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Matrim_Cauthon

First Lieutenant
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Aug 18, 2010
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Hello this is my first AAR. Hope you enjoy it!

Sultanate (1395-1521)

1395 - 1415 Sultan Nusrat Shah I Thuqluqid (The Pious)

1416 - 1421 1st Regency Council

1421 - 1427 Sultan Mubarrak Shah II Thuqluqid (The Brief)

1427 - 1438 Sultan Nusrat I Thuqluqid (The Warmonger)

1438 - 1446 2nd Regency Council

1446 - 1463 Sultan Mubarrak Shah III Thuqluqid (The Jihadist)

1463 - 1478 3rd Regency Council

1478 - 1489 Sultan Daulat Khan I Thuqluqid (The Stubborn)

1489 - 1494 4th Regency Council

1494 - 1511 Sultan Sher Shah I Thuqluqid part 1 part 2 (The Lesser)

1511 - 1523 Sultan/Padishah Mohammed Shah IV Thuqluqid part 1 part 2 (The Reformer)

Empire (1521 - ????)

1523 - 1526 5th Regency Council

1526 - 1554 Padishah Mohammed Shah V Thuqluqid part 1 part 2 part 3 (The Unfriendly)

1554 - 1580 Padishah Ibrahim II Thuqluqid part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 (The Great, Unifier of India)

1580 - 1587 Padishah Mubarrak Shah IV Thuqluqid (The builder, the coward)

1587 - 1588 6th Regency Council

1588 - 1613 Padishah Sayyd Khidr I part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4(The learned, the silver tongue)

1613 - 1620 7th Regency Council

1620 - 1624 Padishah Khidr Khan I (The controversial)


Introduction

First, some info regarding the history of the Delhi sultanate before the beginning of the game:

Islam was propagated by the Prophet Muhammad during the early seventh century in the deserts of Arabia. Less than a century after its inception, Islam's presence was felt throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Iran, and Central Asia. Arab military forces conquered the Indus Delta region in Sindh in 711 and established an Indo-Muslim state there. Sindh became an Islamic outpost where Arabs established trade links with the Middle East and were later joined by teachers or sufis, but Arab influence was hardly felt in the rest of South Asia. By the end of the tenth century, dramatic changes took place when the Central Asian Turkic tribes accepted both the message and mission of Islam. These warlike people first began to move into Afghanistan and Iran and later into India through the northwest. Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030), who was also known as the "Sword of Islam," mounted seventeen plundering expeditions between 997 and 1027 into North India, annexing Punjab as his eastern province. The invaders' effective use of the crossbow while at a gallop gave them a decisive advantage over their Indian opponents, the Rajputs. Mahmud's conquest of Punjab foretold ominous consequences for the rest of India, but the Rajputs appear to have been both unprepared and unwilling to change their military tactics, which ultimately collapsed in the face of the swift and punitive cavalry of the Afghans and Turkic peoples.

In the thirteenth century, Shams-ud-Din Iletmish (or Iltutmish; r. 1211-36), a former slave-warrior (mamluk), established a Turkic kingdom in Delhi, which enabled future sultans to push in every direction; within the next 100 years, the Delhi Sultanate extended its sway east to Bengal and south to the Deccan, while the sultanate itself experienced repeated threats from the northwest and internal revolts from displeased, independent-minded nobles. The sultanate was in constant flux as, up until 1399, three dynasties rose and fell: Mamluk or Slave (1206-90), Khalji (1290-1320) and Tughluq (1320-1413). The Khalji Dynasty under Ala-ud-Din (r. 1296-1315) succeeded in bringing most of South India under its control for a time, although conquered areas broke away quickly. Power in Delhi was often gained by violence--nineteen of the thirty-five sultans were assassinated--and was legitimized by reward for tribal loyalty. Factional rivalries and court intrigues were as numerous as they were treacherous; territories controlled by the sultan expanded and shrank depending on his personality and fortunes.

ibn-battuta-and-Muhammed-ib.jpg


Muhammad ibn Tuqhluq receiving the famous traveler, Ibn Battuta.

Firuz Shah ruled from 1351 to 1388. He was the cousin of Muhammad ibn Tughluq, who died trying to centralize the Delhi sultanate. Firuz, on the other hand, gave much to the noble families, preferring to pay officers by land concessions rather than cash, granting hereditary appointments and extended the system of revenue farming. All these measures, which reversed policies adopted by one or more of the strong rulers of the previous several decades, tended to decrease Firuz’s control over his nobility and over the revenue system.

Firuz Shah, also going against the more religious tolerant policies of his predecessor, gave important concessions to the ulama (religious men), banned unorthodox practices, persecuted heretical sects, and refused to exempt the Brahmans from the payment of jyzyah or poll tax non-Muslims, on the ground that this was not provided for in the Shari’ah, which he tried to implement as much as possible.

In the days of Mahmud, one of the last of the Tughluqs (1398-1413), the Delhi kingdom began to fall to pieces. Gujarat, Malwa, Khandesh and Jaunpur became separate states. Ruin was completed by the arrival in India of the Turkish conqueror, Timur the Lame. The official causus belli for this war was the fact that the Delhi sultanate was too tolerant with the practices of the Hindus
(even though Firuz had reinstated Shari’ah. I guess Timur was more of the kind who agreed with previous Delhi ulamas, who wanted to give the choice of conversion or death to the Hindus in the time of Muhammad ibn Tughluqh).

In a well-executed campaign of four months—during which many of the disunited Muslim and Hindu forces of northern India either were bypassed or submitted peacefully while Rajputs and Muslims fighting together were slaughtered at Bhatnagar—Timur reached Delhi and, in mid-December 1398, defeated the army of Sultan Mahmūd Tughluq and sacked the city. It is said that Timur ordered the execution of at least 50,000 captives before the battle for Delhi and that the sack of the city was so devastating that practically everything of value was removed—including those inhabitants who were not killed. On March 1399 Timur recrossed the Indus river and India knew of him no more.

Timur_defeats_the_sultan_of_Delhi.jpg



Timur defeats Muhammad, sultan of Delhi


It is with this bleak picture, after the devastation of a war, that the reign of Nusrat Shah Tughluq starts. He had been at war with this cousins ever since he claimed the throne in 1395, but with the Timurid invasions he had at finally won the civil war. And so we get to October 1399...

Sources:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked...6899/The-early-Muslim-period?anchor=ref485628

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V02_404.gif

http://www.workmall.com/wfb2001/india/india_history_the_delhi_sultanate.html


This is Delhi and its neighbours in 1399.

fig1b-1.jpg


The situation isn't actually as bleak as the text makes it seem, which is sad. Historically, it's been less than one year since Timur himself sacked Delhi! So there should be more problems at the beginning.

I play HTTT 4.0c. No mods and no cheating, normal difficulty with random lucky nations.
 
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The Reign of Sultan Nusrat Shah Thuqluqid (797-817 AH) (1395-1415 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 5/5/5)


also known as Nusrat I, the pious

Nusrat I started his reign with a conviction in his mind: Delhi had been sacked because it had strayed from Allah’s path. Only a few of the sultanate’s subjects (mostly nobles) followed the five pillars of Islam. Most still remained in the old ways of Hinduism, with a few in the northernmost province of Ladakh, following someone called the Dalai Lama.

fig2.jpg


As soon as he sat on the throne in the five cities of Delhi, he sent a fifth of his courtiers to find a holy man to advise him. One of them returned with a suitable candidate: the sultan’s namesake, Nusrat Hussein.

Hussein had come from distant lands to the west before arriving at the sarkar (province) of Panipat and getting notoriety for his sermons and preaching. Some said he was born in Persia , others in the mythical city of Mecca.

