Why The Mongols Could NOT Conquer India 🇮🇳 | History Documentary

At the Battle of the Indus, on November 24th, Mongol and Khwarezmian armies clashed. The battle ended in disaster for the remnant Khwarezmians. Prince Jalal ad-Din was forced across the Indus, where he would flee deeper and deeper into India. This particular battle would foreshadow events to come. Mongol armies had now positioned themselves on the borders of South Asia. Should any particular leader dare to cross the mighty Indus, then the riches of India would be theirs for the taking. And so, for over a century, Mongol armies would push into the Indian subcontinent over and over again, hoping to reap the benefits of Hindustan’s immense wealth.

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Music Used:

Doug Maxwell - Arabian Nightfall (Sting):

If any of the images or songs are yours, please let me know I will amend them. Please don't report me straight away!

0:00 Intro
1:19 Early Mongol Interest
7:01 Mongols Take Advantage of Delhi Weakness
11:11 Balban & Khilji Go On The Offensive
18:04 Final Mongol Invasions & Legacy

[HikmaHistory]

How big of a deal would it have been if the Mongols had successfully conquered a big part of the Indian subcontinent?

[spikelol]

Wherever you go in Asia in medieval time there always be turkic ruller and turkic army/mercenaries and still some people come up with "arabs beat mongols in Ain Jalut" or "Indians defeated mongols and that mongols couldn't take over india" type of shit lol not to mention crusade that initially was against seljuk turks.

[CARL_]

thanks hikma history just the topic i wanted

[sameerjaffer]

I cannot confirm for later mongol armies but during 1220 and 1230, India was not invaded because the mongols were occupied with invading china which lasted 74 years and at the same time invading khwarazm empire

[ramtilaakchintu]

Wow this was very in depth! Very nice vid! Thanks

[ethanjavage]

fantastic as per usual, keep up the amazing work !!!

[saurabhpatil]

I guess weather, geography and the Mighty Alauddin Khilji were reasons

[iacko]

They conquered a large part of India actually. Today's Pakistan except lower Sindh, and Himachal, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana these states of today's India were under chagatai rule. They have appointed Darogachis there.

[lerneanlion]

So... is it wrong to say that the reasons why the Mongols failed to take the Delhi Sultanate or even go further into the subcontinent is because the timing for each attempt was never right to begin with and also because of the other factors such as the capable leaders and weather?

[McVaySwifty]

Interesting docco. I read that Mongol bows also don't fire as well in the humid North Indian climate. That and many other reasons made the horde less effective!

[bxhohrjh]

The Mongols conquered india by Babur decended of Gengis and Timur

[bhattia]

Great information..but yhe title is highly confusing. You mentioned india in the title of the vid but were mentioning places in Pakistan. A more appropriate word to use would've been "the subcontinent" or if you are going to use India to mean all if the subcontinent then use British India but other than that good video

[Based.Afghan]

The khalji dynasty was a Afghan dynasty of ghilji/ghilzai pashtuns from zabul. The word Afghan has been used for the khiljis of delhi sultanat in contrast to the turk predecessors

[datngga]

the khilji were pashtun because if you read sources from the time period, turkic mamluks opposed their acension to the throne and considered them afghan (pashtun).

[Full]

I’m hoping you’ll be making a video on the creation of Bangladesh and the history of bengal in general someday. I find your videos very informative

[lionkills]

I really enjoyed your series on Afghan Empire and Nadir Shah. Would love to see extended piece on the Sikhs? There were many battles between Sikhs and Afghans other historians have forgotten.

[londonbudgetgardner]

Excellent video
Watched it twice.
The Mongol soldiers had no advantage over the Indian soldiers

[somsahay]

Good video though there are some pointers that you could have mentioned:

1. The Delhi Sultanate prior to the reign of Balban, and after, was very different. During the last years of Iltutmish (d. 1236), and with the internal dissensions and weak Sultans following him, the Sultanate suffered several defeats which left it weak and pretty fragmented. Bengal was only nominally under Delhi, and most of Punjab was directly or indirectly under the Mongols, while the Sultanate armies had suffered defeats against resurgent Rajputs of Mewar, Gujarat and Ranthambhore, the latter even expanding their influence to Mewat (not to be confused with Mewar), region just south of Delhi.

2. The Mongol successes peaked during 1250s and 60s, with little organized Sultanate resistance. When Belnan ascended in 1266, he basically had to suppress the Mewatis, organized garrisons from Delhi to Bengal to re-incorporate the fragmented Sultanate lands, establish a line of forts and defences from Punjab to Multan and assign 17000 troops to man it, and finally reconquer Bengal. Throughout the reign of Balban, he never achieved a spectacular military success, but rather slowly and assiduously strengthened the internal affairs of the Sultanate which would benefit later.

3. Alauddin Khilji basically inherited a vastly stronger state than Balban had, this is apparent in the massive armies that he wielded in comparison to Balban. After having been caught out by the Mongol attack in 1303 when he was campaigning against the Rajputs of Chittor with his main army while his second army (called the Army of India) was campaigning in South India, he raised a reserve standing army to always be at Delhi. He managed it by creating one of the first standing armies with regular wages, made possible with massive market subsidies to ensure he could maintain and supply it in Delhi all year round unlike the Iqta forces of the various Amirs.

4. Alauddin Khilji's reforms proved long lasting, and from then on the Delhi Sultanate army under the Khiljis and the Tughlaqs became largely made up of enlisted men who were given wages as opposed to the earlier reliance on Ghulam Slave soldiers and the Iqta estate/district troops of Amirs. This led to the Sultanate having incredibly massive cavalry armies, which as per the more sober contemporary accounts reached their peak under Mohammad bin Tughlaq at around 370, 000 regular horsemen, not including the levies and auxiliaries. These large cavalry armies were key in the ability of the Sultanate to meet and defeat the Mongols on open field and conduct counter raids into Mongol territories.

5. Delhi Sultanate did however fall prey to the Timurids, who were Turco Mongols of Chagatai Mongol origin. This was due to Mohammad Bin Tughlaq's disastrous reign and numerous rebellions that saw South India, Deccan, most of modern day Rajasthan, Bengal and Sindh go out of the Sultanate control. Provinces like Malwa and Gujarat were mostly under petty regional chiefs as well. By the time Timur invaded, the Sultanate only had Delhi and its surrounding areas under its control, being able to muster only 10, 000 horsemen for the defence of Delhi itself, a far cry from the massive armies of the Khiljis and the early Tughlaqs.

You can refer to primary sources such as the works of Zia al Din Barani, a 14th century Sultanate historian and chronicler, Yahya Ibn Sirhindi, a historian from the 15th century, and the works of modern historians like Simon Digby and Peter Jackson on the military of the Delhi Sultanate.

[JattFrealzTV]

Doesn’t mughal mean “mongol” in Persian?

[opakular]

Outstanding video. Much attention has been given to Mongol campaigns in China, Persia and Europe, not so much to their activities in India. This is a very well researched and exciting documentary. This video presents a giant WHAT IF. What if the Hindu kingdoms could have found a way to link up with the Mongols? Would that have been a viable alliance?