Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughluq

By early December, Timur's forces were camped outside Delhi itself, the capital of a sultanate that had ruled northern India for nearly 200 years.

Delhi's sultan at the time, a young man named Mahmud Shah, wasn't really running the show.

That job belonged to his vizier, Maloo Iqbal Khan.

And Maloo Iqbal Khan had assembled a real army to meet Timur.