No More Learning



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76
( ch.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
era
One of the first to recognise that the accession of Balban had
inaugurated a new was Arsalān Tātār Khān, now governor of
Bengal, who had latterly withheld from Mahmūd material recogni-
tion of his sovereignty, but at once sent Balban a gift of sixty-
three elephants.
The Meos had recovered from their severe chastisement and
infested the jungle which had been permitted to grow unchecked
round Delhi. They plundered travellers on the roads, entered the
city by night, and rubbed the inhabitants in their houses, and even
by day robbed and stripped water-carriers and women drawing
water from the large reservoirs just within the city walls, so that
it became necessary to shut the gates on the western side of the
city immediately after the hour of afternoon prayer. During the
year following his accession Balban was occupied in exterminating
the robbers. The jungle was cleared, the Meos lurking in it were
put to death, a fort was built to command the approaches to the
city from the west, and police posts were established on all sides.
A recrudescence of turbulence among the Hindus of the Doāb,
who had entirely closed the roads between Bengal and Delhi,
necessitated measures of repression and precaution, and all impor-
tant towns and villages in this region were granted as fiefs to
powerful nobles, who cleared the jungles which harboured gangs
of brigands, slew large numbers of Hindus and enslaved their
wives and children. Balban himself remained for many months in
the districts of Patiyālī, Kampil, Bhojpur, and Jalāli, extirpated
all highway robbers, built forts at those places, garrisoned them
with Afghāns, who received lands in their vicinity for their main-
tenance, and by these measures secured the tranquillity of the
roads between Delhi and Bengal for a century.
While he was thus engaged he learnt that the Hindus of Katehr
had risen and were overrunning and plundering that province in
such force that the governors of Budaun and Amroha were unable
to take the field against them. He hastily returned to Delhi,
assembled his best troops and, having misled his enemy by an-
nouncing his intention of hunting, made a forced march and
appeared in Katehr sixty hours after he had left the capital. The
rebels in arms, taken completely by surprise, fled, and Balban
terribly avenged his outraged authority. All males over the age of
eight were put to death, the women were carried off into slavery,
and in every village through which the army passed huge heaps of
corpses were left, the stench of which poisoned the air as far as
the Ganges. The region was plundered and almost depopulated,


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IV ]
RECOVERY OF THE PUNJAB
77
and those of the inhabitants who were spared were so cowed that for
thirty years order reigned in the province and the districts of Budaun,
Amroha, Sambhal, and Gunnaur had peace.
In 1268-69 Balban led his army into the Salt Range with the
object, primarily, of preparing for the re-establishment of the royal
authority in the Punjab, and, secondarily of obtaining a supply of
horses for his army. His operations were successful ; the Hindus
were defeated and plundered and so many horses were taken that
the price of a horse in his camp fell to thirty or forty tangas.
In the course of this campaign a grave abuse inseparable from
the lax feudal system of India and constantly recurring in the history
of Islamic kingdoms in that country was first brought to Balban's
notice. Iltutmish had provided for the king's personal troops by
grants of land in fee, on condition of service. Most of the actual
grantees were now dead and the survivors were unfit for service, but
the immunity which they had enjoyed under the feeble Mahmud
encouraged them to advance the impudent claim that their fiefs had
been granted unconditionally and in perpetuity. It appeared likely
that an inquiry would arouse discontent and disaffection and even
Balban was obliged to leave the question at rest for the time, but in
1270, in the course of an expedition during which he restored the
city of Lahore and re-established a provincial government in the
upper Punjab the quality of the contingent supplied by the grantees
necessitated the investigation of the matter, and he discovered, on
his return to Delhi, that there was a general tendency on the part of
the actual holders of the lands to evade their personal liability for
service and that many of the able-bodied, as well as those who were
too young or too old to take the field, sent as substitutes useless and
unwarlike slaves. The grants were resumed and the grantees were
compensated beyond their deserts by the allotment of subsistence
allowances, not only to themselves but to their descendants, but this
did not satisfy them and they carried their grievance to the aged
Fakhr-ud-din, Kolwal of Delhi, who worked on Balban's feelings by
the irrelevant argument that old age was no crime and that if it were
he, the Kotwal, was one of the chief offenders. The emotional king
failed to detect the fallacy and, after weeping bitterly, rescinded the
reasonable orders which he had issued and wasted the resources of
the state by confirming the grants unconditionally.
Balban's intention of founding a dynasty and his attitude towards
the Forty were no secret, and his own cousin, Sher Khān Sunqar,
the most distinguished servant of the kingdom, who now held the


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78
[CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
fiefs of Bhātinda, Bhatnair, Sāmāna, and Sunām, had avoided Delhi
since his accession. Sunqar's courage and abilities, no less than his
mistrust, rendered him an object of suspicion to his cousin, now
about sixty-five years of age, and his sudden death at this time is
attributed to poison which Balban caused to be administered to him.
His fiefs of Sāmāna and Sunām were bestowed upon Tātār Khān of
Bengal, one of the Forty, but less formidable than Sunqar, and
Tughril was appointed to Bengal in his place.
Balban soon discovered that in attempting to protect the interests
of his posterity he had endangered the peace of his kingdom. Sunqar
had been dreaded by the Mughuls and by the Khokars and other
turbulent Hindu tribes, and his death revived the courage of both
foreign and domestic enemies. Owing to the renewed activity of the
Mughuls the king transferred his elder son, Muhammad Khān,
entitled Qā'ān Malik, from his fief of Koil to the government of
Multān. This prince was the hope of his line. He was gentle and
courageous, able and learned, a diligent student and a munificent
patron of letters. The poets Amir Khusrav and Amir Hasan began
their literary careers as members of his household, and he invited the
famous Sa'di of Shīrāz to visit him at Multān, and was disappointed
of the honour of entertaining him only by reason of the poet's
extreme age. His table and intimate circle were adorned by the
presence of the learned and the wise, and though wine was in use it
was drunk for the purpose of stimulating, not of drowning, the
intellect. No obscenity or ribald conversation was heard in that
society, nor did cheerfulness and merriment ever transgress the
bounds of decorum. Eastern historians and poets are wont to asso-
ciate the names of princes with fulsome and almost blasphemous
adulation, but in all that has been written of Muhammad Khān
affection, as well as admiration, may be traced. In him were centred
all the hopes of the stern old king ; for him the Forty were doomed,
and for him the blood of near kinsmen was shed. The relations
between father and son were of the most affectionate character, and
Muhammad Khān used to travel every year from Multān to visit
Balban, to enjoy his society, and to profit by his counsels. Before
his departure he was formally designated heir-apparent and was
invested with some of the insignia of royalty.
The character of Balban's second son Mahmud, entitled Bughrā
Khān, was a complete contrast to that of his brother. He was
slothful, addicted to wine and sensual pleasures, and devoid of
generous ambition. His father, though well aware of his faults and


