1311 massacre of Mongols in the Delhi Sultanate

In 1311, the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji ordered a mass massacre of the "New Muslims" (Mongols who had recently converted to Islam), after some Mongol amirs of Delhi conspired to kill him. According to chronicler Ziauddin Barani, 20,000 or 30,000 Mongols were killed as a result of this order. The Khalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate was of Turko-Afghan ethnicity and had fought several wars against the Mongol invaders from Central Asia. In 1292, the Delhi Sultan Jalaluddin Khalji had permitted several thousand Mongols to settle in his empire after they converted to Islam. These Mongol converts were called New Muslims (or Neo-Muslims), and by 1311, more than 10,000 of them lived in the capital Delhi alone. Several of them served in the Delhi army, and during the 1299 Gujarat campaign of Jalaluddin's successor Alauddin, some of them had staged an unsuccessful mutiny. After facing three other rebellions (not by Mongols), Alauddin had taken several measures to prevent further rebellions, including prohibition and confiscation of wealth from his subjects. His administration had greatly reduced salaries and inams (feudal land grants) of the Mongol amirs, and some of them had lost their employment. All these factors caused discontent among the leading Mongols of Delhi. In 1310-1311, Alauddin had sent his general Malik Kafur on a campaign to the southern Hoysala and Pandya kingdoms. During Kafur's invasion of the Pandya kingdom, his Mongol commander Abachi (or Abaji Mughal) conspired to betray the imperial forces and to kill Kafur. The plot failed, and Abachi was brought as a prisoner to Delhi, where Alauddin ordered him to be executed. Abachi's execution prompted the already resentful Mongols to conspire against Alauddin. The conspirators made a plan to kill Alauddin when he would come out to fly his hawks, wearing a cloak without any armour. Alauddin's attendants at this time would be unarmed, so the Mongols thought that a contingent of 200-300 Mongol horsemen could easily overpower them.