Lecture 9: 751 Talas & 1192 Tarain—Islam into Asia
who had shown cowardice, increased training, and obtained
more horses.o In contrast, the only action taken by Prithvi-raja to prepare for
the rematch was to secure agreements from other Rajput rulers
to assist him, ensuring that his army would be even larger.The Second Battle of Tarain
x In 1192, Mohamad returned, and Prithvi-raja moved to meet him
with an army said to be more than 300,000 strong. They met
on almost the
same spot, but this
battle would have a
GH¿QLWLYHRXWFRPHx Mohamad divided his
DUP\ LQWR ¿YH XQLWV
including four with
10,000 light cavalry each,
armed mainly with bows.
The last was a division of
12,000 heavily armored
horsemen. His plan was
clever:
o The four horse
archer divisions
were to advance and
retreat repeatedly, all the while raining arrows down on the
Rajput ranks. If attacked, they were to fall back and not engage
in close combat.o If one division was being pursued with determination by a
unit of the Rajputs, it should retreat, but the other three archer
GLYLVLRQVVKRXOGKDUDVVWKHÀDQNVRIWKH,QGLDQVXQWLOWKH\JDYH
up the pursuit.In the aftermath of the First Battle
of Tarain, Prithvi-raja showed
complacency, assuming that his forces
had already proved their superiority.© Magog the Ogre/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0.