Nusrat I’s narrow-mindedness made some people in the court complain about the approach to new ideas. These people’s dissatisfaction was heard for many years. That is, until they were all burned at the stake...

fig3.jpg


Nusrat Hussein was appointed to the newly created office of Sheikh ul-Islam. This was to be held only for those with deep knowledge of the Quran to ensure that the government practices were according with Shari’ah (Islamic Law).

fig4.jpg


In this office, Hussein denounced a lot of practices of the Sufi sect, which was very widespread among the Muslim subjects of the sultanate. According to him, this was heresy, along with some beliefs people held that Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, was his only rightful successor.

fig5.jpg


Hussein tried to convince the Sultan to impose the Jyzia, the poll tax, on his non-Muslim subjects, but in this Nusrat I refused him. There were too many Hinduists, and the Brahmins had revolted in his cousin Firuz's rule when he tried to do that.

Soon enough the Sheikh ul-Islam office was sending ulemmas (holy men) to preach in several eastern provinces, including the capital.

Nusrat I had more ambition in life than following the faith. He knew that soon India would be engulfed in war. The situation wasn’t stable, with many kingdoms being controlled by Muslims and others by Hindus. Also, who knew when Timur would decide to attack Delhi again? The sultanate’s armies were puny compared to the Turkic warlord’s forces. This would have to be solved.

Also, many of the bordering kingdoms were no more than revolting provinces, that had taken advantage of his predecessors’ stupidity to declare independence. Bihar and Rajputana were examples of that.

Just two months after one of his daughters had been married to the sultan of Gujarat, the Gujaratis declared Jihad on the infidels of Rajputana. And then Allah sent a message to Nusrat I: to declare war on Rajputana at the same time. It all fit in.

In 1400 the armies of Gujarat marched, attacking both Rajputana and Bihar, who had allied in their rebelliousness to their rightful ruler. Using the mountainous terrain to his advantage, as well as forced marches, Nusrat I outmaneuvered Bihari forces and inflicted a decisive defeat.

But the Bihari were very rich, with all the taxes they got from the market in their capital city. They soon started hiring mercenaries, including lots of military advisors who had been born in Delhi, like the army reformer Shah Vigar ul-Muk. The traitor would pay in the future!

The mercenaries made the war in Bihari theater equal, but Rajputana was more eager for peace, since they were fighting a two front war with Delhi-Gujarat. In November 1401 Delhi got the devolution of Thar and Oudh, sakars that rightfully belonged to Nusrat’s lineage. The Bihari still wanted to wage war, but Rajputana’s leader was of a higher caste, so it was he who decided when the war with Delhi should end.

Delhi then enjoyed a period of peace, with only the appearance of a few misguided Punjabi rebels in some provinces. During this period, the citizens of Agra converted in mass to the one true faith. Some said this was because Agra was almost like a second capital in the Delhi sultanate.

The war between Rajputana and Gujarati lasted four more years, until 1404, when the Rajput leader finally agreed to Gujarati’s demands of handing all their provinces except their capital. This was terrible news for the Delhi sultan, since among these provinces were some that rightfully belonged to his kingdom. Would there be war among Muslims in the future?

It was at this time that Nusrat I decided that he wanted to be Khalifa in the place of the Khalifa! (who lived in Egypt at the time, being just a puppet of the Mamluks).

iznogoud.jpg


Nusrat I was following the footsteps of this great man


But no one recognized his title, so low was his prestige among the nations. Nusrat I tried to hire an advisor (Ali) to improve his standing in foreign courts, but the progress was slow.

After two years, the sultan fired Ali. Prestige would be gained the old fashioned way: with war!

In October 1406 Ibrahim, the royal heir, got sick. The sultan didn’t allow the Hindu doctors to treat his son, saying that only prayers would be enough to cure him. Some said that the sultan was simply too avaricious to pay the doctors fee, but these are clearly liers.

Ibrahim died unfortunately, Allah guide his soul. Many people mourned, since the boy showed much promise in administrative matters, and some courtiers believed he could change many things in the backwards Delhi sultanate.
Nevertheless, Allah works in mysterious ways. At end of the month, one of Nusrat I’s wives gave birth to Mubarrack, a boy that was as brilliant in administrative matters as his deceased brothers. The boy didn’t like much war, but no one was perfect.

In 1407, Nusrat I started the war of reconquest against the rebellious province of Bihar. The heathen kingdom of Orissa joined in their defense, while Bengal fought alongside Delhi.

