No More Learning

Bukka again fled to Vijayanagar
and Muhammad, without attempting to besiege him, ordered a
general massacre of the inhabitants of the surrounding country.
Bukka, urged by his courtiers, sent envoys to sue for peace, and
,
even the Muslim officers were moved to beg that the slaughter
might cease, but Muhammad replied that although he had slain
four times the number of Hindus which he had sworn to slay, he
would not desist until his draft on Bukka's treasury was honoured.
To this the envoys consented, the draft was honoured, and the war
ended. The Hindus, horrified by the massacre of 400,000 of their
race, including 10,000 of the priestly caste, proposed that both
parties should agree to spare non-combatants in future. Muhammad
consented, and the agreement, though sometimes violated, miti.
gated to some extent the horrors of the long period of intermittent
warfare between the two states.
Bahrām Khān and his confederate, Kondba Deva the Marāthā,
were now stronger than ever in Daulatābād. The failure of their
missions to Delhi had been more than counterbalanced by the
withdrawal of the royal troops for the campaign in the south, and
Bahrām was enriched by the accumulation of several years' revenue
of the province and strengthened by the support of a numerous
and well-equipped army, by an alliance with the raja of Baglāna,
and by the adhesion of many of the fief-holders of southern Berar.
To a letter from Muhammad promising him forgiveness if he would
return to his allegiance he vouchsafed no reply, and Khān Mu-
hammad was reappointed to Daultatābād and sent against him, the
king following with the remainder of the army.
Bahrām and his allies advanced as far as Paithan on the Godā.
varī, and Khān Muhammad halted at Shivgaon, only thirteen miles
distant, and begged his master, who was hunting in the neighbour-
hood of Bir, to come to his assistance. On the news of the king's
approach the rebels dispersed and fled, evacuating even the fortress


## p. 383 (#429) ############################################

xvi
ACCESSION OF MUJĀHID
383
of Daulatābād and were pursued to the frontiers of Gujarāt, in
which province they took refuge.
After some stay at Daulatābād Muhammad I returned to Gul-
barga, and devoted himself to the demestic affairs of his kingdom
which enjoyed peace for the remainder of his reign. Highway
robbery had for some time been riſe, and he exerted himself to
suppress it, with such success that within six or seven months the
heads of 20,000 brigands were sent to the capital.
The provincial governors enjoyed great power. They collected
the revenue, raised and commanded the army, and made all ap.
pointments, both civil and military, in their provinces, under
a strong king, and as long as the practice, now inaugurated by
Muhammad, of annual royal progresses through the provinces was
continued, this system of decentralisation worked tolerably well,
but as the limits of the kingdom extended and the personal
authority of the monarch waned its defects became apparent, and
an attempt to modify it in the reign of Muhammad III led in-
directly to the dismemberment of the state.
It was in 1367 that Muhammad I completed the great mosque
of Gulbarga, which differs from other mosques in India in having
the space which is usually left as an open courtyard roofed in. The
late Colonel Meadows Taylor was mistaken in the idea that it was
an imitation of the great mosque, now the cathedral, of Cordova,
for it differs from it in the style of its architecture, but it is a noble
building, impressive in its massive solidity.
In the spring or early summer of 1377 Muhammad I died, and
was succeeded by his elder son, Mujāhid, remarkable for his per-
sonal beauty, his great physical strength, and his headstrong dis.
position. One of his earliest acts as king was to demand from
Bukka I the cession of the extensive tract bounded on the north
by the Ghātprabhā and on the south by the Tungabhadra, and
stretching eastward nearly as far as Mudgal and westward to the
sea. Bukka replied by demanding the return of the elephants cap-
tured in the previous reign, and Mujāhid at once invaded his
dominions. Sending a force under Safdar Khān Sistani to besiege
Adonī, he marched in person against Bukka, who was encamped
on the bank of the Tungabhadra, near Gangāwati, and retreated
southward on his approach. For five or six months Mujāhid fol-
lowed him through the jungles of the Carnatic, without succeeding
in forcing a battle, and in the end Bukka eluded him and shut
himself up in Vijayanagar. Mujāhid followed him, penetrated
beyond the outer defences of the city, and defeated successive


## p. 384 (#430) ############################################

384
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
forces of Hindus sent against him. The failure of his uncle, Dāūd
Khān, to hold a defile, the defence of which had been entrusted
to him, imperilled his retreat, but he forced his way through the
defile and retired at this leisure towards Adoni with sixty or seventy
thousand captives, whose lives were spared under the pact into
which his father had entered. Bukka feared to follow, and Mujāhid
besieged Adoni for nine months, and was on the point of receiving
its surrender when the rainy season began, replenished the water
supply of the garrison, and caused much distress in the besiegers'
camp. Saif-ud-din Ghūrī persuaded him to raise the seige, peace
was made with Bukka, and Mujāhid set out for his capital
His uncle, Dāūd Khān', had taken grave offence at the rebuke
which he had received for his desertion of his post at the battle of
Vijayanagar, and entered into a conspiracy to destroy him. An
opportunity occurred when Dāūl Khān's turn to mount guard over
the royal tent came, and on the night of April 15, 1378, the con-
spirators entered Mujāhid's sleeping tent and slew him, and Dāūd
was proclaimed king.
Safdar Khān, governor of Berar, and Aʻzam-i. Humāyūn, the
new governor of Daulātābād, both partisans of Mujāhid, had pre-
ceded the army to the capital, and on learning of the success of
the conspirators took possession of the royal elephants and returned
to their provinces without waiting to tender their allegiance to
the new king. Their defection menaced Dāūd's authority, but there
was also a party in the capital which was prepared to oppose his
enthronement, and the Hindus, on hearing of the death of Mujāhid,
crossed the Tungabhadra and laid siege to Rāichūr. The aged
regent, Saif-ud-din Ghūrī, averted the calamity of a rebellion at
Gulbarga, but refused to serve the usurper, and retired into private
life, and on May 20, 1378, Dāūd, at the instigation of Mujāhid's
sister, Rūh Parvar Āghā, was assassinated at the public prayers in
the great mosque. Khān Muhammad, Dāūd's principal supporter,
slew the assassin and attempted to secure the throne for Dāūd's
infant son, Muhammad Sanjar, but the child's person was in the
possession of Rūh Parvar, who caused him to be blinded, and, with
the concurrence of the populace raised to the throne Muhammad,
son of Mahmūd Khān, the youngest son of Bahman Shāh.
1 For a discussion of the question of the relationship between Mujāhid and Dāud
see 3. A. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I, extra number, 1904, p. 5.
2 Firishta wrongly styles this prince Mahmūd. He is refuted by the evidence of
coins, inscriptions, and other historians, excepting those who are admittedly mere
copyists, but has led all English historians astray. See 7. A. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I,
extra number, 1904, pp. 6, 7.