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IV ]
REBELLION IN BENGAL
79
the weakness of his character, regarded him with natural tenderness
and attempted to arouse in him a sense of responsibility by bestowing
on him the fief of Sāmāna. Bughrā Khān, who dreaded his father's
critical scrutiny and found the restraint of his society irksome, was
well content to leave the capital ; but for the general advice which
had been deemed sufficient for Muhammad Khān, Balban substi-
tuted, in the case of his younger son, minute and detailed instructions,
accompanied by special warnings against self-indulgence and in-
temperance and a threat of dismissal in case of misconduct.
About the year 1279 the Mughuls again began to appear in
north-western India, and in one of their incursions even crossed the
Sutlej, but though they harried the upper Punjab Delhi had little to
apprehend from them, for domestic enemies had now been crushed,
and a force of seventeen or eighteen thousand horse composed of the
contingents of Muhammad Khān from Multān, Bughrā Khān from
Sāmāna, and Malik Bektars from Delhi so severely defeated them as
to deter them from again crossing the Sutlej.
In the same year Balban learnt with indignation that Tughril
was in rebellion in Bengal. The allegiance of the governors of this
distant and wealthy province to the reigning king had usually
depended on circumstances. A strong ruler was gratified by fre-
quent, though seldom regular remittances of tribute, one less strong
might expect the compliment of an occasional gift, but with any
indication of the king's inability to maintain his authority nearer
home remittances ceased entirely. Lakhnāwati had thus earned at
Delhi the nickname of Balghākpur, 'the city of rebellion. ' Tughril
was encouraged by Balban's advancing age and by a recrudescence
of Mughul activity on the north-western frontier, to withhold
tribute, and Balban ordered Malik Aitigin the Longhaired, entitled
Amin Khān, to march against him from Oudh. Amin Khān was
defeated, many from his army joined Tughril, and those who at-
tempted to save themselves by flight were plundered by the Hindus.
Balban, whom the first news of the rebellion had thrown into such
paroxysms of rage that few durst approach him, was now nearly
beside himself, and caused Amin Khān to be hanged over the gate
of the city of Ajodhya. In the following year an army under Malik
Targhi shared the fate of its predecessor, and Tughril was again
reinforced by deserters. Balban now gnawed his own flesh in his
fury, and when his first outburst of rage was spent prepared to
take the field in person. Fleets of boats were collected on the
Jumna and the Ganges, and Balban, accompanied by his second


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80
[CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
son, Bughrā Khān, set out from Delhi and marched through the
Doāb. In Oudh he mustered his forces, which numbered, including
sutlers and camp-followers, 200,000, and, although the rainy season
had begun he crossed the Gogra and invaded Bengal. Here he was
often compelled by the state of the weather and the roads to halt
for ten or twelve days at a time, and when he reached Lakhnāwati
he found it almost deserted, for Tughril, on hearing of his approach,
had fled with his army and most of the inhabitants to Jājnagarl in
eastern Bengal. After a short halt Balban continued his march
until he reached Sonārgāon, on the Meghna, near Dacca, where he
compelled the raja, Bhoj, to undertake to use his utmost endeavours
to discover Tughril and to prevent his escape by land or water. He
dismayed his army by solemnly swearing that he would not rest
nor return to Delhi, nor even hear the name of Delhi mentioned,
until he should have seized Tughril, even though he had to pursue
him on the sea. His troops, who had not yet even discovered the
place of Tughril's retreat, wrote letters, in the deepest dejection,
bidding farewell to their families at Delhi, and the search for
Tughril began. One day a patrol under Sher Andāz of Koil and
Muqaddir encountered some grain merchants who had been abroad
on business.
When two had been beheaded to loosen the tongues
of the rest, Sher Andāz learned that he was within a mile of Tughril,
who was encamped with his army beside a reservoir. After sending
word to Bektars, commanding the advanced guard, he rode cautiously
on, found the rebel army enjoying a day's halt after the fashion of
undisciplined troops and, fearing lest an incautious movement should
give the alarm, formed the desperate resolution of attacking the
enemy with his party of thirty or forty horsemen. As they galloped
into the camp with swords drawn, shouting aloud for Tughril, the
rebels were too astonished to reckon their numbers or to attempt
resistance and they rode straight for his tent. Amid a scene of the
wildest confusion he fled, and, mounting a barebacked horse,
endeavoured to escape, but was recognised and pursued. Malik
Muqaddir brought him down with a well aimed arrow and was
thenceforward known as Tughril-Kush, 'the Slayer of Tughril? .
Bektars then arrived on the scene and, receiving Tughril's head
from Muqaddir, sent it to Balban with news of the success which
had been gained. Balban summoned the adventurous officers to
1 Not to be confounded with Jājpur in Orissa, also called Jājnagar by the
Muslims.
2 From the printed text of Barani it would appear that Muqaddir and
Tughril. Kush were distinct persons, but this text is confused and corrupt, and in
the list of Balban's nobles which precedes the account of his reign Malik Muqaddir
is entitled Tughril Kush.


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iv)
SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION
81
his presence and after severely reproving their rashness generously
rewarded their success. The army passed at once from despair to
elation ; their master's vow was fulfilled and the remainder of their
task was a labour of love. The rebel's demoralised force was sur.
rounded and nearly the whole of it was captured. The army then
set out on its return march to Lakhnāwati where Balban proposed
to glut his revenge. On either side of the principal bazar, a street
more than two miles in length, a row of stakes was set up and the
family and the adherents of Tughril were impaled upon them.
None of the beholders had ever seen a spectacle so terrible and
many swooned with terror and disgust. Such was the fate of
Tughril's own followers, but those who had deserted from the two
armies sent against him and had joined his standard were reserved
for what was designed to be a yet more appalling spectacle at the
capital.
Before leaving Bengal Balban appointed Bughrā Khān to the
government of the province and after repeating the advice which
he had given him on appointing him to Sāmāna added a brief and
impressive warning. ‘Mahmūd,' he said, after the punishment of
the rebels, 'didst thou see ? ' The prince was silent and the question
was repeated. Still there was no answer. 'Mahmud,' repeated
Balban, 'didst thou see the punishment inflicted in the great
bazar? ' 'Yes,' at length replied the trembling prince, 'I saw it. '
'Well,' said Balban, 'take it to heart, and whilst thou art at
Lakhnāwati remember, that Bengal can never safely rebel against
Delhi. ' He then proceeded, with strange inconsistency, to advise
his son, if he should ever find himself in arms against Delhi, to flee
i some spot where he might baffle pursuit and remain in hiding
until the storm should have passed.
The only cloud overshadowing the rejoicings which marked
Balban's triumphant return to Delhi was the impending fate of his
wretched captives, most of whom had wives and families in the city.
These repaired in their grief to the gāzi of the army, a pious and
gentle man, and besought him to intercede for the lives of those
dear to them. He gained the royal presence and, after a harangue
on the blessedness of mercy which reduced Balban to tears, applied
his arguments to the fate of the doomed men. His efforts were
successful; the double row of stakes which had been set up from
the Budaun gate of the city to Tilpat was removed, and the prisoners
were divided into four classes. The common herd received a free
pardon, those of slightly greater importance were banished for a
time, those who had held respectable positions at Delhi suffered a
C, H, I. III.
6


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82
(CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
term of imprisonment, and the principal officers were mounted on
buffaloes and exposed to the jeers and taunts of the mob. This act
of mercy blotted out the remembrance of the atrocity perpetrated
at distant Lakhnāwati and from all parts of the kingdom con-
gratulations poured in.
Balban, now eighty years of age, was at the height of his
prosperity and glory when he received a blow which darkened the
brief remainder of his days. The Mughuls, under Tamar Khān,
invaded the province of Multān in great force and Muhammad
Khān attacked and defeated them, but was surprised by an ambush
and slain on March 9, 1285. The historian Barani gives an affecting
account of the behaviour of the aged king in his affiction. He
would in no way compromise his dignity, and gave audiences and
transacted business with his usual stern and grave demeanour,
though the weight of the blow which had fallen on him was manifest
to all ; but at night, and in the privacy of his chamber, he rent his
clothes, cast dust upon his head, and mourned for his son as David
mourned for Absalom. The dead prince was henceforward always
known as Shahid, 'the Martyr,' and his youthful son Kaikhusrav
was sent from Delhi with a large staff and a numerous force to take
his father's place as warden of the marches.
Bughrā Khān, whom Balban now designated as his heir, was
summoned from Bengal in order that his presence at the capital
might avert the evils of a disputed succession, but the worthless
prince had always chafed under the restraints of his father's austere
court and declined, even for the sake of a throne, to endure exist-
ence under the cloud of gloom which now overhung it. Leaving
the city on the pretext of a hunting excursion, he returned without
permission to Bengal, but before he reached Lakhnāwati his father
was on his deathbed. Balban summoned a few trusted counsellors
and disinherited his unworthy son, designating as his heir Kai-
khusrav, the son of the Martyr Prince. When he had issued these
injunctions the old king breathed his last.
His counsellors disregarded his last wishes, and enthroned
Kaiqubād, a youth of seventeen or. eighteen, son of Bughrā Khān.
The historian Barani says that for a reason which could not be
mentioned without disclosing the secrets of the harem they had
been on bad terms with the Martyr, and feared to raise his son to
the throne. These expressions may indicate a former lapse from
yirtue on the part of the otherwise blameless prince, or a suspicion
that Kaikhusrav was not the son of his putative father, but their
import cannot be accurately determined.


