No More Learning

413 (#459) ############################################

XVI ]
WAR WITH MĀLWA
413
to flight and the day would have been won for the Deccan had not
Mahmūd I of Mālwa happened to hit the elephant of Sikandar
Khān, the young king's tutor, in the forehead with an arrow. The
beast, maddened with pain, turned and fled, trampling down many
in its fight, and Sikandar Khān bore the young king with him from
the field. The army of the Deccan, no longer perceiving the royal
elephant, began to retire in confusion, and, overtaking the king and
Sikandar Khān, bore them back with them to Bidar. Here Khvāja
Jahān threw Sikandar Khān into prison, but his incarceration,
owing to the number and influence of his supporters, created dis-
sensions which encouraged Mahmud of Mālwa to advance on the
capital, and the queen-mother carried her son to Firūzābād, where
he was out of danger. Mahmūd of Mālwa captured the town of
Bidar after a siege of seventeen days, but the citadel held out, and
Mahmud Begarha, in response to an appeal from the young king's
ministers, appeared on the frontier with 80,000 horse, and was
joined by Mahmud Gāvān who, with 20,000 horse placed at his
disposal by the king of Gujarāt and a force of equal strength
assembled by himself threatened the communications of the army
of Mālwa. Mahm ūd of Mālwa, thus menaced, retreated, and was
much harassed by Mahmud Gāvān. His troops also suffered severely
in their passage through the hills of the Melghāt, into which he
plunged in order to shake off his pursuers.
This discomfiture failed to deter him from invading the Deccan
in the following year with 90,000 horse, and he advanced as far
as Daulatābād, but the reappearance of Mahmud Begarha on the
northern frontier compelled him to retire to Māndū without having
effected anything.
The youthful Nizām Shāh died suddenly on July 30, 1463, and
was succeeded by his brother, aged nine, who ascended the throne
as Muhammad III.
The Foreign party retained its predominance in the state, and
the kingdom was administered, as in the preceding reign, by the
queen-mother, Khvāja Jahān, and Mahmūd Gāvān, but the ambi.
tion of Khvāja Jahān disturbed the harmony which had hitherto
prevailed. He aimed at the chief power in the state, and under-
mined Mahmúd Gāvān's influence at the capital by employing him
continually on the frontier. The queen-mother became suspicious
of his designs and persuaded her son to put him to death. When
he entered his master's presence two maidservants of the harem
appeared and cried aloud, in accordance with preconcerted arrange-
ments, ‘The matter which was spoken of yesterday should now bę


## p. 414 (#460) ############################################

414
[cu.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
taken in hand. ' Muhammad turned to Nizām-ul-Mulk and, pointing
to Khvāja Jahān said, 'This man is a traitor. Slay him. ' Nizām.
ul-Mulk seized Khvāja Jahān by the hand, dragged him forth, and
cut him to pieces.
Mahmud Gāvān, who had devoted such care to the young king's
education that he was the most accomplished monarch who had sat
on the throne since the days of Firūz, was summoned to the capital
and received the titles of Khvāja Jahān and Amir-ul-Umarā. The
queen-mother wisely retired from the management of public affairs
when her son reached the age of fifteen, and left him in the hands
of his advisers, but retained his respect, and was consulted by him
throughout her life.
In 1467 Nizām-ul-Mulk was appointed to the command of the
army of Berar and was sent against Kherla, which was in the
possession of Mahmūd I of Mālwa. He induced or compelled the
governor to surrender the place, but was himself murdered by two
Rājputs of the garrison, and Muhammad gained nothing by the
campaign, which was terminated by a treaty acknowledging Kherla
to be a fief of Mālwa, as in the reign of Ahmad the Saint. The
treaty was preceded by protracted negotiations, in the course of
which Mahmūd taxed Muhammad with bad faith in violating the
treaty which had secured Kherla to Mālwa, but was forced to admit
the justice of the retort that he had first violated the treaty of
peace between the two countries by twice invading the Deccan
during the reign of Nizām Shāh.
Mahmud Gāvān yet retained the government of Bījāpur, and in
1469 was sent into the Konkan to reduce to obedience the rajas of
Khelna (Vishālgarh), Sangameshwar, and other districts, whose
pirate fleets had inflicted much loss on Muslim merchants and
pilgrims. The two leading rajas entered into a close alliance and
fortified the Western Ghāts, but Mahmūd Gāvān went patiently to
work and forced and occupied the passes one by one. He dismissed
his cavalry, useless in mountain warfare, and assembled corps of
infantry from Junnār, Dābhol, and Karhād. The jungle was burnt
and the siege of Khelna was opened and continued for five months,
when Mahmud, wisely shunning the dangers of a campaign in the
hills during the rainy season, withdrew into quarters at Kolhāpur,
leaving garrisons to hold the passes.
When the rainy season was past he returned to Khelna and, by
tampering with the fidelity of the garrison, succeeded in capturing
and occupying the fortress. As the rainy season approached he
again retired above the Ghāts, leaving a garrison in Khelna, and,


## p. 415 (#461) ############################################

XVI ]
WAR IN THE KONKAN AND ORISSA
415
returning when the rains were abated, took Sangameshwar, aveng-
ing as Fīrishta says, the sufferings of Khalaf Hasan of Basrah.
Leaving officers to carry on the administration of his conquests he
marched to Goa, then one of the best ports of the raja of Vijaya-
nagar, attacked it by land and sea, and took it. The exploit was
celebrated with great rejoicings at Bidar, both as an important
victory over the hereditary enemies of the kingdom and as a boon
to Muslim pilgrims and merchants, for the western ports, which
might be dominated from Goa, harboured pirates whom their
nominal sovereigns might disown at will, while profiting by their
depredations.
Mahmud Gāvān returned to Bidar, after more than two years,
absence, in the early summer of 1472, and was received with the
highest honours by the king and the queen-mother. His slave
Khushqadam, who had ably seconded his efforts during the arduous
campaign in the Konkan, received the title of Kishvar Khān and
was manumitted and ennobled.
Before the great minister's return news had been received at
the capital that the Hindu chieftain of southern Orissa who had
vexed the kingdom during the reigns of Humāyūn and Nizām had
died and had been succeeded by an adopted son, Mangal whose
title to the throne was contested by the deceased raja's cousin,
Hambar. Hambar, having been defeated by Mangal and driven
into the mountains, sought aid of Muhammad III, in rerurn for
which he promised, on attaining to the throne, to pay tribute.
Malik Hasan, surnamed Bahri', the Brāhman of Pāthri who had
been captured during the invasion of Vijayanagar by Ahmad the
Saint and brought up as a Muslim, received the title of Nizām-ul-
Mulk, and was sent to the assistance of Hambar. The expedition
was successful. Mangal was defeated and put to flight and Hambar
was placed on the throne and assisted Hasan to reduce Raja.
mundry (Rajamahendri), the Hindu ruler of which had maintained
his independence and had assisted the rajas of southern Orissa in
their campaigns against the Muslims. Kondavīr also was captured,
1 The origin and meaning of this epithet, which is applied both to Hasan and to
his descendants, the Nizām Shāhi kings of Ahmadnagar, are obscure. As written by
Muslim historians it is an Arabic adjective singifying ‘of, or connected with, the
sea,' but Hasan was in no way connected with the sea and the word is never ex-
plained as bearing its obvious etymological signification. It is said to be connected
with a Hindi word for a falcon, and to have been given to Hasan owing to his hav-
i ng at one time kept the favourite falcon of Muhammad III, but the derivation is
unconvincing and fanciful, and the story lacks confirmation. I believe it to be a
corruption of an adjective Bhiravi, regularly formed from Bhairav, the name of
Hasan's father, and Arabicized in accordance with a custom not uncommon in
India.
a