## p. 385 (#431) ############################################

Xy ]
MUHAMMAD U
385
Muhammad II imprisoned Khăn Muhammad in the fortress of
Sāgar, where he shortly afterwards died, and punished his accom-
plices. The provincial governors who had refused to recognise the
usurper returned to their allegiance to the throne, Saif-ud-din
Ghūri again became chief minister of state, and Bukka, on learning
of the unanimity with which the young king was acclaimed, pru-
dently raised the siege of Rāichūr and retired across the Tunga-
bhadra.
Muhammad II was a man of peace, devoted to literature and
poetry, and his reign was undisturbed by foreign wars. His love of
learning was encouraged by the Sadr-i-Jahān, Mir Fazlullāh Inju
of Shīrāz, at whose instance the great poet Hāfiz was invited to his
court. Hāfiz accepted the invitation and sent out from Shirāz, but
he possessed that horror of the sea which is inherent in Persians,
and he was so terrified by a storm in the Persian Gulf that he
disembarked and returned to Shīrāz, sending his excuses to Mic
Fazlullāh in the well-known oder beginning :
دمی با غم ہے سر بردن جهان یکسر نمی ارزد *
به می بفروش دلق ما د بیش از ایں نمی ارزد
and the king was so gratified by the poet's attempt to make the
journey that although the plentiful provision which he had sent for
him had been dissipated, he sent him valuable gifts.
Between 1387 and 1395 the Deccan was visited by a severe
famine, and Muhammad's measures for the relief of his subjects
displayed a combination of administrative ability, enlightened
compassion, and religious bigotry. A thousand bullocks belonging
to the transport establishment maintained for the court were placed
at the disposal of those in charge of relief measures, and travelled
incessantly to and fro between his dominions and Gujarāt and
Mālwa, which had escaped the visitation, bringing thence grain
which was sold at low rates in the Deccan, but to Muslims only.
The king established free schools for orphans at Gulbarga, Bidar,
Kandhār, Ellichpur, Daulatābād, Chaul, Dābhol, and other cities
and towns, in which the children were not only taught, but were
housed and fed at the public expense. Special allo:vances were also
given to readers of the Koran, reciters of the Traditions, and the
blind.
The peace of Muhammad's reign was disturbed in its last year
by the rebellion of Bahā-ud-din, governor of Sāgar, who, at the
instigation of his sons raised the standard of revolt. A Turkish
1 No. 142 in Lt. -Colonel H. S. Jarrett's edition of Hāfiz.
Ç. H, I. III.
25


## p. 386 (#432) ############################################

386
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
officer named Yusuf Azhdar was sent to quell the rebellion, and
besieged Sāgar for two inonths, at the end of which time the
garrison rose against their leader, decapitated him, and threw his
head over the battlements as a peace offering. His sons were slain
while making a last stand against the royal troops, and the rebel-
lion was crushed.
On April 20, 1397, Muhammad II died of a fever, and on the
following day Saif-ud-din Ghūri, the faithful old servant of his
house, passed away at the great age of 101 (solar) years, and was
buried beside his master.
Muhammad was succeeded by his elder son, Ghiyās-ud-din, a
resolute but indiscreet youth of seventeen. He angered Tughalchin,
the chief of the Turkish slaves, by refusing to appoint him governor
of Gulbarga and lieutenant of the kingdom, and incautiously placed
himself in his enemy's power, lured by his infatuation for his
daughter. Tughalchin blinded the young king and caused the
leading nobles of the kingdom to be assassinated.
The unfortunate Ghiyās-ud-din, who had reigned but one month
and twenty-six days, was blinded and deposed on June 14, 1397,
and on the same day Tughalchin raised to the throne his younger
half-brother, Shams-ud-din Dāūd, and assumed the regency. He
secured his position by playing on the vanity, the fears, and perhaps
on the warmer sentiments of the young king's mother, who had
been a maid-servant of Ghiyās-ud-din's mother, but his dominance
in the state and the degradation of the royal family were deeply
resented by the king's cousins, the brothers Firuz and Ahmad, sons
of Ahmad Khān', one of the younger sons of Bahman Shāh, who
had been brought up by their cousin Muhammad II and had each
been married to one of his daughters, full sisters of Ghiyās-ud-din.
The brothers, now young men of twenty-seven and twenty-six, do
not seem to have been actuated at first by selfish motives, but
desired only to protect the dignity of the throne and to serve the
dynasty. Tughalchin so aroused their apprehensions by poisoning
the mind of the queen-mother against them that they fled from
Gulbarga to Sāgar, where they were befriended by the governor,
and demanded that the king should dismiss Tughalchin. On re-
ceiving the reply that he was unable to exercise his authority they
marched with a small force on Gulbarga, where they expected
support from the minister's enemies, but they were disappointed,
and Fīrūz, in order to encourage the faint-hearted among his
1 See J. A S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I, extra number, 1904, and An Arabic History
of Gujarāt, text, edited by Sir E. Denison Ross, I, 160.
a


## p. 387 (#433) ############################################

xv )
FIROZ SHAH
387
followers, assumed the royal title. Their troops were defeated by
the royal army, led by Tughalchin and the puppet king, and they
fled to Sāgar. After a short time they professed penitence, and
returned to Gulbarga, where they were received with outward
tokens of forgiveness, but continued to concert plans for the over-
throw of the slave in which it was now clear that his puppet must
be involved.
On November 15, 1397, Firuz and Ahmad contrived to enter
the palace with a few armed adherents, on the pretext of paying
their respects to the king, and overpowered both him and Tughalchin.
Fīrūz ascended the turquoise throne, and was proclaimed under the
title of Taj-ud-din Fīruz Shāh, and Sham-ud-din was blinded and
imprisoned, and eventually permitted to perform, with his mother,
the pilgrimage to the Hijāz, where he died. The blind Ghiyās-ud-
din was brought from Sāgar, a sword was placed in his hand and
Tughalchin, who was compelled to sit before him, was cut to pieces
by his former victim.
Fīrūz, at the time of his accession, was an amiable, generous,
accomplished, and tolerant prince, possessed of a vigorous con.
stitution and understanding, both of which he undermined by
indulgence in the pleasures of the harem.
His first task was to reorganise the administrative machinery of
the kingdom, and he appointed his brother, Ahmad Khān, minister,
with the titles of Amir-ul-Umarā and Khānkhānān, and Mir Faz-
lullāh Injū governor of Gulbarga and lieutenant of the kingdom,
and Brāhmans were more extensively employed in important posts.
In 1398 the long peace between the Deccan and Vijayanagar
was broken, the aggressor being Harihara II, who invaded the
Rāichūr Doāb with an army of 30,000 horse and 900,000 foot, while
the Hindu chieftain on the north bank of the Krishna headed
a rebellion of the Kolis. Firūz first dealt with the latter, and after
defeating them in the field put to death large numbers of them
and crushed the rising, but was compelled to send back the armies
of Berar and Daulatābā], which he had summoned to his assistance
against Harihara, in order that they might deal with Narsingh,
the Gond raja of Kherla, who had invaded Berar and ravaged
the eastern districts of that province as far south as Māhūr, on the
Penganga. No more than 12,000 horse remained to him, but he
ventured to advance to the Krishna. The rainy season of 1399 had
now set in, and Harihara's vast army held the southern bank of the
river. The tactics and discipline of the Hindus were contemptible.
They were scattered over an area which extended for some seventeen
25-2