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v]
DEATH OF BALBAN
83
Nizām-ud-din, nephew and son-in-law of the aged Kotwal Fakhr-
ud-din, acquired on Kaiqubād's accession in 1287 a prominent
position at the capital, and the son of Balban's brother Kashli Khān,
who bore his father's title but was more generally known as Malik
Chhajjū, received the important fief of Sāmāna. Bughrā Khān
tamely acquiesced in his supersession by his son, but assumed in
Bengal the royal title of Nāsir-ud-din Mahmud Bughrā Shāh.
The young king had been educated under the supervision of his
grandfather in the straitest paths of virtue, and his guardians and
tutors, trembling under the old despot's eye, had subjected him to
the most rigid discipline. As a natural consequence of this in-
judicious restraint the youth, on finding himself absolute master of
his actions, plunged at once into a whirlpool of debauchery. The
unrestrained indulgence of his appetites was his sole occupation,
and to the duties of his station he gave not a thought. The Arabic
saying, "Men follow the faith of their masters' found ample con-
firmation during his brief reign, and as in the reign of Charles II in
England the reaction from the harsh rule of the precisians and the
evil example of the king produced a general outburst of licentious-
ness, so in that of Kaiqubād at Delhi the reaction from the austere
and gloomy rule of Balban and the example of the young voluptuary
inaugurated among the younger generation an orgy of debauchery.
The minister, Khatīr-ud-din, abandoned in despair the task of
awakening his young master to a sense of duty and the ambitious
Nizām-ud-din was enabled to gather into his own hands the threads
of all public business and, by entirely relieving Kaiqubād of its
tedium, to render himself indispensable. His influence was first
exhibited in the course followed with Kaikhusrav, whose superior
hereditary claim was represented as a menace to Kaiqubād. The
prince was summoned to Delhi and, under an order obtained from
Kaiqubād when he was drunk, was put to death at Rohtak. Nizām-
ud-din then obtained, by means of a false accusation, an order
degrading the minister, who was paraded through the streets on an
ass, as though he had been a common malefactor. This treatment
of the first minister of the kingdom and the execution, at Nizām-
ud-din's instigation, of Shāhak, governor of Multān, and Tūzaki,
governor of Baran, alarmed and disgusted the nobles of Balban's
court, and caused them gradually to withdraw from participation
in public business, and the power of Nizām-ud-din, the object of
whose ambition could not be mistaken, became absolute. All who
endeavoured to warn the king of what all but he could see were
delivered to Nizām-ud-dīn to be dealt with as sedition-mongers.
6-2


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84
[ CH
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
The aged Kotwal attempted to restrain his nephew, but he had
already gone so far that he could not safely recede. Even the
slothful and self-indulgent Bughrā sent letters to his son warning
him of the inevitable consequences of his debauchery and neglect
of business, and, more guardedly, in view of Nizām-ud-dīn's control
of the correspondence, of the danger of permitting a subject to usurp
his authority. A proposed meeting between father and son, on the
frontiers of their kingdoms, was postponed by an irruption of the
Mughuls under Tamar Khān of Ghazni, who overran the Punjab,
plundered Lahore, and advanced nearly as far as Sāmāna. Amid
the general demoralisation of the court and the capital Balban's
army still remained as a monument of his reign, and a force of
30,000 horse under the command of Malik Muhammad Baqbaq,
entitled, perhaps for his services on this occasion, Khān Jahān, was
sent against the invaders, who were overtaken in the neighbourhood
of Lahore and utterly defeated. Most of their army were slain, but
more than a thousand prisoners were carried back to the capital.
The description of these savages by the poet Amir Khusrav, who
had been a prisoner in their hands for a short time after the battle
in which his early patron, the Martyr Prince, was slain, is certainly
coloured by animosity, but is probably as true as most caricatures,
‘Their eyes were so narrow and piercing that they might have bored
a hole in a brazen vessel, and their stench was more horrible than
their colour. Their heads were set on their bodies as if they had no
necks, and their cheeks resembled leathern bottles, full of wrinkles
and knots. Their noses extended from cheek to cheek and their
mouths from cheekbone to cheekbone. Their nostrils resembled
rotten graves, and from them the hair descended as far as the lips.
Their moustaches were of extravagant length, but the beards about,
their chins were very scanty. Their chests, in colour half black,
half white, were covered with lice which looked like sesame growing
on a bad soil. Their whole bodies, indeed, were covered with these
insects, and their skins were as rough-grained as shagreen leather,
fit only to be converted into shoes. They devoured dogs and pigs
with their nasty teeth. . . Their origin is derived from dogs, but they
have larger bones. The king marvelled at their beastly countenances
and said that God had created them out of hell fire. '
Numbers of these prisoners were decapitated and others were
crushed under the feet of elephants, and 'spears without number
bore their heads aloft, and appeared denser than a forest of
bamboos. ' A few were preserved and kept in confinement. These


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IV)
MEETING BETWEEN FATHER AND SON
85
were sent from city to city for exhibition, and, as the poet again
observes, 'sometimes they had respite and sometimes punishment'.
It was after this irruption of the Mughuls that Nizām-ud-din
persuaded Kaiqubād to put to death the 'New Muslims. ' These
were Mughuls who had been captured in former campaigns and
forcibly converted, or who had voluntarily embraced Islam and
entered the royal service, in which some had attained to high rank.
They were, for many years after this time, a source of anxiety, for
it was believed that they, like the 'New Christians' of Spain and
Portugal, were not sincere in their change of faith, and they fell
under the suspicion of treasonable correspondence with their un-
converted brethren. The accusations against them were vague, and
were not substantiated by any trial or enquiry, but they were
proscribed and put to death, and those who had been on friendly
terms with them and had permitted them to intermarry with their
families were imprisoned.
Meanwhile Bughrā had advanced with his army to the frontier
of his kingdom and was encamped on the bank of the Gogra! His
intentions were undoubtedly hostile. He had acquiesced in his
son's elevation to the throne, but the latter's subsequent conduct
and the prospect of the extinction of his house, had aroused even
his resentment. Kaiqubād, on learning that his father had reached
the Gogra, marched from Delhi in the middle of March, 1288, to
Ajodhya, where he was joined by his cousin Chhajjū from Kara.
The armies were encamped on the opposite bank of the Gogra,
and the situation was critical, but Bughrā hesitated to attack his
son's superior force and contented himself with threatening
messages, but when they were answered in the same strain changed
his tone and suggested a meeting. This was arranged, but it was
stipulated that Bughrā should acknowledge the superior majesty
of Delhi by visiting his son. He consented, and crossed the river.
Kaiqubād was to have received his father seated on his throne,
but as Bughrā approached his natural feelings overcame him, and
he descended from the throne and paid to him the homage due
from a son to his father, and their meeting moved the spectators
to tears. A friendly contention regarding precedence lasted long
and was concluded by the father taking the son by the hand, seating
him on the throne, and standing before him. He then embraced
his son and returned to his own camp. Kaiqubād celebrated
1 The account of the ineeting between Kaiqubād and his father given by Amir
Khusrav has been generally preferred to that given by Barani. Amir Khusray
was an eye witness and Barani writes only from hearsay.


