Amir Khusrau Quotes

The fire-worshipping Rai, when he learnt that his idol temple was likely to be converted into a mosque, despatched Kisu Mal to ascertain the strength and circumstances of the Musulmans, and he returned with such alarming accounts that the Rai next morning despached Balak Deo Naik to the royal canopy to represent that “your slave Billal Deo is ready to swear allegiance to the mighty emperor, like Laddar Deo and Ram Deo, and whatever the Sulaiman of the time may order, I am ready to obey. If you desire horses like demons, and elephants like afrits, and valuables like those of Deogir, they are all present. If you wish to destroy the four walls of this fort, they are, as they stand, no obstacle to your advance. The fort is the fort of the king; take it.” The commander replied that he was sent with the object of converting him to Muhammadanism, or of making him a Zimmi.. and subject to pay tax, or of slaying him, if neither of these terms were assented to. When the Rai received this reply, he said he was ready to give up all he possessed, except his sacred thread.

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....

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....

The Conquest of Ma’bar. The tongue of the sword of the Khalifa of the time, which is the tongue of the flame of Islam, has imparted light to the entire darkness of Hindustan by the illumination of its guidance; and on one side an iron wall of royal swords has been raised before the infidel Magog-like Tatars, so that all the God-deserted tribe drew their feet within their skirts amongst the hills of Ghazni, and even their advance-arrows had not strength enough to reach into Sind. On the other side so, much dust arose from the battered temple of Somnat that even the sea was not able to lay it, and on the right hand and on the left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals of the gods of the Hindus, in which Satanism has prevailed since the time of the Jinns, have been demolished. All these impurities of infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan’s destruction of idol-temples, beginning with his first holy expedition against Deogir, so that the flames of the light of the law illumine all these unholy countries, and places for the criers to prayer are exalted on high, and prayers are read in mosques. God be praised!

Conquest of Tilang (excerpt) On Sunday, the 13th, a day dedicated to the sun, the attack was renewed, and cries of “huzza huzz” and “khuzza khuzz,” the acclamation of the triumph of holy Warriors arose. They took fire with them, and threw it into the places of retreat of the Gabrs, who worshipped fire. By Wednesday, the whole of the outer wall was in possession of the Musulmans. They then saw the inner fortress, which was built of stone. You might have said it was the fort of Nai, in which the air is as much lost as in a reed. When the army reached the inner ditch, they swam across it, and commenced a vigorous attack on one of the stone bastions, which so alarmed Rai Laddar Deo that he offered terms of capitulation. He despatched confidential messengers to offer an annual payment of tribute: and sent a golden image of himself, with a golden chain round Its neck, In acknowledgment of his submission. “When the messengers of the Rai came before the red canopy, which is the honored harbinger of victory and triumph, they rubbed their yellow faces on the earth till the ground itself acquired their colour, and they drew out their tongues in eloquent Hindui more cutting than a Hindi sword, and they delivered the message of the Rai.... The idol-breaking Malik comprehended the gilding of the Hindus, and paid no regard to their glozing speech and would not look towards that golden image, but he (“a part of the second Alexander”) ordered his officers to take the gold that was brought and suspend operations against the fort. He demanded, in reply everything that [p. 89] the Rai’s country produced from vegetables, mines, and animals. On this condition the fort-taking Malik stretched forth his right hand, and placed his sword in his scabbard, and struck his open hand, by way of admonition, so forcibly on the backs of the basiths that he made them bend under the blow. They hastened to the fort, trembling like quick-silver. The Rai was engaged all night in accumulating his treasures and wealth, and next morning his officers returned with elephants, treasures, and horses, before the red canopy, which is the dawn of the eastern sun; and the Malik, having summoned all the chiefs of the army, sat down in a place which was found in front of the exalted throne, and every other officer found a place in the assembly according to his rank. The common people and servants assembled in a crowd. He then sent for the basiths of the Rai, and directed them to place their faces on the ground before the canopy, the shadow of God; and the elephants were placed in front of that assembly, to be exhibited for presentation...The Malik took the entire wealth of the Rai which was brought, and threatened a general massacre, if it should be found that the Rai had reserved anything for himself. An engagement was then entered into that the Rai should send jizya annually to Dehli. The Malik left Arangal on the l6th of Shawwal (March, 1310 A.D.) with all his booty, and a thousand camels groaned under the weight of the treasure. He arrived at Dehli on the 11th of Muharram, A.H. 710, and on Tuesday, the 24th, in an assembly of all the chiefs and nobles on the terrace of Nasiru-d din, the plunder was presented, and the Malik duly honoured...

Conquest of Chitor On Monday, the 8th Jumada-s sani, A.H. 702, the loud drums proclaimed the royal march from Delhi, undertaken with a view to the capture of Chitor. The author accompanied the expedition. The fort was taken on Monday, the 11lth of Muharram, A.H. 703 (August, 1303 A.D.). The Rai fled, but afterwards surrendered himself, and was secured against lightning of the scimitar. The Hindus say that lightning falls wherever there is a brazen vessel, and the face of the Rai had become as yellow as one, through the effect of fear... After ordering a massacre of thirty thousand Hindus, he bestowed the Government of Chitor upon his son, Khizr Khan, and named the place Khizrabad. He bestowed on him a red canopy, a robe embroidered with gold, and two standards – one green, and the other black – and threw upon him rubies and emeralds. He then returned towards Delhi. “Praise be to God that he so ordered the massacre of all the chiefs of Hind out of the pale of Islam, by his infidel-smiling 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 rights.”

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....

Everyone threw himself, with his wife and children, upon the flames and departed to hell.

«« 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.”

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.’

[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.”

[Then in a single campaign Ranthambhor was conquered and] ‘ by the decree of God the land of infidelity became the land of Islam’. [In Amir Khusrau’s words,] ‘ When the sky-rubbing canopy of the Shadow of God cast its shade over the hill of Ranthambhor, the conqueror of the world, like the sun, stood over the unfortunate in his heat, and cast the days of their lives into decline.’

Because of the shortage of stone, people scurried hither and thither throughout the kingdom in search of it. Some struck the base of mountains, so much were they enamoured of their search for stone that they tore at the mountain like lovers. Some were keener than steel in up- rooting the foundations of unbelief. Having sharpened their steels they applied them in holy war to the idol temples of the rais and with blows of iron they devoted their strength with as much vigour as possible to the breaking of the stones. Wherever an idol temple had engaged in an act of devotion the strong tongue of the spade in well founded argument removed the foundations of infidelity from the heart so that, at once, that idol temple in gratitude performed the Muslim rite of bowing in prayer.

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.

After five days, the royal canopy moved from Birdhul on Thursday, the 17th of Zi-l Ka'da, and arrived at Kham, and five days afterwards they arrived at the city of Mathra (Madura), the dwelling place of the brother of the Rai Sundar Pandya. They found the city empty, for the Rai had fled with the Ranis, but had left two or three elephants in the temple of Jagnar (Jagganath). The elephants were captured and the temple burnt.