## p. 388 (#434) ############################################

388
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
miles along the bank of the river and the same distance in depth
to the south of it, and this dispersion, necessary for purposes of
supply, was sufficient to destroy their cohesion, but their mere
numbers precluded any attempt to force the passage of the river,
and Firūz chafed at his enforced inaction until his health suffered.
At this juncture Qăzi Sirāj-ud-din, an inferior officer of his court,
whose enterprise and hardihood became rather his military than his
judicial office, suggested a bold adventure, which Firuz at first
forbade, but afterwards sanctioned.
The Qāzī, a man of parts, had in the course of a riotous youth,
acquired considerable proficiency in music, dancing and juggling,
and he proposed that he should cross the river with a small band
of performers who would readily be admitted into the disorderly
camp of the enemy, and might, by assassinating either Harihara or
his son, throw it into confusion and thus give the Muslim army an
opportunity of crossing in the darkness.
Firūz Shāh's preparations for crossing the river attracted the
attention and earned the ridicule of the Hindus, but were not con-
nected by them with the appearance in their camp of a band of
twenty-six wandering minstrels, who, having crossed the river
lower down, had lodged in a liquor shop, and exhibited their skill
before other professional entertainers whom they met there. The
new-comers soon gained a high reputation, and some nights after
their arrival were commanded to perform before Harihara's son.
The Qāzi sent a secret message to Firūz, warning him to be pre-
pared, and led his troupe to the prince's tents. Only the Qāzi and
two others were required to dance, and the rest of the party re.
mained outside, and were instructed to be ready to facilitate the
escape of the performers. After the exhibition of some tricks Sirāj.
ud-din called for arms for the performance of the sword and dagger
dance, and the three gave an exhibition of sword and dagger play
which amazed the half-inebriated Hindus. Then, suddenly rushing
forward, Sirāj-ud-din fell upon and cut down the prince, while his
two confederates disposed of the minister, the other spectators,
1 For this extraordinary exploit, which reads more like romance than history, we
have three distinct authorities, (1) Firishta, who cites the Tuhfal-us-Salātin and Sirāj.
ut-Tawārikh, (2) Nizām-ud-din Ahmad, and (3) Khāfi Khān, who for once is not a
mere echo of Firishta but obtained his facts from an independent source, and is
corroborated in many important details by Nizām-ud-din Ahmad's briefer
summary. Khāfi Khān's account has been followed as the fullest, most credible
of the three. The exploit will appear incredible to those who do not understand
the proneness of the Oriental to panic on the loss of a leader. The Qāzi under-
stood the failing and laid his plans accordingly.
a


## p. 389 (#435) ############################################

Xv ]
DEFEAT OF THE HINDUS
389
and the torch bearers. The three escaped in the darkness and
joined their companions without, who, on the first symptoms of a
disturbance, had attacked and slain the guard, so that the gang
was enabled to escape to a place of safety and await the success of
the enterprise. The camp of the Hindus was thrown into confusion,
and the wildest rumours circulated. It was widely believed that
the enemy had crossed in force, and slain the raja, and some of
the Hindus mistook others, in the darkness, for enemies, and fell
upon them. The slaughter was only stayed when a conflagration
caused by the ignition of some tents discovered to the combatants
their error ; others, not knowing whither to turn, stood to arms by
their tents, but none knew where to strike.
During the tumult some three or four thousand horse crossed
the river in relays under cover of the darkness, and the Hindu
picquets on the river bank, attacked in front and alarmed by the
uproar in their rear, turned and fled : those who had already
crossed the river covered the passage of the remainder, and before
daybreak Firuz and his whole force had gained the southern bank.
At dawn they attacked the vast and scattered camp of the Hindus,
which was still in confusion, and Harihara, who had left the conduct
of affairs entirely in the hands of his son, was so overwhelmed with
grief and dismay that he fled to Vijayanagar, carrying his son's
body with him, and leaving his army to follow as best it could.
Firūz pursued the flying mob, annihilating any small bands which
attempted to stem his progress, and at last halted before Vijaya-
nagar. His numerical weakness precluded any idea of siege
operations, or of attempting to carry the great city by storm, and
part of the army was detached to plunder and lay waste the
populous tract to the south of it. The agreement to spare the lives
of non-combatants was respected, but large numbers, including
10,000 Brāhmans, were enslaved, and the leading Brāhmans of
Vijayanagar insisted on the conclusion of peace on any terms ob-
tainable, and on the ransom of the captives. These objects were
attained by the payment of an indemnity of about £330,000 sterling,
and Firūz retired. On his return to Gulbarga he made the
first departure from the provincial system of Bahman Shāh and
Muhammad I by appointing Fūlād Khān military governor of the
Rāichūr Doab, which had hitherto formed part of the province of
Gulbarga, from which it was now separated,
It was now necessary to formulate the foreign policy of the
kingdom with respect to the territories on its northern frontier,
Gujarāt and Mālwa, which had declared their independence of


## p. 390 (#436) ############################################

390
( CH
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
Delhi in 1396 and 1401, and the small state of Khāndesh, which
had been established in 1382 by Malik Raja, a partisan of Bahrām
Khān Māzandarāni who had fled from the Deccan. The kingdom
of the Bahmanids, freed from the menace of its southern neighbour,
would have been stronger than any one of these states, stronger,
perhaps, than all together, but as matters stood Mālwa was only
slightly weaker than the Deccan and Gujarāt equal to it, or perhaps
slightly stronger, while the small state of Khāndesh could not have
stood alone under any conditions, and was formidable only by
reason of the support which one or other of its powerful neigh-
bours was ever ready to lend it.
The aggression of Narsingh to Kherla had been prompted by
Dilāvar Khān of Mālwa and Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, and the
governors of Berar and Daulatābād had not only been unable to
punish him, but had not even succeeded in restoring order in Berar.
Firūz was thus compelled, after two or three months' rest at Gul.
barga, again to take the field, and at the beginning of the winter
of 1399 marched to Māhūr, where he received the submission of
the governor, a Gond or Hindu who had declared for Narsingh.
After halting there for a month he continued his march to Ellichpur,
whence he dispatched a force under his brother Ahmad and Mir
Fazlullāh Injū to punish Narsingh. The Gonds, disappointed of
the help which they had expected from Mālwa and Khāndesh,
fought with such desperate valour that the centre of the Muslims
was broken, and many of the leading officers, among them Shujā‘at
Khān, Dilāvar Khān, and Bahādur Khān, were slain?
Ahmad Khān and Fazlullāh Injū rallied the fugitives and saved
the day by causing the great drums to be beaten and spreading
the report that the king was hastening to the support of his army,
They attacked the Gond centre, captured Kosal Rāi, Narsingh's
son, who commanded it, slew 10,000 Gonds, and pursued the re-
mainder to the gates of Kherla, which were shut only just in time
to exclude the victors. The fortress endured a siege of two months,
at the end of which time Narsingh was informed, in reply to his
prayers for peace, that the besiegers were not empowered to treat,
and that he must make his submission to Firūz Shāh at Ellichpur.
1 The shrine at Ellichpur known as that of Shāh 'Abd-ur-Rahmān is probably
the tomb of one or all of these officers. 'Abd-ur-Rahmān is said to have been a
nephew and son-in-law of Mahmūd of Ghazni, and to have invaded Berar early in
the eleventh century, during the reign of the cponymous raja II of Ellichpur.
The absurd story is unknown to history, and is merely a clumsy imitation of the
legends of Sālār Masíūd of Balırāich, in Oudh. For the legend, and a discussion
of it see J. A. S. B. , vol. Lxx, part , p. 10.
a
)