## p. 416 (#462) ############################################

416
( CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
and the kingdom of the Bahmanids for the first time extended from
sea to sea.
Malik, Hasan, on his return to the capital with his spoils, was
received with every mark of distinction and was made governor of
Telingāna, now the most extensive of the four provinces. At the
same time Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk, the other Brāhman who had
been captured in Ahmad Shāh's campaign, was made governor of
Berar, and Yûsuf 'Adil Khān, Savāi', a Turk”, received the govern-
ment of Daulatābād.
Honours were now fairly evenly divided between the Foreigners
and the Deccanis. Of the four great provincial governments two,
Gulbarga (with Bījāpur ) and Daulatābād, were held by Mahmūd
Gāvān and Yusuf 'Adil Khān, foreigners, and two, Telingāna and
Berar, by Malik Hasan and Fathullāh Imād-ul-Mulk, Deccanis.
The leaders of the Foreigners were well disposed towards the Decc-
anis, and of the latter Fathullāh was a lifelong friend of Yusuf 'Adil
Khān and was on terms of intimacy with many of the Foreigners,
but the crafty, unscrupulous, and ambitious Malik Hasan could not
tolerate a Foreigner's tenure of the first post in the kingdom, and
never rested till he had destroyed Mahmud Gāvān. His ambition
was purely selfish, for Mahmud was free from party spirit, and it
was Yūsuf that became the leader of the Foreigners, who flocked
around him in Daulatābād and enabled him to complete the sub-
jugation of the northern Konkan, which earned him higher honours
than those which had been accorded to Hasan, and the bitter
hostility of the latter and of his followers.
At the end of the same year the rajas of Belgaum and Bankāpur,
instigated by Virupaksha of Vijayanagar, attempted to recover
1 The meaning of this title, corrupted by the Portuguese into Sabaio or Cabaio, is
also obscure. It has been explained as Sawai, 'the one and a quarter man,' i. e. he
who is better by one quarter than others-a conceit common enough in northern
India, where the Mahārāja of Alwar still bears the title, but peculiar to Hindus, and
unusual, if not unknown, in the Deccan. It is otherwise explained as an adjective
formed from Sāva, the town in northern Persia where Yûsuf's youth was spent, but
the first syllable of Sawai is short and the second long, whereas in Sāva the first is
long and the second short. Moreover, the adjective formed from Sāva takes the
form Sāvaji.
2 Yūsuf claimed to be a son of Murād II, of Turkey, saved from the cus-
tomary massacre of the males of the imperial house by the affection of his mother,
who caused him to be secretly conveyed from the palace on the accession of his elder
brother, Muhammad II, and delivered to a Turkish or Persian merchant of Sāva,
who brought him up as his adopted son. There is little or no evidence in support
of this legend, and the most that can be said of it is that it involves no impossibilities
and may be true ; but it is at least equally probable that Yusuf was a Turk of Såva.
The principal objection to the legend that he was a scion of the imperial house of
Turkey is that he was a bigoted Shiah, and was the first Muslim ruler in India to
attempt to establish that faith as the state religion in his kingdom.


## p. 417 (#463) ############################################

XVI)
CAMPAIGN IN TELINGANA
417
Goa and Muhammad III marched, with Mahmūd Gāvān, to
punish them. Birkāna, raja of Belgaum, was besieged in his strong-
hold and, when the outer defences had been carried and only the
citadel remained to him, escaped in disguise and appeared in the
Muslim camp in the character of an envoy. It was not until he was
in the royal presence that he disclosed his identity and begged for
mercy. His life was spared, but Belgaum was annexed and granted
to Mahmūd Gāvān, whose fiefs it adjoined, and Muhammad III on
entering the fortress, assumed the title of Lashkari, 'the Soldier,'
by which he is known in history. After the fall of Belgaum his
mother, who had served the state so well, died, and her body was
sent to Bidar for burial while he halted at Bījāpur as the guest of
Mahmud Gāvān.
The Deccan now suffered from a terrible famine, the result of
the failure of the rains for two successive years. Large numbers
died of hunger and of an epidemic of cholera, which usually ac-
companies or follows a famine in India, and the kingdom was
further depopulated by the flight of a large proportion of its in-
habitants to Gujarāt and Mālwa, which escaped the visitation. The
land lay untilled and cultivation was not resumed until, in the third
year, the rain once more fell in abundance.
As soon
as this calamity was past news was received that the
people of Kondavir had risen against their Muslim governor, an
oppressor belonging to the school of Humāyān, had put him to
death, and had delivered the town to Hambar, who, forgetful of his
obligations to Muhammad, had accepted the offering and, doubtful
of his ability to retain it, had sought help of the raja of Jājpur in
Orissa, who invaded Telingāna and besieged Malik Hasan in Raja-
mundry.
Muhammad marched to Rajamundry and relieved Malik Hasan,
while Hamber shut himself up in Kondavir and the raja withdrew
to the northern bank of the Godavari, secured his position there by
seizing all the boats which could be found, and, finding that nothing
was to be gained by lingering in the neighbourhood, retired to
Orissa. Muhammad followed him, invaded Orissa in February,
1478, and spent six months in the country, which he laid waste.
He was contemplating its annexation when envoys arrived from
the raja, bringing numbers of elephants and other rich gifts and
charged with expressions of contrition, but Muhammad refused to
retreat until the raja, most unwillingly, had surrendered other
twenty-five elephants, the best which his father's stables had con-
tained. On his return he besieged Hambar in Kondavīr, and on his
C. H. JIJI,
27


## p. 418 (#464) ############################################

418
( CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
surrendering granted him his life, but destroyed the great temple
of Kondavir, built a mosque on its site, and earned the title of
Ghāzi by slaying with his own hand some of the attendant Brāhmans.
He made Rajamundry his headquarters for nearly three years
and, having completely subjugated Telingāna, prepared to invade
the eastern Carnatic, but, before setting out, provided for the
efficient administration of Telingāna by dividing it into two pro-
vinces, and appointed Malik Hasan to the eastern, or Rajamundry,
division and A'zam Khān, son of the rebel Sikandar, to Warangal,
which became the capital of the western division. The kingdom
had outgrown the old provincial system established by the first two
kings of the dynasty. Its extension to the sea coast on the west
and on the east had doubled the area of the old provinces of
Gulbarga and Daulatābād, and very much more than doubled that
of Telingāna, the partition of which was part of a scheme for the
division of the other provinces ; but Malik Hasan, who had hoped
to assume the government of the whole vast province, bitterly
resented its dismemberment, and resolved to destroy Mahmud
Gavān, the author of the scheme. He begged that he might be
permitted to accompany the king on his expedition into the
Carnatic and to leave his son Ahmad as the deputy at Rajamundry.
Ahmad bore a higher reputation as a soldier than his father and
had been provided with a fief in the Māhūr district of Berar
because it had been considered dangerous to employ father and
son in the same province, but Hasan's prayer was granted, and his
son was summoned from Māhūr and installed in Rajamundry.
Narasimha, whose territory Muhammad invaded, was probably
a viceroy or the decendant of a viceroy of the rajas of Vijayanagar,
who had extended his power at the expense of his former masters
until his territories included the eastern districts of their kingdom
and extended on the north to Machchhlīpatan (Masulipatam).
Muhammad made Kondapalli his headquarters, and leaving his
son Mahmūd with Mahmūd Gāvān, in that town led a raid to the
famous temple of Kānchi (Conjeveram). He rode so hard that of
6000 horse who had set out with him no more than forty, among
whom were Yusuf 'Adil Khān and Malik Hasan, were with him
when he arrived at his destination. Nothing daunted herode
towards the temple, from which emerged 'many Hindus of devilish
appearance, among them a black-faced giant of the seed of demons,
mounted on a powerful horse, who, having regarded them fixedly,
urged his horse straight at the king. While his companions were
occupied with other Hindus Muhammad slew this champion and


## p. 419 (#465) ############################################

XVI ]
PARTITION OF THE PROVINCES
419
another, and entered the temple, plundered it, and slew the at-
tendant Brāhmans.
After resting for a week in Conjeveram Muhammad sent
15,000 horse against Narasimha and, having captured Masulipatam,
returned to Kandapalli, where Malik Hasan, Zarif-ul-Mulk, and
the Deccani party lost no opportunity of slandering Mahmūd Gāvān
to him.
It was at Kondapalli that Mahmud Gāvān's plan for the parti-
tion of the four great tarafs or provinces of the kingdom was
completed. As Telingāna had been divided into the two provinces
of Rajamundry and Warangal, so Berar was divided into those of
Gāwil, or northern, and Māhūr, or southern Berar ; Daulatābād
into those of Daulatābād on the east, and Junnār on the west ;
and Gulbarga into those of Belgaum on the west and Gulbarga on
the east. At the same time the powers of the tarafdārs or provin-
cial governors were curtailed in many ways. Many of the parganas,
or sub-districts, in the provinces were appropriated as crown lands
and removed from the jurisdiction of the governor, and all military
appointments which had formerly been part of the governor's
patronage, were, with the exception of the command of the
principal fortress in each province, resumed by the king. Allow-
ances for the maintenance of troops, whether in cash or in grants of
land, had hitherto been calculated at the rate of 100,000 huns for
five hundred and 200,000 for 1000 horse. These sums
raised to 125,000 and 250,000, but on the other hand a system of
inspection and control was introduced, and deductions were made
on account of men not regularly maintained and mustered. These
reforms were most unpopular. The older nobles disliked them
because they curtailed the power and diminished the wealth of the
provincial governors, and all resented the curtailment of oppor-
tunities for peculation. They rendered their author more odious
than ever to the Deccani faction, headed by Malik Hasan, who
had been the first to suffer by them.
The new governments were fairly divided, Fathullāh 'Imād-ul.
Mulk retained Gāwil, Yusuf 'Adil Khān Daulatābād, Malik Hasan
Rajamundry, and Mahmūd Gāvān Belgaum, and to the four pro-
vinces of Māhūr, Junnār, Gulbarga, and Warangal Khudāvand
Khān the African, Fakhr-ul-Mulk the Turk, Dastūr Dīnār the
African, and Afzam Khān the Deccani were appointed. 'The
Deccani faction thus held five of the eight provincial governments,
but this advantage was neutralised by Malik Hasan's hostility to
the interloper, Ąʻzam Khān.
were now
27-2