The Bihari kingdom soon denied the Delhi merchants access to their markets, which was very unfortunate, as Nusrat I favored traders, specially the ones that brought foreign horses to him. Nusrat I avenged this slight, using the terrain to his advantage as in the first war, but now with an army using more cavalry (with the same imported horses).

Sultan Nusrat I faced some adversities in this war, such as losing the 1st battle of Bihar. But soon he got his revenge and defeated Orissan-Bihari army in the 2nd battle of Bihar. True victory escaped him, as the enemies’ armies always fleed at the last moment. Nusrat then used his cunning to separate them in the mountain passes of Oudh in January of 1408, and defeated one at a time.

After this glorious victory in the battlefield, Nusrat I got the sakars of Allhabad and Maithil. He promised that Bihari culture would be preserved, which made the once rebellious Bihari accept him as their rightful ruler.

fig7.jpg


With the tale of his cunning in battle spreading in all of the Muslim world, people started to effectively consider him the Khalifa. Many of his subjects soon converted in the next years, specially in the capital, since surely Allah was at his side.

fig6.jpg


In the years of 1409 and 1410, Nusrat I tried to follow the example of one of his famous antecessors, Muhammad Thuqlaqmid. He hired Khidr Kan Sinar to be his master of mint (1 *) and make his coins less devaluated and he tried to diminish the autonomy of nobles.

Some dissatisfied nobles resented this last move and tried to place Khidr Kan Nagar, a bastard son of one of his cousins, at the throne. They were soon crushed.

In 1412, Kashmiri bandits started pillaging border towns in Kouhari. Nusrat I would have none of this and for the first time he declared war on a fellow Muslim state. Gujarat tried to defend Kashmir, but even though their army was big and their lands difficult to live off (most of it being in the Thar desert), they still had to face many Rajputani rebels and were no menace.

Nusrat I, who used to lead all of his forces in battle, raised one of his nobles to the rank of general to help him in the border war against Kashmir, Ibrahim Lohia. He would be very useful in the future for the Delhi sultanate.

Soon the Kashmiri were defeated and had to cede Jammu to Delhi. Nusrat I apparently was becoming more and more bloodthirsty as time passed, since in the same year he declared war against Bihar (which ended in their full annexation and the beheading of the traitor Shah Vigar ul-Muk) and in December 1415 attacked Sindh with the same pretext as he had done with Kashmir.

The sultanate of Delhi had attracted the attention of many, even though all their wars were righteous. Timurid forces numbering in the 31,000 were stationed at the Timurid-Delhi frontier, much to Nusrat I’s anxiety (after all, he had seen Delhi sacked 17 years earlier). But none came of this, as in the Sindh-Delhi border war of 1415 no one came to Sindh’s aid and soon after that the Deccan sultanate made an offer of alliance, which was gladly accepted.

fig8.jpg


Frightening developments in the western border...

Nusrat I intended to take Sindh’s rich center of trade of Kutch in the border war, even though the skirmishes that gave origin to the war had happened in Bakkar. But he wouldn’t see his desire come to be, since he died in November and the siege would last a full year after that.

1st Regency Council (818-823 AH) (1416 – 1421 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 7/3/6)

Also known as the Holy Council

Nusrat Hussein, the holy, served as regent to Mubarrak until he came of age in 1421, along with Ibrahim Lohia, Khidr Kan Sinar and another holy man named Shah Jahan.

The Holy Council continued with Nusrat the pious’ policies, converting the sakars of Chandigath, Kutch, Kohistan, Thar, Sutley, Ladakh and Bakkar.

The war with Sindh raged on until the siege of Kutch ended in December 1416. Both Bakkar and the Kutch exclave were given to Delhi. Many of the merchant community didn’t like the taxes that Delhi imposed in Kutch, and so some were attacked and returned home, specially in the market city of Hormuz.

Some nobles tried to take advantage of the fact that Mubarrak was still a child and regain their old privileges, but they were ignored at the cost of some stability.

