Mongol Invasions of India - Late Mongol Invasions

Late Mongol Invasions

In 1299, against advice, Delhi sultan Alauddin Khilji attacked the Mongols. The advance guard of the Khilji army was led by Zafar Khan himself. He defeated the Mongols and pursued of them as they withdrew. However, the Mongol general Qutlugh Khwaja tricked Zafar into a position where he was surrounded and killed by the Mongols. However, in face of Alauddin Khilji's continued offensives, they had to retreat to the heights from where they had come.

The Mongols took a long time to rally from this setback. Then they attacked at the worst time possible for Alauddin Khilji – when he was busy laying siege to Chittor. This time the Mongols traveled light. An army of 12,000 under Targhi's leadership moved to Delhi in a swift attack; many governors could not send their troops to Delhi in time.

Alauddin Khilji was forced to retreat to Siri for about two months. The Mongols attacked and pillaged not only the surrounding areas, but Delhi itself.

Alauddin Khilji continued to hold the fortress at Siri; Targhi withdrew the siege after a few months and left the area. Barani, a contemporary historian at that time, attributed this "marvel" to the prayers of the Sufi mystic Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya.

Alauddin Khilji had the forts along the border strengthened and equipped with larger garrisons. New, more effective fortifications were built in the area. A whole new army with its own special governor was created whose portfolio was managing and guarding the border areas.

Despite these measures, the Mongols under the leadership of Ali Beg and Tartaq suddenly appeared in Punjab and the neighbourhood of Amroha. The Mongols plundered Punjab and burnt everything along the way.

Alauddin Khilji sent a strong army led by two of his toughest generals: Ghazi Malik and the famous Malik Kafur to engage the invaders. They surprised the Mongols on their way back to Central Asia with their plunder. At the Battle of Amroha Kubak and other Mongol generals were captured and brought back to Siri, along with other prisoners. Alauddin Khilji had the generals trampled to death by elephants while the other prisoners were put to death and their heads hung from the walls of the fort.

The Mongols returned under the leadership of Kebek, who became a khan later in 1306. They crossed the Indus River near Multan and were moving towards the Himalayas, when Ghazi Malik, governor of Punjab, intercepted them. About 50,000 Mongols were made prisoners including one of their generals. Alauddin Khilji put them all to death and sold their wives and children as slaves.

The last Mongol invasion of this period took place in 1307-8 under Iqbalmand and Tai Bu. They had just about managed to cross the Indus when Alauddin Khilji's armies overtook them and put them all to the sword. In that same year the Mongol Khan, Duwa, died and in the dispute over his succession this spate of Mongol raids into India ended.

Alauddin Khilji was an original thinker and brilliant as a strategist. He sent plundering armies under the veteran general Ghazi Malik to Kandhar, Ghazni and Kabul. These offensives effectively crippled the Mongol line of control leading to India.

After besieging and taking Siwana, Jalor, and Warangal, the Indian army, led by the Alauddin Khilji Indian slave commander Malik Kafur, invaded Malababar from Devagiri in 1311. They returned with immense amounts of gold and other booty. After the Mongol commander Abachi tried to kill Kafur, Alauddin had him executed. Believing that thousands of Mongols who were captives and later converted into Islam in Delhi were conspiring to kill him, the Sultan ordered all Mongols arrested, and about 20,000 were reported to have been executed. The court of Delhi also executed emissaries of Oljeitu, the Ilkhan of Mongol Persia.

In 1320 the Qaraunas under Zulju (Dulucha) entered Kashmir by the Jehlam Valley without meeting any serious resistance. The Kashmiri king, Suhadeva, tried to persuade Zulju to withdraw by paying a large ransom. After he failed to organize resistance, Suhadeva fled to Kishtwar, leaving the people of Kashmir to the mercy of Zulju. The Mongols burned the dwellings, massacred the men and made women and children slaves. Only refugees under Ramacandra, commander in chief of the king, in the fort of Lar remained safe. The invaders continued to pillage for eight months until the commencement of winter. When Zulju was departing via Brinal, he lost most of his men and prisoners due to a severe snowfall in Divasar district.

The next major Mongol invasion took place after the Khiljis had been replaced by the Tughlaq dynasty in the Sultanate. In 1327 the Chagatai Mongols under Tarmashirin, who had sent envoys to Delhi to negotiate peace the previous year, sacked the frontier towns of Lamghan and Multan and besieged Delhi. The Tughlaq ruler paid a large ransom to spare his Sultanate from further ravages. Muhammad bin Tughluq asked the Ilkhan Abu Sa'id to form an alliance against Tarmashirin, who had invaded Khorasan, but an attack didn't materialize. Tarmashirin was a Buddhist who later converted to Islam. Religious tensions in the Chagatai Khanate were a divisive factor among the Mongols.

No more large-scale invasions or even raids took place in India; by this time the Mongol attempt to conquer India had finally ended in failure. However, small groups of Mongol adventurers hired out their swords to the many local powers in the northwest. Amir Qazaghan raided northern India with his Qara'unas. He also sent several thousand troops to aid the Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq in suppressing the rebellion in his country in 1350.