## p. 391 (#437) ############################################

xv )
THE GOLDSMITH'S DAUGHTER
391
He was fain to comply, and after offering forty elephants, a con-
siderable weight of gold and silver, and a daughter for the king's
harem, and promising to pay tribute annually, 'as in the days of
Bahman Shah,' was invested with a robe of honour and dismissed.
Mir Fazlullāh Injū was appointed governor of Berar, and Fīrūz
returned to Gulbarga.
In the interval of peace which followed the expedition to Kherla,
Firūz built for himself and the 800 women of various nations who
composed his harem the town of Firūzābād, on the Bhima, the site
of which had attracted him on his return from Vijayanagar. The
new town was his Capua, but never superseded Gulbarga as the
administrative capital of his kingdom.
In 1401 Firūz, disturbed by rumours that Tīmūr, who was now
in Āzarbāijān, proposed to return to India and seat one of his sons
on the throne of Delhi, is said to have sent to him an embassy, and
to have obtained, in return for his gifts and promises, a decree
bestowing on him the Deccan, Gujarāt, and Malwa. Chroniclers of
.
Tīmūr's reign make no mention of this, but a mission from a ruler
so remote and comparatively obscure may well have passed un-
noticed by them, and it is only on the supposition that the mission
was sent and the decree received that the events of the next few
years can be explained. Muzaffar I of Gujarāt, Dilāvar Khān of
Mālwa, and Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, alarmed and enraged by
Tīmūr's grant, demanded of Firūz that he should keep the peace,
and sent envoys to Harihara II promising to assist him, when
necessary, by attacking the Deccan from the north. Harihara,
emboldened by these offers, withheld the tribute which he had paid
since Firüz Shāh's invasion of his kingdom, and Firūz, apprehensive
of attacks from the north, dared not attempt to enforce payment.
He had gained little by his sycophantic and costly mission.
In 1406 Harihara II died, and was succeeded by his son,
Bukka II and in the same year occurred the romantic episode of
the goldsmith's daughter of Mudgal, a strange occurrence, but
reasonably well attested. A poor goldsmith and his wife, living
near Mudgal, are said to have had a daughter named Parthāl, of
such surpassing beauty and brilliant accomplishments that her
fame spread far and wide, and was carried by a Brāhman who had
been her instructor to the court of Bukka, who sent messengers to
demand her of her parents. They, regarding the proposal as an
1 The authority of the learned author of A Forgotten Empire is to be preferred to
that of B. Suryanārāyan Rāo, who has parodied the title of Mr Sewell's valuable
work, but has failed to controvert his conclusions.


## p. 392 (#438) ############################################

392
[ ch.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
honour, were disposed to comply, but the girl, declined it. Bukka
crossed the Tungabhadra with 5000 horse and sent a party to
Mudgal to abduct the girl but news of the raid had preceded it,
and by the time that the party reached Mudgal Parthāl and her
parents had fled. The disappointed Hindus vented their spleen by
plundering the inhabitants, and rejoined Bukka, but Fülād Khān,
governor of the Doāb, attacked him, and, after suffering a reverse,
defeated the invaders, slew a thousand of them, and drove Bukka
back to Vijayanagar.
In order to avenge this outrage, Firūz assembled the provincial
armies at Gulbarga, and at the end of 1406 marched to Vijaya-
nagar and attempted to carry the city by assault, but within the
walls the Hindu infantry, contemptible in the field, was more than
a match for the Muslim horse, who were driven out of the city.
Bukka, encouraged by this success followed, attacked, and defeated
them, wounding Fīruz himself. They fell back for twenty-four
miles, fortified their camp, and halted to enable their wounded to
recover. Bukka attacked them no less than eight times, but was
defeated on each occasion, and was further disappointed by the
silence of the kings of Gujarāt, Mālwa, and Khāndesh, from whom
he had demanded the fulfilment of their promises. Fīrūz on his
recovery, sent his brother, Ahmad Khān, with 10,000 horse to
plunder the country to the south of his cncmy's capital, and Mir
Fazlullāh Inju to besiege Bankāpur. Both operations were suc-
cessful, and Fazlullāh not only captured Bankāpur, but reduced to
obedience the country lying between it and Mudgal, thus making
the Tungabhadra, throughout its course, the southern boundary of
the kingdom, and securing the frontier for which Mujāhid had con-
tended
Ahmad Khan's spoils included, 60,000 captive Hindu youths and
children, and Fīrūz, recognising the impossibility of capturing Vija.
yanagar, marched to Adoni, but before he could form the siege
envoys from Bukka arrived in his camp to sue for peace. It was
with difficulty that he could be persuaded to consider their pro-
posals, and when he consented to treat he insisted on the humi-
liating condition that Bukka should surrender a daughter to him
for his harem. Bukka also ceded the fort and district of Bankāpur
as the dowry of the princess, and delivered to Firūz 130 pounds of
pearls, fiſty clephants, and 2000 boys and girls skilled in singing
dancing or music, and paid an indemnity of about £300,000.
The marriage was celebrated with great pomp but failed to pro-
inote goodwill between the two kingdoms. Bukka, when escorting


## p. 393 (#439) ############################################

xv )
THE SAINT "GISŪ DARĀZ'
393
Firūz from Vijayanagar to his camp, turned back too soon, and
the two parted in anger.
After his return to Firūzābād the king sent to Mudgal for the
beautiful Parthāl and her parents. The girl was given in marriage
to Hasan Khān, his son, and the parents received gifts in money
and a grant of their native village. It was probably on this occa-
sion that the goldsmiths of the Deccan were permitted once more
to follow their ancestral calling as bankers and money-changers,
from which they had been debarred by the edict of Muhammad I.
In 1412 Firuz led an expedition into Gondwāna. The Gond or
Hindu governor of Māhūr was again in rebellion and Fīrūz, finding
the fortress too strong to be reduced, plundered southern Gond- .
wāna, slaying the inhabitants and capturing 300 . wild elephants,
but was eventually obliged to return to his capital, leaving the
rebel unpunished.
After his return the famous saint Jamāl-ud-din' Husaini, nick-
named Gisū Darāz ('Long ringlets'), arrived from Delhi and estab-
lished himself at Gulbarga, where he was received with great
honour. The cultured Firūz soon wearied of the society of the
ignorant and unlettered saint, but the simpler and more pious
Ahmad took much delight in his discourse, and gained his support,
which contributed largely to his success in the impending contest
for the throne. From this time both Ahmad and the saint, who
was indiscreet enough to prophesy his disciple's success, became
objects of suspicion and aversion to Firūz, who, though no more
than forty years of age, was worn out by his pleasures and dele.
gated much of his authority to others. Ahmad, who had served
his brother faithfully in the past, now lost his confidence, and the
king's choice fell upon Hushyār and Bīdār, two ma numitted slaves
whom he ennobled under the titles of 'Ain-ul-Mulk and Nizām-
ul-Mulk, and into whose hands, as habits of indolence grew upon
him, he gradually resigned the entire administration of the kingdom.
In 1417 he so far roused himself from his lethargy as to lead an
expedition into Telingāna, the raja of which country had withheld
payment of tribute.
The suzerainty of Firūz was acknowledged,
the arrears of tribute were paid, and amendment was promised for
the future.
It is doubtful whether Fīrūz, after this campaign, returned to his
capital or marched directly to Pāngul, situated about twenty-five miles
to the north of the confluence of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra,
1 In the Burhān-i-Ma'āsir he is styled Sadr-ud-din, but the authority of the Zafar.
ul-Wālih is to be preferred.


## p. 394 (#440) ############################################

394
( CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
in which neighbourhood he waged his last and most unfortunate
war against the 'misbelievers'. Pāngul had been included in
the district of Golconda, ceded by Kānhayya to Muhammad I
but was now in the possession of Vira Vijaya of Vijayanagari by
whom, or by whose father, Devarāya I, it had been occupied Fīrūz
was opposed, on his way thither, by a division of the enemy's army
which fought with great bravery and was not defeated until it had
inflicted heavy losses on his troops. The siege of Pāngul exhibited
the physical, mental and moral deterioration of Fīrūz. Its opera-
tions were protracted for a period of two years, until the insanitary
condition of the standing camp bred disease among men and
beasts, and disease caused panic and wholesale desertion. Vira
Vijaya, seizing this opportunity, made an offensive alliance with
the raja of Telingāna and marched to the relief of the town. Firūz
Shāh's vanity and the recollection of his early successes forbade
him to follow the wise advice of those who counselled a present
retreat and preparations for future vengeance, and he insisted on
giving battle to Vira Vijaya. Mir Fazlullāh Injū was treacherously
slain during the battle by a Canarese Hindu of his own household,
and the Muslims were routed, and would have been annihilated but
for the careful dispositions and patient valour of Ahmad Khān,
which enabled them to retire in some sort of order towards Gul.
barga. The Hindus occupied the southern and eastern districts of
the kingdom and repaid with interest the treatment which they had
received,
Ahmad succeeded in expelling the Hindu troops, but the humilia-
tion and anxiety to which Firūz had been subjected had shattered
a constitution enfeebled by excesses, and the management of affairs
fell entirely into the hands of Hūshyār and Bidār, who desired to
secure the succession of the king's son, the weak and voluptuous
Hasan Khān, and induced the king to order that his brother should
be blinded. Ahmad withdrew, with his eldest son, 'Alā-ud-din
Ahmad, to the hospice of Gisū Darāza, where he spent the night in
making preparations to flee from the capital, and early in the morning
leſt Gulbarga with 400 horse. He was joined by a rich merchant,
Khalaf Hasan of Basrah, who had long been attached to him, and
1 The succession to the throne of Vijayanagar at this period is not free from
obscurity and doubt. According to Mr. Sewell, who is here followed, Bukka II died
in 1408, and was succeeded by his brother, Devarāya I, who died in 1413 and was
succeeded by his son Vira Vijaya, but some authorities identify Devarāya I with
Bukka II.
2 The practice of taking sanctuary at the hospice or shrine of a saint is of great
antiquity, and survives in the east, though not in India, to this day. Few Muslim
ulers would venture to violate the sanctity of such a building.


