103 was carried out. Thirty to forty thousand wretched Mongols were killed in cold blood, their houses plun- dered, their wives and children cast adrift on the world. Cruelty toward women and children was a new experi- ence in India. " Up to this time," says Barani, " no hand had ever been laid upon wives or children on ac- count of men's misdeeds." To cast them into prison in revenge for their husbands' and fathers' rebellion was one of the unenviable inventions which, made " the crafty cruelty " of Ala-ad-din detested. There was undoubtedly a great deal of popular fer- ment, which may well have taxed the never easy temper of the Sultan and provoked severe retaliation. We read of a dangerous mutiny of the troops in 1298, after a successful campaign in Gujarat, where the Hindus had again become independent. Their raja was driven away into the Deccan, and the idol which had been set up at Somnath, in the place of the linga destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni, was cast down and carried to Delhi to be trodden under the feet of the faithful. An attempt to wrest from the army the legal fifth of the immense booty seized in this campaign led to the mu- tiny; some of the chief officers were killed, including a nephew of the Sultan, and the soldiers were allowed perforce to keep their spoil. In spite of such checks, the wealth and prosperity of the Sultan were unbounded. To quote the words of the contemporary Barani: " In the third year of his reign Ala-ad-din had little to do beyond attending to his pleasures, giving feasts, and holding festivals.
