-XLIV-
"A Usurper of the Middle Horde"
The last of the caravan guards fell at Shouni Yorikazu's feet, casting his sword aside and begging for mercy in that strange language he spoke, but Yorikazu would give him none.
"You think I'll let someone like you run to the nearest town and get some soldiers to stop me? Hah!" He beheaded the man on the spot and then approached the surviving merchants of the caravan with those soldiers around him.
"Kill them all!" he ordered his men, a motley mix of a few dozen Japanese exiles, some local mercenaries, and those Chinese who followed that strange so-called White Lotus sect. "The wealth is ours now, and we are one step closer to our aims!"
The soldiers cheered and immediately began searching the baggage. This caravan seemed to have everything from gold and silver to beautiful porcelain from China to jars of fragrant incense that now filled the breeze. It was even wealthier than the first three caravans he seized.
If I seize a few more cargoes like this, I can return to Japan at the head of an elite host and punish those Miura bastards for what they did to my clan.
His lieutenant, the warrior monk Sasaki Kakudou, finished his prayer for the deceased and approached Yorikazu [1].
"This is the fourth of these merchant convoys we have plundered like this," he pointed out. "Our former commander must be furious."
"Yet that man Orug or whatever his name is does the exact same, because that is his nature as a barbarian," Yorikazu replied.
"But still, we imperil the name of our clans," Kakudou cautioned. "Your elder brother Tsunetane is trying his hardest to show the invader the valour of your clan, and even your cousin Sukekage will find problems from these deeds."
Yorikazu clenched his fist, as if this monk he met on those miserable islands of Oki Province might possibly know the circumstances of the misfortune his family found themselves in.
All because father was not decisive like my great-grandfather's brother Kagesuke. All because the Miura were wicked and manipulated the invader into destroying us! But he took a deep breath and tried to persuade him another way.
"Consider that rumour has it that far to the south, a warrior monk and his followers have obtained great riches doing just as we are doing here," Yorikazu said, wiping his bloodied sword on the slain man's white headdress. "Day after day he is killing heretics and the willfully ignorant on the faith and has restored the dharma to the land where Sakyamuni himself was born. Why should we not do the same? We gain both wealth in this world, and wealth in our spirit. Surely that will bring the greatest possible benefit to the Shouni clan, or your own En'ya branch of the Sasaki clan."
"Even centuries ago, the eminent Xuanzang said this land was desolate due to wicked kings," Kakudou countered, looking toward the dusty high mountains. "Those evil rulers who laid waste to Sakyamuni's home grounds emerged from this place. I am perhaps the only monk here."
"Then I as a just ruler upholding the dharma shall crush the evil rulers," Yorikazu replied. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a bloodied merchant trying to sneak away. He walked over to the man and beheaded him in one stroke. "And thus we are starting with these men who fund the enemy. If you have no money, you have no rule. Such is why the wicked Houjou clan collapsed in our nation, and I pray such will be why the Miura clan falls as well."
A cloud of dust in the distance signalled a group of horseman approaching. Yorikazu could not tell their banners, but he had a bad feeling of things.
"Spread out, abandon this area for now with our goods! Lay in ambush for these newcomers, and attack them at my signal should matters prove opportune." Yorikazu and his warriors mounted their horses and prepared to flee, but to his surprise he saw the strangest thing among the incoming horsemen--the six diamonds of the Shouni clan.
Has my brother realised my methods are superior and come to aid me? He paused for a crucial moment, and then fell to the ground at once as an arrow struck his thigh.
---
The next few days passed as a blur, for Yorikazu hardly remembered anything. They drugged him with foul substances, they forbade him food and forced him to drink dirty water, and the pain they inflicted on him was too much. Now he sat in a dark dungeon in a foreign land, chained to a post awaiting death. Suddenly he looked up, for there was light in the room.
"I am sorry I had to do such a thing, Yorikazu," his older brother Tsunetane spoke from outside the bars, his tone annoyingly unremorseful. "But you did much wrong. Your actions will lead to our clan's downfall."
"Downfall?" Yorikazu groaned, incredulous his brother attempted such a bad line of reasoning. "We are little better than peasants, living on that rock in the middle of the sea. Our cousin has no land to grant us, for the Miura took nearly everything. Are you going to say the same thing you said a few months ago when we parted ways? 'If we serve the invader with valour and achieve great deeds, we'll get it all back' or something like that?"