## p. 395 (#441) ############################################

Xv ]
AHMAD SHAH, ‘VALI'
395
halted in a village near Kaliyāni. The two favourites hastily col-
a
lected a force of three or four thousand horse, with elephants and
pursued Ahmad, whose followers now numbered a thousand. Khalaf
Hasan encouraged Ahmad to assume the royal title and withstand
his brother's troops, and by circulating a report that the provincial
governors had declared for him, and by a stratagem similar to that
of the Gillies' Hill at Bannockburn, enabled his patron to defeat
his enemy and pursue the favourites to Gulbarga. Here they carried
Firūz, now grievously sick, into the field, and ventured another
battle, but the king swooned, and a rumour that he was dead caused
the greater part of the army to transfer its allegiance to Ahmad.
The citadel was surrendered, and Ahmad, in an affecting interview
with his brother, accepted his resignation of the throne and the
charge of his two sons, Hasan Khān and Mubārak Khān.
Ahmad ascended the throne at Gulbarga on September 22, 1422,
and on October 2, Firūz died. He was probably not far from death
when Ahmad usurped the throne, but the event was too opportune
to have been fortuitous, and of the three best authorities for this
period two, citing early historians, say that he was strangled, and
the third says that he was poisoned.
Hasan, who had inherited his father's vices without his virtues,
was content with a life of voluptuous ease at Fīrūzābād, where his
uncle's indulgence permitted him to enjoy such liberty as was com-
patible with the public peace, but Ahmad's son and successor blinded
him as a precautionary measure.
Fīrūz holds a high place among the princes of his house. His
character at the time when he ascended the throne has been de-
scribed, and it was not until he had reigned for some years that the
wise, spirited, and vigorous king became a jaded and feeble volup-
tuary. He was a sincere, but not a rigid Muslim, and though
nominally an orthodox Sunni of the Hanafite school, he drank wine,
while confessing the sinfulness of his indulgence, and availed him.
self of the licence, admitted by theologians of the laxer Maliki
school, and by the Shiahs, of temporary marriage. In his harem were
women of many nations, with each of whom he is said to have been
able to converse fluently and easily in her own language. His
curiosity regarding the marriage law of Islam was enlightened on
one occasion by a woman taken in adultery, who pleaded with irre-
futable logic, that as that law allowed a man four wives her sim-
plicity was to be pardoned for believing that it allowed a woman
four husbands. Her impudent wit saved her.
The new king's first care was to honour the saint to whose


## p. 396 (#442) ############################################

396
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
patronage and blessing he attributed his success, and his gratitude
took the form of extravagant endowments. The shrine of Gisú Darāz
is yet honoured above that of any saint in the Deccan, and the con-
stancy of the mob has put to shame the fickleness of the king, who
lightly transferred bis favour from the successor of the long-haired
saint to a foreigner, Shāh Ni'matullāh of Māhān, near Kirmān, in
Persia.
Ahmad was eager to punish the insolence of Vira Vijaya, but
the need for setting in order the domestic affairs of the kingdom
postponed the congenial task. The merchant to whose energy and
devotion be owed his throne was appointed lieutenant of the king-
dom, with the title of Malik-ut-Tujjār, or 'Chief of the Merchants,'
and Hūshyār and Bidar were rewarded for their fidelity to the
master to whom they had owed allegiance, the former with the title
and post of Amir-ul-Umarā and the latter with the government of
Daulatābād.
The status and power of the great officers of the kingdom were
more precisely determined by Ahmad than by his predecessors.
Each provincial governor ranked as a commander of 2000 horse,
though his provincial troops were not restricted to this number,
and were supplemented when the king took the field by large con-
tingents from the great fief-holders.
After a demonstration in the direction of his northern frontier,
which expelled a force which had invaded the Deccan from Gujarāt,
Ahmad marched, with 40,000 horse, against Vira Vijaya, who, with
the help of the raja of Telingāna led an army, of which the infantry
and gunners numbered nearly a million, to the southern bank of
the Tungabhadra, where he purposed to oppose the passage of the
Muslims. Ahmad marched to the northern bank, and, having for
forty days attempted in vain to lure the enemy into attempting the
passage, took the offensive. A division of 10,000 men was sent up
stream by night, to cross the river above the enemy's camp and
create a diversion by attacking him on the left flank, or in rear.
The Hindus, expecting a frontal attack in the morning, bivouacked
by the river bank, but Vīra Vijaya himself was pleasantly lodged
in a garden of sugarcane in rear of the position. The division which
had crossed the river in the night reached the garden shortly before
dawn, on their way to attack the Hindus in rear, and the raja's
attendants fled. The Muslims, who had still some time to spare,
spent it in cutting sugarcanes for themselves and their horses, and
Vīra Vijaya, fearing lest he should fall into their hands, crept out
and concealed himself in the standing crop, where he was found
a


## p. 397 (#443) ############################################

Xy ]
AHMAD'S PERIL
397
crouching by the troopers. Taking him for the gardener they gave
him a sheaf of sugarcane to carry, and drove him on before them
with blows of their whips. Meanwhile the main body of the Muslim
army had begun to cross the river, and the Hindus, momentarily
expecting their ouslaught and taken in rear by the force which had
all unknowingly, captured the raja, were seized by the panic which
always strikes an eastern army on the disappearance of its leader,
and dispersed. The Muslims began to plunder the camp, and the
raja, exhausted by the unwonted exercise of running under a heavy
load, and smarting under the humiliation of unaccustomed blows,
seized the opportunity of making his escape. He might even yet
have rallied his army, but his spirit was so broken and his bodily
powers so exhausted that he fled with it to Vijayanagar.
The Hindus now had reason to repent their breach of the humane
treaty between Muhammad I and Bukka I for never, in the course
of a long series of wars, did either army display such ferocity as did
Ahmad's troops in this campaign. His temper, not naturally cruel,
had been goaded by the spectacle of the atrocities committed by
the Hindus after the disastrous campaign of Pāngul, and he glutted
his revenge. Avoiding Vijayanagar, the siege of which had been
discovered to be an unprofitable adventure, he marched through
the kingdom, slaughtering men and enslaving women and children.
An account of the butchery was kept, and whenever the tale of
victims reached 20,000 the invader halted for three days, and cele-
brated the achievement with banquets and beating of the great
drums. Throughout his progress he destroyed temples and slaugh.
tered cows, he sent three great brazen idols to Gulbarga to be
dishonoured, and omitted nothing that could wound the natural
affections, the patriotism, or the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
In March 1423, he halted beside an artificial lake to celebrate the
festival of the Naurūz and his own exploits, and one day, while
hunting followed an antelope with such persistence that he was led
to a distance of twelve miles from his camp, and was observed by
a body of five or six thousand of the enemy's horse. Of his imme-
diate bodyguard of 400 men half were slain in the furious onslaught,
but he contrived to find shelter in a cattle-fold, where his 200
foreign archers for some time kept the Hindus at a distance, but
they had thrown down part of the wall of the enclosure and were
endeavouring to force an entrance when aid unexpectedly arrived.
A faithful officer, ‘Abd-ul-Qadir, whose family had served the king's
for three generations, had grown apprehensive for his master's
safety, and had led two or three thousand of the royal guards in


