Mongol invasions of India - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...

Mongol invasions

Mongol invasions progressed throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire which covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe by 1300....

into the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

from 1221 to 1327. The Mongols

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

made Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

their vassal state

Vassal state

A vassal state is any state that is subordinate to another. The vassal in these cases is the ruler, rather than the state itself. Being a vassal most commonly implies providing military assistance to the dominant state when requested to do so; it sometimes implies paying tribute, but a state which...

. However, the campaigns against the Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate

The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

proved unsuccessful, in spite of constant Mongol incursions.

Background

After pursuing Jalal ad-Din

Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu

Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, also known as Mengübirti or Manguberdi or Minkburny in the east was the last ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire...

into India from Samarkand

Samarkand

Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...

and defeating him at the battle of Indus

Battle of Indus

The Battle of Indus was fought at the river Indus in today's Pakistan in the year 1221 between Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the sultan of the Khwarezmid Empire and his only remaining forces of five thousand, and the Mongolian horde of Genghis Khan....

in 1221, Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....

sent two tumens (20,000 soldiers) under commanders Dorbei the Fierce and Bala to continue the chase. The Mongol commander Bala chased Jalal ad-Din throughout the Punjab region

Punjab region

The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

and attacked outlying towns like Bhera

Bhera

Bhera is a city on the Jhelum river in Sargodha District, Punjab province of Pakistan. It lies at latitude 32.48 N, longitude 72.92.-Location:...

and Multan

Multan

Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

and had even sacked the outskirts of Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

. Jalal ad-Din regrouped, forming a small army from survivors of the battle and sought an alliance, or even an asylum, with the Muslim rulers of Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate

, but was turned down.

Jalal ad-Din fought against the local rulers in the Punjab, and usually defeated them in the open but could not occupy their lands. At last he proposed an alliance with the khokhar

Khokhar

The Khokhar or Khokar are a people of Punjab region of Pakistan and north-western India. According to H. A. Rose they are the gotra of Rajput, Jat, Arain, Nai, and Churah. According to Denzil Ibbetson, they are also a gotra of the Tarkhan and Khatri tribes. The Khokhars were designated as an...

chieftain of the Salt Range

Salt Range

The Salt Range is a hill system in the Punjab province of Pakistan, deriving its name from its extensive deposits of rock salt. The range extends from the Jhelum River to the Indus, across the northern portion of the Punjab province. The Salt Range contains the great mines of Mayo, Khewra, Warcha...

and married his daughter. The Khokhar Rai's son joined Jalal ad-Din's army along with his clansmen and received the title of Kalich (sword) Khan. Jalal ad-Din's soldiers were under his officers Uzbek Pai and Hassan Qarlugh.

Khokhar

Khokhar

tribe of punjab was in alliance with mongols during their invasion of india.

While fighting against the local governor of Sindh

Sindh

Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

, Jalal ad-Din heard of an uprising in the Kirman province of southern Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

and he immediately set out for that place, passing through southern Baluchistan

Balochistan (region)

Balochistan or Baluchistan is an arid, mountainous region in the Iranian plateau in Southwest Asia; it includes part of southeastern Iran, western Pakistan, and southwestern Afghanistan. The area is named after the numerous Baloch tribes, Iranian peoples who moved into the area from the west...

on the way. Jalal ad-Din was also joined by forces from Ghor and Peshawar, including members of the Khilji, Turkoman

Turkmen people

The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...

, and Ghori

Ghori

Ghori also refers to a resident of Ghor Province in Afghanistan----Ghori is a small town in Pakistani Controlled Azad Kashmir, located at 34°27'0N, 73°30'0E . It lies near to the epicentre of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake....

tribes. With his new allies he marched on Ghazni

Ghazni

For the Province of Ghazni see Ghazni ProvinceGhazni is a city in central-east Afghanistan with a population of about 141,000 people...

and defeated a Mongol division under Turtai, which had been assigned the task of hunting him down. The victorious allies quarreled over the division of the captured booty; subsequently the Khilji, Turkoman, and Ghori tribesmen deserted Jalal ad-Din and returned to Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

. By this time Ögedei Khan

Ögedei Khan

Ögedei Khan, born Ögedei was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father...

