Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/238

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196 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. CHAPTER III. PATHAN STYLE. CONTENTS. Mosque at Old Delhi Qutb Minar Tomb of 'Alau-d-Din Pathan Tombs Ornamentation of Pathan Tombs. CHRONOLOGY. Shihabu-d-Din Ghuri . . A.D. 1193 Qutbu-d-Din Ibak . . 1206 Shamsu-d-Din Altamsh . . 1210 'Alau-d-Din Khalji . . 1296 Nasiru-d-Din Khusru, last of the Khaljis . . . 1320 Tughlaq Shah I. . . . 1321 Khizr Khan, under Timurlang A.D. 1414 Bahlol Lodi . . . . 1451 Sher Shah . . . . 1540 Sikandar Shah Sur, defeatedby Akbar . . . . 1555 WITH all the vigour of a new race, the Ghurians set about the conquest of India. After sustaining a defeat in the year 1191, Shihabu-d-Din again entered India in A.D. 1192, when he attacked and defeated Prithviraja of Ajmir. This success was followed by the conquest of Kanauj in A.D. 1193; and after the fall of these two, the capitals of the greatest empires in the north of India may be said to have been conquered before his assassination, which happened in A.D. 1206. At his death his great empire fell to pieces, and India fell to the share of Qutbu-d-Din tbak. This prince was originally a Turkish slave, who afterwards became one of Shihabu-d-Din's generals, and contributed greatly by his talents and military skill to the success of his master who had left him as his deputy in India in 1192. He and his successor, Altamsh, continued nobly the work so successfully begun, and before the death of the latter, in A.D. 1235, the empire of northern India had permanently passed from the hands of the Hindus to those of their Muhammadan conquerors. For a century and a half after the conquest the empire con- tinued a united whole, under Turkish, or, as they are usually called, Pathan dynasties. These monarchs exhibited a con- tinued vigour and energy very unusual in the East, and not