## p. 398 (#444) ############################################

398
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
search of him. This force now appeared and fell upon the Hindus,
who stood their ground until they had slain 500 of their assailants,
and then fled, leaving a thousand of their own number dead on the
field.
'Abd-ul-Qadir was rewarded with the title of Khānjahān and
the government of Berar, and his brother 'Abd-ul-Latif, who had
shared the merit of the rescue, with that of Khān A'zam and the
government of Bidar. The defence made by the foreign mounted
archers had so impressed upon Ahmad the importance of this arm
that Malik-ut-Tujjār was ordered to raise a corps of 3000 of them-
a measure which was destined to have a deep and enduring effect
on the history of the Muslims in the Deccan.
Having effected all that arms could accomplish against a de.
fenceless population, Ahmad marched on Vijayanagar, where Vira
Vijaya, appalled by the sufferings of his poeple, sued for peace, and
,
was forced to accept the conqueror's terms. Payment of the arrears
of tribute for several years was the lightest of these, for the
immense sum had to be borne to Ahmad's camp by the choicest
elephants in the royal stables, escorted by the raja's son Devarāya
with every demonstration of joy. The prince was obliged to accom-
pany Ahmad in his retreat as far as the Krishna, and the Muslims
retained the vast number of captives whom they had taken. Among
these were two destined to rise to high rank. One, a Brāhman
youth, received the name of Fathullāh on his reception into the
fold of Islam, was assigned to the new governor of Berar, succeeded
his master in that province, and eventually became, on the dissolu-
tion of the kingdom, the first independent sultan of Berar ; and the
other, Tīma Bhat, son of Bhairav, an hereditary Brāhman revenue
official of Pāthri, who had fled to Vijayanagar to avoid punishment
or persecution, received the Muhammadan name of Hasan, rose, by
a combination of ability and treachery, to be lieutenant of the
kingdom, and left a son, Ahmad, who founded the dynasty of the
Nizām Shāhi kings of Ahmadnagar.
The king returned to Gulbarga shortly before the time when the
fierce heat of the dry months of 1423 should have been tempered
by the advent of the seasonal rains, but the rain failed, and its
failure was followed by a famine. He was in his capital at the same
season of the following year, when the distress of his people was at
its height and the usual signs of the appoach of the rainy season
were still absent. The calamity was attributed to the displeasure
of heaven, and Ahmad imperilled his reputation, if not his person,
by publicly ascending a hill without the city and praying, in the


## p. 399 (#445) ############################################

Xv ]
WAR WITH MALWA
399
a
a
sight of the multitude, for rain. Fortune favoured him, the clouds
gathered, and the rain fell. The drenched and shivering multitude
hailed him as a saint, and he proudly bore the title.
At the end of 1424 Ahmad invaded Telingāna and captured
Warangal, which he made his headquarters while 'Abd-ul-Latif,
governor of Bidar, established his authority throughout the country.
The raja was slain, and Ahmad, having extended his eastern frontier
to the sea, returned to Gulbarga leaving 'Abd-ul-Latif to reduce
the few fortresses which still held out.
The governor of Māhūr was still in rebellion and late in 1425
Ahmad marched against him. Of his operations against the fortress
we have two accounts, according to one of which he was obliged to
retire discomfited after besieging the place for several months, and
returned and captured it in the following year. According to the
other, which is more probable, the raja was induced, by a promise
of pardon for past offences, to surrender and Ahmad violated every
rule of honour and humanity by putting him and five or six thousand
of his followers to death. From Māhūr he marched northwards to
Kalam, which was in the hands of a Gond rebel, captured the place,
which was of no great strength, and led a foray into Gondwāna,
where he is said to have taken a diamond mine, the site of which
cannot be traced. He then marched to Ellichpur and remained
there for a year, engaged in rebuilding the hill forts of Gāwil and
Narnāla, which protected his northern frontier. This task was
undertaken in connection with a project for the conquest of Gujarāt
and Mālwa, suggested by Tīmūr's grant of these two kingdoms
to his brother, and he missed no opportunity of embroiling himself
with the two states, and furnished himself with a pretext for inter-
fering in their affairs by entering into a close alliance with the
small state of Khāndesh, the allegiance of which was claimed by
both.
Hūshang Shāh of Mālwa had already, in 1422, furnished him
with a casus belli by disregarding the position which Narsingh of
Kherla had accepted in 1399, and compelling him to swear alle-
giance to Mālwa. In 1428 Hüshang prepared to invade Kherla, to
enforce payment of tribute, and Ahmad, in response to Narsingh's
appeal, marched to Ellichpur. Hūshang nevertheless opened the
siege of Kherla, and Ahmad marched against him, but was per-
plexed by scruples regarding the lawfulness of attacking a brother
Muslim on behalf of a misbeliever, and contented himself with
sending a message to Hūshang begging him to refrain from molesting
Narsingh. As he immediately retired to his own dominions, Hūshang
>


## p. 400 (#446) ############################################

400
[ cu.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
attributed his conduct to pusillanimity, and marched against him
with an army of 30,000 horse, but Ahmad on reaching the Tāpti,
decided that he had suffered enough for righteousness' sake, and
resolved at least to defend his kingdom. Hūshang came upon his
army unexpectedly, and was taken by surprise, but the troops of
Mālwa fought bravely until their discomfiture was completed by a
force which had lain in ambush, and under the leadership of Ahmad
himself attacked their right flank. They broke and fled, leaving
in the hands of the victors all their baggage and camp equipage,
200 elephants, and the ladies of Hüshang's harem. Narsingh issued
from Kherla, fell upon the fugitives, and pursued them into Mālwa.
Ahmad advanced to Kherla, where he was sumptuously entertained
by Narsingh, and thence sent to Mālwa, under the immediate charge
of his most trusted eunuchs and the protection of 500 of his best
cavalry, the ladies who had fallen into his hands.
His return march to Gulbarga led him to Bidar, a still important
city occupying the site of the ancient Vidarbha, the capital of the
ancient kingdom of the same name.
It had been restored by Raja
Vijaya Sena, one of the Valabhīs of the solar line, who succeeded
the Guptas in A. D. 319, and on the establishment of the Bahmani
kingdom more than a thousand year later became the capital of
one of its provinces. Ahmad halted for some time at this town, and
was so impressed by the beauty of its situation, the salubrity of its
climate, and perhaps by its legendary glories that he resolved to
transfer his capital thither, and an army of surveyors, architects,
builders, and masons was soon engaged in laying out, designing and
erecting a new city under the walls of the ancient fortress, which
received the name of Ahmadābād Bidar.
As soon as he was settled in his new capital, in 1429, Ahmad
sent a mission to Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, to demand the hand of
his daughter, Āghā Zainab, for his eldest son, 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad,
whom he designated as his h eir. The proposal was readily accepted
by Nasir Khān to whom an alliance with the powerful kingdom of
the Deccan was at once an honour and a protection.
In 1430 Ahmad, in pursuance of his short-sighted policy of aggres-
sion against his northern neighbours, wantonly attacked Gujarāt'.
Kānhā raja of Jhālawār, apprehending that Ahmad I of Gujarāt
intended to annex his territory, fled to Khāndesh and conciliated
Nasir Khān by the gift of some elephants. Nasir Khān, who was
1 The account of the origin, progress, and result of this campaign given in Firishta's
history of the Bahmanids is most misleading. The same historian gives the true
version of these events in his history of the kingdom of Gujarāt,
a