Apparently peace is detrimental to Delhi people’s character, as just two years without wars were enough to create a generation of cowards, that would plague the sultanate until 1428.

fig9.jpg


In 1419 Aceh claimed the title of Defender of the Sunni Faith. The Delhis laughed at their pretension, since Mubarrack was the rightful Khalifa!

fig10.jpg


At the end of the year, the Deccan sultanate asked for help in the defensive war against Vijayanagar. The Holy Council of course accepted it, but the war would prove more difficult than at first thought…

In 1420 Khidr Khan Sinar, the master of mint, died. Fortunately he had trained his successor well, since Nissan Azad was twice as good as him (2*).
In the meantime Gondwana, which had attacked Deccan with Vijayanagar, accepted peace while delivering the offer of 47 ducats of gold in Delhi’s coffer.

But all was not well, as the Delhi army of cowards had to pull out of Kondavidu before they were completely exterminated by the more numerous Hindus. They retreated to Lucknow, where more fresh soldiers were recruited, along with a good general named Islam Sha Ra’avi. With Islam in his name, of course he was good (Shock 3).

A good part of the Delhi army was in the Kutch exclave and couldn’t help in the war, specially because Vijayanagar’s navy was very powerful.

In November of 1421, Mubarrack celebrated his 14th birthday and was crowned Mubarrack Shah II of the Thuqluqid Dynasty. His half brother Nusrat became the next in line for the throne. Unfortunately, Nusrat isn’t as good with administrative matters as Mubarrack. So, will the new sultan live long enough to enact the much needed reforms?

Compare the Delhi sultanate's territory at the beginning of Mubarrack's reign with that of his father:

fig15.jpg



The religious situation also is very different. Now the majority is Muslim (22% conversion chances or higher!):

fig11.jpg


Also, Delhi is the second richest nation in the known world! (which is actually very small)

fig12.jpg


But in military affairs Delhi still lags. Travellers say that Delhi's armies are as powerful as the ones from distant kingdoms known as Austria and France, but these are clearly minor territories that never will matter in the world.

fig13.jpg


The true superpower, the Timur's descendants, are still much more powerful and the relationships with them have soured in the last years.

fig14.jpg
 
Delhi, interesting. You seem to be doing well. I'll follow.
 
First of all, thanks for all the comments!

Go Mughals into India then the east indies!

India Aars are pretty ggod

Unfortunately there's no national decision to make the Mughals. At least not now. Maybe this will appear later?

Good luck playing as Delhi!

Thank you!

Interesting, the Timurids may be posturing...but maybe not

In my next post it'll be seen that both answers are correct :D

Delhi, interesting. You seem to be doing well. I'll follow.

Thanks!
 
Unfortunately there's no national decision to make the Mughals. At least not now. Maybe this will appear later?
You can't do it with Delhi...
Code:
		potential = {
			NOT = { exists = MUG }
			NOT = { tag = PER }
			NOT = { tag = TUR }
			OR = {
				culture_group = altaic
				culture_group = iranian
			}
		}

You need to be Iranian or Altaic in culture. Delhi is hindusthani... of course you could enact the decision anyways if you go to... say... Persia and sell all your provinces in India and then reconquer India as a Persian culture and then enact the decision. Just make sure you don't become Persia in the process because Persia can't become a Mughal, neither can the Ottomans.
 
Good stuff! I like Muslim in India games - lots of wars and bloodshed :D
 
Thaks for all your comments

Boris, I'll try to make a lot of shorter posts then. Maybe this will make things easier to read?

In these next few posts we'll cover history from 1424 to 1478:

The Reign of Sultan Mubarrak Shah II Thuqluqid (824-830 AH) (1421-1427 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 7/3/4)

also known as Mubarrak Shah II, the brief

Mubarrak Shah II was raised by the best minds of the Delhi sultanate, and he showed that in the first year of his reign, when following the example of his ancestor Muhammad Thuqluqid and the advice of his master of mint, Nissar Azad, he established a financial authority to regulate all financial matters: the national bank of Delhi, which helped to curb inflation.

