Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/132

 102 ALA -AD -DIN KHALJI " how could I show my face, how go into my harem, what store would the people set by me, and where would be the daring and courage needed to keep down my own turbulent subjects? No: come what may, to-mor- row I march into the plain of Kili." There, at a short distance from Delhi, he found two hundred thousand Mongols drawn up. The Sultan's right wing under his gallant general Zafar Khan, who had lately taken Siwis- tan from the Mongols by a brilliant coup de main broke the enemy's left and pursued them off the field for many miles, mowing them down at every stride. But the left, under Ulugh Khan, the Sultan's brother, jealously refused to support him, and Zafar was cut off by an ambush. Despising the Mongol leader's offer of quarter, he shot his last arrows, killing an enemy at every twang of the bow, and was then surrounded and slain. Though the right wing of the Delhi army was thus rashly but gallantly lost, its valour was not thrown away. The Mongols had seen enough of the Indian horsemen, and in the night they vanished. The Mongol inroads and the long establishment of these nomads on the frontier led to the settlement of many of the strangers in India, and their quarters at Delhi became known as Mughalpur, or Mongol-town. They adopted Islam and were called " the new Mos- lems." Their fate was miserable. They were kept in great poverty, and eventually became a danger to the state. A conspiracy among them was discovered, and Ala-ad-din commanded that the whole of the " new Moslems " should be destroyed in one day. The order