## p. 401 (#447) ############################################

Xv ]
WAR WITH GUJARĀT
401
not strong enough to support or protect the refugee, sent him with a
letter of recommendation to Ahmad Bahmani, who supplied him
with a force which enabled him to invade Gujarāt and lay waste the
country about Nandurbār. An army under Muhammad Khān, son
of Ahmad of Gujarat, defeated the aggressors with great slaughter,
and drove them to take refuge in Daulatābād, whence they sent
news of the mishap to Bidar. A fresh army, under the command of
'Alā-ud-din Ahmad, assembled at Daulatābād, where it was joined
by Nasir Khān and by Kānhā, who had fled to Khāndesh, and ad-
vanced to Mānikpunj, where it found the army of Gujarāt awaiting
its approach. The army of the Deccan was again defeated and again
fled to Daulatābād, while Nasir Khān and Kānhā shut themselves
up in the fortress of Laling in Khāndesh, and Muhammad Khān of
Gujarāt withdrew to Nandurbār, where he remained on the alert.
The effect of this second defeat was to arouse rather than to
daunt the spirit of the sultan of the Deccan, and he sent a force
under Malik-ut-Tujjār to seize and occupy the island of Bombay.
For the recovery of this important post Ahmad of Gujarāt sent an
army under his younger son, Zafar Khān, and a fleet from Diu. His
troops occupied Thāna, thus menacing Malik-ut-Tujjār's communi-
cations, and succeeded in enticing him from the shelter of the fort
and in inflicting on him such a defeat that the remnant of his troops
with difficulty regained its protection. They were closely invested
by the fleet and army of Gujarāt. Ahmad Bahmanī sent 10,000 horse
and sixty elephants under the command of 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad and
Khānjahān of Berar to their relief, and thus enabled them to escape
from the fortress, but the army of the Deccan was again defeated
in the field, and Malik-ut. Tujjār fled to Chākan and the prince and
Khānjahān to Daulatābād.
Disappointment and defeat only increased the obstinacy of
Ahmad Bahmani and in the following year he invaded in person
the hilly tract of Baglāna, the Rāhtor raja of which was nominally
a vassal of Gujarāt, and at the same time besieged the fortress of
Bhaul, on the Girna, which was held for Gujarāt by Malik Sa'ādat.
Ahmad of Gujarāt was engaged in an expedition to Chāmpaner, but
raised the siege of that place and marched to his southern frontier.
A series of undignified manoeuvres exhibited the unwillingness of
the two kings to try conclusions. Ahmad Bahmani raised the siege
of Bhaul and retired to Bidar, leaving a force on his frontier to
check the anticipated pursuit, but Ahmad of Gujarāt, greatly re-
lieved by his enemy's flight, returned to his capital. Ahmad
Bahmani then returned to Bhaul, and resumed the siege, disregarding
C. H. I. III.
26


## p. 402 (#448) ############################################

402
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
a mild protest addressed to him by Ahmad of Gujarāt, but Malik
Saʻādat repulsed an attempt to carry the place by storm, and in
a sortie inflicted such heavy losses on the besiegers that Ahmad
Bahmanī, learning that Ahmad of Gujarāt was marching to the relief
of the fortress, raised the siege and turned to meet him. The battle
was maintained until nightfall, and is described as indecisive, but
the sultan of the Deccan was so dismayed by his losses that he re-
treated hurriedly towards his capital.
In 1432 the citadel of Bīdar was completed, and Ahmad put to
death his sister's son, Sher Khān, who, having originally counselled
him to seize the sceptre from his brother's feeble grasp was now
suspected of the design of excluding his sons from the succession
and usurping the throne.
The exhaustion of the kingdom after the disastrous war with
Gujarāt encouraged Hüshang Shāh to retrieve his late discomfiture
by capturing Kherla and putting Narsing to death. Ahmad was
unprepared for war, but could not ignore so gross an insult, and
marched northward to exact reparation, but Nasir Khān intervened,
and composed the quarrel on terms disgraceful to Ahmad. Kherla
was acknowledged to be a fief of Mālwa and Hüshang made, in the
treaty, the insolent concession that the rest of Berar should remain
a province of the Deccan.
After this humiliating peace Ahnad marched into Telingāna,
which, though nominally under the government of one of his sons,
was in a condition approaching rebellion. Some of the petty chief-
tains of the province, who had defied the prince's authority, were
seized and put to death, and order was, for the time, restored.
The decline of Ahmad's mental and bodily powers had for some
time been apparent. He had recently allowed the management of
all public business to fall into the hands of Miyān Mahmūd Nizām-
ul-Mulk, a native of the Deccan who had succeeded Malik-ut-
Tujjār as lieutenant of the kingdom on the latter's transfer to the
government of Daulatābād and shortly after this time he died', at
the age of sixty-three or sixty-four.
The character of Ahmad was simpler than that of his versatile
and accomplished brother, Fīrūz, whose learning, with its taint of
scepticism, was replaced in Ahmad by superstition, with a tinge of
fanaticism. The uncouth enthusiasm of the long-haired zealot, Gīsū
1 There is some uncertainty as to the precise date of his death. The dates given
by the best authorities range between February 18 and February 27, 1435. Other
dates given are 1438 and 1444 or 1445, which are certainly wrong. In his tomb at
Bidar the date is given as Zi'l-Hijjah 29, in a year which may be variously read, in
a copy of the inscription supplied to me, as 837 or 839. The former reading gives
the date August 6, 1434, and the latter July 15, 1436,


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Xv ]
THE FOREIGNERS
403
Darāz, which had disgusted the cultured and fastidious Fīrūz, de.
lighted the devout and simple mind of his brother. But Ahmad,
though scantily endowed with wit and learning, depised neither,
and his court, if less brilliant than that of Firüz, was not destitute
of culture. Of the men of learning who enjoyed his patronage the
foremost was the poet Āzari of Isfarāyin in Khurāsān, who was
encouraged to undertake the composition of the Bahman-nāma, a
versified history of the dynasty, now unfortunately lost. From ſrag-
ments preserved in quotations it seems to have been an inferior
imitation of the Shāhnāma of Firdausi. Āzarī returned to his own
country before Ahmad's death, but in remote Isfarāyīn continued
the history until his own death in 1462. It was carried on by various
hands until the last days of the dynasty, and some of the poetasters
who disfigured the work with their turgid bombast, impudently
claimed the whole as their own.
Ahmad transferred his devotion from the successor of Gīsū
Darāz to Ni'matullāh, the famous saint of Māhān, but failed to
attract the holy man himself to India, and had to content himself
with his son Khalīlullāh, surnamed Butshikan, 'the Iconoclast,' who
visited Bīdar and whose shrine, a cenotaph, is still to be seen there.
The saint's family were Shiahs, and it is clear, from the inscriptions
in Ahmad's tomb, that they converted him to that faith, but his
religion was a personal matter, and he wisely refrained from inter-
fering with that of his subjects. The first militant Shiah ruler in
India was Yusuf, 'Adil Shāh of Bījāpur.
The employment of foreign troops in the Deccan, already men-
tioned, raised a question which shortly after this time became acute,
and remained a source of strife as long as any independent Muslim
state existed in the south. This was the feud between the Deccanis
and the Foreigners. The climate of India is undoubtedly injurious
to the natives of more temperate climes who adopt the country as
a permanent domicile, and the degeneracy of their descendants is,
as a rule, rather accelerated than retarded by unions with the
natives of the soil. In northern India such degeneracy was retarded
by the influx of successive waves of conquest and immigration from
the north-west, and the country, from the time of its first conquest
by the Muslims, seldom acknowledged for long rulers who could be
regarded as genuine natives of India ; but the Deccan was more
isolated, and though a domiciled race of kings succeeded in main-
taining their power for more than a century and a half they looked
abroad for their ablest and most active servants and their bravest
soldiers. Most of Bahman Shāh's nobles were foreigners. His Afghān
26-2