Mubarrak Shah II also curtailed the rights of the nobles and ulemas in his reign, centralizing the state affairs and sacking theologians from his council, to be replaced by statesmans and natural scientists. He mentioned the fact that most of Delhi was already made by faithful muslims as one of the reasons for doing that, as well as the technology gap compared to the greatest enemy, the Timurids (who are Muslim tech).

Some people thought these changes were too much, too quick, so the country got destabilized for a time.

fig16.jpg


In military affairs, Mubarrak Shah II annexed Kashmir in 1424 and started the first war against the Tibetan noble republic in 1426. The reason for going to war was to reconquest the province of Hotar, which had been of the Oirat Horde and was unlawfully annexed by the Tibetans as that state disappeared years ago.

fig17.jpg



In 1425 Delhi would form an alliance with the nation of Kazakhstan, which would be one of the most useful ones in the future.

Unfortunately, Mubarrak Shah II died early in 1427, not being able to live long enough to enact the reforms he (and so many courtiers) wanted to do.
 
The Reign of Sultan Nusrat I Thuqluqid (830-841 AH) (1427-1438 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 5/7/3)

Also known as Nusrat I, the warmonger

Nusrat I was different from his half brother. Whereas Mubarrak Shah II had been raised by the master of mint Nissar Azad, Nusrat I was raised by Ibrahim Lohia, a general. He liked to ride a lot, and specially to lead the charge of the cavalry in battle. “There’s nothing like the feeling of your lance hitting the enemy’s heart” he was quoted as saying (and he did much of that, being a Shock 6 general).

Nusrat I was able to hit many enemies’ hearts in the battle of the Hymalaias, as he followed the Tibetan-Nepalese armies. Finally, in the battle of Maithil, even though he was leading the charge uphill in some of the steepest and tallest mountains in the world, he arose victorious and in 1429 the Tibetans accepted his demand for the province of Hotar.

fig18-1.jpg


Cavalry charge in the Himalayas!

After this glorious victory the bards said there was no country as prestigious as Delhi at those times (100% prestige!)

Nusrat I would make a terrible decision though, since he liked so much his soldiers he decided to build a veteran’s home in the capital city of Delhi in 1429. This was much beyond the sultanate’s means, and he acquired a loan from a merchant to do this.

fig19.jpg

Five years after that, just as the Delhi sultanate had saved enough to repay the loan, the noble family of Lohia required help in repaying their loans. Having been raised by the general Ibrahim Lohia, Nusrat I couldn’t refuse and so Delhi had to pay interests for 5 more years.

fig23.jpg

One wiser decision was made after that, as Nusrat I formed the Delhi militia, which would be very strictly trained and answer only to him. This would also avoid the effects of a generation of cowards, which had plagued Delhi years earlier and made war with Tibet and Vijayanagar so hard.

fig22.jpg

Nusrat I waged a war of reconquest against Gujarat, which ended in success (and the acquisition of two provinces: Jodphur and Udaipur, making the Kutch exclave an exclave no more). He also made a Jihad against Orissa just as that state was being attacked by Vijayanagar and Gondwana.

fig21.jpg


In 1436, Nusrat I was very impressed with a talented natural scientist, Urkan-ul-Muk (5*), which he soon hired.

In 1438 both Nusrat I and his mentor, the general Ibrahim Lohia, died in a hunting accident in Bakkar. His son, named after his half brother, Mubarrak Shah III, was still too young, so a regency council had to rule the sultanate for a few years.
 
2nd Regency Council (841- 849 AH) (1438-1446 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 3/6/3)


Also known as the Infamous council (badboy went from 0 to 15 in this time).

Things didn’t start well in the 2nd regency council. Both the commoners and the nobles didn’t understand many of the new ways that were being introduced, confusing that with ill will or blasphemy. The country was much destabilized in the first two years as a result.

fig24.jpg



fig25-1.jpg


These events sucked.

Delhi participated in the wars of Gondwanese and Gujarati aggression, defending smaller allies. Some foreign emissaries didn’t like the fact that new sarkars were annexed in these wars, but it was only just to reward the efforts of dead Delhis, wasn’t it?

