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The Khaljis (Khiljis) and the Tughlaqs - Part 3
8.0 Decline and Disintegration of the Delhi SultanatE : Firuz and his Successors
During the latter half of Muhammad Tughlaq's reign, there were repeated rebellions in different parts of the Empire. Rebellions by ambitious nobles, particularly in the outlying areas, were not a new feature. In most cases, the sultans had been able to suppress them with the help of the central army and a band of loyal nobles. Muhammad Tughlaq's difficulties were several. The rebellions took place one after another in different parts of the Empire - in Bengal, in Mabar (Tamil Nadu), in Warangal, in Kampili (Karnataka), in West Bengal, in Awadh, and in Gujarat and Sindh. Muhammad Tughlaq did not trust anyone, at least not sufficiently. So, he dashed from one part of the country to another to suppress the rebellions and wore out his armies. The rebellions in south India were the most serious.
At first, rebellions in these areas were organised by the local governors. The sultan hurried to south India. After some time, plague broke out in the army. We are told that two-thirds of the army perished in this plague. This was a blow from which Muhammad Tughlaq could never recover. Soon after the return of the sultan from south India, there was another rebellion there, led by two brothers, Harihar and Bukka. They set up a principality which gradually expanded. This was the Vijayanagara Empire which soon embraced the entire south. (The Vijayanagara Empire, referred to as the Kingdom of Bisnagar by the Portuguese, was an empire based in South India, in the Deccan Plateau region. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty.)
Further north, in the Deccan, some foreign nobles set up a principality near Daulatabad which expanded into the Bahmani Empire. Bengal also became independent. With a great effort, Muhammad Tughlaq was able to quell the rebellions in Awadh, Gujarat and Sindh. While still in Sindh, Muhammad Tughlaq died, and was succeeded by his cousin, Firuz Tughlaq. Muhammad Tughlaq' s policies had created deep discontent among the nobles as well as in the army. He had also come into clash with Muslim theologians and the Sufi saints who were very influential. But the unpopularity of Muhammad Tughlaq should not be exaggerated. Even when he was away from the capital for long periods, the administration in Delhi, the Punjab and other parts of the Empire in north India continued to function normally.
After his accession, Firuz Tughlaq was faced with the problem of preventing the imminent break-up of the Delhi Sultanate. He adopted a policy of trying to appease the nobles, the army and the theologians, and of asserting his authority over only such areas which could be easily administrated from the centre. He, therefore, made no attempt to re-assert his authority over south India and the Deccan. He led two campaigns into Bengal, but was unsuccessful in both. Bengal was, thus, lost to the Sultanate. Even then, the Sultanate continued to be as large as it was during the early years of the reign of Alauddin Khilji. Firuz led a campaign against the ruler of Jajnagar (Orissa). He desecrated the temples there and gathered a rich plunder, but made no attempts to annex Orissa. He also led a campaign against Kangra in the Punjab hills. His longest campaigns were to deal with rebellions in Gujarat and Thatta. Although the rebellions were crushed, the army suffered great hardship due to losing its way in the Rann of Kutch.
8.1 Extension of heredity
Thus, Firuz was by no means a distinguished, military leader. But his reign was a period of peace, and of quiet development. He decreed that whenever a noble died, his son should be allowed to succeed to his position, including his iqta and if he had no son, his son-in-law and in his absence, his slave. Firuz abolished the practice of torturing nobles and their officials if any balance was found against them at the time of auditing the accounts of their iqta. These steps pleased the nobles and was a major factor for the absence of rebellions by the nobles, with the minor exception of one in Gujarat and Thatta. However, in the long run, the policy of making offices and iqta hereditary was bound to be harmful. It reduced the chances of competent men being recruited into the service outside a narrow circle, and made the sultan dependent on a narrow oligarchy. Firuz extended the principle of heredity to the army as well. Old soldiers were allowed to rest in peace and to send, in their place, their sons or sons-in-law, and if they were not available, themselves.
The soldiers were not to be paid in cash but by assignments, on the land revenue of villages. This meant that a soldier either had to go to the villages to collect his salary and absent himself from service, or to give the assignment to some middleman who would give him a half or one-third of its value. Thus, the soldier did not benefit in the long run. The entire military administration became lax, and soldiers were allowed to pass useless horses at the muster by bribing the clerks.