## p. 404 (#450) ############################################

404
[ CH. XV
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
minister was succeeded by a Persian from Shirāz, and he again by
a native of Basrah. As the descendants of foreigners became iden-
tified with the country they coalesced with the natives, and acquired
their manners, the process being sometimes retarded by the avoid-
ance of intermarriage with them; and their places were taken by
fresh immigrants, who were usually employed, in preference of the
less virile and energetic natives, in difficult and perilous enterprises,
in which they generally acquitted themselves well, and the Deccanis
found themselves outstripped at the council board as well as in the
field, and naturally resented their supersession ; but it was not
until the reign of Ahmad, who was the first to enlist large numbers
of ſoreigners in the rank and file of his army, that the line between
them was clearly drawn. War was openly declared between them
when Malik-ut-Tujjār attributed his defeat by the troops of Gujarāt
to the cowardice of the Deccanis, and the feud thus begun was not
confined to intrigues for place and power, but frequently found ex-
pression in pitched battles and bloody massacres, of which last the
Foreigners were usually the victims, and contributed in no small
measure, first to the disintegration of the kingdom of the Bahmanids,
and ultimately to the downfall of the states which rose on its ruins.
The feud was complicated by religious differences. The native
Deccanis were Sunnis, and though all the Foreigners were not
Shiahs, a sufficient number of them belonged to that sect to asso-
ciate their party with heterodoxy, so that although the lines of
cleavage drawn by interest and religion might not exactly coincide,
they approached one another closely enough to exacerbate political
jealousy by sectarian prejudice.
One class of foreigners, however, the Africans, who were after-
wards largely employed, stood apart from the rest. Their attach-
ment to the Sunni faith, and the contemptuous attitude adopted
towards them by other Foreigners, who refused to regard the un.
lettered and unprepossessing negro as the equal of the fair-skinned,
handsome, and cultured man of the north, threw them into the arms
of the Deccanis. To the negroes were added the Muwallads, a
name applied to the offspring of African fathers and Indian mothers.
Thus in this disastrous strife the Foreign Party consisted of Turks,
Arabs, Mughuls, and Persians, and the Deccani Party of native
Deccanis, negrces, and Muwallads. Instances of temporary or per-
manent apostasy, due to religious differences, to self interest, or
gratitude to a benefactor, were not unknown, but were not frequent
enough to affect the homogeneity of either party. Rarer still were
disinterested endeavours to restore peace for the benefit of the
state, for party spirit was stronger than patriotism.
to


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CHAPTER XVI
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE KINGDOM
OF THE DECCAN. A. D. 1436–1490
AHMAD the Saint was succeeded by his eldest son, 'Alā-ud-din
Ahmad, who surrounded himself with Foreigners and provided for
his brother Muhammad by sending him to recover five years' arrears
of tribute due from Devarāya II of Vijayanagar. Muhammad re-
covered the arrears but his head was turned by his success, and
he was led astray by evil counsellors who persuaded him that his
father had intended to give him a share of the kingdom and
demanded that his brother should either admit him to an equal
share in the government, and the honours of royalty, or divide the
kingdom, giving him half. His demands were rejected and his
brother defeated him, but pardoned him and, on the death of their
younger brother, Dāūd, appointed him to the government of the
Rāichūr Doāb, where he remained faithful until his death.
Early in March, 1437, Dilāvar Khān was sent into the Konkan
to establish the king's authority, and reduced the Hindu chieftains
of that region to obedience. The raja of Sangarneshwar, besides
paying tribute, surrendered his beautiful and accomplished daughter
to 'Alā-ud-din, who married her and bestowed on her the name of
Zībā Chihra (“Beautiful Face'). After this expedition Dilāvar Khān
resigned the lieutenancy of the kingdom and was succeeded by the
eunuch Dastūr-ul-Mulk.
The new minister, who had the faults of his unfortunate class,
alienated the nobles by his arrogance, which led to his ruin.
Humāyān, the king's eldest son, a brutal youth who lived to become
the disgrace of his house, desired him to attend to some particular
business and when the eunuch procrastinated took him to task for
his negligence. He insolently replied that he would not tolerate
the prince's interference in affairs of state and Humāyūn employed
one of the king's esquires to assassinate him, and protected the
murderer. 'Alā-ud-din, who in the early days of his reign was averse
from taking life, was content, at his son's intercession, to leave the
assassin to his care.
The king's preference for his Hindu wife aroused the bitter
jealousy of Āghā Zainab, who complained to her father, Nasir Khan
of Khāndesh, of the indignity to which she was subjected, and he
invaded Berar to avenge his daughter's wrongs, and succeeded in


## p. 406 (#452) ############################################

406
[ ch.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
seducing from their allegiance many of the officers serving in that
province, whose fidelity to their master was not proof against their
veneration for the descendant of the Caliph 'Umar.
Khān Jahān, governor of Berar, withdrew into the fortress of
Narnāla, and was there besieged by the troops of Khāndesh ; and
h
the Deccani faction, which had risen to power in the capital after
the assassination of Dastūr-ul-Mulk and, as Sunnis, respected the
descendant of the second Caliph, advised caution in dealing with
the aggressor, lest he should be joined by the kings of Gujarāt and
Mālwa, but Malik-ut-Tujjār, governor of Daulatābād and leader of
the Foreigners, volunteered to take the field, provided that all the
Foreign troops were placed at his disposal and that he was not
hampered by native troops, to whose pusillanimity he attributed
the mishap at Bombay. The Deccanis, resenting these aspersions,
agreed that all the Foreign troops should be sent forward as an
advanced guard, hoping that they would be destroyed, and that the
king should follow with the rest of the army.
Malik-ut-Tujjār left Daulatābād with 7000 Foreign horse, and,
leaving the Deccani troops to guard the frontier, entered Berar.
He was joined at Mehkar by Khān Jahān, who had escaped from
Narnāla and was sent to Ellichpur and Bālāpur to check the in-
cursions of the Korkus, who were in alliance with Nasir Khān,
while Malik-ut-Tujjār marched northward to Rohankhed, where
the hills of southern Berar descend into the valley of the northern
Purna, and there attacked and defeated Nasir Khān, who fled to
Burhānpur and thence to Laling, where he took refuge. Malik-ut.
Tujjār laid waste the rich plain of Khāndesh, destroyed the public
buildings of Burhānpur, and followed Nasir Khān to Laling. He
had now no more than 4000 horse with him, and Nasir Khān, who
had assembled 12,000, attacked him, but was defeated with heavy
loss. Malik-ut-Tujjār returned with the spoils of victory to Bidar,
where his success assured the supremacy of his party and gained
for it the place of honour at court, on the right hand of the throne,
the Deccanis and Africans being relegated to the left.
Devarāya II of Vijayanagar now reorganised his army by re-
cruiting a large number of Muslims, to whom he gave special
privileges, and by discarding the useless and ill-trained troops
which had formerly swelled its numbers.