## p. 86 (#126) #############################################

86
[ CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
the reconciliation, in characteristic fashion, with a drinking bout
at which he and his courtiers got drunk. He exchanged compli-
mentary presents with his father and three more meetings took
place between them. Bughrā took his son to task for putting to
death Kaikhusrav and so many of the old nobles and advised him
to substitute a council of four for a single adviser. At the last
meeting he whispered in his son's ear, as he embraced him, a caution
against Nizām-ud-din and advised him to put him to death. The
two parted with tokens of affection and returned to their capitals.
‘Alas! cried Bughrā, 'I have seen the last of my son and the last
of Delhi. ' His counsels induced Kaiqubād to make a faint effort to
reform his ways, but before he reached Delhi he had returned like
a dog to his vomit and a washed sow to her wallowing in the mire.
The rejoicings with which his hardly expected return was celebrated
were the occasion of general licence, in describing which the aged
and toothless Barani, writing more than half a century later, is
beguiled into rhapsodical and unseemly reminiscences of his own
misspent youth.
In the midst of his debauchery Kaiqubād bore in mind his
father's warning and one day summoned up courage to inform
Nizām-ud-din abruptly that he was transferred to Multān and must
leave Delhi at once. He so delayed his departure on various pre-
texts that the king concluded that he intended to defy his authority,
and, caused him to be poisoned. Baranī, who condemns the minister's
unscrupulous ambition, praises him for his judicious selection of
subordinates, and justly observes that but for his unremitting
attention to public business the authority of Kaiqubād could not
have been maintained for a day. His sudden removal dislocated
the machinery of the administration and the king, incapable of
personal attention to business, summoned
the most
powerful and capable noble in the kingdom, Malik Jalāl-ud-din
Firūz Khalji, who, since the transfer of Chhajjū to Kara, had held
the important fief of Sāmāna, transferred him to Baran, and
appointed him to the command of the army. His advancement
gave great offence to the Turkish nobles and to the people of the
capital, who affected to despise his tribe and feared both his power
and his ambition. Almost immediately after he had taken possession
of his new fief incontinence and intemperance did their work on
Kaiqubād, who was struck down with paralysis and lay, a help-
less wreck, in the palace which he had built at Kilokhrī, while
Firūz marched with a large force from Baran to the suburbs of
Delhi.
to Delhi


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IV )
DEATH OF KAIQUBAD
87
The Turkish nobles and officers, headed by Aitamar Kachhan
and Aitamar Surkha, were in a dilemma. Fīrūz, though his designs
were apparent, had not declared against Kaiqubād and had done
nothing which his official position, which required him to keep the
peace, would not justify, and they were debarred by the king's
physical condition from the usual expedient of carrying him into
the field and so arming themselves with his authority. They there.
fore, although Kaiqubād still lived, carried his three year old son
into the city and enthroned him under the title of Shams-ud-din
Kayumars.
Kaiqubād lay unheeded in his palace at Kilokhri while the two
parties contended for the mastery. Neither wished to be the first
to appeal to arms, and Kachhan visited Firūz to invite him to
discuss the situation with the Turkish nobles in the city, but Firūz
having ascertained that the invitation was a snare, and that pre-
parations had been made to murder him and his Khaljī officers,
caused Kachhan to be dragged from his horse and slain. The sons
of Fīrūz then dashed into Delhi, carried off Kayūmars, and defeated
a force sent in pursuit of them, slaying Surkha, its leader, and
capturing the sons of Fakhr-ud-din, the Kotwāl. The success of
the unpopular party so incensed the people that they rose and
streamed out of the city gates, with the intention of attacking
Firūz in his camp, but the Kotwal, who was a man of peace, and
trembled for the fate of his captive sons, quelled the disturbance
and dispersed the mob. Fīrūz was now master of the situation, and
most of the Turkish nobles, who had lost their leaders, openly
joined him, and the rest, with the populace of Delhi, maintained
an attitude of sullen aloofness. Meanwhile the wretched Kaiqubād
was an unconscionable time a-dying, and, with the approval of
Firüz, an officer whose father had been executed by the sick man's
orders was dispatched to his chamber to hasten his end. The
ruffian rolled his victim in the bedding on which he lay, kicked
him on the head, and threw his body into the Jumna'. At the same
time Chhajjū, whose near relationship to Kaiqubād might have
encouraged him to assert a claim to the throne, was dismissed to
his fief of Kara, and on June 13, 1290, Firūz was enthroned in the
palace of Kilokhri as Jalāl-ud-din Fīrūz Shāh.
The early Muhammadan kingdom of Delhi was not a homo-
geneous political entity. The great fiefs, of which the principal
were, on the east, Mandāwar, Amroha, Sambhal, Budaun, Baran
1 According to a less authentic account Kaiqubād died of hunger and thirst in
a prison into which Firūz had thrown him.


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88
[CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
(Bulandshahr), Koil and Oudh ; on the southeast Kara-Mānikpur ;
on the south Bayāna and Gwalior ; on the west Nāgaur, recently
abandoned ; and on the north-west and north, Hānsī, Multān, Uch,
Lahore, Sāmāna, Sunām, Guhrām, Bhātinda and Sirhind, were
nuclei of Muhammadan influence, the holders of which discharged
some of the functions of provincial governors, but the trans-
Gangetic fiefs of Mandāwar, Amroha, Sambhal, and Budaun were
mere outposts of dominion against the territory of Katehr, where
the independence of the Hindus was only occasionally disturbed
by punitive expeditions which usually engaged the sovereign with
the greater part of his available 'military strength ; and similarly
the fiefs to the south, south-west, and west were outposts against
Rājput chieftains who might have been strong enough, had union
been possible to them, to expel the foreigners.
Gwalior had been
taken by Aibak, but lost during the reign of his son and with
difficulty recovered by Iltutmish; the fortress of Ranthambhor
had been dismantled and abandoned by Raziyya and occupied and
restored by the Rājputs; and Nāgaur, at one time held by Balban
as his fief, was also in their hands. On the north-west Lahore, Uch
and Multān were exposed to the constant inroads of the Mughuls
of Ghaznī, and the ties which bound them to Delhi were now
relaxed. The fieſs or districts in the heart of the kingdom were
interspersed with tracts of country in the hands of powerful Hindu
chieftains or confederacies. Immediately to the south of Delhi
Mewāt, which included part of the modern districts of Muttra and
Gurgāon, most of Alwar, and part of the Bharatpur State, had
never been permanently conquered, and the depredations of its
inhabitants, the Meos, extended at times to the walls of Delhi and
beyond the Jumna into the Doāb. The rich fiefs of the latter
region supported strong Muslim garrisons but the disaffection of
the Hindu inhabitants was, for long after the period of which we
are writing, a menace to domestic peace, and the ferocious punish-
ment inflicted on them by Muhammad Tughluq exasperated with-
out taming them. After his time Etawah became a stronghold of
Rājput chieftains who gathered round themselves the most turbu-
lent elements in the indigenous population, were frequently in
revolt, and seldom recognised the authority of Delhi otherwise than
by a precarious tribute.
The rhapsodies of Muslim historians in their accounts of the
suppression of a rising or the capture of a fortress, of towns and
villages burnt, of whole districts laid waste, of temples destroyed
and idols overthrown, of hecatombs of 'misbelievers sent to hell,