8.2 Attempts to win over the theologians
Firuz tried to win over the theologians by, proclaiming that he was a true Muslim king, and that the state under him was a truly Islamic state. Actually, right from the time of Iltutmish's accession to the throne, there was a tussle between the orthodox theologians and the sultans regarding the nature of the state, and the policy to be adopted by the state towards the non-Muslims of India. As has been stated earlier, from the time of lltutmish, and especially under Alauddin and Muhammad Tughlaq, the Turkish rulers did not allow the theologians to dictate the policy of the state. They waged jihad against the Hindu rulers, whenever it was convenient for them to do so. In order to keep the theologians satisfied, a number of them were appointed to high offices. The judiciary and the educational system, of course, remained in the hands of the theologians.
Despite outer trappings and appearances, Firuz followed the policy of his predecessors in essentials. There is no reason to believe that he allowed the theologians to dictate the state policy. But he gave a number of important concessions to the theologians. He tried to ban practices which the orthodox theologians considered un-Islamic. Thus, he prohibited the practice of Muslim women going out to worship at the graves of saints. He persecuted a number of Muslim sects which were considered heretical by the theologians. It was during the time of Firuz that jizyah became a separate tax. Earlier, it was a part of land revenue. Firuz refused to exempt the Brahmins from the payment of jizyah since this was not provided for in the sharia. Only women, children, the disabled and the indigent who had no means of livelihood were exempt from it. Worse, he publicly burnt a Brahmin for preaching to the Muslims, on the ground that it was against the sharia. On the same ground, he even ordered that the beautiful wall paintings in his palace be erased. These narrow views of Firuz Tughlaq were certainly harmful. At the same time, Firuz Tughlaq was the first ruler who took steps to have Hindu religious works translated from Sanskrit into Persian, so that there may be a better understanding of Hindu ideas and practices. Many books on music, medicine and mathematics were also translated from Sanskrit into Persian during his reign.
8.3 Humanitarian measures
Firuz also took a number of humanitarian measures. He banned inhuman punishments such as cutting of hands, feet, nose, etc., for theft and other offences. He set up hospitals for free treatment of the poor, and ordered the kotwals to make lists of unemployed persons, and provided dowries for the daughters of the poor. However, it is likely that these measures were basically designed to help Muslims of good families who had fallen into bad times. This, again, shows the limited nature of the state in India during the medieval times. However, Firuz did emphase that the state was not meant merely for awarding punishments and collecting taxes, but was a benevolent institution as well. In the context of the medieval times, the assertion of this principle of benevolence was a valuable one, and Firuz deserves credit for it.
Firuz was keenly interested in the economic improvement of the country. He set up a large department of public works which looked after his building programme. Firuz repaired and dug a number of canals. The longest canal was about 200 kilometres which took off from the river Sutlej, to Hansi. Another canal took off from the Jumna. These and other canals were meant for irigation purposes, and also for providing water to some of the new towns which Firuz built. These towns, Hissar-Firuzah or Hissar (in modern Haryana) and Firuzabad (Ferozabad in modern Uttar Pradesh) exist even today.
8.4 Promotion of slavery
Another step which Firuz took was both economic and political in nature. He ordered his officials that whenever they attacked a place, they should select handsome and well-born young boys and send them to the sultan as slaves. In this way, Firuz gradually gathered about 1,80,000 slaves. Some of these he trained for carring on various handicrafts, and posted them in the royal workshops (karkhanas) all over the Empire. From others he formed a corps of soldiers who would be directly dependent on the sultan and hence, he hoped, would be completely loyal to him. The policy was not a new one. As we have seen, the early Turkish sultans in India had followed the practice of recruiting slaves.