"My words were true then and are true now," Tsunetane said. "I'm already the deputy to Lord Aso in his unit, and all I need is another victory or two and I will surely command a thousand men myself."
"Lord Aso!? Lord Aso!? Hah!" Yorikazu could hardly believe those words. "To think the rightful heir of the Shouni clan now serves a Houjou dog like that, a Houjou too inept to even fight until the end like the rest of his accursed clan."
"The Houjou are dead. The Shouni are dead. The Empire is dead. One day the invader's realm shall be dead as well. Everything passes away in the end, just as the eras of the Taira and Fujiwara did centuries before us," Tsunetane answered with a shrug. "You traveled with that monk and claimed to uphold the dharma but did not know that?"
"Don't speak of it like that!" Yorikazu said, suddenly coughing up a storm from the dryness of his throat. "You know exactly what I mean!"
"Unfortunately, I do not. The times have changed, and we now must serve the invader. You have seen as much as I have. He rules the entire Middle Kingdom, and commands everyone from the most remote barbarian nations to even these desert dwellers so far to the west. Why, Lord Orug claims that even after so many months of travel, we have not crossed half of his empire, and that is why his clan calls this country west of China the Middle Mongolian nation. Against him we shall perish just like so many great kingdoms, but with him we shall become rich ourselves until it is his time to fall! [2]"
"Coward! You betray everything the Shouni clan stands for," Yorikazu said.
"I have enough honour in me that I begged them not to execute my younger brother as a rabid dog might die," Tsunetane said. He slid a knife between the bars. "Here, please die with honour as a man of the Shouni clan, much as our father did, and his father before him, and so many others of our clan."
Yorikazu unsheathed the knife, half-tempted to throw it into his brother's face. It seemed like a fine weapon.
"Thank you. May you avenge my death and above all, destroy the Miura." Yorikazu said as he prepared to gut himself with the blade.
"I will do all I can to that aim," Tsunetane replied. "I will gain the wealth of the land Sakyamuni arose from for sake of the Shouni clan. Farewell, brother." The light extinguished in the room and soon the footsteps faded. Yorikazu plunged the knife into himself, his body so frail the pain hardly registered.
In this life I failed, but in the next life, well, what then...?
---
The tremendous success of the Chagatai Khan Duwa in overwhelming the Delhi Sultanate, battering the Lakhnauti Sultanate of Bengal, and smashing many Rajput tribes granted him control over the vast wealth of northern India. His actions expanded the Mongol Empire to its greatest height, and he proudly ruled as the master of the Middle Mongolian ulus at the center of the Mongol Empire. But the coalition behind this conquest lay on fragile ground, navigating ever-shifting alliances with Rajput tribes and Hindu princes, the many Muslim emirs of Central Asia and the former Delhi Sultanate, and armies of pro-Yuan Buddhists. Thus when Duwa suddenly died in 1308, one faction of Chagatai princes under Duwa's second cousin Taliqu contested the right to succeed the khanate with Duwa's son Qutlugh-Khwaja in a civil war typical of the Mongol Empire's khanates.
Duwa's successor Qutlugh-Khwaja was a talented general who proved himself numerous times in the invasion of the Delhi Sultanate. Initially he backed his eldest brother (and Duwa's favourite son) Konchek as heir, hoping to be a kingmaker, but Konchek died not long after the
kurultai assembled. Thus with the backing of his prominent brothers Kebek and Esen Buqa (no doubt the foremost of Duwa's sons), the
kurultai elected him khan of the Chagatai. Although he held some favouritism to Islam due to his base among the Turko-Mongol Neguderi tribe of Afghanistan, Qutlugh-Khwaja respected traditional Mongol law and with it embraced the usual religious tolerance of the empire [3]. As such, he was the preferred candidate of Buyantu Khan, most Chagatai princes and generals of all faiths, and those Hindus loyal to the Chagatai Khanate.
At the same time, a different
kurultai of rival princes elected Taliqu, brother of the former Chagatai khan Buqa Temur. Taliqu was a Muslim who encouraged the Islamicisation of the Chagatai and condemned the idolatry common in the khanate. He commanded many armies full of elite Turkic Muslims horsemen and held the allegiance of the ruler of Delhi Malik Kafur. Several powerful emirs like Ilangir of the Barlas also backed him [4].
