[45] In his invasion of India he
caused the people of the towns and villages through which he passed
to be all massacred without regard to religion, age, or sex. If the
soldiers in the town resisted, the people were all murdered because
they did so; if they did not, the people were considered to have
forfeited their lives to the conquerors for being conquered; and told
to purchase them by the surrender of all their property, the value of
which was estimated by commissaries appointed for the purpose. The
price was always more than they could pay; and after torturing a
certain number to death in the attempt to screw the sum out of them,
the troops were let in to murder the rest; so that no city, town, or
village escaped; and the very grain collected for the army, over and
above what they could consume at any stage, was burned, lest it might
relieve some hungry infidel of the country who had escaped from the
general carnage.
All the soldiers, high and low, were murdered when taken prisoners,
as a matter of course; but the officers and soldiers of Timur's army,
after taking all the valuable movables, thought they might be able to
find a market for the artificers by whom they were made, and for
their families; and they collected together an immense number of men,
women, and children.
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