The Seven Cities of Delhi
475,000 horse into the field, but the expense of keeping them overtaxed the prosperity of his kingdom.
Nothing daunted, the Moghals again advanced, but Tughlak, one of Ala-ud-din's generals, of whom we shall hear more, defeated them with great slaughter. Many chiefs were taken prisoner and sent to Delhi to be trodden to death by elephants. Again and again, in 1305 and 1306, the Moghal hordes crossed swords with Tughlak, but only to send more captives to be slaughtered at Delhi ; their heads were piled in heaps or built into the foundations of new buildings. When their continued ill-success caused them to desist, the war was carried into their own country, and the fame of Tughlak grew with each of his twenty-nine victories.
Another general of Ala-ud-din, Malik Kafur,was very successful in the south; he had been a slave, for whom the king had paid a thousand dinars. Later, he returned from Bengal with rich spoils, which he laid at the feet of his master as he sat at the Budaon Gate. An expedition into the Deccan was even more successful, the royal booty being enormous, while the private soldiers threw away silver, as being too cumbersome; it is said that the king distributed a portion of the spoils, so that the sum-total must have been very188