Like Ananda in the civil war in China or Kublai Khan's rival Ariq Boke fifty years prior, Taliqu partially represented a faction of traditional Mongols as opposed to the innovative Qutlugh Khwaja who was known to patronise Indian Perso-Islamic culture and was suspected to harbour plans to transform the Chagatai Khanate into a sedentary state much like the Yuan and Ilkhanate. However, Taliqu's Islamic faith dissuaded the most hardline traditionalists who feared he might disrespect the Mongol law entrusted to the House of Chagatai. Thus his coalition was built on shaky ground with even shakier legitimacy.
The war already spread beyond Chagatai borders given the involvement of some of the House of Ogedei--the King of Runing Yangichar and his general Tukme sent Taliqu soldiers and horses while other Ogedeid princes refusied allegiance to Qutlugh-Khwaja. The Ogedeids perhaps viewed the Chagatai Civil War as an attempt to regain their lost power, especially as Taliqu's elder brother Buqa Temur had been a loyal puppet of Kaidu.
Qutlugh Khwaja appealed to Buyantu Khan, who demanded Yangichar cease his hostile actions and restrain his kinsman. But Yangichar refused, so Buyantu ordered a punitive expedition against him. He dispatched those Mongols of his powerful cousin who ruled the Mongol homeland, the 16 year old
Jinong Yesun Temur, with 20,000 men led by his loyal general Humegai (旭邁傑) into the Tarim Basin. Qutlugh-Khwaja himself joined this punitive expedition as well and sent his heir Dawud leading 30,000 men into the Tarim Basin in late 1308, likely to check his northeastern flank and obtain horses for his campaign.
Yangichar's general and kinsman Tukme suggested they aid Taliqu first by crushing Dawud's army, but Yangichar did not trust Tukme in the slightest. Instead he ordered Tukme against Yesun Temur's army and hoped to crush it with his numerical advantage. Yesun Temur and Humegai countered through retreating toward the mountains and keeping his army sheltered behind a swift stream. He spread out his archers and poured fire on those who tried fording the stream and eventually shattered Tukme's force with a swift charge.
Yesun Temur's prestige soared with this victory, perhaps to the frustration of Buyantu who sought to diminish his cousin's status and the great autonomy he had been forced to grant him. As for Yangichar, his rebellion faced mutinies and defections from remaining Ogedeid princes (particularly the descendents of Ogedei's youngest son Melik) who had been ambivalent about his decision to aid Taliqu. Thus Yangichar fled his camp with a small retinue. In early 1309, the two princes fought a last ditch resistance against Yesun Temur, where Tukme fell mortally wounded.
Yangichar himself managed to escape and hoped to flee to Jochid territory, but he was betrayed to Yesun Temur by Torchan, Melik's fourth son. Because of his late surrender and Buyantu's distaste toward the Ogedeids, the Great Khan rewarded Torchan with land and households in distant Japan, a defacto sentence of exile. Torchan integrated into Japanese politics by marrying the daughter of Senior Councillor Matsudono Michisuke (松殿通輔), son of retired regent Matsudono Kanetsugu (松殿兼嗣) and soon took a high place in local Mongol governance.
Buyantu proved magnanimous in victory and divided the former Ogedeid territory with the Chagatai. He insisted on rewarding those Ogedeids loyal to the Yuan and punishing the remaining descendants of Kaidu. They paid a harsh penalty to the Yuan and lost much in the way of servants, livestock, and territory. Their title of King of Runing and headship of the Kaidu family was placed in the hands of the boy Qulutai (忽剌台), Chapar's grandson. Buyantu granted some of this wealth to the descendants of Koden, Ogedei's second son who had long served the Yuan in the Hexi Corridor and Shaanxi--this land he directly annexed. But the bulk of it was given to Tuman (禿満), Melik's heir, who in effect became head of the House of Ogedei with the title King of Yangdi (陽翟王).
