Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the coming of Persian, Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape visitations by fresh Asiatic hordes. Timur the Lame, at the head of an innumerable host, rushed down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges and sacked Delhi, making there a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. Timur's invasion left no permanent impress on the history of India, but its memory fired the imagination of another Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant of Timur. In 1525 A.D. he invaded India and speedily made himself master of the northern part of the country.
EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS
The empire which Baber established in India is known as that of the Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however, were Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline of their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British conquest of India.
178. THE MONGOLS IN EASTERN EUROPE
MONGOL CONQUEST OF RUSSIA, 1237-1240 A.D.
The location of Russia [11] on the border of Asia exposed that country to the full force of the Mongol attack. Jenghiz Khan's successors, entering Europe north of the Caspian, swept resistlessly over the Russian plain. Moscow and Kiev fell in quick succession, and before long the greater part of Russia was in the hands of the Mongols. Wholesale massacres marked their progress. "No eye remained open to weep for the dead."
[Illustration: THE TAJ MAHAL, AGRA Erected by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jehan, as a tomb for his favorite wife, Muntaz Mahal. It was begun in 1632 A.D. and was completed in twenty-two years. The material is pure white marble, inlaid with jasper, agate and other precious stones. The building rests on a marble terrace, at each corner of which rises a tall graceful minaret. The extreme delicacy of the Taj Mahal and the richness of its ornamentation make it a masterpiece of architecture.]
INVASION OF POLAND AND HUNGARY BY THE MONGOLS, 1241 A.D.
Still the invaders pressed on. They devastated Hungary, driving the Magyar king in panic flight from his realm. They overran Poland. At a great battle in Silesia they destroyed the knighthood of Germany and filled nine sacks with the right ears of slaughtered enemies. The European peoples, taken completely by surprise, could offer no effective resistance to these Asiatics, who combined superiority in numbers with surpassing generalship. Since the Arab attack in the eighth century Christendom had never been in graver peril. But the wave of Mongol invasion, which threatened to engulf Europe in barbarism, receded as quickly as it came. The Mongols soon abandoned Poland and Hungary and retired to their possessions in Russia.
[Illustration: Map, RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES]