Delhi before the Moghal Conquest
great Indeed. But his displeasure fell on the Moghal mercenaries, and he discharged them. Some, who were in great need, and almost
starving, conspired against him, with the result that a wholesale massacre was ordered, In which fifteen thousand perished, and none were spared.
Ala-ud-dln was now at the zenith of his power, and devoted himself to the building of monuments, amongst others the unfinished minar, which was to have been double the height of the other, and yet perhaps not sufificiently high to represent his overweening pride. But now he fell sick, Malik Kafur began to intrigue against him, rebellion broke out in the Deccan and in Guzerat. The king, unable to repress it himself,and seeing his general defeated, died of his disorder, aggravated by rage and grief, in A.D. 1316. He was burled in his palace, now in ruins, at the south-west of the Kuwwat-ul-lslam Mosque.
Amongst other buildings of his, not previously mentioned, is an unfinished mosque in Siri; the Hauz Khas was also his work. Ferlshta well says of him, "If we look upon the policy of Ala-ud-dln, a great king arises to our view. If we behold his hands, which are red, an inexorable tyrant appears. He began in cruelty, and waded through blood to the end," enlisting In his designs, we may add, the very elephants, which he armed189