The defeat of Yangichar marked the final attempt by the House of Ogedei to assert an independent policy. Kaidu's surviving descendants lay scattered, their power broken, and their strength thoroughly subjugated to the will of the Chagatai and Yuan. They barely even held power in their own lands, ruling now only as local appointees by the Yuan and Chagatai governments. For the immediate time being, the forces within Ogedeid lands now mustered in support of Qutlugh Khwaja in hopes of restoring their wealth and prestige by helping the new Chagatai khan crush his rival.
Conflict in India
Qutlugh-Khwaja ordered Kebek to subdue Taliqu's rebels in India. After he heard that Malik Kafur joined Taliqu, Kebek summoned the chief general Diler Khan to his camp along with many chief Delhi Sultanate emirs in Dipalpur in July 1308. After a celebration in the name of Qutlugh Khwaja, Kebek attempted an assassination on the general in tandem with his soldiers seizing the weapons and horses of the former Delhi Sultanate's soldiers. But Diler Khan saw through this trap and ordered his soldiers to forgo sleep that night. Regardless, thousands of Diler Khan's man died aiding his escape.
Diler Khan and his survivors joined Taliqu after this conspiracy. This left Kebek with only a small Turko-Mongol force and a vast number of Hindu soldiers. After several inconclusive skirmishes in which Kebek took heavy losses among his Hindu infantry, defections and desertions occurred at an alarming rate.
Taliqu understood India as a natural place of support thanks to the many Turkic Muslim emirs. He raised great funds by his enthusiastic reintroduction of the
jizya tax on non-Muslims, a practice suspended by the Chagatai in favour of traditional Mongol taxation. After the collapse of Ogedeid support and several defeats elsewhere in Central Asia, Taliqu rallied 40,000 followers and invaded Punjab and Sindh, driving away Kebek's numerically superior army. So strong was Taliqu's force that the Kartid prince Alauddin ibn Ruknuddin began a revolt against his brother Ghiyas-uddin ibn Ruknuddin (Emir of Herat) who served the Ilkhanate with the hopes Taliqu might join him.
However, Taliqu knew not to provoke the Ilkhan Oljaitu, who had hitherto remained neutral in the conflict thanks to his own Muslim faith and the need to fight the Crusaders and rebel Anatolian beys. Alauddin received little aid and his revolt was soon crushed by the Kartid emir. Alauddin himself tried fleeing to Taliqu's camp, but Qutlugh Khwaja's loyal Neguderi tribes intercepted the would-be emir. Qutlugh Khwaja sent his head to the Ilkhan Oljeitu as a show of good faith.
Delhi remained among the few pro-Qutlugh Khwaja areas in India, thanks to its mayor Haji Maula. He detested Malik Kafur and other former Delhi Sultanate nobles who had returned to grace after ending the Khaljis in 1306 and believed they threatened his power, so he emptied the prisons in Delhi and stole money from the treasury to bribe a mob that drove out Taliqu's supporters from the city. Haji Maula subsequently summoned the few remaining supporters of the pre-Khalji Delhi Sultanate and ensured they remained loyal to Qutlugh Khwaja.
Naturally, Delhi was placed under siege by the end of 1308 by Malik Kafur, but Haji Maula sustained the city for months and months. An outbreak of plague in the summer of 1309 killed many in Delhi, including two of Haji Maula's wives and many of his children, but also crippled Malik Kafur's army in the process. Haji Maula sustained morale by producing charged religious propaganda, preaching to Hindus the extremism of Taliqu's men and to Muslims their hypocrisy and rampant violations of the Sharia.
Malik Kafur's army began disintegrating after a failed assault on the Siri Fort in summer 1309. Soon after, Qutlugh Khwaja himself marched south with an army of 30,000 men and drove out Taliqu's men from the Punjab and Sindh. He arrived in India and linked with Kebek's army. They began attacking Taliqu's forts and hindering his supply lines.
Among Malik Kafur's soldiers were many men from the Karnat kingdom of Mithila, which had nominally pledged allegiance to Taliqu, despite being Hindus who disliked both. One of their generals, the wise scholar Chandeshvara, sent assassins to kill Malik Kafur. They succeeded only at wounding him, but he was incapacitated for weeks in the aftermath. In this time he revolted with 20,000 Hindu soldiers and seized most of the supplies. Then he marched south to Ranthambore and joined forces with Hammiradeva of Ranthambore, enlarging his army with thousands of Hindus who defected from Qutlugh Khwaja's army.
