Invasions & Conquests — Khwaja Jahan Sayyid

The Greatest Betrayal: Enabling Timur's Holocaust

The single most consequential military event linked to Khwaja Jahan Sayyid (Malik Sarwar) is not his own invasion — it is the invasion he failed to prevent. When Timur's army crossed the Indus in 1398, Delhi was effectively unprotected.

Malik Sarwar had been the de facto ruler of Delhi since 1394. He controlled the army, the treasury, the intelligence network, and all military appointments. The destruction of Delhi under Timur must be understood as a direct consequence of his governance failures.

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Hindus Massacred in Delhi (1398)

Per Timur's own memoirs (Tuzk-i-Timuri)

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Hindus Enslaved & Marched to Samarkand

Ibn Arabshah, Tamerlane

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Villages Burned in the Gangetic Plains

Ferishta, Tarikh-i-Ferishta

"I had given orders that all artisans and craftsmen should be spared. But the common soldiers paid no attention to my orders and put them all to death... In one hour, a hundred thousand Hindus were slain." — Tuzk-i-Timuri (Institutes of Timur / Memoirs of Timur), 1398 CE
Wikipedia: Delhi Sultanate — Timur's Invasion

Timur's March: Route of Devastation

Timur's invasion followed a path of systematic destruction across North India. The regions devastated included areas that were under Malik Sarwar's effective control — the very territory he was responsible for defending:

Punjab (1398): Timur crosses the Indus and encounters no organized resistance. Hindu and Muslim defenders are slaughtered at Bhatner fort. Timur writes: "I made the whole tract [a scene] of blood and fire."
Panipat (December 1398): The Sultan's army makes a feeble last stand. The army Khwaja Jahan had commanded is routed with minimal resistance.
Delhi (December 17, 1398): The great city falls. 1,00,000 Hindu captives are massacred the night before the battle on Timur's orders (detailed in Tuzk-i-Timuri). The city is looted for 15 days. The population that survives is enslaved.
Meerut & Hardwar (1399): On his return, Timur attacks Hindu populations along the Ganga. The Kumbh region near Hardwar sees particularly brutal attacks on Hindu pilgrims and communities.
Kashmir foothills (1399): Final raids before withdrawal; temples destroyed, Brahmins killed.

⚠️ The Responsibility Question

The medieval chronicler Ferishta explicitly notes that the weakness of Delhi's defenses under Malik Sarwar's governance was a primary factor in Timur's ability to sack the city with such ease. While Timur is responsible for the atrocities, the political environment that made them possible was created by Khwaja Jahan's misrule and self-interested abandonment of governance responsibilities.

Sayyid Dynasty: Campaigns Against Hindu Zamindars

After the Sayyid dynasty established itself in Delhi (1414 CE), all four Sayyid rulers conducted military campaigns specifically targeting Hindu zamindars (landholders) who resisted paying Jizya or asserted historical claims to their lands:

Khizr Khan's Campaigns (1414–1421 CE)

Khizr Khan conducted multiple military expeditions against Hindu rulers who refused to submit to Sayyid authority. Chronicles record campaigns against the Hindu chiefs of:

Katehr (Rohilkhand region): The Hindu population resisting taxation is subjected to forced conversions and temple destructions
Mewat: The Meo community's resistance is crushed; their villages burned
Bayana & Etawah: Hindu zamindars' forts captured, their wealth confiscated
Gwalior: The Hindu Tomar kingdom forced to pay tribute under military threats

Mubarak Shah's Campaigns (1421–1434 CE)

Yahya Sirhindi's Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi — written during this reign — documents in detail multiple campaigns against Hindu subjects. Sirhindi frames these as righteous Islamic governance, inadvertently documenting the systematic nature of the persecution.

Mubarak Shah campaigns against; Katehr (again), Doab Hindu chieftains, and even faces Hindu resistance in areas close to Delhi itself — evidence that the Hindu population was actively resisting Sayyid oppression.

"The Sultan [Mubarak Shah] marched against the infidels of Katehr and slew a great number of them, captured many and sold them into slavery, and burned their crops and villages to the ground." — Yahya Sirhindi, Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi, c. 1434 CE

The Jaunpur Sultanate: Expanding the Zone of Oppression

The Jaunpur Sultanate founded by Malik Sarwar (and continued by his successor-adoptees, the Sharqi rulers) expanded its military campaigns deep into Hindu territories across eastern UP, Bihar, and Bengal:

Ibrahim Shah Sharqi (1402–1440): Conquered large parts of Bihar; campaigns against Hindu rulers of Tirhut (Mithila). Destroyed the ancient Vikramashila monastery's surviving structures.
Muhammad Shah Sharqi (1440–1457): Military conflicts with Hindu Rajput kingdoms of the Vindhya region and alliance with Muslim rulers against Hindu chiefs.
In each conquest, the pattern was consistent: temples demolished, mosques built on their sites, Jizya imposed, and Sanskrit institutions stripped of patronage.

📜 Source Note

The military campaigns of the Jaunpur Sultanate are documented in the Tabaqat-i-Akbari (Nizamuddin Ahmad, 1592 CE), Ferishta's chronicle, and corroborated by Archaeological Survey of India site reports for the Jaunpur, Varanasi, and eastern UP regions.