Sack of Delhi (1398)

The sack of Delhi in 1398 was the capture and devastation of the capital of the Delhi Sultanate by the Central Asian conqueror Timur. Large numbers of inhabitants were killed, artisans were carried off to Samarkand and the treasury was emptied. Accounts of the Delhi Sultanate treat it as a catastrophic blow after which the sultanate was reduced to a regional power under the Sayyid dynasty, who ruled as Timurid vassals.