, third son of Genghis Khan, had become Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. A Mongol general named Chormaqan

Chormaqan

Chormaqan was one of the most famous generals of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He was also a member of the keshik....

sent by the Khan attacked and defeated him, thus ending the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.

Mongol conquest of Kashmir and conflicts with the Delhi Sultanate

Some time after 1235 another Mongol force invaded Kashmir

Kashmir

, stationing a darughachi

Darughachi

Darughachi, which originally designated officials in the Mongol Empire in charge of taxes and administration in a certain province, is the plural form of the Mongolian word darugha. They were sometimes referred to as governors...

(administrative governor) there for several years, and Kashmir became a Mongolian dependency. Around the same time, a Kashmiri Buddhist master, Otochi, and his brother Namo arrived at the court of Ögedei. Another Mongol general named Pakchak attacked Peshawar and defeated the army of tribes who had deserted Jalal ad-Din but were still a threat to the Mongols. These men, mostly Khiljis, escaped to Multan and were recruited into the army of the Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate

. In winter 1241 the Mongol force invaded the Indus valley and besieged Lahore

Lahore

. General Dayir was killed while storming the town. However, on December 30, 1241, the Mongols under Munggetu butchered the town before withdrawing from the Delhi Sultanate. At the same time the Great Khan Ögedei died (1241).

The Kashmiris revolted in 1254-1255, and Möngke Khan

Möngke Khan

Möngke Khan , born Möngke, , was the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from July 1, 1251 – August 11, 1259. He was the first Great Khan from the Toluid line, and made significant reforms to improve the administration of the Empire during his reign...

, who became Great Khan in 1251, appointed his generals, Sali and Takudar, to replace the court and appointed the Buddhist master, Otochi, as darugachi of Kashmir. However, the Kashmiri king killed Otochi at Srinagar

Srinagar

Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...

. Sali invaded Kashmir, killing the king, and put down the rebellion, after which the country remained subject to the Mongol Empire for many years.

The Delhi prince, Jalal al-Din Masud, traveled to the Mongol capital at Karakorum

Karakorum

Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...

to seek the assistance of Möngke Khan in seizing the throne from his elder brother in 1248. When Möngke was crowned as Great Khan, Jalal al-Din Masud attended the ceremony and asked for help from Möngke. Möngke ordered Sali to assist him to recover his ancestral realm. Sali made successive attacks on Multan and Lahore. Sham al-Din Muhammad Kart, the client malik

Malik

Malik is an Arabic word meaning "king, chieftain".It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings...

(ruling prince) of Herat

Herat

Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...

, accompanied the Mongols. Jalal al-Din was installed as client ruler of Lahore, Kujah and Sodra. In 1257 the governor of Sindh offered his entire province to Hulagu Khan

Hulagu Khan

Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü, Hulegu , was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia...

, Mongke's brother, and sought Mongol protection from his overlord in Delhi. Hulagu led a strong force under Sali Bahadur into Sindh. In the winter of 1257 - beginning of 1258, Sali Noyan entered Sind in strength and dismantled the fortifications of Multan; his forces may also have invested the island fortress of Bakhkar on the Indus.

But Hulagu refused to sanction a grand invasion of the Delhi Sultanate and a few years later diplomatic correspondence between the two rulers confirmed the growing desire for peace. Hulagu had many other areas of conquests to take care of in Syria and southwestern Asia. Large-scale Mongol invasions of India ceased and the Delhi Sultans used the respite to recover the frontier towns like Multan, Uch, and Lahore, and to punish the local Ranas and Rais who had joined hands with either the Khwarazim or the Mongol invaders.

Large numbers of tribes that took shelter in the Delhi Sultanate as a result of the Mongol invasions changed the balance of power in North India. The Khilji

Khilji dynasty

The Khilji Sultanate was a dynasty of Turko-Afghan Khalaj origin who ruled large parts of South Asia from 1290 - 1320. They were the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate of India...

tribe usurped power from the older Delhi Sultans and began to rapidly project their power into other parts of India. At about this time the Mongol raids into India were also renewed (1300).