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ry. ]
MUSLIM GOVERNMENT
89
or 'dispatched to their own place,' and of thousands of women and
children enslaved might delude us into the belief that the early
Muslim occupation of northern India was one prolonged holy war
waged for the extirpation of idolatry and the propagation of Islam,
had we not proof that this cannot have been the case. Mahmud
the Iconoclast maintained a large corps of Hindu horse ; his son
Masóūd prohibited his Muslim officers from offending the religious
susceptibilities of their Hindu comrades, employed the Hindu Tilak
for the suppression of the rebellion of the Muslim Ahmad Niyāltigin,
approved of Tilak's mutilation of Muslims, and made him the equal
of his Muslim nobles ; Mu'izz-ud-din Muhammad allied himself with
the Hindu raja of Jammu against the Muslim Khusrav Malik of
Lahore, and employed Hindu legends on his coinage ; all Muslim
rulers in India, from Mahmūd downwards, accepted, when it suited
them to do so, the allegiance of Hindu rulers and landholders, and
confirmed them, as vassals, in the possession of their hereditary
lands ; and one of the pretexts for Tīmūr's invasions of India at
the end of the fourteenth century was the toleration of Hinduism.
Neither the numbers nor the interest of the foreigners admitted
of any other course. Their force consisted in garrisons scattered
throughout the land among the indigenous agricultural population
vastly superior in numbers to themselves and not unwarlike. On
this population they relied not only for the means of support but
also, to a great extent, for the subordinate machinery of govern-
ment ; for there can be no doubt that practically all minor posts
connected with the assessment and collection of the land revenue
and with accounts of public and state finance generally, were filled,
as they were many generations later, by Hindus. Among those
who met Balban at each stage on his triumphal return from the
suppression of Tughril's rebellion were rāis, chaudharis and mu-
qaddams. The first two classes were certainly Hindu landholders
and officials of some importance, and in the third we recognise
a humbler class of Hindu revenue officials which in many parts
of India retains its Arabic designation to this day. The Hindu
husbandman is not curious in respect of high affairs of state, and
cares little by whom he is governed so long as he is reasonably
well treated. He is more attached to his patrimony than to any
system of government, and while he is permitted to retain enough
of the kindly fruits of the earth to satisfy his frugal needs, concerns
himself little with the religion of his rulers; but oppression or such
extortion as deprives him of the necessaries of life may convert
him into a rebel or a robber, and there was at that time no lack of


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90
(CH. IV
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
warlike leaders and communities of his own faith ready to welcome
him in either character. Rebellion and overt disaffection were re-
pressed with ruthless severity, and were doubtless made occasions
of proselytism, but the sin was rebellion, not religious error, and
there is no reason to believe that the position of the Hindu culti-
vator was worse under a Muslim than under a Hindu landlord.
The disaffected were those of the upper and recently dominant
class of large landholders and petty chieftains.
It was certainly possible for Hindus to obtain justice, even
against Muslims, for Baranī tells us that the Multānīs and money-
lenders of Delhi, the former term being evidently employed much
as the local designation Mārwāri is used to-day, were first enriched
by the profusion and improvidence of the nobles of Balban's court,
who not only borrowed largely but were defrauded by dependants
who borrowed in their names. As the usurers could not have been
enriched by lending money which they could not recover it is
evident that even the grandees of the court were not permitted to
plunder the Hindus indiscriminately, nor to withhold from them
their just dues.
That there was in other respects some sympathetic intercourse
between Muslims and Hindus we may infer from Hindi nicknames
by which some of the nobles were beginning to be known. One of
the two Aitamars was known as Kachhan, and Balban's nephew
'Abdullāh as Chhajjū.
On the whole it may be assumed that the rule of the Slave Kings
over their Hindu subjects, though disfigured by some intolerance
and by gross cruelty towards the disaffected, was as just and humane
as that of the Norman Kings in England and far more tolerant than
that of Philip II in Spain and the Netherlands.


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CHAPTER V
THE KHALJI DYNASTY AND THE FIRST CONQUEST
OF THE DECCAN
and swore
The repugnance of the populace to Firüz was due to the belief
that his tribe, the Khaljīs, were Afghāns, a people who were regarded
as barbarous. They were, in fact, a Turkish tribe but they had long
been settled in the Garmsīr, or hot region, of Afghānistān, where
they had probably acquired some Afghān manners and customs, and
the Turkish nobles, most of whom must now have belonged to the
second generation domiciled in India, refused to acknowledge them
as Turks! It was owing to this hostility of the people that Fīrūz
.
elected to be enthroned in Kaiqubād's unfinished villa at Kilokhri
rather than at Delhi, and for some time after his elevation to the
throne he dared not enter the streets of his capital. The more
prominent citizens waited on him as a matter of course,
allegiance to him, and the people in general repaired to Kilokhri on
the days appointed for public audiences, but they were impelled less
by sentiments of loyalty than by curiosity to see how the barbarian
would support his new dignity, and were compelled reluctantly to
admit that he carried it well, but their disaffection did not at once
abate, and Fīrūz completed the buildings and gardens left unfinished
by Kaiqubād, named Kilokhri Shahr-i-Nau, or the New City, and
ordered his courtiers to build themselves houses in the neighbourhood
of his palace. The order was unpopular, but there was a large class
whose livelihood depended on the court, and villas and shops rose
round the palace of Kilokhri.
The court of Firūz differed widely from that of the Slave Kings.
Balban had undermined, if he had not destroyed, the power of the
Forty and the character of the Turkish nobles was changed. They
were now represented largely by men born in the country, in many
instances, probably, of Indian mothers, and though, as their hostility
to Firūz proves, they retained their pride of race, they lost for ever
their exclusive privileges, which were invaded by Khaljīs and by
1 The late Major Raverty, an authority from whom it is seldom safe to differ,
protested vigorously against the common error of classing the Khaljīs as Afghāns or
Pathāns, but the people of Delhi certainly fell into the error which he condemns.
He also inveighs, with much acrimony and less reason, against the plausible
identification of the Khaljīs with the Ghilzais, a tribe which claims a Turkish origin
and occupies the region originally colonized by the Khaljis. If the Ghilzais be not
Khaljis it is difficult to say what has become of the latter.


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92
[CH.
THE KHALJIS
a
all whom it was the king's pleasure to promote. The change was
inevitable. It would have been impossible for a small number of
native courtiers to have maintained for ever a claim based on
remote foreign ancestry, and Firūz, though he did not exclude the
Turks from office, completed very thoroughly the work which Balban
had begun. The fief of Kara-Mānikpur was considered an ample
provision for Chhajjū, the sole survivor of the former royal family,
and Fīrūz had his own relations to consider. His eldest son, Mahmūd,
was entitled Khān Khānān, his second Arkali Khān, and his third
Qadr Khān; his brother was entitled Yaghrush Khān and was
appointed to the command of the army, and his two nephews,
‘Alā-ud-din and Almās Beg, received important posts, the latter
being entitled Ulugh Khān. Another relation, the blunt and out-
spoken Malik Ahmad Chap, held the unsuitable post of Master of
the Ceremonies.
The popular prejudice against Firūz was soon discovered to be
groundless. Save for an occasional outburst of wrath no milder
monarch ever sat upon the throne of Delhi. His treatment of
Kaiqubād belied his boast that he had never shed the blood of a
Muslim, but throughout his reign he displayed the most impolitic
tenderness towards rebels and other criminals. His mildness and
his conduct when he first ventured into Balban's Red Palace in the
city gained him the adherence of many of those who had opposed
him as a barbarian. He declined to ride into the courtyard, but
dismounted at the gate, and before entering the throne room wept
bitterly in the antechamber for Balban and his offspring and
lamented his own unworthiness of the throne and his guilt in aspiring
to it. The few old nobles of Balban's court and the ecclesiastics of
the city were moved to tears and praised his sensibility, but the
soldiers and those of his own faction murmured that such self-
abasement was unkingly, and Malik Ahmad Chap openly remons-
trated with him.
In the second year of the reign Chhajjú assumed the royal title
at Kara and was joined by Hātim Khān, who held the neighbouring
fief of Oudh. The rebels advanced towards Delhi, where they were
confident of the support of a numerous faction not yet reconciled
to the rule of the Khaljī, but Fīrūz marched to meet them, and
his advanced guard under his son Arkali Khān encountered them
near Budaun and defeated and dispersed them. Two days after
the battle Chhajju was surrendered by a Hindu with whom he had
taken refuge, and he and the other captives were sent, with yokes
on their necks and gyves on their wrists, to Budaun. Fīrīz seated