## p. 420 (#466) ############################################

420
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
The absence of Yusuf 'Adil Khān with the field force encouraged
Malik Hasan, Zarif-ul-Mulk, and Miftāh the African, the leaders
of the Deccani party, to prosecute their designs against Mahmūd
Gāvān. They induced the keeper of his seals, an African, to affix
his private seal to a blank paper, on which they wrote, above the
seal, a letter to the raja of Orissa, informing him that the people
of the Deccan were weary of the tyranny and perpetual drunken-
ness of their king and urging him to invade the country. The paper
was read to the king when he was drunk, and he at once sent for
Mahmud Gāvān, who insisted on obeying the summons, notwith-
standing the protests of his friends, who warned him that mischief
was brewing. The king made no inquiries and did not even require
the production of the messenger with whom the letter was said to
have been found, but when Mahmūd appeared roughly demanded
what was the punishment due to a traitor. 'Death by the sword,
, ‘'
replied the minister, confident in his innocence. The king then
showed him the letter, and, having read it, he exclaimed, “By God,
this a manifest forgery! The seal is mine, but the writing is none
of mine, and I know nothing of the matter. ' The king, disregarding
his protestations of innocence, rose to leave the hall and, as he did
so, ordered an African named Jauhar to put him to death. The
minister knelt down and recited the short symbol of his faith, and
cried, as the sword fell, 'Praise be to God for the blessing of
martyrdom ! '
He was seventy-eight years of age when, on April 5, 1481, he
was unjustly put to death, and had served the Bahmani dynasty
with conspicuous ability and unwavering loyalty for thirty-five years.
He was generous, charitable, learned, accomplished, and blameless
in his private life. His attitude towards the Deccanis might have
healed the disastrous feud between them and the Foreigners, but
for the in appeasable rancour of Malik Hasan, and his death de.
prived his master of the only counsellor who united fidelity to ability.
The troops and the mob were permitted to plunder his camp,
but his own Foreigners rode with all speed to the field force, where
they took refuge with Yusuf ‘ādil Khān, who was also joined by
most of the Forign nobles in the royal camp.
The king sent for Nizām-ud-din Hasan Gilānī, the murdered
man's treasurer, and discovered, to his chagrin, that Mahmūd, with
all his opportunities for acquiring wealth, had left no hoard, having
distributed his income, as he received it, in charity. The faithful
servant boldly taxed the King with having shed innocent blood and
challenged him to prove his minister's guilt. Muhammad, too late,


## p. 421 (#467) ############################################

XVI )
MURDER OF MAHMUD GĀVĀN
421
commanded his betrayers to produce the messenger with whom the
letter had been found, and on receiving no answer hurriedly left the
hall of audience, leaving the courtiers trembling with apprehension.
On reaching his chamber he gave way to paroxysms of grief and
remorse. The body was sent to Bidar for burial, escorted by the
young prince Mahmūd, the king himself being unable to accompany
it owing to the refusal of the nobles to march with him. Fathullāh
and Khudāvand Khān, both members of the Deccani party, refused
even to see him for the purpose of discussing the punishment of the
conspirators, and bluntly replied to his summons that they would not
trust the murderer of such a minister as Mahmud, but would shape
their conduct by the advice of Yusuf 'Adil Khān. Muhammad re-
called Yusuf, but he could not join the royal camp, and encamped
apart, with Fathullāh and Khundāvand Khān.
The wretched king thus deserted by the Foreigners and by the
respectable portion of the Deccani party, was thrown into the arms
of the late minister's betrayers and compelled to accede to their
demands. Malik Hasan became lieutenant of the kingdom and was
henceforth known as Malik Nāib, his son Ahmad received his
father's title of Nizām-ul-Mulk and the province of Daulatābād,
vacated by Yusuf, who had decided to take possession of Mahmud
Gāvān's fieſs of Belgaum and Bijāpur, and Qivām-ul-Mulk the
elder and Qivām-ul-Mulk the younger, two Turks who, from selfish
motives, had attached themselves to Malik Nāib's faction, were
appointed to Warangal and Rajamundry.
The king set out for his capital, but the great nobles, except
Malik Näib and his friends, marched and encamped at a distance
from the royal troops and, on reaching Bīdar, refused to enter the
city and were dismissed to their provinces. Shortly afterwards he
commanded Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk and Khudāvand Khān to
accompany him to Belgaum, where he hoped to conciliate Yusuf
‘Ādil Khān, but they, though they obeyed the summons, would
neither march with the royal troops nor enter his presence, but
saluted him always from a distance and chose their own road. From
Belgaum he proposed to visit Goa, but the nobles refused to accom-
pany him and when news was received that Vira Nrisimha of
Vijayanagar was preparing to attack the port, Yusuf 'Adil Khān
was sent to its relief. Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk and Khudāvand
Khān returned to Berar without permission, and the king withdrew
to Firūzābād, where he endeavoured to drown his humiliation and
grief in drink, and formally designated the young Mahmūd heir to
the throne. Thence he returned to Bidar where, on March 22, 1482,


## p. 422 (#468) ############################################

422
( CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
he died at the age of twenty-eight from the effects of incessant
drinking crying out in his last moments that Mahmūd Gāvān was
slaying him.
He was an accomplished and high-spirited prince of great energy
and possessed considerable military ability. He was better served
than any of his predecessors, and might have been the greatest
prince of his house but for his addiction to drink, which destroyed
first his reputation and then his life. He may be considered the last
king of his line, for though five of his descendants followed him on
the throne ‘none was more than a state prisoner in the hands of
ambitious and unscrupulous ministers.
On the death of Muhammad, his son Mahmūd, a boy of twelve
years of age, was seated on the throne by Malik Näib, Qivām-ul-Mulk
the younger, and Qāsim, Barid-ul-Mamālik, another Turk who for
selfish reasons had allied himself to Malik Nāib's faction. None of
the Foreign Party or of the more respectable section of the Deccani
Party was present at his enthronement, which was a mean spectacle,
shorn of the magnificence to which courtiers and people were accus-
tomed, and a superstitious populace augured ill of a reign thus
ushered in.
Yūsuf 'Adil Khān, with most of the Foreign and many Deccani
officers, had been absent at Goa at the time of Muhammad's unex-
pected death, and on his return he marched to Bidar to make his
obeisance to the new king. Disregarding the rule which prohibited
the attendance of armed retainers at court he entered the palace
with 200 picked troops. Malik Nāib had drawn up 500 of the royal
guards at the gate, but none ventured to oppose Yûsuf, who as a
precaution against assassination, compelled Malik Näib and Qāsim
Barid-ul-Mamālik to precede him in the royal presence, where
he took his place above them, notwithstanding Malik Nāib's high
office. On leaving the palace Yūsuf took Malik Nāib by the hand
and compelled him to accompany him as far as the gate. He lodged
in the city with a guard of a thousand men while Daryā Khān, with
the rest of his army, remained on the alert without the walls. He
resisted all Malik Nāib's attempts to induce him to bring his troops
into the city, where the Deccanis might have surprised them, and
when the nobles met for the purpose of apportioning the great
offices of state acquiesced in the retention of the principal places
in the capital by the Deccani faction. Malik Näib remained lieu-
tenant of the kingdom. Qivām-ul-Mulk the elder became minister,
Qivām-ul-Mulk the younger master of the ceremonies, and Dilāvar
Khān the African assistant minister of finance.
1


## p. 423 (#469) ############################################

XVI)
DECLINE OF THE ROYAL POWER
423
This concession did not blind Malik Nāib to the necessity for
removing Yusuf, his most formidable enemy, and to this end he
summoned from Warangal 'Abdullāh "Ādil Khān the Deccani, the
deputy of Qivām-ul-Mulk the elder in that province. It nad become
customary to confer the same title on two men, usually a Deccani
and a Foreigner, though the two bearing the title of Qivām-ul-
Mulk were both Turks, and there was commonly much jealousy
between two bearers of the same title. 'Abdullāh Ādil Khān's
opportunities were, however, curtailed by the simultaneous arrival
in the capital of Yusuf's friend, Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk of Berar.
Malik Nāib first arranged that the troops of Bījāpur and Berar
should be reviewed by the king and that at the review the Deccanis
should fall upon the Foreigners. On the day appointed he seated
the king on one of the bastions of the citadel while the troops
paraded below. Yusuf and Fathullāh were summoned to the royal
presence and the young Muhmūd, tutored by Malik Nāib, ordered
the Deccanis to punish the Foreigners for their insolence and in.
subordination. Yusuf would have rejoined his men, but Fathullāh,
to save his life, detained him in the palace. Matters went ill with
the Foreign troops until Daryā Khān marched into the city with
the whole of the army of Bījāpur, when street fighting continued
for twenty days, and 4000 fell on both sides before the 'Ulamā
could restore peace.
Yusuf 'Adil Khān then returned with his
troops to Bijāpur, leaving Malik Nāib supreme in the capital. He
associated Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk with himself as minister, and
Qāsim Barid, who, though a Turk, had borne arms against the
Foreigners, was rewarded with the post of Kotwal of the city, and
the three carried on the administration for the next four years.
Dilāvar Khān the African, resenting his exclusion from the highest
offices, attempted, in obedience to the secret orders of the young
king, who chafed under the restraint to which he was subjected,
to assassinate the ministers, but failed and was obliged to flee to
Khāndesh, while the king was guarded more closely than before.
Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk grew weary of the atmosphere of
treachery and intrigue which pervaded the capital, and returned to
Berar, leaving Malik Näib supreme in the capital, and he, in order
to extend his influence in the provinces appointed two Deccanis,
Wahīd-ud-din and Sharaf-ud-din, as deputies for his son Ahmad, to
Daulatābād, conferred the government of Sholāpur and Parenda on
Fakhr-ud-din the Deccani, whom he had entitled Khvāja Jahān, and
sent Ahmad to Junnār. These measures were necessitated by the
virtual detachment of all other provinces, where the royal seal no


## p. 424 (#470) ############################################

424
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECĆAN
longer commanded respect, the governors being well aware that all
orders issued in the king's name were in fact the decrees of the
justly detested Malik Näib. In 1486 Qivām-ul-Mulk the younger
rebelled in Telingāna, and when Malik Nāib marched against him
complained to the king of the oppressive conduct of his minister,
but the complaint was fruitless, for it was handed by the king to
the minister. Najm-ud-din Gīlānī, governor of Goa, died, and his
servant, Bahādur Gilānī, seized the fortress and repudiated his alle-
giance to Mahmūd Shāh. Malik Nāib's son Ahmad accused Yūsuf
‘Adil Khān of countenancing and abetting the rebel, and thus further
estranged the Foreigners. Zain-ud-din ‘Ali, governor of Chākan,
refused, on the ground that the king was not master in his own
kingdom, to recognise Ahmad as governor of Junnār, and when
Malik Nāib ordered Khvāja Jahān of Parenda and Wajih-ud-din
of Daulatābād to assist Ahmad in asserting his authority, Yusuf
Adil Khān sent five or six thousand horse to the assistance of Zain-
ud-din ‘Ali. The news of this act of defiance reached Warangal,
where Malik Näib and the king were endeavouring to suppress
Qivām-ul-Mulk's rebellion, and undermined the authority of the
regent, whose arrogance had left him friendless. Qāsim Barid, the
African eunuch Dastūr Dinār, and other nobles complained of his
behaviour to the king, who replied that none could be more dis-
gusted than he with his minister, and besought them to seek occasion
to put him to death. Malik Nāib was informed of the conference
and fled from the camp, but instead of following the prudent course
of joining his son without delay made for Bidar where Dilpasand
Khān, one of his own creatures, commanded the citadel. He and
Dilpasand Khān broke into the treasury and began to raise troops,
and the king, on receiving this news, set out at once from Warangal.
Malik Nāib, not being strong enough to meet him in the field, pre-
pared to carry off the treasure to Junnār, and join his son, but
Dilpasand Khān deceitfully dissuaded him from this course and
secretly sent a message to the king, assuring him of his loyalty and
his readiness to obey any orders that he might receive. The king
replied that he would best show his loyalty by sending to him Malik
Nāib's head. Dilpasand Khān accordingly strangled the regent at
a private interview and sent his head to the king, who entered the
city and plunged into debauchery, neglecting all public business.
Meanwhile the quarrel between the Deccanis and the Foreigners
continued with unabated rancour, and the former, dissatisfied
with the king's attitude, plotted to dethrone him. On the night of
November 7, 1487, they entered the palace, where the king was


## p. 425 (#471) ############################################

xvi )
PARTITION OF THE KINGDOM
425
rose
on a
drinking, and, shutting the gates behind them lest the Foreign troops
should come to his assistance, entered the royal apartment. The
few Turkish slaves in attendance held their ground against the con:
spirators until the king had escaped to the roof of the great bastion
of the palace, and then followed him, holding the narrow stairway.
Mahmud found means to dispatch a messenger to the Foreign
troops, and three or four hundred were soon assembled before the
palace. Eight officers scaled the bastion and blew their whistles,
and the conspirators, believing that all the Foreign troops had
entered the palace, opened the gates to make their escape, but were
driven back by some Persian troops. A large body of troops entered
the building, and the royal servants, who had at first befriended the
conspirators, now drove them, with fire and smoke, from the corner
in which they were lurking, and slew them.
Meanwhile the citizens, hearing the tumult in the palace, rose
and plundered the houses of the Foreigners, but the Foreign troops,
supplied with horses from the royal stables, suppressed the disorder,
and when the sun
scene of indescribable confusion the
king took his seat on his throne and ordered a general massacre of
the Deccanis and Africans. T'he carnage continued for three days,
and was only stayed at the carnest prayer of a son of Shāh
Muhibbullāh.
The king now devoted himself entirely to pleasure, and the
great provincial governors, perceiving that he would never exercise
his authority, began to strengthen themselves in their provinces,
and when they attended him in court or camp shunned his presence
as they had been wont to shun that of his father in the last days of
his reign.
In 1490 Malik Ahmad Nizām-ul-Mulk, who had built the city
of Ahmadnagar and called it after his own name, sent envoys to
Yusuf 'Adil Khān of Bījāpur and Fathullāh 'Imād-ul-Mulk of Berar,
inviting them to join him in assuming the royal title and asserting
their independence of Bidar, and from this date these three rulers
became independent sovereigns of the territory which they had
hitherto held as viceroys of the king of the Deccan'. Their dynasties
1 The founders of the dynasties seem seldom, if ever, to have used the royal title.
The Portuguese did not accord it to Yūsuf ‘Adil Khān, or to his son Ismā'il ; Sultān,
Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, who became independent in Telingana in 1512 never used it, as
is evident from the epitaph on his tomb. Ahmad could hardly have borne it, for
iſ his courtiers had been accustomed to it they would not have murmured at his
using an umbrella, and if these three did not assume it it is certain that Fathullāh
did not. They were, however, in all respects independent, though they sometimes,
when it suited their policy and convenience, took the field with the puppet king of
Bidar, or rather with his guardian, and their successors used the title of Shāh.


## p. 426 (#472) ############################################

426
( CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
measures
were known, from the titles borne by their founders, as the Nizām
Shāhi, 'Adil Shāhi, and 'Imād Shāhi dynasties, and later Qutb-ul-
Mulk founded the Qutb Shāhi dynasty at Golconda and Barid-ul-
Mamālik the Barid Shāhi dynasty at Bidar.
These declarations of independence were not, except in the
case of Ahmad, who never forgave Mahmūd Shāh for the murder
of his father, prompted by disaffection towards the Bahmani
dynasty, for which Yusuf and Fathullāh entertained to the end of
their lives sentiments of loyalty and affection, but it was impossible
to serve Mahmūd, for he would not be served, and had no sooner
escaped from the toils of one master than he submitted to another,
so that loyalty to the king became no more than subservience to
an ambitious minister.
After the composition of the striſe between the Deccanis and
the Foreigners Qāsim Barid-ul-Mamālik became lieutenant of the
kingdom.
He was a Turk, but he was a Sunni and had been a
friend of Malik Nāib, so that he was acceptable to the Deccanis
but odious to the Foreign Party. He held the king in thrall, and
made no pretence of consulting his wishes. One of his earliest
was to seize the government of the region abɔut the
capital, to take the field against the officers commanding its
numerous fortresses, who refused to surrender what they held of
the king, and to inflict several defeats on the royal troops. Dilāvar
Khān the African returned from Khāndesh to help the king, drove
Qāsim towards Golconda, and defeated him, but his troops, while
pursuing those of Qāsim, were thrown into confusion by an unruly
elephant, their victory was turned into a deſeat, and Dilāvar Khān
was slain. Qāsim returned to Bidar and reduced the king to a
condition of such impotence that some writers date the foundation
of the Barīd Shāhi dynasty from this year.
Qāsim Barīd aimed at extending his power by reducing to
obedience the provincial governors, and proceeded first against
Yusuf 'Ādil Shāh by inciting Sāluva Timma, the regent of Vijaya-
nagar, to attack him. The Hindus invaded Rāichur Doāb and
captured both Rāichur and Mudgal. Qāsim then induced Ahmad
Nizām Shāh and Khvāja Jahān of Parenda to join him, and attacked
Yūsuf near Gulbarga, but Ahmad disappointed him by taking no
part in the action, and Qāsim and Khvāja Jahān were defeated.
Burhān I of Ahmadnagar was rebuked by Bahādur of Gujarāt, who afterwards
recognised it, forusing it and it was never recognised by the Mughul emperors, who
always addressed the rulers of Bijāpur, Ahmadnagar, and Golconda as 'Ādil Khan,
Nizām-ul-Mulk, and Qutb-ul-Mulk.


## p. 427 (#473) ############################################

XVI ]
REBELLION OF BAHADUR GİLANI
427
In 1493 Mahmūd Bigarha of Gujarāt complained that the pirate
Bahādur Gīlāni had plundered many ships of Gujarāt and had sent
his lieutenant, Yāqūt, to plunder the port of Bombay, and requested
'the King of the Deccan' to control his refractory vassal. Qāsim
Barid assembled the royal army and, carrying the king into the
field, marched against the rebel Yūsuf, Ahmad, and Fathullah sent
contingents to his aid, for it was to the interest of all that the king
of Gujarāt should have no pretext for invading the Deccan.
Bahādur had established himself so firmly in the Konkan and
the country above the Ghāts that both Yūsuf and Ahmad had been
constrained to treat him with respect. When he heard that the royal
army was marching towards his territory, and that an envoy was
bearing a farmān to him, he forbade his road guards to permit the
envoy to pass Miraj, and his defiant attitude left the allies no choice
but to advance. To Qutb-ul-Mulk the Deccani, now governor of
Telingāna, was entrusted the siege of Jāmkhandi, but he was slain,
and his title was conferred on Sultan Quli, a Turk of Hamadān,
who held fiefs in Telingāna. Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk captured
the fortress, handed it over to the officers of Yûsuf 'Adil Shāh, and
advanced to Mangalvedha, where Bahādur had taken refuge.
Meanwhile the royal army had advanced to Miraj, and, aſter
defeating Bahādur's troops before that place, captured the fortress
but weakly permitted the garrison to join Bahā lur. The royal
army marched from Miraj to Panhāla, and some of the courtiers
secretly informed Bahādur that the king was well disposed towards
him, and that a submissive attitude would probably earn him a
pardon. Negotiations were accordingly opened, but the terms
offered by Qāsim Barīd were so generous as to encourage Bahādur
to believe that his enemies despaired of crushing his revolt, and he
loudly boasted that he would conquer both the Deccan and Gujarāt.
Qāsim Barīd was loth to crush the rebel, whom he regarded as
a useful counterpoise to the power of Yusuf 'Adil Shāh, but as
Bahadur was not disposed to submit the war continued, and
Khvāja Jahān besieged him in Panhāla, and reduced him to such
straits that he sent an envoy to the king offering to submit on
other condition than that his life should be spared. The required
assurance was given, but in the meantime Bahādur had escaped
from Panhāla and demanded impossible conditions. Sultân Quli
Qutb-ul Mulk was therefore sent to continue the siege of Panhāla
and Khvāja Jahān was sent against Bahādur. He defeated and
slew the rebel, whose head was severed from his body and sent to
the king, and his lands were bestowed on 'Ain-ul-Mulk Kan'ānī,


## p. 428 (#474) ############################################

428
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
whom Qāsim Barid selected as one likely to be able to hold his
own against Yusuf 'Adil Shāh. The king and Qāsim Barid visited
Dābhol and on their return towards Bidar were entertained for
some time at Bījāpur by Yusuf Ādil Shāh.
In 1495 some changes were made in the provincial governments.
On the death of Qutb-ul-Mulk the Deccani Dastūr Dinār the
African had been appointed governor of western Telingāna. He
was now transferred to Gulbarga, his former fief, to make way for
Sultān Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, to whom the reward of distinguished
service was due The African, resenting his supersession, rebelled,
and occupied those districts of western Telingāna which adjoined
Gulbarga. Qāsim Barīd was obliged to enlist the aid of Yusuf
‘Adil Shāh against the rebel, and Dastùr was defeated, cap
tured, and sentenced to death, but was almost immediately
pardoned, and even reinstated in the fief of Gulbarga.
In 1497 the Deccanis again conspired to destroy the Foreigners
at Bidar, but the plot was discovered and Qāsim Barid put the
leading conspirators to death.
On May 3, 1494, during the expedition against Bahādur, a son,
named Ahmad, had been born to the king, and in 1498 a marriage
was arranged between the child and Bibi Sati, daughter of Yūsuf
‘Adil Shāh. Qāsim Barid and the king, Yusuf, Khvāja Jahān of
Parenda, and Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk assembled at Gulbarga to
celebrate the betrothal. During the festivities a serious quarrel
broke out between Dastūr Dinār and Yusuf, who claimed suzerainty
over him. The support given to Dastūr Dinār by Qāsim Barid bred
another quarrel between him and Yūsuf, Sultān Quli supported
Yusuf, and the strife became general. Qāsim Barīd Dastūr Dinār
and Khvāja Jahān fled to Aland and were pursued by Yusuf, who
defeated them at Gunjoti, drove Qāsim Barid, to Ausa and Khvāja
Jahān to Parenda, and assumed that control of the king of which
he had deprived Qāsim, but, having obtained from him such grants
and dignities as he required, permitted him to depart for Bidar,
whither Qāsim Barid immediately returned and resumed his former
position.
At the end of this year Yusuf attempted to compel Dastūr
Dinār to acknowledge his suzerainty, but the African gained
without difficulty the support of Ahmad Nizām Shāh as well as
that of Qāsim Barid, both of whom were interested in curbing
Yusuf's ambition, and he was content to abandon the enterprise
on obtaining from Bidar a decree prohibiting Ahmad from attacking
him.


## p. 429 (#475) ############################################

XVI)
RELIGIOUS STRIFE
429
In 1504 Qāsim Barid died, and was succeeded at Bidar, as a
matter of course, by his son, Amir 'Ali Barid, and Fathullāh died
in Berar and was succeeded, in like manner, by his son, 'Alā-ud-din
'Imād Shāh. In the same year Yusuf marched to Gulbarga, defeated
Dastūr Dinār, put him to death and annexed the province of Gul-
barga to his dominions. He now believed himself to be strong enough
to carry out a project which he seems to have cherished for some
time, and established in his dominions the Shiah religion, to which
he was devoutly attached. The khutba and the call to prayer were
recited after the Shiah form, and the use of the Sunni form was
prohibited. His decree raised a storm of discontent in his kingdom,
where the majority of Muslims of the middle and lower classes was
Sunni, and furnished all other rulers in the Deccan with a pretext
for attacking the daring innovator. Mahmud Shāh, under the in-
structions of Amir 'Ali Barid, commanded 'Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh,
Khudāvand Khān, Ahmad Nizām Shāh, and Sultān Quli Qutb-ul.
Mulk of Golconda to aid him in punishing the heretic, and the
manner in which each received the order illustrates their political
rather than their religious views. Ahmad Nizām Shāh responded
with alacrity, both as a Sunni and as a personal enemy of Yusuf,
but 'Alā-ud-din 'Inād Shāh and Khudāvand Khān, though Sunnis,
paid no heed to it, being well disposed towards Yūsuf and resentful
of Amīr 'Ali Barīd's ascendancy at Bidar. The Shiah Qutb-ul-Mulk,
though he was a personal friend of Yūsuf obeyed the order without
hesitation. His appointment to Golconda was recent, he still
regarded orders from Bidar, from whatever source they emanated,
as binding on him, and he probably disapproved of Yūsuf's action
as inopportune and likely to render his religion odious.
Yusuf, unable to withstand the confederacy arrayed against
him, fled to Berar and took refuge with Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shah,
who was sympathetic, but could not protect him against his ene-
mies and advised him to retire into Khāndesh. From Khāndesh
Yūsuf sowed dissension among his enemies. He wrote to Ahmad
and Qutb-ul-Mulk warning them against Amīr 'Alī Barīd, 'the Fox
of the Deccan,' who desired to destroy him only that he might
seize Bījāpur and dominate the whole of the Deccan. Having
thus detached the two most powerful members of the con-
ſederacy he addressed to Mahmūd Shāh a petition seeking for
pardon, to which an unfavourable answer was dictated by Amir
‘Ali Barīd, whereupon Yûsuf returned and with the assistance of
'Alā-ud-din 'Imăd Shāh attacked Mahmud Shāh and Amir Ali
Barid at Kalam in Berar. The king and his
minister were


