Cite
MLA
“Capture of Koil (Aligarh).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/aibak-takes-koil-1194/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Capture of Koil (Aligarh). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/aibak-takes-koil-1194/
Aibak took the fort of Koil and much of its garrison was killed.
01The fort
The Taj al-Maasir describes Koil as one of the celebrated fortresses of Hind and says Aibak marched there after crossing the Ganga. The defenders were overcome. Hasan Nizami writes, in the triumphal style of his book, that those of the garrison who were wise accepted Islam and the rest were put to the sword, and that great booty and horses were taken. Koil remained an important Sultanate post commanding the road between Delhi and the eastern doab.
02With Chandawar
The capture of Koil came in the same year, 1194, as the defeat of the Gahadavala Jayachandra at Chandawar near Etawah, which opened the road to Banaras. Together they gave the Ghurids the upper Ganga plain. The name Aligarh was given much later, in the eighteenth century, after the fort was rebuilt; the old name Koil survives in the name of the district’s tahsil. Koil was later the base from which the Sultanate governed the middle doab.
With Chandawar, it gave the Ghurids the upper Ganga–Yamuna doab.
