62 ISLAM AT WAR
1225–1351 Ghiyas-ud-Din moves the capital from Delhi to the Deccan.
1398 Tamerlane’s great raid
1526 Babur attacks the sultanate of Delhi, founding the Moghul
Empire.
1560 Akbar, last great Moghul conqueror, comes to power.
1658 Aurangzeb reigns until 1707, extending military rule to the
south.
1739 Nadir Shah of Persia leads the last Moghul conquest.
1757 Battle of Plassey signifies the end of Moghul military and po-
litical dominance and the advent of British India.
NOTE
- The Black Hole of Calcutta has a special place in history. The story goes that a total
of 146 British soldiers taken prisoner at Fort William in Calcutta, during a revolt were
locked in a cell 24 by 18 feet (some suggest 18.5 by 14), on June 21, 1756, the height of
the scorching Indian summer. Only one small window allowed ventilation. Left overnight
without food or water, of the 146 locked in the cell only 23 survived. The room was so
small that when the door was opened in the morning even the dead were still standing.
Historical evidence suggests that the story has been embellished, and that no more than
sixty-nine were held and no more than forty-three died.