## p. 430 (#476) ############################################

430
[CI.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
>
defeated and fled to Bidar, leaving their camp in the hands of
the allies.
In 1509 Ahmad Nizām Shāh died and was succeeded by his son,
Burhān I, and in the following year Yusuf 'Ādil Shāh died and was
succeeded by his son Ismā‘il, and Khvāja Jahān died at Parenda.
In 1512 Sultān Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk of Golconda, unable to maintain
any longer the fiction of loyalty to Mahmúd Shāh, assumed in-
dependence in Telingāna. He did not use the royal title but is
usually described by historians as Sultān Quli Qutb Shāh? .
In 1514 Amir 'Ali Barid conferred on Jahāngir Khān, the
adopted son of Dastūr Dinār, the title of Dastūr-ul-Mamālik, and
established him as provincial governor of Gulbarga In order to
deter Ismā'il 'Ādil Shāh from molesting him he obtained assistance
from Sultan Quli Qutb Shāh and Burhān Nizām Shāh, and inva ded
the kingdom of Bījāpur, carrying Mahmud Shāh with him. Ismā‘il
defeated the invaders, captured Mahmūd, who was wounded in the
action, and his son Ahmad, and conciliated his captive by his
courtesy and deference. He marched with him to Gulbarga, where
Bibi Sati was delivered to her affianced husband, Prince Ahmad,
and dispatched 5000 horse to escort Mahmūd to Bidar. On the
approach of this force Amir 'Ali Barid fled to Ausa, but, having
obtained help from Burhān Nizām Shāh, returned to Bidar, com-
pelled the cavalry from Bījāpur to retire, and again resumed
control of the king and what remained of his kingdom.
The miserable king made one more effort to free himself from
this thraldom, and fled to Berar, where he sought an asylum with
‘Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh, who readily espoused his cause and marched
with him to Bīdar, but Amir 'Ali Barid had again obtained help
from Burhān Nizām Shāh and drew up his army before Bidar to
oppose
his master and 'Alā-ud-din. The latter could not take the
field without Mahmūd, whose presence was his sole justification for
appearing in arms before Bidar, but Mahmūd, when he should
have been at the head of his troops, was loitering in his bath, and
was so annoyed by an impatient message which he received from
'Alā-ud. din that when he was dressed he rode to Amir ‘Ali Barid's
camp, and 'Alā-ud-din was compelled to retreat. Henceforth none
would help the wretched puppet, who was interned in a villa at
Kamthāna, two leagues from Bidar.
1 Some English and Hindu historians, ignorant of the meaning of his name,
Sultan Quli, have taken the first half of it to be a royal title, and described him
as King Quli Quib Shāh. This is a mistake. The word Sultan was part of his
name, which means 'the Sļave of the King'. 'King Quli’ is nonsense,


## p. 431 (#477) ############################################

XVI)
LAST DAYS OF THE DYNASTY
431
In 1517 Amir 'Ali Barid, taking Mahmūd Shāh with him,
marched to punish Sharza Khān, the son and successor of Khudā-
vand Khān of Māhūr, who had plundered Kandhār and Udgir.
Sharza Khan and one of his brothers were slain in the field, and
Māhūr was besieged, but 'Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh marched to its
relief and compelled Amir 'Ali Barid to retire. He placed Ghālib
Khān, another son of Khudāvand Khān, in Māhūr as his vassal,
and thus established his authority in southern as well as northern
Berar.
Mahmud Shāh died, worn out with debauchery, on December 7,
1518, and his son Ahmad was placed on the throne by Amir 'Ali
Barid. He died in 1521 and his brother 'Alā-ud-din was permitted
to succeed.
'Alā-ud-din Bahmani was a spirited prince, and chafed under
the yoke of the maire du palais, of which he resolved to free
himself. Having deceived him with specious expressions of his
appreciation of his great services to the house of Bahman he arrang-
ed that the regent should be assassinated on the occasion of one
of his monthly visits to him, but as he entered the royal apartment
one of the assassins concealed behind the hangings sneezed, and
Amir 'Ali Barid withdrew in alarm and sent the eunuchs to search
the inner apartment. The conspirators were discovered and were
executed in circumstances of great cruelty and 'Alā-ud-din was de-
posed and imprisoned, and shortly afterwards put to death.
Amir 'Ali Barid would not yet venture to ascend the throne,
but proclaimed Walī-Ullāh, the brother of 'Alā-ud-din. The new
king, after a nominal reign of three years, was detected in an
attempt to rid himself of his minister, and was deposed and put to
death by Amir ‘Ali Barid, who married his widow and placed on
the throne Kalimullāh, the brother of the three preceding kings.
Warned by the example of his predecessors he at first submitted
meekly to the domination of the regent, but the news of the capture
of Delhi by Bābur encouraged him to seek aid of the conqueror,
and he secretly sent to his court one of his servants, bearing a letter
in which he promised to surrender the provinces of Berar and
Daulatābād in return for restoration to the remainder of the king-
dom of his ancestors and liberation from the thraldom in which
he lived. He received no answer and Amir 'Ali Barid's discovery
of the secret mission so excited his apprehensions that in 1527
he fled to Bījāpur. Ismāil 'Adil Shāh received him coldly, and he
left his court for that of Burhān Nizām Shāh I at Ahmadnagar.
6


## p. 432 (#478) ############################################

432
(CH XVI
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
Burhān received him with extravagant demonstrations of respect,
treated him as his sovereign, and promised to recover Bidar for
him, but he soon discovered that his host had no intention of ful-
filling his promise. Burhān's chief adviser, Shāh Tāhir, condemned
the folly of according the honours of royalty to a stray mendicant,
and the unfortunate Kalimullāh was no longer admitted to court,
but when he shortly afterwards died, not without suspicion of
poison, his body was sent for burial to Bidar, where it still rests.
He was the last of his line, and on his flight from Bidar Amir Ali
Barid was free to assert openly that independence which he had long
enjoyed in fact.
The relations of the Bahmanids with their subjects closely
resembled those of their contemporaries and co-religionists with
the peoples of northern India, and where it differed, differed, per.
haps, for the worse. Little heed was paid to the interests of the
Hindu peasantry, and the Russian merchant, Athanasius Nikitin,
describes the poverty and misery of the children of the soil and the
wealth and luxury of the nobles. Muhammad III who was reigning
when he was sojourning in the Deccan was, even in 1474, described
as being 'in the power of the nobles,' of whom the chief was
Mahmûd Gāvān, Malik-ut-Tujjār, who kept an army of 200,000
men. Another kept 100,000 and another 20,000 men, and many
khāns kept 10,000.
Drink was the curse of the race, and of the long line of eightcen
kings there were few who were not habitual drunkards. Their
addiction to this vice was the opportunity of informers, delators,
and self-seekers, and inclined them to rash and inconsiderate action
on the reports of such wretches. Such actions, as in the case of the
murders of Nizām-ul-Mulk Ghūri and Mahmud Gāvān, were the
proximate cause of the ruin of the dynasty and of the dismember-
ment of its kingdom.
Some of the line were bigots, but their carelessness of the welfare
of their Hindu subjects is to be attributed neither to their bigotry
nor to the apathy bred of habitual drunkenness. It was merely the
fashion of an age in which subjects were believed to exist for their
rulers, not rulers for their subjects, and the peasantry of the Hindu
kingdom of Vijayanagar was equally neglected and equally
miserable.


