Malik Kafur

Early life

Malik Kafur was a eunuch slave who became a general in the army of Alauddin Khilji, ruler of the Delhi Sultanate from 1296 to 1316 A.D. He was originally seized by Alauddin’s army after the army conquered the city of Khambhat. It is theorized that Alauddin Khilji fell in love with the effeminate beauty of Malik Kafur, castrated him and converted him to Islam. Kafur was also called "Thousand Dinar Kafur", probably the amount paid by sultan for his possession. The sultan allegedly had homosexual relation with Kafur.

Wars and conquests

Kafur quickly came to play an important role in the Khilji dynasty, and was consequently made a general, earning the title "Malik Naib" —an honorific title for a military commander as noted by Ziauddin Barani. In 1294, Kafur led the Sultan's army for attacking the capital city of the Yadava kingdom of Devagiri, which was ruled by Ramdeva. The king's son Sankardeva was slain in the battle. In 1305, Kafur defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Amroha.

Between 1309 and 1311 Malik Kafur has led two successful campaigns in South India. The first was against the Kakatiyas of Warangal and the second against the Hoysalas of Halebidu. Kafur defeated the Kakatiyas, winning an indemnity and making the Kakatiya a vassal of the Sultanate. The booty from Warangal included the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond. During the course of the attack on Halebid, he laid siege to the famous Hoysaleswara Temple in Halebidu and defeated Veera Ballala III.

Later, Kafur made a third attempt in the South, where he tried to enter the Tamil kingdoms. He defeated the exhausted Pandyan army which lost its prime water source, the Kaveri river, in the hot summer of 1311. He captured emperor Sundara Pandyan and laid siege to the capital of Madurai. Kafur's siege on Madurai continued for weeks, but the attempt was futile as his army lacked any ballistas or trebuchets and relied on battering rams of inferior quality. On the other hand, continuous archery attacks by Pandyan soldiers and surprise cavalry attacks on the Sultanate infantry at night caused heavy casualties, with Kafur losing about half of his army. Kafur negotiated with Veera Pandiyan, who agreed to give all the wealth in the treasury, half of the rations and all elephants in exchange for leaving Meenakshi Temple and releasing his brother Sundara Pandiyan. Kafur was made Malik Naib, the senior commander of the army, after the southern campaigns. In 1318, Malik Kafur killed Raja Harapal, the last king of Yadavas.

Death

After Kafur masterminded the death of Alauddin Khilji in 1316, he blinded the heir apparent Khizr Khan and Shadi Khan. He installed Umar Khan, Khilji's 3-year-old son on the throne. Mubarak Khan, Khilji's third son, escaped the blinding attempt and later Malik was assassinated by his soldiers whom he sent to blind Mubarak. He told all the soldiers that he has killed other people the same as him and wanted to take the rule by himself, so he told them to kill him at night.

Legacy

For the first time in the recorded history of India, a part of South India came under Delhi's rule after Malik Kafur's expeditions in the Deccan. Kafur's campaigns paved the way for the establishment of Delhi Sultanate rule over parts of the Andhra and Karnataka and laid the foundation for the short-lived Madurai Sultanate.