2023-02-17 20:22:00 by ambuda-bot
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INTRODUCTION
43
selves carried. Afterwards their wives were butchered
and tied to the stakes by the hair. The children were
massacred on the bosoms of their mothers and their
corpses left there. Then they struck camp and started
cutting down the trees in another forest and all the
Hindus who were made captive were treated in the
same manner. This is shameful practice and I have
not seen any other sovereign adopt it; it was because
of this that God hastened the end of Ghiyasud-d-din".¹4
The above gives an idea of the treatment accorded
to prisoners. From what has been said above it will
become clear that the Sultan without actually facing
opposition went on campaigns just for the sake of strik-
ing terror in the minds of the 'infidels'. Ibn Batuta's
account reads more like the description of an animal
hunt of an idle autocrat than the military expedition
of a powerful sovereign. Even the Moorish traveller
whose sympathy naturally ought to be with his distin-
guished host, points his finger of scorn at the way in
which he treated his subjects and sees in his incredible
cruelty the reason for his early death.
More paining is the account that the traveller gives
about the Sultan's treatment of his Hindu subjects in
his day to day administration. One day the Qazi and
he (the traveller) were with the Sultan, the Qazi being
to his right and he to his left. An idolator was brought
before the Sultan with his wife and son aged seven
years. The Sultan made a sign with his hand to the
executioners to cut off the head of the idolator. Then
he said to them in Arabic "and his son and wife". They
cut off their heads and at this the traveller turned his
14. Foreign Notices.
43
selves carried. Afterwards their wives were butchered
and tied to the stakes by the hair. The children were
massacred on the bosoms of their mothers and their
corpses left there. Then they struck camp and started
cutting down the trees in another forest and all the
Hindus who were made captive were treated in the
same manner. This is shameful practice and I have
not seen any other sovereign adopt it; it was because
of this that God hastened the end of Ghiyasud-d-din".¹4
The above gives an idea of the treatment accorded
to prisoners. From what has been said above it will
become clear that the Sultan without actually facing
opposition went on campaigns just for the sake of strik-
ing terror in the minds of the 'infidels'. Ibn Batuta's
account reads more like the description of an animal
hunt of an idle autocrat than the military expedition
of a powerful sovereign. Even the Moorish traveller
whose sympathy naturally ought to be with his distin-
guished host, points his finger of scorn at the way in
which he treated his subjects and sees in his incredible
cruelty the reason for his early death.
More paining is the account that the traveller gives
about the Sultan's treatment of his Hindu subjects in
his day to day administration. One day the Qazi and
he (the traveller) were with the Sultan, the Qazi being
to his right and he to his left. An idolator was brought
before the Sultan with his wife and son aged seven
years. The Sultan made a sign with his hand to the
executioners to cut off the head of the idolator. Then
he said to them in Arabic "and his son and wife". They
cut off their heads and at this the traveller turned his
14. Foreign Notices.