## p. 432 (#479) ############################################

76
18
80
82
KHAN DESH
Asie Topli
Täpti
Gawil
THE FIVE KINGDOMS
OF THE DECCAN AND
NEIGHBOURING STATES
BURHANPURS
Narnāla
Ellichpūr
N. Pūrnia
The boundaries belween States are shown thus:
ARĀ
B
o Bälāpur
E
TRAGLANA
Mehkar
Wardha
20
Shading indicates disputed territory When
Countries and Peoples lhus
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VIJAYANAGAR
VilAYANAGAR
74
76
78
30
82


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9
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CHAPTER XVII
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN. A. D. 1527-1599
When Kalimullah, the last of Bahman Shāh's line, fled from
Bīrdar. Amir ‘Ali Barid, 'the Fox of the Deccan,' who had never
ventured to offend his powerful neighbours by a formal assumption
of independence, became independent by the act of his victim, and
the tale of the five kingdoms of the Deccan was complete.
The history of these kingdoms is a record of almost continuous
striſe. Yûsuf 'Adil Shāh and Sultân Quli Qutb Shāh had always
been Shiahs, Burhān, the son and successors of Ahmad Nizām Shāh,
was converted to that faith, to which his successors adhered except
during the brief reign of Ismāʻil, and the small Sunni states of
Berar and Bīdar, the former absorbed by Ahmadnagar in 1574 and
the latter by Bijāpur in 1619, could not have disturbed the har. .
mony which should have existed between them ; but community of
religion, community of interests, and frequent intermarriages were
alike powerless to curb the ambition of the rulers of the three
greater states, each of whom aspired to the hegemony of the
Deccan. Coinmon jealousies not only prolonged the existence of
the smaller states, but saved each of the larger from annihilation,
and the usual course of warfare was a campaign of two of the
larger states against the third, the smaller states ranging them-
selves as the policy of the moment might dictate. The assistance
given to an ally was so measured as to restrain him from over-
whelming his adversary, and a decisive victory was often forestalled
by a shameless change of sides, the perfidy of which bred a new
casus belli. The bitterness thus engendered led to alliances between
Muslims and 'misbelievers' against Muslims, but this policy, ap-
parently suicidal, produced a situation which enabled the petty
kingdoms to succeed where the Bahmanids had failed, and to crush
for ever the hereditary enemy.
There was not wanting subject-matter of dispute. The subjec-
tion of the weaker governors in the four pairs of provinces into
which the Bahmani dominions had been divided by Mahmud Gāvān,
who were often supported by their powerful neighbours; the mis-
chievous grant to Ahmadnagar by Qāsim Barid, acting in the name
of Mahmud Bahmanī, of Sholāpur and the district surrounding it,
claimed by Bijāpur ; the refusal of the king of Berar to surrender
28
C. H. I. III.


## p. 434 (#482) ############################################

434
[ch.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
peacefully Pāthrī, the ancestral home of the kings of Ahmadnagar,
on whose border it lay; minor frontier disputes ; and the occasional
defection of members of the 'Adil Shāhi dynasty from the Shiah
faith, reviving the old feud between Deccanis and Foreigners, with
its intrigues and bloodshed, combined to banish peace from the
Deccan. Even the attacks on Ahmadnagar by the Mughal emperors
produced but a semblance of unity. Help came from the other
kingdoms, but none put forth its full strength to avert a danger
common to all. In later years, when only Golconda and Bījāpur
remained to stem the tide of imperialism, sympathy, between the
doomed states was more cordial but selfishness and cowardice so
restricted the assistance given by the former to the latter that
Aurangzib, instead of meeting an alliance, was enabled to crush his
victims singly.
The condition of Bījāpur at the time of the accession, at the
age of thirteen, of Ismā'il 'Adil Shāh was deplorable. All power
was in the hands of the minister, Kamāl Khān, a Deccani, who re-
established the Sunni religion and was preparing to cede the old
province of Gulbarga to Amir 'All Barid in order that he might
establish his own independence in the rest of the kingdom. The
Portuguese captured Goa on March 5, 1510, and the young Ismail
recovered it on May 20, but in November the Portuguese returned,
recaptured it, and established themselves permanently in the port.
Kamāl Khān was assassinated, his plot was frustrated, and the
Foreigners expelled by him returned from the neigbouring king-
doms in which they had taken refuge. Khusrav, a Turk of Lār,
received the title of Asad Khān and the great fief of Belgaum, and
a royal decree declared Deccanis, Africans, and even the children
of Foreigners, born in India, to be incapable of holding office in the
state.
Meanwhile events in Ahmadnagar followed a similar course.
That state was in fact ruled by the minister, Mukammal Khān a
Deccani, and the Foreigners, having been foiled in an attempt to
place Rājāji, Burhān Nizām Shāh's brother, on the throne, fled to
Berar and enlisted the aid of Alā-ud-din 'Imad Shāh, who espoused
their cause and invaded the kingdom of Ahmadnagar, but was de-
feated at Rāhuri by Mukammal Khān, who drove him into Khāndesh
and laid waste his kingdom.
The campaign of 1511 between Isınā'il 'Adil Shāh and 'Ali
Barid Shāh, in the course of which Mahmūd Shāh Bahmani fell
into the hands of the former, has already been described. Shortly
after this campaign Ismā'il was enabled to render to Shāh Ismā'il


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XVII ]
PĀTHRI AND SHOLĀPUR
435
Safavi of Persia a service which earned for him a much prized
honour. A persian ambassador had been unnecessarily detained
and humiliated at Bidar by the Sunni bigot Amir 'Ali Barid, and
obtained his dismissal by means of the representations of Ismā'il
‘Adil Shāh. In the letter acknowledging this courtesy the Persian
monarch accorded to the ruler of Bījāpur the royal title, thus
exalting him above his rivals, none of whom had received inde-
pendent recognition of his royalty.
A fresh quarrel broke out between Ahmadnagar and Berar.
The town of Pāthrī, north of the Godāvari and in the latter king-
dom had been the home of the Brāhman ancestors of Burhān
Nizām Shāh, and their descendants wished to enjoy the protection
and patronage of their royal kinsman. Burhān therefore begged
that the town might be ceded to him, offering a favourable exchange
of territory, but ‘Alā-ud-din 'Imád Shāh rejected the offer and
fortified the town, whereupon Burhān, in 1518, invaded his kingdom
and captured Pāthri.
On the death of Yusūf 'Adil Shāh Krishnarāya of Vijayanagar
had invaded the Bījāpur kingdom at the instigation of Amir ‘Ali
Barid and annexed the Rāichūr Doāb, and it was not until 1521
that Ismā'il 'Adil Shāh was in a position to attempt to recover the
province. He led a small army from Bījāpur and encamped on the
north bank of the Krishna, which he crossed one evening, in a fit
of drunkenness, at the head of no more than 2,000 men. His fol-
lowers were cut to pieces and he himself escaped with difficulty and
retired to Bījāpur, where he forswore the use of wine until he
should have recovered the Doāb.
Asad Khān Lāri, who directed the policy of Bījāpur, resolved to
form an alliance with Ahmadnagar with the object of punishing
Amir 'Ali Barid for his having incited the Hindu to attack a Muslim
kingdom. The two kings met, in 1524, at Sholāpur, and Bibi Mariyam,
the sister of Ismā'il, was married to Burhān, but the alliance, instead
of cementing friendship, bred enmity, for Ismā'il's ministers had
promised that the fortress of Sholāpur should be the dowry of the
princess, but Ismā'il, when its cession was demanded, professed
ignorance of the obligation and refused to fulfil it, whereupon
Burhān returned to Ahmadnagar and invited 'Alā-ud-din 'Imad
Shāh and Amir 'Ali Barīd to assist him in capturing the fortress.
The three kings invaded Bījāpur in 1525 at the head of 30,000
horse, but were met near the frontier and gave way before the
attack of the foreign mounted archers of Bijāpur. The day was
decided by the collapse of Burhān, who, exhausted by heat and
28-2