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93
v]
LENITY OF FIROZ
upon a cane stool, received them in public audience and when he
saw their bonds wept in pity. He caused them to be loosed and
tended and entertained them at a wine party. As they hung their
heads with shame he cheered them and foolishly praised them for
their loyalty to the heir of their old master. The indignant courtiers,
headed, as usual, by Ahmad Chap, protested against this encourage-
ment of rebellion and demanded that he should consider what his,
and their, fate would have been had the rebels been victorious,
and the old man, who seems to have entered upon his dotage
when he seized the throne, could find no better reply than that he
dared not, for the sake of a transitory kingdom, imperil his soul by
slaying fellow-Muslims.
Arkali Khān's victory was rewarded with the fief of Multān,
and Chhajjū was delivered into the custody of his conqueror, who
was known to be opposed to his father's mild policy. The fief of
Kara was bestowed upon 'Alā-ud-din, who lent a willing ear to the
counsels of Chhajjū's principal adherents, whom he took into his
service. Domestic griefs helped to warp his loyalty, for his wife,
the daughter of Fīrūz, and her mother, who perhaps suspected the
trend of his ambition, were shrews who not only embittered his
private life, but constantly intrigued against him at court. 'Alā.
ud-din's original intention seems to have been to escape their
malignity by leaving his uncle's dominions and establishing a
principality in some distant part of India, but the course of events
suggested to him a design yet more treasonable.
Firūz Shāh's lenity and the simplicity of his court were most
distasteful to the Khalji officers, who were disappointed of the
profit which they had expected from confiscations and murmured
against a prince who would neither punish his enemies nor reward
his friends. Their strietures on his attitude towards criminals were
just, as in the case of the Thags', those miscreants whose religion
was robbery and murder and who were the dread of wayfarers in
India within the memory of the last generation. A few of these
fanatical brigands were captured at Delhi and one gave information
which led to the arrest of over a thousand. Not one was punished
but the whole gang was carried in boats down the Jumna and
Ganges and set free in Bengal. Such culpable weakness would
have again thrown the kingdom into complete disorder had the
reign of Firüz been prolonged.
The discontent of the nobles found expression at their drinking
parties when the deposition of the old king was freely discussed.
1 This is the word used by the contemporary historian, Barani.


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94
[CH.
THE KHALJIS
1
Firūz, though aware of this treasonable talk, at first paid no heed
to it, but at one drinking bout many nobles swore allegiance to
Tāj-ud-din Kūchi, a survivor of the Forty, and boasted of how they
would slay Firūz He sent for the drinkers and, after upbraiding
them, threw a sword towards them and challenged any one of them
a
to attack him. They stood abashed until the tension was relieved
by the effrontery of his secretary, Nusrat Sabbāh, who, though he
had boasted as loudly as any, now told Firūz that the maunderings
of drunkards were beneath his notice, that they were not likely to
kill him, for they knew that they would never again find so indul-
gent a master, and that he was not likely to kill them, for he knew,
in spite of their foolish talk, that he would nowhere find servants
so faithful. Firūz called for a cup of wine and handed it to the
impudent apologist, but the boasters were dismissed from court for
a year and were warned that if they offended again they should
be delivered to the tender mercies of Arkali Khān, who was fettered
by none of his father's scruples.
Fīrūz Shāh's solitary departure from his policy of leniency was
unfortunate. A religious leader named Sidi Maulā, originally a
disciple of Shaikh Farīd-ud-dīn Ganj-i-Shakar of Pāk Pattan or
Ajūdhan had, in 1291, been established for some time at Delhi,
where his mode of life attracted general attention. He accepted
neither an allowance from the state nor offerings from disciples or
admirers, but all might enjoy at the hospice which he had built for
himself the most lavish hospitality. His wealth was attributed by
the vulgar to his discovery of the philosopher's stone, but it has
been suggested that he was a patron and a pensioner of the Thags.
The most frequent guests at his private table were the Khān Khānān
and some of the old nobles of Balban's court, who had enrolled
themselves as his disciples, and their meetings naturally attracted
suspicion It was discovered, one historian says, by Fīrūz himself,
who attended a meeting in disguise, that there was a plot to raise
Sidi Maulā to the throne as Caliph, and he and his principal disciples
were arrested. Scruples, suggested by the theologians, regarding
the legality of the ordeal by fire, disappointed the populace of a
spectacle, and Sidi Maulā was brought before Firūz, who con-
descended to bandy words with him and, losing his temper in the
controversy, turned, in the spirit of Henry II of England, to some
fanatics of another sect and exclaimed, 'Will none of you do justice
for me on this saint ? ' One of the wretches sprang upon Sidi Maulā,
slashed him several times with a razor, and stabbed him with a
packing-needle. Arkali Khān finished the business by bringing up
1


## p. 95 (#135) #############################################

v]
DESIGNS OF 'ALA-UD-DIN
95
a
an elephant which trampled the victim to death. One of those dust-
storms, which, in northern India, darken the noonday sun imme-
diately arose and was attributed by the superstitious to the divine
wrath, as was also a more serious calamity, the failure of the seasonal
rains, which caused a famine so acute that bands of hungry and
desperate wretches are said to have drowned themselves in the Jumna.
Shortly after the execution of Sidi Maulā the suspiciously opportune
death of the Khān Khānān, his principal disciple, was announced,
and Arkali Khān became heir-apparent and remained at Delhi as
regent while his father led an expedition against Ranthambhor. On
his way he captured the fortress and laid waste the district of Jhāin,
but a reconnaissance of Ranthambhor convinced him that the place
could not be taken without losses which he was not prepared to
risk, and he returned to Delhi to endure another lecture from his
outspoken cousin, Ahmad Chap, to whose just strictures he could
oppose no better argument than that he valued each hair of a true
believer's head more than a hundred such fortresses as Ranthambhor.
In 1292 a horde of Mughuls between 100,000 and 150,000 strong,
under the command of a grandson of Hulāgū, invaded India and
penetrated as far as Sunām, where it was met by Firūz. The
advanced guard of the invaders suffered a severe defeat and they
readily agreed to the king's terms. Their army was to be permitted
to leave India unmolested, but Ulghū, a descendant of Chingiz,
and other officers, with their contingents, accepted Islam and entered
the service of Firūz, who gave to Ulghù a daughter in marriage.
The converts settled in the suburbs of Delhi and though many,
after a few years' experience of the Indian climate, returned to
their homes, a large number remained and become known, like
their predecessors, as the New Muslims. The recapture of Mandā-
war from the Hindus and a raid into the Jhāin district completed
the tale of Firūz Shāh's activities in 1292, but in the same year his
nephew 'Alā-ud-din, having received permission to invade Mālwa,
captured the town of Bhilsa, whence he brought much plunder to
Delhi, and received as a reward the great fief of Oudh, in addition
to that of Kara. Nor was this all that he gained by his enterprise,
for he had heard at Bhilsa of the wealth of the great southern
kingdom of Deogir, which extended over the western Deccan, and
his imagination had been fired by dreams of southern conquest.
Without mentioning these designs to his uncle he took advantage
of his indulgent mood to obtain from him permission to raise


