Battle of Kili

01Delhi in danger

Qutlugh Khwaja marched without stopping to plunder the Punjab, and refugees crowded into Delhi. Barani records that Alauddin’s advisers urged him to negotiate or stand siege, and that he refused. He drew up his army at Kili. Zafar Khan, on the right wing, charged the Mongols without orders, broke the troops in front of him and pursued too far; he was surrounded and killed. The other commanders held their ground, and the day ended without a rout.

02The Mongols withdraw

The Mongols retreated in the night. Persian sources say Qutlugh Khwaja had been badly wounded and died on the march home. Barani writes that the Mongols long remembered Zafar Khan and would ask their horses whether they had seen him when they refused to drink. Kili convinced Alauddin to rebuild the frontier forts, raise a large standing army and pay it from the price controls for which his reign became known.

Place · Mosque begun 1192–93 from the materials of 27 temples; minar begun c. 1199Qutb Complex, MehrauliInside Lal Kot, the citadel of the Tomaras and Chauhans, Qutbuddin Aibak raised Delhi’s first mosque from the pillars of the temples he pulled down, and began the Qutb Minar beside it. The Gupta iron pillar stands in the courtyard.Read →