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436
[ CH.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
thirst, was borne fainting from the field, accompanied by his
retreating army.
Ismā‘il gave his younger sister in marriage to 'Alā-ud-din of
Berar and persuaded Sultān Quli Qutb Shāh to aid him in re•
covering Pāthrī, but ‘Alā-ud-din was not strong enough to retain it
and in 1527 Burhān again took it and, aided by Amir ‘Ali Barid,
captured the stronger fortress of Māhūr and invaded Berar.
'Alā-ud-din and his ally, Muhammad I of Khāndesh, were defeated
and driven into Khāndesh while the armies of Ahmadnagar and
Bidar ravaged Berar. The fugitives appealed to Bahādur of Gujarāt,
who welcomed the opportunity of extending his influence in the
Deccan and set out in 1528 for Ahmadnagar. The intervention of
Gujarāt temporarily united Bījāpur and Ahmadnagar, and Burhān,
who withdrew to Bir, was joined by contingents of 6000 horse from
Bijāpur and 3000 from Bidar. Bahādur occupied Ahmadnagar,
though his advanced guard suffered two defeats on the way thither,
and Burhān and Amir 'Ali Barid retired to Parenda and thence to
Junnār, from which place their light horse was able to cut off the
invader's supplies. Bahādur, when provisions failed at Ahmad-
nagar, marched to Daultābād and besieged the fortress while the
allies occupied the hilly country in the neighbourhood and re-
peated the tactics which had driven him from Ahmadnagar. It was
evident by now that he was intent solely on his own aggrandisement,
and 'Alā-ud-din of Berar and Muhammad of Khāndesh readily
agreed to desert him in consideration of Burhān's promise to
restore all that he had taken from them. The approach of the
rainy season of 1529 warned Bahādur of the necessity for retreating
before the roads became impassable, and Burhān obtained peace
on paying an indemnity and causing the khutba to be recited in
Bahādur's name. Burhān indemnified Muhammad of Khāndesh for
his losses, but made no reparation to ‘Alā-ud-din, and even retained
Pāthri and Māhūr.
The inveterate plotter Amir 'Ali Barid had endeavoured to
tamper with the loyalty of the contingent sent from Bījapūr to the
assistance of Ahmadnagar, and Burhān could not withhold his
approval from Ismā'il's proposal to punish him. Ismā‘il marched
to Bīdar, and Amir ‘Ali, now an old man, retired, leaving the defence
of the fortress to his sons, and sought aid of Sultan Quli Qutb Shāh.
Ismā'il defeated a relieving force from Golconda and Amir Ali
withdrew to Udgir and begged 'Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh to help
him. 'Alā-ud-din would not oppose Ismā'il, but marched to Bidar
and interceded with him, but he refused to hear of negotiations


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XVII ]
HUMILIATION OF AMİR 'ALİ BARID
437
until Bidar should have been surrendered. Amir ‘Ali sorrowfully
withdrew to drown his troubles in drink, his troops followed his
example, and Ismāʻil, hearing of their demoralisation, sent Asad
Khān Lārī to attack his camp. He found all, even those on guard,
in a drunken stupor, and he and his followers were able to enter
Amir 'Ali's tent, place the old man in a litter, and bear him away.
The jolting of the litter gradually awoke him from his drunken
sleep, and, starting up in terror, he cried that the jinn were
carrying him off. He was undeceived by Asad Khān, who rebuked
him for his gross indulgence and unsoldierly behaviour, and carried
him before Ismā'il. At the public audience the wretched old man
was compelled to stand for two hours, bareheaded and neglected,
in the burning sun, and was then led forward and sentenced to
death unless Bīdar were immediately surrendered. To the order
which he sent to his son the reply sent was that he was as old man,
the short remainder of whose life would be dearly purchased by
the surrender of such a fortress as Bīdar, but with this official reply
his son sent a private message to the effect that he would surrender
the place should all other means of saving his life fail. It was sur-
rendered when Amir 'Ali was about to be trampled to death by an
elephant before the bastion on which his sons took the air, and
Ismā‘il, after permitting his prisoner's sons to leave the fortress
with their dependants, who smuggled out most of the jewels of the
Bahmanids, entered the capital of the Deccan and took his seat
upon the turquoise throne. He made Amir 'Ali a noble of the
kingdom of Bījāpur, and it was agreed that he and 'Alā-ud-din
'Imād Shāh should first aid him in recovering the Rāichūr Doab,
and that they should then march northwards to recover Mahūr and
Pathri for 'Alā-ud-din.
Krishna Devarāya of Vijayanagar had recently died, and in the
confusion which followed his death Ismā‘il was able to reduce both
Rāichữr and Mudgal within three months. The recovery of the
Doab released him from his vow of abstinence and he celebrated
the occasion by a select symposium, at which only 'Alā-ud-din and
Asad Khān Lāri at first sat with him, but both begged him to
admit Amīr 'Alī, and he consented, but when 'the Fox' entered
quoted from the chapter ‘The Cave' in the Koran the words,
‘Their dog, the fourth of them. ' Amīr 'Ali did not understand
Arabic, but a burst of laughter from ‘Alā-ud-din apprised him that
he was the victim of a jest, and he wept with humiliation and
resentment, while the others laughed. Ismāʻīl pitied his distress
and foolishly promised, in his cups, to restore Bīdar to him.


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438
[ CH.
THF FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
Disturbing rumours that Bahādur meditated another invasion
of the Deccan postponed the joint expedition for the recovery of
Māhūr and Pāthrī, and 'Alā-ud-din hastily returned to Berar, while
Ismāʻīl restored Bīdar to Amir ‘Ali on condition that he ceded
Kaliyāni and Kandhār, a condition which he never fulfilled.
In 1531 Bahādur annexed the kingdom of Mālwa, and this
accession of strength to Gujarāt so alarmed Burhān that he sent
Shāh Tāhir, a famous theologian, to arrange a meeting between
himself and Bahādur. Shāh Tāhir, as the envoy of an inferior, was
at first ill-received, but ample amends were made to him when his
merit was discovered. Burhān was received in the neighbourhoud
of Burhānpur, where Bahādur was visiting Muhammad, but it was
only by means of Shāh Tāhir's ingenious trickery that he received
permission to seat himself in Bahādur's presence. At the cost of
some humiliation he obtained from Bahādur recognition of his royal
title and the insignia of royalty captured from Mahmud II of Mālwa.
Bahādur's conciliatory attitude was adopted for the purpose of
enlisting Burhān's aid in a campaign against Delhi, but failed of its
object, for Burhān ceased not secretly to urge Humāyūn of Delhi
to attack Gujarāt.
Ismāʻīl's attempt, later in the year, to enforce his demand for
the surrender of Kaliyāni and Kandhār drew from Burhān an in-
solent letter commanding him to abandon the enterpise. Ismā‘il's
reply is an interesting example of the jealousy of the Muslim rulers
of the Deccan regarding the use of the royal title. He twitted
Burhān with the use of a title conferred by the leader of a gang of
Gujarātīs and of the second-hand and soiled insignia of Mālwa, and
vaunted his own title, conferred by the Shāh of Persia. War broke
out and Burhān and Amir ‘Ali marched to the Bijāpur frontier,
but Asad Khān Lārī inflicted on them near Naldrug a defeat which
sent Burhān, in headlong flight, to Ahmadnagar. In the autumn of
1532 commissioners from both kingdoms met, and framed a treaty
which permitted Burhān to annex Berar and Ismā'il, who already
claimed Bidar, to annex Golconda, so that the whole of the Deccan
would be divided between Ahmadnagar and Bījāpur, the latter
receiving the lion's share.
In pursuance of this treaty Ismā'il and Amir ‘Ali Barid in 1534
besieged Nalgunda, about sixty miles south of Golconda, and repulsed
the relieving force sent by Sultan Quli Qutb Shāh. The garrison
was on the point of surrendering when Ismā'il fell sick and set out
to recruit his health at Gulbarga, leaving Asad Khān Läri to prose-
cute the siege, but on August 27, as he was starting in a litter, he


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XVII)
IBRĀHİM ADIL SHAHI
439
as
suddenly died. Asad Khān sent the body to Gogi for burial, raised
the siege, and retired to Gulbarga, where, with many misgivings he
gave effect to his late master's will by raising to the throne his
cldest son, Mallū Khān, a worthless and debauched youth, and
retired to Belgaum, leaving the youth king's grandmother, Punjī
Khātūn, to manage the affairs of the kingdom as best she could.
Mallu's licentiousness, which did not spare the honour of the leading
families of the kingdom, soon convinced her of the futility of the
attempt and early in March, 1535, Mallū was deposed, with the
approval of Asad Khān, and his next brother was raised to the throne
as Ibrāhim 'Adil Shāh I.
Ibrāhim had imbibed the Sunni doctrines, and on his accession
established that religion in place of Shiah faith, dismissed the
Foreign officers and troops to make way for the less efficient but
more orthodox Deccanis and Africans, and struck a further blow at
foreign influence in the state by substituting the vernacular
languages, Canarese and Marathi, for Persian the official
languages. This measure facilitated the employment of native
Brāhmans in the administration and excluded foreigners,
The first of Ibrāhim's many wars was a campaign against
Vijayanagar, for which the intestine affairs of that state furnished
a pretext. For some years past the actual rulers had been the
ministers, and when Venkatarāya, the regent, attempted in 1530
to assume the style of royalty, public opinion obliged him to en-
throne a child of the royal house, and to appoint as his guardian
his maternal uncle, Hoj Narmal Rāj. While the regent was engaged
with a reſractory chieftain in a remote part of the kingdom the
mob at Vijaya nagar rose in the interests of their young raja, and
Hoj Narmal, intoxicated by the prospect of power, put his nephew
to death and usurped the throne. The people, disgusted by this
outrage, opened communications with Venkatarāya and Hoj Narmal
sought aid of Ibrāhim.