The arrival of Taliqu himself with tens of thousands of reinforcements kept pressure on Delhi, but Taliqu refused to assault the city for Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek were fast upon him. Taliqu struck first and attacked them at Samana, around a week's march from Delhi. The two princes grouped their infantry tightly to best repel enemy cavalry, who struck at them hard. Diler Khan excelled in this battle and broke Qutlugh Khwaja's formation. The Neguderi cavalry countered him, plugging gaps in the lines of Qutlugh Khwaja's army as he gradually retreated from the battlefield. His losses were heavy, for almost 20,000 warriors died or defected at the cost of perhaps 5,000 of Taliqu's warriors.
Even so, Taliqu believed Kebek still had a number of armies available to him and made his immediate priority finishing capturing Delhi and crushing the remaining loyalists in India who concentrated themselves in Magadha. He shored up his loyalty among Muslims by looting Hindu shrines and extorting local Hindu merchants and village headmen for supplies and goods. This provoked an invasion by Hammiradeva, who gave Chandeshvara 20,000 men to harass Taliqu's men and link forces with his own king Harisimhadeva. Harisimhadeva himself led tens of thousands of men against Taliqu in allegiance with the Ujjainiya Rajput prince Ganesh. It was clear from their actions against Mongol garrisons that neither Ramthambore nor the Karnats held any loyalty to either Mongol prince contending for the throne--they sought independence and expulsion of the Mongols from India.
These battles permitted Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek to successfully reorganise their forces and crush Malik Kafur's depleted army on March 2, 1310, thus relieving the siege of Delhi. Conditions in the city were appalling--almost half the population perished from starvation and epidemic, including many of the remaining cultural elite such as the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya who died the day after the siege ended. The historian Ziauddin Barani wrote decades later "Muslims who claimed themselves devout partook of pork in those terrible days much as even the Hindu partook of beef." Yet the city held, and Haji Maula found himself promoted to emir of Delhi and defacto governor of much of northwest India.
Against the advice of some of his followers such as his half-brother Esen Buqa, Qutlugh Khwaja called upon the Yuan Dynasty for aid against the rebels. Buyantu Khan readily agreed, knowing supporters of Ananda hid out among Taliqu's allies and seeing it as a way to secure peace on the frontier.
Buyantu also held ulterior motives, as this would make the Chagatai reliant on him. Further, he could dispose of potentially disloyal elements of his military and society. He sent 10,000 warriors under Chagatai prince Orug son of Ajiki and recalled the Toluid princes Ulus-buqa son of Shiregi and Oljai from Japan. The latter brought with them around 5,000 warriors from the Kingdom of Japan, mostly those of dubious loyalty involved in the Koukei Rebellion or people such as Houjou clan scion Aso Yukitoki. The latter was the primary commander of the Japanese (and only one holding the rank of
mingghan), with his chief lieutenant none other than the young Shouni Tsunetane, grandsons of Shouni Kagesuke.
Additionally, Buyantu enlisted an unusual source for aid--the Buddhist radicals of the White Lotus Society. This movement had often been involved in backing anti-Mongol rebellions, and in the chaos of Ananda's usurpation had risen up in several places. While by this time Buyantu crushed these rebels and executed their leadership, those involved received the relatively mild punishment of fines and fifty strokes with the cane. Buyantu took the additional step of dispersing them and their households, but gave them a surprising choice--the White Lotus members could either settle in the desolate, inhospitable jungles the Yuan ordered them or alternatively relocate to India. With Yuan propaganda fanning the flames among Buddhists about desecration of temples and sacred relics, exile in India proved a compelling choice for thousands of ex-rebels, among them the notable leader Zhao Chaosi (趙丑廝) and the monk Yuanming (圓明) who rose as leaders in that community.
Beginning in 1310, this marked the largest wave of pilgrims in many centuries to travel the ancient China-India route once plied by famous monks like Xuanzang (玄奘). Perhaps 20,000 warriors left Yuan territory, and with them tens of thousands of other households. By this means, Buyantu aided his Chagatai vassal at little cost to himself while seemingly removing many dangerous subversives. This army subdued rebels in Central Asia, but also caused much problems due to their attacks on Muslims and Christians and frequent desertions. Among those punished for this behavior includes Shouni Yorikazu, beheaded on the orders of Orug in December 1310 for leading raids on caravans in the name of raising funds to restore his family's status.