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96
(CH.
THE KHALJIS
a
additional troops for the purpose of annexing Chanderi and other
fertile districts of Mālwa.
At this period two Hindu kingdoms existed in the Deccan, as
distinct from the Peninsula ; Deogirl in the west and Warangal or
Telingāna in the east. The former was ruled by Rāmachandra,
the seventh of the northern Yādava dynasty, and the latter by
Rudramma Devī, widow of Ganpati, fifth raja of the Kākatiya
dynasty.
On his return from Delhi 'Alā-ud-din made preparations for his
great enterprise, and, having appointed Malik 'Alā-ul-Mulk his
deputy in Kara, with instructions to supply the king with such
periodical bulletins of news as would allay any anxiety or suspicion,
set out in 1294 at the head of seven or eight thousand horse. After
marching for two months by devious and unfrequented tracks he
arrived at Ellichpur in Berar, where he explained his presence and
secured himself from molestation by letting it be understood that
he was a discontented noble of Delhi on his way to seek service at
Rājamahendri (Rajahmundry) in southern Telingāna. After a halt
of two days he continued his march towards Deogir, where fortune
favoured him. Rāmachandra was taken by surprise and the greater
part of his army was absent with his wife and his eldest son, Shankar,
who were performing a pilgrimage, but he collected two or three
thousand troops and met the invader at Lāsūra, twelve miles from
the city He was defeated and compelled to seek the protection of
his citadel, which he hastily provisioned with sacks taken from
a large caravan passing through the city, only to discover, when it
was too late, that the sacks contained salt instead of grain. Mean-
while 'Alā-ud-din, who now gave out that his troops were but the
advanced guard of an army of 20,000 horse, which was following
him closely, plundered the city and the royal stables, from which
he obtained thirty or forty elephants and some thousands of horse,
and Rāmachandra sued for peace. 'Alā-ud-din agreed to desist
from hostilities on condition of retaining what plunder he had and
of extorting what more he could from the citizens. He collected
over 1400 pounds of gold and a great quantity of pearls and rich
stuffs, and prepared to depart on the fifteenth day after his arrival,
but Shankar, who had heard of the attack on Deogir, had hastened
back, and arrived within six miles of the city as 'Alā-ud-din was
starting on his homeward march. His father in vain implored him
not to break faith with the invaders and he marched to attack
them. 'Alā-ud-din detached Malik Nusrat, with a thousand horse,
1 Since known as Daulatābād.


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v)
INVASION OF THE DECCAN
97
to watch the city and himself turned to meet Shankar. He was on
the point of being overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the
Hindus when Malik Nusrat came to his relief. His force was taken
for the army of which 'Alā-ud-din had boasted and the Hindus broke
and fled in confusion. 'Alā-ud-din now again invested the citadel
and treated his captives and the citizens with great severity, and the
garrison, on discovering that the place had been provisioned with
salt instead of grain, was obliged to sue humbly for peace. 'Alā-ud-
din's terms were now naturally harder than at first, and he demand-
ed the cession of the province of Ellichpur, which was to be adminis-
tered at his convenience and for his benefit either by Rāmachandra's
officers or his own, and the payment of an extravagant indemnity,
amounting to 17,250 pounds of gold, 200 pounds of pearls, 58 pounds
of other gems, 28,250 pounds of silver, and 1000 pieces of silk.
The booty was enormous, but it was the reward of an exploit
as daring and impudent as any recorded in history. 'Alā-ud-din's
objective, the capital of a powerful kingdom, was separated from his
base by a march of two months through unknown regions inhabited
by peoples little likely to be otherwise than hostile. He knew not
what forces might oppose his advance, and he was unable to secure
his retreat, which, by reason of the wealth which he carried with
him, was more perilous than his advance, but fortune befriended
him and his own resourcefulness and high courage sustained him,
and he reached Kara safely with all his treasure.
His lieutenant at Kara had succeeded, by means of false and
temporising messages, in explaining to the satisfaction of the doting
Fīrūz the absence of reports from his nephew. The king's advisers
were less credulous, but were unable to shake his confidence in
'Alā-ud-din, whom he loved, he said, as a son,
Late in the year 1295 Fīrūz went on a hunting tour to Gwalior
and there learned that his nephew was returning from the south to
Kara, laden with such spoils as had never been seen at Delhi. The
news delighted him, and he debated whether he should return to
Delhi to await 'Alā-ud-din's arrival, remain at Gwalior to receive
him, or advance to meet him. Ahmad Chap, without pretending to
conceal his suspicions, advocated the last course, which would take
the ambitious adventurer by surprise, and bring him to his knees,
but Firüz rebuked him for his jealousy of 'Alā-ud-din, whereupon
Ahmad Chap struck his hands together in despair and left the
council chamber, exclaiming, 'If you return to Delhi you slay us
with your own hand. '
C. H. I. III
7


## p. 98 (#138) #############################################

98
[ CH.
THE KHALJIS
'Alā-ud-din was well served at court by his brother Ulugh Khān,
who exerted such influence over Fīrīz that he refused to listen to
any warnings, and who kept his brother informed of all that passed
at court. It was by his advice that 'Alā-ud-dīn assumed an attitude
of apprehensive penitence, declaring that his actions and designs
had been so misrepresented that he feared to appear at court. Ulugh
Khān drew a pitiable picture of his brother's fear and anxiety and
so worked on his uncle's feelings by describing his hesitation between
taking poison and fleeing to a distant country that he persuaded the
old man to visit Kara in person, and himself carried to 'Alā-ud-din
the assurance of his uncle's forgiveness and the news of his approach-
ing visit.
Fīrūz, disregarding the warnings of his counsellors, set out from
Delhi and travelled down the Ganges by boat, escorted by his
troops, which moved by land under the command of Ahmad Chap.
‘Alā-ud-din crossed from Kara to Mānikpur and, as the royal barge
came into sight, drew up his troops under arms and sent his brother
to lure Fīrūz into the trap set for him. 'Alā-ud-din was represented
as being still apprehensive and the king was implored not to permit
his troops to cross to the eastern bank of the river, and to dismiss
all but a few personal attendants. The murmurs of the courtiers
were met with the explanation that 'Alā-ud-din's troops were drawn
up to receive the king with due honour, Fīrūz Shāh's complaints
of 'Alā-ud-dīn's obstinacy were silenced by the excuse that he was
occupied in preparing a feast and in arranging his spoils for pre-
sentation, and Ulugh Khān even persuaded his uncle to order his
few personal attendants to lay aside their arms. As Fīrūz landed
‘Alā-ud-din advanced to meet him and bowed to the ground. The
kindly old man raised him up, embraced him, and chid him for his
fears, and then took his hand and led him towards the boat, still
speaking affectionately to him. 'Alā-ud-din gave a preconcerted
signal and one of his companions, Muhammad Sālim, struck two
blows at the king with a sword, wounding him with the second.
Fīrūz attempted to run towards his boat, crying “Alā-ud-din,
wretch, what have you done ? ! But another assassin, Ikhtiyār-ud.
din, came up behind him, struck him down, severed his head from
his body, and presented it to 'Alā-ud-din. The few attendants of
the king were murdered and the royal umbrella was raised above
the head of 'Alā-ud-din, who was proclaimed king in his camp on
July 19, 1296. The unnatural wretch caused the head of his uncle
and benefactor to be placed on a spear and carried through Mānikpur
and Kara, and afterwards through Ajodhya. The faithful Ahmad


