of medicine and the treatment of disease, was translated, and received the name of *Tibb-i Sikandari*. The book is the foundation of the practice of the physicians of Hind, and was thus brought into general use.

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² Abdulla, *Tarikh-i Daudi*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India* ..., Vol. IV, p. 447

Ibrahim Lodi

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Ibrahim Lodi was the last Lodi emperor. His tactless treatment of Afghan nobles antagonized them, and ultimately led to treachery on a large scale. It was Daulat Khan Lodi who invited Babur, who defeated Ibrahim at Panipat on 21 April 1526.

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Low Prices of Foodgrains

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Due to a series of abundant harvests on account of good rainfall over a number of years, the price of foodgrains slumped to a low level. Another reason for this slump was shortage of metal like gold and silver for coinage. It seems most of gold and silver was siphoned off by Timur from India. At the same time the seaports of Gujarat and Bengal were cut off from Delhi, both these provinces had become independent (Fig. 17). Adequate supplies of gold and silver on account of foreign trade and revenue thus failed to reach Delhi. Abdulla thus provides details of this phenomenon of low prices. 'One of the most extraordinary phenomena of Sultan Ibrahim's time was that corn, clothes, and every kind of merchandise were cheaper than they had ever been known to be in any other reign, except perhaps in the time of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji; but even that is doubtful. Moreover, in the time of the latter, the cheapness was occasioned by every kind of disgusting interference and oppression, and by a hundred thousand enforcements and punishments; whereas the cheapness of this reign was occasioned by abundant harvests. In the time of Sikander, also, the markets were very cheap, but still not so much so as in the time of Ibrahim. Ten mans of corn could be purchased for one bahloli; five sirs of clarified butter, and ten yards of cloth, could be purchased for the same coin. Everything else was in the same exuberance; the reason of all which was that rain fell in the exact quantity which was needed, and the crops were consequently luxuriant, and produce increased ten-fold beyond the usual proportion. The Sultan had likewise issued an edict that his chiefs and nobles of every degree should take nothing but corn in payment of rent, and no money was to be taken from the cultivators on any account. The consequence was that countless quantities of grain accumulated in the several jagirs, and as ready money only was necessary for maintaining the personal expenses of the nobles, they were eager to sell their grain at any price which was procurable. The abundance of God's blessings reached such a height, that ten mans of corn would sell for a bahloli. Gold and silver were only procurable with the greatest difficulty. A respectable man with a family dependent on him might obtain wages at the rate of five tankas a month. A horseman received from twenty to thirty as his monthly pay. If a traveller wished to proceed from Delhi to Agra, one bahloli would, with the greatest ease, suffice for the expenses of himself, his horse, and escort.'³

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³ Abdulla, Tarikh-i Daudi, in Elliot and Dowson, The History of India. . ., Vol. IV, p. 476