Chapter 9
Sources & References
Every claim on this website is backed by primary sources — chronicles written by contemporaries of Muhammad bin Tughlaq — or by modern scholarship based on those chronicles. Verify everything.
Every claim on this website is backed by primary sources — chronicles written by contemporaries of Muhammad bin Tughlaq — or by modern scholarship based on those chronicles. Verify everything.
The most powerful evidence on this website comes from Muslim historians and travelers who served in Muhammad bin Tughlaq's own court. Barani served him for 17 years. Ibn Batuta served in his court for over a decade. These men had no motive to fabricate anti-Islamic propaganda — they were devout Muslims who admired aspects of their ruler. Their accounts of atrocities, therefore, carry maximum credibility.
Written by contemporaries — historians, travelers, and courtiers who witnessed Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign firsthand.
The definitive primary source on Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Barani served in his court for 17 years. His chronicle is a detailed, first-person adjacent account of the Sultan's policies, executions, the token currency experiment, the forced capital transfer, and the Deccan famine. Barani is a Muslim historian writing in Persian — making his accounts of atrocities against Hindu subjects particularly credible.
Wikipedia: Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi ↗The Moroccan scholar-traveler Ibn Batuta visited India during Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign and served in his court for about eight years. His Rihla is an eyewitness account describing the forced depopulation of Delhi, daily executions, the emptied capital, and the Sultan's unpredictable cruelty. As a foreign Muslim scholar, his testimony is independent of court politics.
Wikipedia: The Travels of Ibn Battutah ↗A Persian verse chronicle composed in the Deccan during Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign. Isami was a Muslim historian critical of Muhammad bin Tughlaq's governance. His chronicle provides important documentation of the Deccan campaigns, including temple destructions and the human cost of the capital transfer. Written contemporaneously, it provides an independent verification of Barani's accounts.
Wikipedia: Futuh-us-Salatin ↗An Arabic geographical and administrative encyclopedia compiled by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari, providing the perspective of a contemporary Muslim scholar in the Arab world on the Delhi Sultanate during Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign. Al-Umari documents economic conditions and the reputation of the Sultanate in the Islamic world.
Wikipedia: Al-Umari ↗The complete edition of Ibn Batuta's travels, including the India section. The complete Arabic text is available at various academic repositories. Key sections describing Muhammad bin Tughlaq include the depopulation of Delhi, the Sultan's justice system (arbitrary execution), and the economic conditions under his rule.
Internet Archive: Ibn Batuta's Rihla ↗Modern historians who have researched and documented Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign using primary sources.
A landmark demographic study documenting population decline in India during the Sultanate period. Lal's analysis provides the quantitative framework for understanding the scale of death caused by Sultanate governance — including Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign. Published by Research Publications (New Delhi).
Wikipedia: K.S. Lal ↗A scholarly biography of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, drawing extensively on Barani and Ibn Batuta. Husain, a Muslim historian, provides balanced but factually detailed analysis of Muhammad bin Tughlaq's major policies and their catastrophic outcomes. Published by Luzac & Company, London.
The authoritative multi-volume history of India, edited by the eminent historian R.C. Majumdar. Volume VI on the Delhi Sultanate provides comprehensive coverage of Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign with extensive primary source citation. Published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai.
Wikipedia: R.C. Majumdar ↗A comprehensive, source-based documentation of temple destruction during the medieval Islamicate period in India. Volume 2 ("The Islamic Evidence") draws exclusively on Islamic primary sources — including Isami's Futuh-us-Salatin — to document temple destructions. Published by Voice of India, New Delhi.
voiceofdharma.org ↗A documented examination of how Indian academic history writing has systematically distorted the historical record of the medieval Islamicate period in India, including the deliberate exclusion and minimization of documented atrocities. Published by HarperCollins India.
Wikipedia: Arun Shourie ↗Muhammad bin Tughlaq did not act in isolation. These sister websites document the full context of medieval Islamicate governance in India, each with its own comprehensive historical record.
The founder of the Tughlaq dynasty — Muhammad bin Tughlaq's father, whose death he allegedly orchestrated. Documents his military campaigns and governance.
ghiyasuddintughlaq.com →Muhammad's successor. Reimposed Jizya strictly, enslaved 180,000 people, destroyed temple sites, and personally boasted of his destructions in his autobiography.
firozshtughlaq.com →Founder of the Lodi dynasty which ruled after the Tughlaqs. Documents his military campaigns, religious policies, and governance of the declining Sultanate.
bahlullodi.com →Famous for his zealotry in destroying temples, persecuting Hindus, and his particular hostility to Hindu religious practices through state policy.
sikandarlodi.com →The raider who attacked India 17 times, looted Somnath and dozens of temples, and whose campaigns depleted India's wealth and weakened its defenses.
mahmudofghazni.com →The predecessor to the Tughlaqs who sacked Chittor, crushed the Rajput kingdoms, and established the discriminatory economic system that Muhammad bin Tughlaq inherited.
alauddinkhilji.com →The founder of the Mughal Empire who ended Lodi rule — but whose invasion brought new waves of destruction to India's temples and population.
babur.com →The Mughal emperor who reimposed Jizya after 100 years, ordered thousands of temples destroyed, and whose reign set off the chain of events ending Mughal rule.
aurangzeb.com →