Timur - Campaign Against The Tughlaq Dynasty

Campaign Against The Tughlaq Dynasty

In 1398, Timur invaded northern India, attacking the Delhi Sultanate ruled by Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud of the Tughlaq Dynasty. He was opposed by Ahirs and Jats but Delhi Government did nothing to stop him. After crossing the Indus river on 30 September 1398, he sacked Tulamba and massacred its inhabitants. Then he advanced and captured Multan by October.

His campaign was officially justified by claims that the Muslim Delhi Sultanate was too tolerant toward its Hindu subjects, but was motivated greatly by the considerable wealth to be gained. By all accounts, Timur's campaigns in India were marked by systematic slaughter and other atrocities on a truly massive scale inflicted mainly on the subcontinent's Hindu population.

Timur crossed the Indus River at Attock (now Pakistan) on 24 September 1398. His invasion did not go unopposed and he encountered resistance by the Governor of Meerut during the march to Delhi. Timur was able to continue his approach to Delhi, arriving in 1398, to fight the armies of Sultan Mehmud, which had already been weakened by a succession struggle within the royal family.

The battle took place on 17 December 1398. Sultan Mahmud Khan's army had 120 war elephants armored with chain mail and with poison on their tusks. With his Tatar forces afraid of the elephants, Timur ordered his men to dig a trench in front of their positions. Timur then loaded his camels with as much wood and hay as they could carry. When the war elephants charged, Timur's army set the hay on fire and prodded the camels with iron sticks, causing them to charge at the elephants howling in pain: Timur had understood that elephants were easily panicked. Faced with the strange spectacle of camels flying straight at them with flames leaping from their backs, the elephants turned around and stampeded back toward their own lines. Timur capitalised on the subsequent disruption in Mahmud Khan's forces, securing an easy victory. Delhi was sacked and left in ruins. Before the battle for Delhi, Timur executed 100,000 captives: