Amir Khusrau Quotes

They have four books in that language (Sanskrit), which they are constantly in the habit of repeating. Their name is Bed (Vedas). They contain stories of their gods, but little advantage can be derived from their perusal.

They pursued the enemy to the gates and set everything on fire. They burnt down all those gardens and groves. That paradise of idol-worshippers became like hell. The fire-worshippers of Bud were in alarm and flocked round their idols…

On Tuesday, the 3rd of Ziqad in AH 700 (10 July, 1301), the strong fort [of Ranthambhor] was conquered. Jhain which was the abode of the infidels, became a new city for Musalmans. The temple of Bahirdev was the first to be destroyed. Subsequently, all other abodes of idolatry were destroyed. Many strong temples which would have remained unshaken even by the trumpet blown on the Day of Judgment, were levelled with the ground when swept by the wind of Islam.

Praise be to God!, that he (the sultan) so ordered the massacre of all the chiefs of Hindustan out of the pale of Islam, by his infidel-smiting sword, that if in this time it should by chance happen that a schismatic should claim his right, the pure Sunnis would swear in the name of this Khalifa of God, that heterodoxy has no right.

People shed so many tears in all directions
that five other rivers have appeared in Multan.
I wanted to speak of the fire in my heart
but a hundred fiery tongues flared up in my mouth.

After returning to Birdhul, he again pursued the Raja to Kandur, and took one hundred and eight elephants, one of which was laden with jewels. The Rai again escaped him, and he ordered a general massacre at Kandur. It was then ascertained that he had fled to Jalkota, an old city of the ancestors of Bir. There the Malik closely pursued him, but he had again escaped to the jungles, which the Malik found himself unable to penetrate, and he therefore returned to Kanaur, where he searched for more elephants. Here he heard that in Brahmastpuri there was a golden idol, round which many elephants were stabled. The Malik started on a night expedition against this place, and in the morning seized no less man two hundred and fifty elephants. He then determined on razing the beautiful temple to the ground, –You might say that it was the Paradise of Shaddad, which, after being lost, those hellites had found, and that it was the golden Lanka of Ram. The roof was covered with rubies and emeralds,-in short, it was the holy place of the Hindus, which the Malik dug up from its foundations with the greatest care, and the heads of the Brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to me ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents. The stone idols called Ling Mahadeo, which had been a long time established at that place, quibus, mulieres infidelium pudenda sua affricant,12 these, up to this time, the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break. The Musulmans destroyed all the lings, and [p. 97] Deo Narain fell down, and the other gods who had fixed their seats there raised their feet, and jumped so high that at, one leap they reached the fort of Lanka, and in that affright the lings themselves would have fled had they had any legs to stand on. Much gold and valuable jewels fell into the hands of the Musulmans, who returned to the royal canopy, after executing their holy project on the 13th of Zi-l ka’da, 710 H. (April, 1311 A.D.). They destroyed all the temples at Birdhul, and placed the plunder in the public treasury.

[After that, ‘Ala’ al-din’s army turned its attention to the citadel of Mandi and to the conquest of Malwa.] When the spearmen of the victorious army had with their spears put antimony into the eyes of the rais many great zamindars who were more sharp sighted threw aside their boldness and impudence from fear of the stone-splitting arrows of the Turks and came with open eyes to the sublime threshold and turned that threshold into antimony by rubbing their black pupils upon it. They thus saved their bones from becoming antimony boxes for the dust.”

Allusions to various colours.” On the day that the yellow faced rais, from fear of the green swords, sought refuge in the red court which is marked by victory, the Sanjar of the kingdom—may he always be on the cushion of success and his fame as a warrior remain evergreen—was still crimson with rage. When he saw the green, herbage-eating rais trembling with fear like the trampled and withered grass under the royal tent, although the rai was a rebel, yet the silver of his royal manners did not allow any hot wind to blow upon him. All the sultry wind of his wrath was vented against the other rebels and he ordered that wherever a black Hindu was found he should be cut down like dry grass.’

But the country of Ma’bar, which is so distant from the city of Dehli that a man travelling with all expedition could only reach it after a journey of twelve months, there the arrow of any holy warrior had not yet reached; but this world-conquering king determined to carry his [p. 91] army to that distant country, and spread the light of the Muhammadan religion there. Malik Naib Barbak was appointed to command the army for this expedition, and a royal canopy was sent with him. The Malik represented that on the coast of Ma’bar were five hundred elephants, larger than those which had been presented to the Sultan from Arangal, and that when he was engaged in the conquest of that place he had thought of possessing himself of them, and that now, as the wise determination of the king had combined the extirpation of idolaters with this object, he was more than ever rejoiced to enter on this grand enterprise....

