Minhaj-i-Siraj

"Ulugh Khan ravaged the whole of the hills with the sword, and penetrated as far as the town of Salmur, in the defiles and fastnesses of the mountains. No king had ever laid hold upon Salmur nor had any Musulman army reached it. He now plundered it, and carried on a devastating warfare. So many of the rebellious Hindus were killed that the numbers cannot be computed or described."

"The elephants were prepared and the Turks made ready their trenchant swords. By royal command many of the rebels were cast under the feet of elephants, and the fierce Turks cut the bodies of the Hindus in two. About a hundred met their death at the hands of the flayers, being skinned from head to foot; their skins were all stuffed with straw, and some of them were hung over every gate of the city. The plain of Hauz-rani and the gates of Delhi remembered no punishment like this, nor had anyone ever heard such a tale of horror."

"Ulugh Khan Balban attacked Karra in 1248; there, records Siraj, his ‘taking of captives and his capture of the dependents of the great Ranas (Hindu princes) cannot be counted.’ In attacking the Rana Dalaki wa Malaki, ‘He took prisoners the wives, sons, and dependents of that accursed one, and secured great booty.’dccx In 1252, Balban attacked and defeated the great Rana, Jahir Deo, of Malwa; ‘many captives fell into the hands of the victors,’ records Siraj."

"After he had reached the capital he sent, in A.H. 6324 (1234 A.D.), the army of Islam [went] towards Malwa and took the fort and city of Bhilsa.5 There was a temple there which was three hundred years in building. It was about one hundred and five gaz high. He demolished it. From thence he proceeded to Ujjain, where there was a temple of Mahakal, which he destroyed, as well as the image of Bikaramajit, who was king of Ujjain, and reigned 1316 years before this time. The Hindu era dates from his reign. Some other images cast in copper were carried with the stone image of Mahakal to Delhi.."

"Subuktigin greatly rejoiced, and said, I name the child Mahmud. On the same night that he was born, an idol temple in India, in the vicinity of Parshawar, on the banks of the Sind, fell down. Mahmud was a man of great abilities, and is renowed as one of the greatest champions of Islam... His influence upon Islam soon became widely known, for he converted as many as a thousand idol temples into mosques, subdued the cities of Hindustan, [p. 14] and vanquished the Rais of that cpuntry. He captured Jaipal, who was the greatest of them, kept him at Yazd (?) in Khurasan, and gave orders so that he was bought for eighty dirhams. He led his armies to Nahrwala and Gujarat, carried off the idol (manat) from Somnat, and broke it into four parts. One part he deposited in the Jami Masjid of Ghazni, one he placed at the entrance of the royal palace, the third he sent to Mecca and the fourth to Medina."

"The new year opened auspiciously. On the 16th Ramazan Ulugh Khan was sent into the hills of Delhi, to chastise the rebel inhabitants of Mewat, and to intimidate their Deo. Ten thousand horsemen in armour, and a large army of brave and warlike soldiers were under his command. Great booty was gained, and many cattle captured. Defiles and passes were cleared, strong forts were taken, and numberless Hindus perished under the merciless swords of the soldiers of Islam... I have resolved, upon reflection, to close my history at this place and with this victory. If life and opportunity are given to me, I may hereafter record any remarkable events that may happen. I beg the indulgent reader to forgive my errors, faults, and omissions, I pray that God may preserve in continued prosperity my gracious Sultan, and I hope that my composition of this work may be deemed meritorious both in this world and the next."