But experience had shown that these slaves could not be depended on for their loyalty to the descendants of their master, and that they soon formed a separate interest group apart from the nobility. When Firuz died in 1388, the administrative and political problems which had to be faced after the death of every sultan came to the surface. The struggle for power between the sultan and the nobles started once again. The local zamindars and rajas took advantage of the situation to assume airs of independence. A new factor in this situation was the active intervention of the Firuzi slaves, and their attempt to put their own nominee on the throne. Sultan Muhammad, son of Firuz, was able to stabilize his position with their help. But one of his first steps was to break up the power of the slaves killing and imprisoning many of them and scattering the rest. However, neither he nor his successor, Nasiruddin Mahmud who ruled from 1394 to 1412, could control the ambitious nobles and the intransigent rajas. Perhaps, the major reason for this were the reforms of Firuz which had made the nobility too strong and the army inefficient. The governors of provinces became independent, and the sultan of Delhi was confined virtually to a small area surrounding Delhi. As a wit said, "The dominion of the Lord of the Universe (being the title of the sultans of Delhi) extends from Delhi to Palam."
9.0 Timur's invasion
On April 11, 1336, Timurlane, also known as Tamerlane, Timur Leng (Persian), or Tamarlang (Arabic), was born in Kesh, also known as Shahr-e-Sabz, situated at the edge of the mountains just south of Samarkand, which would be the future capital of his empire.
Timurlane claimed direct descent from Genghis Khan, although this has never been proved. Timur embarked on his grand quest to take over the world when he was only 21 years old. By 1358 he had already established himself as a military leader.
Timurlane's army consisted mainly of Turks and Turkic-speaking Mongols. He began his campaign by subduing rival forces in Turkistan. By 1370 both Turkistan and Samarkand were under his control. He established a stronghold in Samarkand, the capital city, in the form of a citadel in the western section with deep ravines around it. Samarkand became his favorite city, which he rebuilt into an opulent city with magnificent architecture in order to project himself as a wealthy and powerful ruler.
The invasion of Timur in India took place in the year 1398 A.D. Timur’s objective of attacking India was to fight against and destroy the rulers of India in order to plunder their wealth. Timur started his journey towards India from Samarkand in April 1398 A.D. He crossed the Sindh River in September and entered Punjab. The invasion of Timur led to the destruction of the power of the Delhi Sultanate and the Tughlaq dynasty. Prior to his invasion, his grandson Pir Muhammad, the governor of Kabul, had already sent an expeditionary force against India which had captured Uch and besieged Multan. Pir Muhammad joined Timur after the capture of Multan. The governor of the fort of Bhatnir submitted after a brief resistance and the fort and the city were destroyed by Timur. Thereafter Timur proceeded towards Delhi massacring people and destroying everything which came in his way.
Till then Sultan Nasir-ud-din of the Tughlaq dynasty had done nothing to resist the invader. When finally the Sultan and his wazir Mallu Iqbal attacked the army of Timur, they were easily defeated. Another battle took place between the Indian sultanate’s army and Timur in 1398 and the Indian army was completely routed. The Sultan and his wazir fled away from the capital. In Delhi, Timur first agreed to spare the citizens when requested by the Ulema, but when the citizens resisted the tyrannical behavior of the soldiers of Timur, he ordered a general massacre and plunder. It continued for several days in which tens of thousands were killed, thousands were taken as slave and the entire wealth of the city was plundered.
Timur stayed in Delhi for fifteen days and looted immense wealth. On his way back he plundered Firozabad, Meerut, Haridwar, Kangra and Jammu. He brought unparalled devastation in India. Wherever he went, he completely destroyed everything. Thousands of villages were burnt, lakhs of people were massacred and all the cities were thoroughly plundered. Timur destroyed the Delhi Sultanate and also the dynasty of the Tughlaqs. Before this great and mindless murderer of men and women left India, he appointed Khizr Khan as governor of Multan, Lahore and Dipalpur.
Timur's invasion once again showed the dangers of a weak government in India. It resulted in the drain of large amount of wealth, gold, silver, jewellery, etc., from India. Timur also took with him a large number of Indian artisans, such as masons, stone cutters, carpenters, etc. Some of them helped him in putting up many fine building in his capital, Samarkand. But the direct political effect of Timur's invasion of India was small. The invasion of Timur may, however, be regarded as marking the end of the phase of strong rule by the Delhi sultans, although the Tughlaq dynasty itself lingered on till 1412.
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