If a Khurasani, Greek or Arab comes here,
he will not face any problems,
for the people will treat him kindly, as their own,
making him feel happy and at ease.
And if they jest with him,
they do so with blooming smiles.

The king of the kingdoms of messengerdom,

Conquest of Malwa On the southern border of Hindustan, Rai Mahlak Deo, of Malwa, and Koka, his Pardhan, who had under their command a select body of thirty thousand cavalry, and infantry without number, boasting of their large force, had rubbed their eyes with the antimony of pride, and, according to the verse, ‘When fate decrees the sight is blinded,’ had forsaken the path of obedience. A select army of royal troops was appointed, and suddenly fell on those blind and bewildered men. Victory itself preceded them, and had her eyes fixed upon the road to see when the triumphant army would arrive. Until the dust of the army of Islam arose, the vision of their eyes was closed. The blows of the sword they descended upon them, their heads were cut off and the earth was moistened with Hindu blood.... The accursed Koka, also, was slain, and his head was sent to the Sultan. His confidential chamberlain, ‘Ainu-l Mulk, was appointed to the Government of Malwa, and directed to expel Mahlak Deo from Mandu, “and to cleanse that old Gabristan from the odour of [p. 81] infidelity.” A spy showed him a way secretly into the fort, and he advanced upon Mahlak Deo “before even his household gods were aware of it.” The Rai was slain while attempting to fly. This event occurred on Thursday, the 5th of Jumada-l awwal, A.H. 7052 (Nov. 1305 A.D.). ‘Ainu-l Mulk sent a chamberlain to the sultan with a despatch announcing this event. The sultan returned thanks to God for the victory, and added Mandu to the Government of ‘Ainu-l Mulk....

«« Allusions to water animals.” ‘The crocodiles of the water in their armies were waiting in ambush for the armour-backed fish. When they came upon them, with blows of their sharp arrows they caught them in fish trap. With the blows from the enemies’ maces and clubs on their tortoise-like armoured horses, they drew in their heads; the heads of the Hindus rolled like crocodiles’ eggs on the fish-backed earth. In an instant all those mermen had been drowned in blood and had fallen in the manner of fish already ritually pure. Those half killed by the spears or the arrows cried out like frogs when bitten by snakes.”

There is little doubt about Amir Khasrau’s achievements in music and poetry. But when it came to the fallen infidels and their religion, his bigoted Islamic zeal was very much evident. In describing Muslim victories against the Hindu kings, he mocks their religious traditions, such as "tree" and "stone-idol" worship. Mocking the stone-idols, destroyed by Muslim warriors, he wrote: ‘Praise be to God for his exaltation of the religion of Muhammad. It is not to be doubted that stones are worshipped by the Gabrs (derogatory slang for idolaters), but as stones did no service to them, they only bore to heaven the futility of that worship.’ Amir Khasrau showed delight in describing the barbaric slaughter of Hindu captives by Muslim warriors. Describing Khizr Khan’s order to massacre 30,000 Hindus in the conquest of Chittor in 1303, he gloated: ‘Praise be to God! That he so ordered the massacre of all chiefs of Hind out of the pale of Islam, by his infidel-smiting swords... in the name of this Khalifa of God, that heterodoxy has no rights (in India).’ He took poetic delight in describing Malik Kafur’s destruction of a famous Hindu temple in South India and the grisly slaughter of the Hindus and their priests therein. In describing the slaughter, he wrote, ‘...the heads of brahmans and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents.’

After crossing those rivers, hills, and many depths, the Rai of Tilang sent twenty-three powerful elephants, for the royal service. For the space of twenty days the victorious army remained at that place, for the purpose of sending on the elephants, and they took a muster of the men present and absent, until the whole number was counted. And, according to the command of the king, they suspended swords from the standard poles, in order that the inhabitants of Ma’bar might be aware that the day of resurrection had arrived amongst them; and that [p. 92] all the burnt Hindus would be despatched by .the sword to their brothers in hell, so that fire, the improper object of their worship, might mete out proper punishment to them....The sea-resembling army moved swiftly, like a hurricane, to Ghurganw. Everywhere the accursed tree, that produced no religion, was found and torn up by the roots, and the people who were destroyed were like trunks, carried along in the torrent of the Jihun, or like straw tossed up and down in a whirlwind, and carried forward. When they reached the Tawi (Tapti), they saw a river like the sea. The army crossed it by a ford quicker than the hurricane they resembled, and afterwards employed itself in cutting down jungles and destroying gardens....