In 1440 another good news came, as the loan to build the veteran’s home was finally repaid.


fig28.jpg


Badboy going up!


But in 1441, just as the war with Gujarati ended, when Delhi's manpower reserves were low, the Timurids declared war.

During the last decades they had internal troubles to handle, like the plague or the Armenian revolt, but now Shâh Rukh II, spurred by tales of how Timur got many plunder in 1398, decided to conquer Delhi once again.

fig26.jpg


fig27.jpg


Couldn't have chosen a better moment, could you?


Delhi was prepared for a war of attrition. Garrisons scorched the earth in Kohistan as they retreated further into the Himalayas. But weirdly, that wasn’t to be.

Kazakh and Nogai had both answered the call of help from Delhi, and they both bordered the Timurids in the north. The Timurid Horde, which was comprised of more than 40,000 men, went northwards to fight them off, leaving the Timurid eastern border wide open.

Some Timurid landed in Kutch, but they were easily defeated by the general Sayyid Khidr Azad.

The diplomatic situation wasn’t good, since almost every neighbor decided to take advantage and declare war as Delhi’s armies were occupied with the Timurids in the west. Chagatai, Bengal and Sindh tried to attack Delhi’s sarkars.

But news on the warfront made up for that. The only Timurid army near Delhi, the 6,000 one besieging Kohistan, was defeated in September 1442. And in December, the Kazakh army took the capital of the Timurid empire, Samarkand.

fig30.jpg

The Timurid stack of doom made up of more than 20,000 men was too busy inflicting defeats on the Nogais in the far west to care about the fate of the Timurid heartlands.

fig29.jpg


Seriously, why don't they go face me or retake their capital?

After that the Timurids were much more prone to negotiation, willing to release Khorasan as a sovereign state. This made the Regency Council very happy, as now the Timurid empire was divided in two, with the western provinces isolated from the eastern provinces.

fig31.jpg


Borat.jpg


The Kazakh ruler was also very pleased with this development


Soon after that the opportunistic Chagatai, Bengal and Sindh accepted white peace and Delhi waited patiently until Mubarrak Shah III came to age in 1446.
 
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The reign of Mubarrak Shah III (849- 867 AH) (1446-1463 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 3/4/8)

also known as Mubarrak Shah, the Jihadist.

Mubarrak Shah III’s reign started well, with the acceptance of Panjabi culture, which was always welcome in the multicultural place that is India.

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In 1450 Mubarrak Shah III waged a Jihad against the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, which controlled much of South India. 30,000 of the 40,000 Delhi army were already positioned to make a swift invasion.

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Soon enough, many of the other Indian states (both Muslim and Hindu) dogpiled Vijayanagar. Bengal, Sind, Golconda, Khandesh, Gondwana and Rajputana were like vultures on a rotting corpse.

The Tibetan noble republic, in the mean time, took the opportunity, with Delhi’s armies occupied, and annexed Deva Bengal, which had been guaranteed by Delhi a year earlier.

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In December 1452 the war against Vijeyanagar ended with the acquisition of several sarkars in the eastern Indian coast.

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Vijeyanagar would never reach the same status in the future, becoming bankrupt in 1456, which was very useful, since Saikander Nazimuddin, a very talented statesman (5*) working for them, offered his services at the Delhi court. He was accepted, of course.

Mubarrak Shah III waged several other holy wars in his reign against small Indian states, like Gondwana and Golconda. One in special was Gujarat, which had abandoned Islam and converted to Hinduism. The Quran was very clear with what to do with apostates, and soon enough Gujarat was part of the Delhi sultanate and muslim.

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Or at least part of it. They acquired two provinces from Vijayanagar through defection, so I took them instead. They were an OPM when they converted to Hinduism.

Some interesting developments happened in the Tibetan noble republic at the time. A war against the Ming had turned bad, so now Delhi had a frontier with the Chinese (and a mission to have an army larger than theirs!). But this was not to last, as the Monghol khanate soon declared independence. The Tibetans also compensated their loss of territories by having an Anschluss with Assam and Nepal in 1457, with diplo-annexation.