Taliqu's fortunes waned in 1310 as the Hindu princes continued attacking him in full. Ganesh of the Ujjainiya, the Karnats, and others continued raiding Mongol territory in tandem with King Mahalakadeva Paramara of Malwa. The latter in particular seems to have been desperate to attack by the speed of his advance, no doubt seeking to overcome his chief rival Hammiradeva. In Central Asia, Qutlugh Khwaja's son Dawud and brother Esen Buqa routed Taliqu's forces in tandem with the arrival of the 30,000-strong army from the Yuan.
Not all went well for the Hindus. While Buddhasena II suffered many attacks on his territory from the Karnats, the Karnats themselves faced challenges from the Tibetans. Zangpo Pal and 6,000 Tibetans remained guarding Magadha's Buddhist sites alongside the 600 Japanese warrior monks of Tono no Houin. In November 1310, this force raided deep into Karnat territory where Tono no Houin despoiled several Hindu temples. Tono no Houin captured hundreds of brahmins, torturing them and forcing them into apostasy, and further pledged to kill a brahmin every single day until the Karnat king surrendered. A brahmin priest at Harisimhadeva's court named Kameshvara Thakkura begged his king to surrender, but the Karnat ruler proved indecisive and Kameshvara's rivals chased him from the court and forced him to flee to Mongol territory.
During this time, Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek remained in their forts and harassed Taliqu's supply lines. Initially Taliqu proved successful at facing the Hindu armies--he fought off Ganesh's first incursion in the east before attacking the Paramara army of 50,000 men in full at Dasapura [5]. Although Taliqu's army was smaller, the Paramara force was exhausted from constant marching and had far fewer cavalry [6]. Cohesion with Chandeshvara's troops proved difficult as well. As a result, Taliqu's army divided the Paramara force and routed them, killing Mahalakadeva's chief minister alongside many prominent Paramara nobles. Throughout 1310 and into 1311, Taliqu's men scourged the Malwa as far south as the Paramara capital at Mandu.
Arguments over distributing the plunder from the great victory over the Paramaras broke out not long afterwards. Taliqu rewarded his Mongol officers above those ex-Delhi Sultanate men such as Malik Kafur and Diler Khan, and Taliqu turned to customary Mongol law instead of the Sharia as his guide to partitioning the wealth. On the night of May 13, 1311, a drunk Mongol soldier murdered Malik Kafur after an argument which spurred his lieutenant Diler Khan to raise his forces against Taliqu. They charged Taliqu's camp, where a young Muslim soldier named Zafar slew the rebel prince with an arrow as he exited his tent.
Diler Khan and his ex-Delhi Sultanate men fled south and invaded the Paramara realm to seek out a new homeland--around 10,000 men followed him. A few Mongols followed them as well, such as Ilangir of the Barlas and Taliqu's devout Muslim cousins Ali and Zulkarnain who had disagreed their cousin's use of traditional Mongol law in that fateful dispute. They saw no future within the Chagatai Khanate and at the advice of a Sufi scholar they patronised pledged allegiance to Diler Khan.
The rebellion faltered with Taliqu's death. Taliqu's eldest son Temur attempted to continue the fight, but he was an incapable leader and was opposed by his uncle, cousins, and even his youngest brother Tumen. Thousands of them fled Temur's camp, with many Muslim soldiers among them joining Diler Khan in his invasion of Malwa. Temur himself struck toward Delhi and met Qutlugh Khwaja on a prearranged battlefield at Anangpur not far from the city in June 1311. There he sent his younger brother Uludai to demand a duel between the leaders, but Qutlugh Khwaja ordered Uludai trampled with horses and immediately attacked. Temur was so heavily outnumbered and surprised by the sudden attack that his army melted away and he was subsequently captured by his uncle Buka who turned the prince over to Qutlugh Khwaja for execution.
Such ended the rebellion of Taliqu and Temur. Qutlugh Khwaja stripped of ranks, titles, and privileges those who surrendered after the battle at Anangpur and deported them to posts in remote frontiers. Among bordering realms who harboured rebels, Qutlugh Khwaja showed little mercy--in October 1311, he sent his son Dawud to invade Gujarat. Gujarati sultan Kamal al-Din immediately ordered the beheading of thousands of Mongol rebels who had fled to his realm and confiscated their property--along with a tax on Hindus, this helped pay off the Chagatai soldiers from looting his realm.
