 Part
2 - The Mahometan Conquest
The wave of
Mahometan conquest was, in course of time, to sweep into
India. By the end of the seventh century the Arabs were
forcing their way to Cabul 664 A.D. At the beginning of the
next century Sindh was overrun and Multan was captured;
nevertheless, no extended conquest was as yet attempted.
After the reign of the Calif Harun al Raschid at Bagdad the
Eastern rulers fell upon evil days. Towards the end of the
tenth century a satrapy was established at Ghazni and in the
year 1001 Mahmud of Ghazni, having declared his
independence, began his series of invasions. On his fourth
expedition Mahmud met with a determined resistance from a
confederacy of Hindu princes. A desperate battle was fought
and won by him near Peshawer. Mahmud made twelve expeditions
into India altogether, on one of which he carried off the
famous gates of Somnat; but he was content to leave
subordinate governors in the Punjab and at Guzerat and never
sought to organise an empire. During his life Mahmud was
incomparably the greatest ruler in Asia.
After his
death the rulers of Ghazni were unable to maintain a
consistent supremacy. It was finally overthrown by Ala ud
din of Ghor. His nephew, Shahab ud din, was the real founder
of the Mahometan Empire in India. The princes of the house
of Ghazni who had taken refuge in the Punjab and Guzarat
were overthrown and thus the only Mahometan rivals were
removed. On his first advance against the Rajput kingdom of
Delhi, he was routed; but a second invasion was successful,
and a third carried his arms to Behar and even Bengal.
On the
death of Shahab ud din, his new and vast Indian dominion
became independent under his general Kutb ud din, who had
begun life as a slave. Another slave, Altamish, carried on
the dynasty. Very soon after this the Mongol Chief Chengiz
Khan devastated half the world, but left India comparatively
untouched. Altamish established the Mahometan rule of Delhi
over all Hindustan. This series of rulers, known as the
slave kings, was brought to an end after eighty-two years by
the establishment of the Khilji dynasty in 1288 by the
already aged Jelal ud din. His nephew and chief Captain Ala
ud din opened a career of conquest, invading the Deckan even
before he secured the throne for himself by assassinating
his uncle. In fact, he extended his dominion over almost the
whole of India in spite of frequent rebellions and sundry
Mongol incursions all successfully repressed or dispersed.
In 1321 the Khilji dynasty was overthrown by the House of
Tughlak.
The
second prince of this house, Mahomet Tughlak, was a very
remarkable character. Possessed of extraordinary
accomplishments, learned, temperate, and brave, he plunged
upon wholly irrational and inpracticable schemes of conquest
which were disastrous in themselves and also from the
methods to which the monarch was driven to procure the means
for his wild attempts. One portion after another of the vast
empire broke into revolt and at the end of the century the
dynasty was overturned and the empire shattered by the
terrific invasion of Tamerlane the Tartar. It was not till
the middle of the seventeenth century that the Lodi dynasty
established itself at Delhi and ruled not without credit for
nearly seventy years. The last ruler of this house was
Ibrahim, a man who lacked the worthy qualities of his
predecessors. And in 1526 Ibrahim fell before the conquering
arms of the mighty Baber, the founder of the Mogul dynasty.
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