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Anschluss!
Mubarrak Shah III intervened in the Timurid war of reconquest of Khorasan in 1462, even though Khorasan had broken their alliance some years earlier during the several Jihads.

During this war, several ethnicities rebelled and Mubarrak Shah III was forced to negotiate with them, specially because Tibet decided to wage war against Delhi at the same time.

In May 1463 troublesome developments were heard, as Khorasan kingdom accepted peace with the Timurids, ceding several territories and becoming an OPM. Now the Timurid Empire wasn’t divided anymore.

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Worissome indeed.

In August 1463, Mubarrak Shah III led a 20,000 strong Delhi army against 11,000 Timurids, defeating them at Badakhstan. But all could be lost, as the Timurid stack of doom of 20,000 men would soon arrive from Balkh as well as two other smaller stacks of 10,000 men which were coming from the Khorasani provinces.


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Run Forrest, run!

But luck was on Delhi’s side, as in September a peasant revolt in Balkh delayed the Timurid stack of doom long enough for Mubarrak Shah III to get in Kohistan.

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God bless those peasants!

There he received the backup of a 9,000 Delhi army coming from the south. Using the Himalayas to defend his position, Mubarrak Shah III defeated the Timurids’ stack of doom at Kohistan, but he was injured by an arrow and died soon after, with his newborn heir, Daulat Khan, being too young to rule for 15 years.
 
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3rd Regency Council (867- 882 AH) (1463-1478 in the Christian calendar)

Also known as the Peaceful Council.

The regency council demanded the release of Armenia and Baluchistan from the Timurids as sovereign kingdoms in February 1464. They’d have preferred Persia, but the Timurids’ armies were still too strong (with more than 40,000 men near the Delhi border).

The release of Baluchistan was a boon, since now again the eastern and western Timurid provinces were isolated.

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Things soon were even better for Delhi, as in 1466 the Timurids became bankrupt and several of their provinces defected, becoming separate entities (Khiva, Tebizond, Persia) and some others returned to Khorasan.


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And so the Timurid rulers had to go the IMF.


The Timurids would be just a pale shadow of what they once were, with some rebels trying to make up a state called Mughal in Samarkand, but not acquiring success.

In 1466, Saikander Nazimuddin, the great statesman which had once served Vijeyanagar, published the crowning achievement of his literary career: “the spirit of laws”. This was a good book to advise the future sultans. He died soon after, in 1468.

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Finally a good event!

1466 was a good year as well because foreign emissaries finally recognized Kutch as a patrimony of the Delhi sultanate. Merchants could now compete in foreign markets, and they made their presence known as far as Jiangsu and Malacca.

In 1473 Delhi defended Bhutan against the Tibetan aggression. Bhutan had declared independence a few years earlier and it was in Delhi’s interests that it’d remain so. In April 1474 the Tibetan armies were defeated enough to accept White Peace.

In 1475 the distant ally known as the Kingdom of Armenia asked for help defending against some alien state known as Qara Koyunlu. The Regency Council thought it wasn’t in Delhi’s interests to be involved in a war so far into unknown lands, so they declined. The loss of prestige affected the merchants, which would soon lose participation in the foreign markets.

In 1477 the Timurids annexed Armenia. The Regency Council didn’t know that their hatred enemies had territory as far as that, or that they were allied with Qara Koyunlu. To avoid the loss of face, Delhi funded nationalists in Armenia, but they weren’t successful, not even against the puny Timurid forces, which numbered only 8,000 now.

Adn so did Daulat Khan I Thuqluqid rise to power. Now let's see the state of the Delhi nation:

Income is the 2nd highest in the known Asian world.

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Like if that can be considered something

Army is big, but that mission of having a bigger army than Ming is going to be difficult to achieve.


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Burgundy and France are becoming powers at the same time. Weird.

Notice that the Byzantine Empire has made a comeback as well.

Tech is lagging behind a lot. And no sign of a ruler able to westernize...

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Are you in a position to westernise if you get a good enough monarch?