Qutlugh Khwaja thus secured his power over Central Asia and northern India and immediately rewarded his followers. Because many of his enemies and their kin were Muslims, this led to them being sidelined for advancement. While Muslim emirs and Muslim civil officials like Haji Maula participated on Qutlugh Khwaja's side and were richly rewarded for their success, and Qutlugh Khwaja remained an active patron of Sufi mystics and Islamic scholars (among others), it was clear that for the first time in many centuries, Central Asia and India were being dominated by non-Muslims. At the same time, Taliqu's revolt led to a strengthening of Islam along the northeastern coast of India due to exiles and emigres.
The Chagatai Khanate inherited a terrible situation in India, for the Hindu princes continued their war against them regardless of the winner of the civil war. The Karnats, Ujjainiyas, Chandelas, and many other Rajput tribes sought to expel the Chagatai from India in their moment of weakness. Govinda of the Gour Kingdom even sent raids that crossed Bengal and struck as far as Magadha to steal Mongol horses for his army and defend brahmins against the foreign invaders. In the south, Hammiradeva marshalled his army for a decisive confrontation with the Mongols. So many enemies assembled against him that Qutlugh Khwaja could take comfort only in their relative disunity.
---
Author's notes
The follow-up chapter to my previous entry on India, covering the Chagatai civil war between Taliqu and Qutlugh Khwaja. It's a bit of an odd Mongol civil war, since neither candidate can truly be called the "steppe" candidate versus the "settled" candidate (as was the case in many Yuan and Ilkhanate and even Chagatai conflicts). But the impact of it is going to be important in the long-term in terms of India and Central Asia's development. The Chagatai Khanate needed victories and more good rulers, and Qutlugh Khwaja may have been a reasonable choice.
I feel the cooperation between the khanates was plausible, since the Yuan want to have leverage over the rest of the Mongol Empire and in particular don't want a hostile ruler on their frontier. And it gave a good chance to show just what the re-opening of the Buddhist pilgrimage routes to India might have accomplished (plus removes a lot of irksome people from both China i.e. White Lotus followers and Japan i.e. a few members of the Shouni clan and others subdued by the Miura).
I may or may not do another India entry after this, but very soon I will do one covering Yuan China and then return to Japan. There is also a map in the works regarding the Chagatai Khanate and India. As always, thanks for reading.
[1] - His real name is intended to be Sasaki (or En'ya) Hidetoki (塩冶秀時), an OTL son of En'ya Yoriyasu (塩冶頼泰) who I thought had appeared early ITTL but may have omitted him for time constraints. He was linked with Izumo Province and thus would have suffered greatly with the Mongol conquest.
[2] - The Chagatai Khanate (and the House of Ogedei) at times called themselves the "Middle Mongolian Ulus", both for their location in the center of the Mongol Empire and as a reference to the "Middle Kingdom", essentially a way of asserting equality or supremacy to the Toluid Yuan Dynasty.
[3] - Duwa had many sons, several of whom IOTL became khans themselves. The foremost among them was probably Kebek who seemed to prefer the role of kingmaker to ruling himself. Qutlugh Khwaja would probably have been a major candidate for khan OTL had he not died of wounds received in battles against the Delhi Sultanate. I cannot find his religion, although his title "Khwaja" and name of his son Dawud might indicate some affinity with Islam, particularly Sufism (although it could also be the literally meaning of "lord" since he ruled over many Turks and Mongols settled in modern Afghanistan).
[4] - Great-grandfather of the infamous Timur, and thus also an ancestor of the Mughals. Ilangir was certainly head of the Barlas in this era, a vassal of the Chagatai, and likely held the title of emir and was entitled to lead at least 1,000 troops.
[5] - Dasapura is the old name for Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, India
[6] - In general, Indian armies tended to be deficient in cavalry and reliant on imported horses from Arabia, Persia, or Afghanistan (despite some notable exceptions among the Rajputs). Although their cavalry might be skilled thanks to the tradition of the Rajputs, this deficiency in cavalry would often be a decisive factor in the rise and fall of empires in the subcontinent.