The Chagatai Mongols vs. Delhi sultanate

The Tushar sources claim invasions by hundreds of thousands of Mongols, numbers approximating (and probably based on) the size of the entire cavalry armies of the Mongol realms of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

or the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

: about 150,000 men. A count of the Mongol commanders named in the sources as participating in the various invasions might give a better indication of the numbers involved, as these commanders probably led tumens, units nominally of 10,000 men. These invasions were led by either various descendants of Genghis Khan or by Mongol divisional commanders; the size of such armies was always between 10,000-30,000 cavalry although the Muslim chroniclers of Delhi exaggerated the number to 100,000-200,000 cavalry, which was their norm in describing enemy forces.

After civil war broke out in the Mongol Empire in the 1260s, the Chagatai Khanate

Chagatai Khanate

The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...

controlled Central Asia and its leader since the 1280s was Duwa

Duwa

Duwa , also known as Du'a, was khan of the Chagatai Khanate . He was the second son of Baraq. He was the longest reigning monarch of the Chagatayid Khanate and accepted the Great Khan's supremacy...

Khan who was second in command of Kaidu

Kaidu

Kaidu was the leader of the House of Ogedei and the de facto khan of the Chagatai Khanate. He ruled part of modern-day Xinjiang and Central Asia during the 13th century, and actively opposed his uncle, Kublai Khan, who established the Yuan Dynasty in China until his death in 1301...

Khan. Duwa was active in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, and attempted to extend Mongol rule into India. Negudar

Negudar

Negudar was a Mongol general under Berke, and a Golden Horde Noyan. With many other Golden Horde generals, he embraced Islam in the late 13th century. He subsequently took the Muslim name of Ahmad Khan....

i governor Abdullah, who was a son of Chagatai Khan

Chagatai Khan

Chagatai Khan was the second son of Genghis Khan and first khan and origin of the names of the Chagatai Khanate, Chagatai language and Chagatai Turks....

's great grandson, invaded Punjab with his force in 1292, but their advance guard under Ulghu was defeated and taken prisoner by the Khalji Sultan. He was intimidated by the main Mongol army and bought off their attacks for a price. The 4000 Mongol captives of the advance guard converted to Islam and came to live in Delhi as "new Muslims". The suburb they lived in was appropriately named Mughalpura. Chagatai tumens were beaten by the Delhi Sultanate several times in 1296-1297. The Mongols thereafter repeatedly invaded northern India. On at least two occasions, they came in strength.

The two armies met at Jalandhar

Jalandhar

Jalandhar is a city in Jalandhar District in the state of Punjab, India. It is located 144 km northwest of the state capital, Chandigarh...

in 1297. Zafar Khan defeated the Mongols in this first invasion. The Mongols attacked again under the command of Saldi and captured the fort at Siri. Zafar Khan, holding the honour of being one of the few undefeated military commanders in history, had no problem crushing this army. He recaptured the fort and brought 2,000 Mongol prisoners before Alauddin Khilji

Alauddin Khilji

Ali Gurshap Khan better known by his titular name as Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji was the second ruler of the Turko-Afghan Khilji dynasty in India.He was a well and capable ruler. He belonged to the Afghanized Turkic tribe of the Khiljis...

.

During Mongol incursions in 1298, a mixed Turk

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

-Mongol army fought against the Rajput

Rajput

A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...

Kings. The Mongols quarreled with the Turk commander and killed his brother in an argument over the distribution of captured wealth. The wives and children of these Mongols were treated with ferocious cruelty and they escaped to the forts of the Rajputs.

Shortly afterward, Duwa Khan sought to end the ongoing conflict with the Yuan Khagan Temür Öljeytü, and around 1304 a general peace among the Mongol khanate

Khanate

Khanate, or Chanat, is a Turco-Mongol-originated word used to describe a political entity ruled by a Khan. In modern Turkish, the word used is kağanlık, and in modern Azeri of the republic of Azerbaijan, xanlıq. In Mongolian the word khanlig is used, as in "Khereidiin Khanlig" meaning the Khanate...

s was declared, bringing an end to the conflict between the Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

and western khanates that had lasted for the better part of a half century. Soon after, he proposed a joint Mongol attack on India, but the campaign did not materialize.