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vl
DEATH OF FIROZ
99
>
Chap would not acknowledge the usurper but returned by forced
marches, and led the army, exhausted by a most arduous march in
the rainy season, into Delhi.
‘Alā-ud-din, doubting his power to cope with the adherents of
Firuz Shāh's lawful heir, was hesitating whether he should march
on Delhi or retire into Bengal when his difficulty was solved by his
old enemy, his mother-in-law. Arkali Khān, the heir, was at Multān,
and Fīrūz Shāh's widow, 'the most foolish of the foolish,' deeming
that a king de facto was necessary, in such a crisis, to the security
of Delhi, proclaimed the younger son of Fīrūz as king, under the
title of Rukn-ud-din Ibrāhīm. Arkali Khān sulked at Multān and
his partisans at Delhi refused to recognise his brother. These divi.
sions encouraged 'Alā-ud-din to march on Delhi and his spoils
provided him with the means of conciliating the populace. At
every stage a balista set up before his tent scattered small gold and
silver coins among the mob. At Budaun he halted, for an army
had been sent from Delhi to bar his way, but no battle was fought,
for the nobles were lukewarm in the cause of Ibrāhīm and 'Alā-ud.
din's bursting coffers justified a transference of allegiance. He was
thus enabled to advance on Delhi at the head of an army of 60,000
horse and 60,000 foot, and Ibrāhīm, after a feeble demonstration,
fled towards Multān with his mother and the faithful Ahmad Chap,
and on October 3, 1296, ‘Alā-ud-din was enthroned in the Red Palace
of Balban, which he made his principal place of residence.
The new king, having gained the throne by an act of treachery
and ingratitude seldom equalled even in oriental annals, conciliated
the populace by a lavish distribution of his southern gold, but his
example was infectious and attempts to follow it disturbed the early
years of his reign. These and other causes, irruptions of the Mughuls
and the necessity for subjugating the Hindu rulers of Rājputāna,
Mālwa and Gujarāt protected the Deccan for a while from a second
visitation, for the king of Delhi could not conduct war after the
fashion of the desperater adventurer who had been ready to risk all on
a single throw.
Ulugh Khan and Hijabr-ud-din were sent with an army of
40,000 to Multān to secure the persons of Arkali Khān, Ibrāhīm,
and their mother. The city surrendered at once and the princes
and their few remaining adherents fell into the hands of Ulugh
Khān, and by the king's instructions they, their brother-in-law
Ulghū Khān the Mughul and Ahmad Chap were blinded when they
reached Hānsī, and the widow of Fīruz was kept under close restraint.
a
7-2


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100
( CH.
THE KHALJIS
During the early years of his reign ‘Alā-ud-din was ably and
faithfully served by four men, his brother Ulugh Khān, Nusrat
Khān, who was rewarded for his services at Deogir with the post
of minister, Zafar Khān, who had served him well at Kara, and
Alp Khān of Multān. 'Alā-ul-Mulk, his faithful lieutenant at Kara,
-
received the post of Kolwal of Delhi, being now too gross for more
active employment.
'Alā. ud-din had been no more than a few months on the throne
when a large horde of Mughuls invaded his kingdom. Zafar Khān,
who was sent against them, defeated them with great slaughter
near Jullundur, and his victory was celebrated with rejoicings at
Delhi, but his military genius rendered him an object of jealousy
and suspicion to his master.
After the repulse of the Mughuls the king considered the case
of those nobles whom his own bribes had seduced from their allegi-
ance to his predecessor. It ill became him to condemn them but
it was evident that they were not to be trusted, and cupidity and
policy pointed in the same direction. They were despoiled by
degrees, first of their hoards and then of their lands, and when
nothing else remained they suffered in their persons. Some were
put to death, some were blinded, and some were imprisoned for
life, and the families of all were reduced to beggary. All deserved
their fate, but none was so guilty as he who decided it.
In 1297 'Alā-ud-dīn resolved to undertake the conquest of the
Hindu kingdom of Gujarāt which, though frequently plundered,
had never yet been subdued, and had long enjoyed immunity, even
from raids. Ulugh Khān and Nusrat Khān were selected for the
task and invested and took its ancient capital, Anhilvāra, now
Pātan, captured the wife of raja Karan, its ruler, and sent to Delhi
as a trophy the idol which had been set up at Somnāth to replace
that destroyed by Mahmūd. Raja Karan and his daughter, Deval
Devī, fled, and found an asylum for a time with Rāmachandra of
Deogir. Nusrat Khān plundered the wealthy merchants of the port
of Cambay and obtained, with much other booty, a Hindu eunuch
nicknamed at first Kāfür and afterwards Hazārdīnārī, 'the thousand
dinār Slave' from the price which he had originally been bought.
This wretch became successively the king's vile favourite, lieutenant
of the kingdom, and, for a short time before and after 'Alā-ud-din's
death, its ruler.
After establishing a Muslim government in Gujarāt Ulugh Khān
and Nusrat Khān set out for Delhi, and at Jālor distributed the
plunder taken in the expedition. The allotment of the greater part


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v]
'ALA-UD-DIN'S DREAMS
101
of it caused grave discontent, and the new Muslims mutinied and
slew Nusrat Khān's brother and a nephew of 'Alā-ud-din. The
great drums were sounded, the troops responded to the call to arms,
and the mutineers, outnumbered, took to flight and were pursued
with great slaughter. Those who escaped took refuge with various
Hindu chieftains principally with Hamīr Deo, raja of Ranthambhor,
but were unable to escape vicarious punishment, for the fierce tyrant
of Delhi put their wives and families to death in circumstances of
revolting brutality, and Nusrat Khān avenged his brother's death
by delivering the wives of the murderers to the embraces of the
scavengers of Delhi, an unspeakable degradation.
The historians of India attribute to 'Alā-ud-din the introduction
of the barbarous practice of visiting the sins of rebels on the heads
of their innocent wives and children ; but the accusation is not
strictly just, for there are instances of the practice before his time.
It was he, however, who first elevated it into a political principle.
In this year the Mughuls again invaded India and took the
fortress of Sibi, which Zafar Khān recaptured after a short siege,
and took their leader with 1700 of his followers and their wives
and daughters, and sent them to Delhi ; but the success was an-
other step towards his ruin.
Hitherto 'Alā-ud-din had prospered in everything to which he
had set his hand, and his success had turned his brain. He detected
an analogy between himself with his four faithful servants and the
founder of his faith with his four companions and successors, Abu
Bakr, 'Usmān, 'Umar, and 'Alī, and dreamed of spiritual as well as
material conquests. In the latter he sought to surpass Alexander
of Macedon and in the former Muhammad. He would ask his boon
companions, over the wine. cups, why he should not surpass both.
His suggestion that he should declare himself a prophet was received
in silence by his associates but his proposal to emulate Alexander
was applauded.
These projects had been considered at the royal symposia for
some time before 'Alā-ud-Mulk the Kotwal, who by reason of his
corpulence was excused from attendance at court oftener than
once a month, was commanded to deliver his opinion upon them.
After demanding that the wine should be removed and that all but
the king's most intimate associates should withdraw he deprecated
'Alā-ud-din's wrath and proceeded to speak his mind. Innovations
in religion, he said, were for prophets, and not for kings. Their
success depended not on might, nor on power, but on the will of
the Lord of Hosts. It was useless for a king, however great, to


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102
(CH.
THE KHALJIS
attempt the foundation of a new religion, for unless he were truly
inspired of God he would not long be able to deceive himself, much
less the world.
‘Alā-ud-din remained for some time sunk in thought, and at
length, raising his head, acknowledged the justice of the rebuke
and declared that he had abandoned his impious design. Against
the second project ‘Alā-ul-Mulk had no moral objections to urge,
but he observed that a great part of India remained yet un.
conquered, that the land was a constant prey to marauding Mughuls,
that there was no Aristotle to govern the realm in the king's absence
and that there were no officers to whom the government of conquered
kingdoms could be entrusted. Waxing bolder he exhorted 'Alā-ud.
din to avoid excess in wine, and to devote less of his time to the
chase and more to public business.