Abraham Eraly - The Age of Wrath - A History of the Delhi Sultanate

IN PREPARATION FOR the attack on Delhi, Timur held a council of war, in which he instructed his officers about the tactics to be used in that crucial battle. ‘All my soldiers were brave veterans, and had used their swords manfully under my own eyes. But there were none that had seen so many fights and battles as I had seen, and none of the amirs and braves of the army could compare with me in the amount of fighting I had gone through, and the experience I had gained,’ he writes. ‘I therefore gave them instructions as to the mode of carrying on war, on making and meeting attacks, on arraying their men, on giving support to each other, and on all the precautions to be observed in warring with an enemy … I ordered the amirs … not to be too forward nor too backward, but to act with utmost prudence and caution in their operations.’

At that meeting some of Timur’s officers expressed apprehensions about confronting the war elephants of the Delhi sultan. ‘It had been constantly dinned into the ears of my soldiers that the chief reliance of the armies of Hindustan was on their mighty elephants; that these animals, in complete armour, marched into battle in front of their forces, and that arrows and swords were of no use against them; that in height and bulk they were like small mountains, and their strength was such that at a given signal they could tear up great trees and knock down strongly built walls; that in the battlefield they could take up a horse and its rider with their trunks and hurl them into the air,’ Timur writes.

To allay these anxieties of his soldiers, Timur ordered a deep trench to be dug around the army camp, to prevent elephants from rampaging into the camp. ‘I rode around to inspect it,’ he writes, ‘and I ordered that the trees in the vicinity should be cut down, and brought within the trench, that their branches should be formed into a strong abatis, and that in some places planks should be set up … [Also,] I ordered that all the buffalos which had been taken and placed with the baggage should be brought up; I then had their heads and necks fastened to their legs and placed the animals inside the abatis.’ Further, according to Yazdi, Timur ‘had strong iron claws (caltrops) made and given to the infantry, who were ordered to throw them on the ground in front of the elephants’ to spike their feet as they charged.

Another precaution that Timur took was to execute all the Indian prisoners kept in the army camp. There were 100,000 of them in the camp, and it was feared that they constituted a danger to the army on the eve of its battle with the sultan of Delhi, for it was reported to Timur that when a Delhi contingent made a trial attack on his camp, these prisoners ‘made signs of rejoicing and uttered imprecations’ against Timur. So it was deemed essential, for the safety of the army, that they all should be put to death. Timur therefore ordered ‘that every man who had infidel prisoners was to put them to death, and whoever neglected to do so should himself be executed and his property given to the informer.’

TIMUR’S ADVANCE THROUGH India was swift. It took him less than three months to reach Delhi after crossing the Indus, even though he fought several battles along the way. Strangely, Sultan Mahmud made no move whatever to oppose Timur during these months, presumably hoping that this incursion, like all the previous Mongol incursions, would be just a plundering raid and it involved no threat to his throne. But Timur’s campaign was different from all the previous Mongol campaigns. Even though a major motive of Timur too was to gather plunder, and he had no intention to annex the territory of the Sultanate, he clearly meant to drive Mahmud out of Delhi and occupy the city for a while — for the prestige of it, and for plundering the royal treasures. This was an invasion by a king, not a raid by a pillaging horde. Moreover, there was a strong element of religious fanaticism in Timur, which was not there in the early raids of Mongols, for they were then heathens, not yet converted to Islam.

The realisation that Timur meant to occupy Delhi at last bestirred Mahmud, and he and his chief officer Mallu Khan then marched out of the city to confront Timur. His army, indicative of the withered state of the Sultanate, was small, consisting of just 10,000 cavalry and 125 elephants, though he also had with him an infantry rabble of 40,000.

‘The enemy’s forces now made their appearance, and for better reconnoitring their order I rode to the top of a little hill which was hard by,’ writes Timur. ‘There I carefully scrutinised their array, and I said to myself that with the favour of god I would defeat them and gain victory. I then alighted from my horse … and performed my devotions … bowed my head to the ground and besought the Almighty for victory.’ Returning to his camp Timur then gave final instructions to his commanders, and took his position at the centre of the array.

This was on 17 December 1398. ‘The two armies now confronted each other, the drums were beaten on both sides, and shouts and cries were raised,’ reports Timur in his detailed description of the encounter. ‘The solders of Sultan Mahmud and Mallu Khan showed no lack of courage, but bore themselves manfully in the fight, till they could not withstand the successive assaults of my soldiers … [At last] their courage crumbled, and they took to flight.’

Mahmud then pulled back to Delhi. But that very night, with the enemy clamouring at the city gates, Mahmud sought safety in flight—‘in the middle of that night … [he] fled towards the mountains and jungles,’ records Timur, rather fancifully. More factually, Sirhindi states that ‘when night came on, Mallu Khan and Sultan Mahmud, leaving their wives and children behind came out of the city — the sultan then fled southward to Gujarat, and Mallu Khan northward to Uttar Pradesh.

Timur then triumphantly entered Delhi, took his seat on the imperial throne, and held a court there. The leading men of the city then paid their homage to Timur. ‘I had them introduced [to me] one by one, and they made their obeisances, and were admitted to the honour of kissing my throne,’ writes Timur. ‘I received every one of them with respect and kindness, and directed them to be seated … [At this time] all the Sayyids, ulama, sheikhs, and other leading Muslims arose, and … begged that quarter might be given to the people of Delhi, and that their lives might be spared. Out of respect to the Sayyids and ulama … I granted quarter to the inhabitants of the city. I then ordered my ensign and royal standard to be raised, and the drums to be beaten and music played on the tops of the gates of Delhi. Rejoicings for the victory followed.’ On Friday the khutba was delivered in Timur’s name in all the mosques of Delhi.

TIMUR HAD GRANTED security to the people of Delhi, but his soldiers, fired by raging rapacity, nevertheless went berserk in the city, slaughtering and plundering. It was primarily for this that they had come to India. And Timur was unable, or unwilling, to restrain them. Their rampage was however resisted by the Hindus in the city; they ‘set fire to their houses with their own hands, burned their wives and children in them, and rushed into the fight and were killed,’ records Timur. This resistance further inflamed the raiders. ‘On that day, Thursday, and all the [following] night … nearly 15,000 … [soldiers] were engaged in slaying, plundering, and destroying. When morning broke on Friday, all my army, no longer under control, went off to the city and thought of nothing but killing, plundering, and taking prisoners.’ An incredible amount of booty, far beyond all imagination, was obtained by the raiders—‘rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls, and other gems; jewels of gold and silver; … [gold and silver coins]; vessels of gold and silver; and brocades and silks of great value. Gold and silver ornaments of the Hindu women were obtained in such quantities as to exceed all account.’ A large number of prisoners were also seized by the raiders.