Late Mongol invasions

In 1299, against advice, Delhi sultan Alauddin Khilji

Alauddin Khilji

attacked the Mongols. The advance guard of the Indian army was led by Zafar Khan

Zafar Khan

Zafar Khan was the Muslim Indian general of Alauddin Khilji of the Khilji dynasty, ruler of the Delhi Sultanate in northern India.Zafar Khan defeated an invading Mongol army near Jalandhar in 1297 which secured Alauddin Khilji's throne....

himself. He defeated the Mongols and pursued of them as they withdrew. However, the Mongol general Qutlugh Khwaja

Qutlugh Khwaja

Qutlugh Khwaja was a son of Duwa, the Mongolian khan of Chagatai Khanate in the Mongol Empire. He became a chief of the Qara'unas in Afghanistan after Abdullah was recalled by the Khan to Central Asia in around 1298-1299...

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

Siri

Siri or SIRI may refer to:Given name* Sigrid, a female name commonly shortened as Siri* Siri, a common Hindu female name, meaning "Goddess Lakshmi, Wealth, God's gift of love."* Siri von Essen, Swedish actress married to writer August Strindberg...

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

Nizamuddin Auliya

Sultan-ul-Mashaikh, Mehboob-e-Ilahi, Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya , also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, was a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order in the Indian Subcontinent, an order that believed in drawing close to God through renunciation of the world and service to...

.

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

Ali Beg

Ali Beg or Ali Bey Evrenos-ogly was Ottoman military commander in 15th century. He was one of the sons of Evrenos, an Ottoman general....

and Tartaq suddenly appeared in Punjab and the neighbourhood of Amroha

Amroha

Amroha is a small town in the north-western Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. It is located north-west of Moradabad, near the Sot River...

. 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

Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq

Ghiyas ud-Din Tughluq , real name Ghazi Malik was the founder and first ruler of the Turkic Muslim Tughluq dynasty in India, who reigned over Sultanate of Delhi . He has been the founder of the third city of Delhi called Tughluqabad.Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq was in origin a poor Qarauna who took...

and the famous Malik Kafur

Malik Kafur

Malik Kafur, General , or Chand Ram as his name was originally, was a slave who became a head general in the army of Alauddin Khilji, ruler of the Delhi sultanate from 1296 to 1316 AD. He was originally seized by Alauddin's army after the army conquered the city of Khambhat...

to engage the invaders. They surprised the Mongols on their way back to Central Asia with their plunder. 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

Kebek

Kebek was khan of the Chagatai Khanate from 1309 until 1310, and again from c. 1318 until his death.-First Reign:Kebek was the son of Duwa, who was khan from 1282 until 1307...

, who became a khan later in 1306. They crossed the Indus River

Indus River

The Indus River is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It also has courses through China and India.Originating in the Tibetan plateau of western China in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region, the river runs a course through the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir and...

near Multan

Multan

and were moving towards the Himalayas, when Ghazi Malik

Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq

, 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

Duwa

Duwa , also known as Du'a, was khan of the Chagatai Khanate . He was the second son of Baraq. He was the longest reigning monarch of the Chagatayid Khanate and accepted the Great Khan's supremacy...

, 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

Kandhar

Kandhar is a town and a municipal council in Nanded district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It lies near the western shore of Manyad Reservoir.-History:...

, Ghazni

Ghazni

For the Province of Ghazni see Ghazni ProvinceGhazni is a city in central-east Afghanistan with a population of about 141,000 people...

and Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

. These offensives effectively crippled the Mongol line of control leading to India.

After besieging and taking Siwana

Siwana

Siwana is a Tehsil - in Barmer district in Indian state of Rajasthan, located 151 km from Barmer. The place is known for its fort. SIVANA having 129 villages total Population as per 2001 cencus is 213648, male is 111155 female is 102493....

, Jalor, and Warangal

Warangal

Warangal is a city and a municipal corporation in Warangal district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Warangal is located northeast of the state capital of Hyderabad and is the administrative headquarters of Warangal District. This district is a combination of three cities: Warangal,...

, the Indian army, led by the Alauddin Khilji Indian slave commander Malik Kafur

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 Mongols under Zulju 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

Kishtwar

Kishtwar is a town and a notified area committee in Kishtwar District in Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of India.-Geography:Kishtwar is located at...

, 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

Chagatai Khanate

The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...

