Ulugh Khan

Almas Beg (died c. 1302), better known by his title Ulugh Khan, was a brother and a general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He held the iqta' of Bayana in present-day India.

Quotes

• Ulugh Khan invaded Gujarat. He sacked the whole country. He pursued the Rai upto Somnath. He destroyed the temple of Somnath which was the principal place of worship for the Hindus and great Rais since ancient times. He constructed a mosque on the site and returned to Delhi.
  • Somnath (Gujarat) . Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi, Translated from the Hindi version by S.A.A. Rizvi included in Khalji Kalina Bharata, Aligarh, 1955, p. 223. In Goel, S.R. Hindu Temples - What Happened to them

• Mahmud demolished Somnath in the year 416 (1122)' and carried its relics to Ghazni. After his death, unbelief returned to Naharwala as its residents took an idol and buried it on a side. There was publicity of return of Somnath. They took it out from its burial place. It was exhibited and fixed at a place where it was. Malek Ulugh Khan took it along with all the spoils to Delhi. They made it the threshold at its gate. This victory took place on Wednesday, 20th Jamadi I, 698 (1299)'....'It was kept by a Brahmin after being mutilated by MaHamud. It was Lamnat. They named it Somnath. They worshipped it out of misguidance from ancient times. They carried it to Delhi. It was placed at the entrance of the gate
  • Somnath (Gujarat) . Zafarul Walih Bi Muzaffar Wa Ãlihi, translated into English by M.F. Lokhand­wala, Baroda, 1970 and 1974, Vol. II, p. 646-50. As quoted in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol II, Ch. 7.

• At the beginning of the third year of the reign, Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan, with their amirs and generals, and a large army marched against Gujarat' All Gujarat became a prey to the invaders, and the idol, which after the victory of Sultan Mahmud and his destruction of (the idol) of Manat, the Brahmans had set up under the name of Somanat, for the worship of the Hindus, was carried to Delhi where it was laid for the people to tread upon95
  • Elliot and Dowson, Vol. III : Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. pp. 163. As quoted in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol II, Ch. 7.

• In the third year after the accession, the Sultan sent Ulugh Khan and Nasrat Khan, with large armies to invade Gujarat. They ravaged and plundered Nahrwalah, and all the cities of the province Ulugh Khan and Nasrat Khan also brought the idol, which the Brahmans of Somnath had set up, and were worshipping, in place of the one which Sultan Mahmud had broken to pieces, to Delhi, and placed it where the people would trample upon it
  • The Tabqat-i-Akbari translated by B. De, Calcutta, 1973, Vol. I, p. 157. As quoted in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol II, Ch. 7.

• On Wednesday, the 20th of Jamadi-ul Awwal in AH 698 (23 February, 1299), the Sultan sent an order to the manager of the armed forces for despatching the army of Islam to Gujarat so that the temple of Somnat on its shore could be destroyed. Ulugh Khan was put in charge of the expedition. When the royal army reached that province, it won a victory after great slaughter. Thereafter the Khan-i-Ãzam went with his army to the sea-shore and besieged Somnat which was a place of worship for the Hindus. The army of Islam broke the idols and the biggest idol was sent to the court of the Sultan.
  • Khalji Kalina Bharata, Persian texts translated into Hindi by S.A.A. Rizvi, Aligarh, 1955. p. 159 ff. As quoted in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol II, Ch. 7.

• And in the year AH 698 (AD 1298) he appointed Ulugh Khan to the command of a powerful army, to proceed into the country of Gujarat' Ulugh Khan carried off an idol from Nahrwala' and took it to Dihli where he caused it to be trampled under foot by the populace; then he pursued Rai Karan as far as Somnat, and a second time laid waste the idol temple of Somnat, and building a mosque there retraced his steps.'
  • Muntakhabut-Tawarikh, translated into English by George S.A. Ranking, Patna Reprint 1973, Vol. I, p. 255-256. As quoted in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol II, Ch. 7.

• 'In the year 696, six hundred and ninety-six, he sent an army for the conquest of Gujarat under the command of Ulugh Khan who became famous among the Gujaratis as Alp Khan and Nusrat Khan Jalesri. These Khans subjected Naharwala that is, Pattan and the whole of that dominion to plunder and pillage' They broke the idol of Somnat which was installed again after Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi and sent riches, treasure, elephants, women and daughters of Raja Karan to the Sultan at Delhi....[Somnath (Gujarat) ]
  'After conquest of Naharwala and expulsion of Raja Karan, Ulugh Khan occupied himself with the government. From that day, governors were appointed on this side on behalf of the Sultans of Dilhi. It is said that a lofty masjid called Masjid-i-Adinah (Friday Masjid) of marble stone which exists even today is built by him. It is popular among common folk that error is mostly committed in counting its many pillars. They relate that it was a temple which was converted into a masjid' Most of the relics and vestiges of magnificence and extension of the ancient prosperity of Pattan city are found in the shape of bricks and dried clay, which inform us about the truth of this statement, scattered nearly to a distance of three kurohs (one kuroh = 2 miles) from the present place of habitation. Remnants of towers of the ancient fortifications seen at some places are a proof of repeated changes and vicissitudes in population due to passage of times. Most of the ancient relics gradually became extinct. Marble stones, at the end of the rule of rajas, were brought from Ajmer for building temples in such a quantity that more than which is dug out from the earth even now. All the marble stones utilized in the city of Ahmedabad were (brought) from that place[Patan (Gujarat)]
  • Mirat-i-Ahmadi by Ali Muhammad Khan, in Mirat-i-Ahmdi, translated into English by M.F. Lokhandwala, Baroda, 1965, P. 27-29. As quoted in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol II, Ch. 7.

• A century later, 1297-1298, Ulugh Khan and Nasrat Khan Jalesari, the generals of Sultan ‘Alaudin invaded Gujarat, sacked the temple of Somanatha, defeated the Raja Kama Vaghela—who fled and took refuge with Ramadeva of Devagiri—and captured Nahrwalah (Anahilavada). Then Gujarat became a province of the Mughal empire, and thenceforward the great architectural works of the Solanki and Vaghela kings were wilfully and maliciously dilapidated by Islam bigotry. Ulugh Khan, known as Alp or Alaf Khan, one of the first governors of Nahrwalah, we are told by ‘Ali Muhammad Khan, the author of the Mirdt-i Ahmadi , “ built the Adinah masjid of white marble which remains at the present time (1756). . . . There is a fine masjid which it is said at that time stood in the centre of the city, but is now far away from the inhabited part.
  • The architectural antiquities of northern Gujarat, more especially of the districts included in the Baroda state by Burgess, Jas; Cousens, Henry [1] also in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history. 170