Chinghez Khan (1196-1227)

The Chingiz khan

Chinghez Khan
Chinghez Khan was a minor nobleman who defeated all of his rivals to become to Great Khan (leader) of the Mongol tribes in 1196. Twenty years later, his armies had conquered much of the known world from the shores of China to Europe.

Chinghez did not try to invade India, as so many other central Asian leaders had done, until 1221 when the ruler of Ghazni, fleeing from the Mongols, took refuge in the Punjab. Chinghez chased him but met the armies of Iltutmish near Peshawar and returned to central Asia after an inconclusive battle. Six years later, Chinghez was dead, and by the end of the century, the Mongols were converted to Islam. Their threat, however, did not go away: in 1245 they invaded and captured Lahore, only to be defeated by Balban. Forty years later, they
seized Lahore again but were driven were driven out by Balban's son, Muhammad, who was unfortunately killed in the battle. Although they made repeated advances into the Sultanate, the Mongols were pushed back. They managed to reach Delhi once and even besieged it, but fled when Alauddin's army approached (1300).

For much of the 14th Century, there were no major Mongol attacks until after the death of Firoz Shah (1388), when a series of feeble sultans left the Sultanate open to invasion. Then the final and worst Mongol attack of all took place under Timur.

Timur the Lame (1369-1405)

Timur (Tamerlance was a descendant of Chinghez Khan, but at the time of his birth, the great Mongol empire in central Asia had already broken up into independent states. Although Timur was a nobleman of one of these states, he was determines to beocme king of Samarkand, which he claimed as his right because of his ancestor Chinghez. He gathered together an army, captured Samarkand and reigned there from 1369. Much more importantly, however, he went on to reconquer an empire from the Mediterrancean to the Yellow Sea. Baghdad, Damascus and Moscow were all destroyed.

Timur

Taking advantage of the weakness of the Sultanate of Delhi, he also invaded Indian. His relentless armies raced towards Delhi itself, leaving behind a broad track of destruction and death. He quickly7 captured the city (1398) and then began three days of the most terrible slaughter and plundering. 100 000 people were killed, some driven off as slaves and the city demolished. The few people still alive soon died of starvation. It was said that not a bird lifted its wing for two months afterwards.

Timur confessed in his dairy that he did not really want such a terrible massacre to take place but that his soldiers were out of control. However, once the plundering was over, the Mongols marched back to their central Asian home by a route to the north of the one they had used earlier, still destroying everyone and everything in their path. In his diary, Timur wrote that he although he would gain rewards in paradise

for killing infidels, he also wanted riches and plunder.The destruction of Delhi really marked the end of the Sultanate as a great power, though for another century different dynasties struggled to preserve it. Then, once again, northern Indian was taken over by the Mongols, though these were very different people from the earlier invaders and were called the Mughals. Mughal is the Persian word for 'Mongol'. They began one of the most wonderful periods in the history of the subcontinent.