Mongols under Tarmashirin

Tarmashirin

Tarmashirin Khan was the khan of the Chagatai Khanate following Duwa Timur.Tarmashirin is famous for his campaign in India in 1327 before he was enthroned. He destroyed every army on his way to Delhi. The Delhi Sultan gave him a large tribute to spare his life...

, 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

Muhammad bin Tughluq

Muhammad bin Tughluq was the Turkic Sultan of Delhi from 1325 to 1351. He was the eldest son of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq.He was born in Kotla Tolay Khan in Multan. His wife was daughter of the raja of Dipalpur...

asked the Ilkhan Abu Sa'id

Abu Sa'id (Ilkhanid dynasty)

Abu Sa'id also Abusaid Bahador Khan, Abu Sayed Behauder , was the ninth ruler of the Ilkhanate state in Iran ....

to form an alliance against Tarmashirin, who had invaded Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

, but an attack didn't materialize. Tarmashirin was a Buddhist who later converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. 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

Amir Qazaghan

Qazaghan was the amir of the Qara'unas and the effective ruler of the Chagatai ulus .Qazaghan's lineage is mostly unknown; it is possible that he became head of the Qara'unas through appointment instead of inheritance In 1345 he rebelled against his sovereign, the Chagatai Khan Qazan, but was...

raided northern India with his Qara'unas

Qara'unas

Qaraunas, or Neguderis, or Nikudari, were a Mongol group that settled in Afghanistan and east of Iran.- Foundation :...

. He also sent several thousand troops to aid the Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq

Muhammad bin Tughluq

in suppressing the rebellion in his country in 1350.

Timur and Babur

The Delhi sultans had developed cordial relations with the Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

in Mongolia and China and the Ilkhanate

Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...

in Persia and the Middle East. In around 1338, Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq

Muhammad bin Tughluq

of the Delhi Sultanate appointed Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta , or simply Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad–Din , was a Muslim Moroccan Berber explorer, known for his extensive travels published in the Rihla...

an ambassador to the Mongol court of Emperor Huizong of Yuan China. The gifts he was to take included 200 slaves.

The Chagatai Khanate

Chagatai Khanate

The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...

had split up by this time and an ambitious Mongol Turk chieftain named Timur

Timur

Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...

had brought Central Asia and the regions beyond under his control. He followed the twin policies of Imperialism and Islamization, shifting various Mongol tribes to different parts of his empire and giving primacy to the Turkic people in his own army. Timur also reinforced the Islamic faith over the Chagatai Khanate and after a long gap put the laws of the Quran over Chingiz Khaan's shaminist laws. He invaded India in 1398 to make war and plunder the wealth of the country.

Timur's empire broke up and his descendants failed to hold on to Central Asia, which split up into numerous principalities. The descendants of the Mongol Chagtais and the descendants of the Timur empire lived side by side, occasionally fighting and occasionally inter-marrying.

One of the products of such a marriage was Babur

Babur

Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...

, founder of the Mughal Empire

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

. His mother belonged to the family of the Mongol Khans of Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

. Babur was a true descendant of Timur and shared his beliefs: he believed that rules and regulations of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

were deficient as he remarked, "they had no divine authority."

Even though his own mother was a Mongol, Babur hated the Mongol race and wrote a stinging verse in his autobiography:

"Were the Mughals an angel race, it would be bad,

Even writ in gold, the Mughal name would be bad."

When Babur occupied Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

and began invading the Indian subcontinent, he was called a Mughal like all the earlier invaders from the Chagatai Khanate. Even the invasion of Timur had been considered a Mongol invasion since the Mongols had ruled over Central Asia for so long and had given their name to its people.

The military heritage of the Mongols, unlike their secular laws, had no conflict with the question of religion. Hence both Timur and Babur continued the military system of Chingiz Khan. One part of this system was the name Ordu - used for the collective of tents that formed the military camp — it was now pronounced Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

. In all their campaigns in India the Mughal camp was called the Urdu and this word became current in the languages of the various soldiers that formed the body of this camp.

In course of time these Indian and foreign languages mingled together in the Urdu and a new language of that name was born. This language of the military camp survived in some of the North Indian cities after the fall of the Mughal Empire. The Urdu that passed through all these centuries of political changes ultimately became the language of poetry, of music, and of other forms of cultural expression—today it is recognized as one of the languages of Pakistan and modern India.

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