No More Learning

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284
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
where Hāji Khān atoned by faithful service for past disobedience
and was rewarded by being designated heir to the throne.
Shortly after this time the king fell sick, and a faction persuaded
Ādam Khăn to return to the capital, but his arrival at Srinagar
was distasteful to his father, and he was ill received. Others, with
better intent, endeavoured to bring about a reconciliation between
the two elder brothers, but the attempt was foiled by Bahrām Khān,
and Ādam Khān retired to Qutb-ud-dinpur, near the city.
As the old king grew weaker his counsellors, dreading a fratri-
cidal war, begged him to abdicate in favour of one of his sons, but
he rejected their advice, and the three princes remained under
arms, It is needless to recite at length their intrigues. " Hāji Khān
was supported by his brother Bahrām, and by the majority of the
nobles, and Ādam Khān was obliged to leave Kashmir, so that
when Zain-ul-Abidin died, in November or December, 1470, Hāji
Khān ascended the throne without opposition as Haidar Shāh.
With the death of Zain-ul-Abidin the power of the royal line
founded by Shāh Mirzā declined, and the later kings were mere
puppets set up, pulled down, and set up again by factious and
powerful nobles, who were supported by their clansmen. The most
powerful and most turbulent of these tribes was the Chakk clan,
who even in the reign of Zain-ul-'Ābidin, became such a menace
to the public peace that he was obliged to expel them from the
Kashmir valley, but under his feebler successors they returned,
and, after exercising for a long time the power without the name
of royalty, eventually usurped the throne.
Haidar Shāh was a worthless and drunken wretch who entirely
neglected public business and permitted his ministers to misgovern
his people as they would. His indulgence of their misconduct was
tempered by violent outbursts of wrath which alienated them from
him, and his elder brother Adam Khān, learning of his un popularity,
returned towards Kashmir with a view to seizing the throne, but
on reaching Jammū was discouraged by the news of the death of
Hasan Kachhi and other nobles on whose support he had reckoned,
and who had been put to death on the advice of a barber named
Lūli. He remained at Jammū, and, in assisting the raja to expel
some invaders from his dominions, received a wound from the effects
of which he died.
The nobles now conspired to raise to the throne Bahrām Khān,
Haidar Shāh's younger brother, but Hasan Khān, his son, who had
been raiding the Punjab, returned to maintain his claim to the
throne, and when his father, in December, 1471, or January, 1472,
а


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xii ]
DECLINE OF THE ROYAL POWER
285
slipped, in a drunken fit, on a polished floor, and died of the injuries
which he received, Ahmad, Aswad, one of the most powerful of the
courtiers, caused him to be proclaimed king under the title of Hasan
Shāh.
Bahrām Khān and his son Yusuf Khān, who had intended to
contest Hasan's claim to the throne, were deserted by their troops,
and, leaving the valley of Kashmir, took refuge in the hills of Kama,
to the west of Kamrāj. Shortly afterwards a faction persuaded
them to return, but they were defeated by Hasan Shāh's army, and
both were captured. Bahrām was blinded and died within three
days of the operation.
Ahmad Aswad, who had been entitled Malik Ahmad, acquired
great influence over Hasan Shāh, who, though less apathetic than
his father, displayed little devotion to business. He sent an expe-
dition under Malik Yāri Bhat to co-operate with the troops of the
raja of Jammū in ravaging the northern districts of the Punjab,
where Tātār Khān Lodi represented the military oligarchy over
which his cousin Buhlūl presided at Delhi. The town of Sialkot
was sacked, and Malik Yāri Bhat returned with as much plunder
as enabled him to form a faction of his own, and when Hasan Shāh
required tutors and guardians for his two young sons he confided
Muhammad, the elder, to Malik Naurūz, son of Malik Ahmad, and
Husain, the younger, to Yāri Bhat. This impartiality encouraged
both factions, and their passions rose to such a height that Malik
Ahmad forfeited his master's favour by permitting his troops to
become embroiled, in the royal presence, with those of his rival,
and was thrown into prison, where he presently died.
The mother of the two young princes was a Sayyid, and the
king, after the death of Malik Ahmad, selected her father as his
minister. The Sayyids became, for a time, all powerful in the state,
Malik Yārī Bhat was imprisoned and many other nobles fled from
the valley of Kashmir. Among these was Jahāngir, chief of the
Mākū clan, who established himself in the fortress of Loharkot.
In 1489 Hasan Shāh, whose constitution had been enfeebled by
debauchery, died, and the Sayyid faction raised to the throne his
elder son, Muhammad in whose name they ruled the kingdom, but
their arrogance so exasperated the other nobles that they chose
as their candidate for the throne Fath Khān, the son of Hasan's
uncle, Adım Khān, and succeeded, before the child Muhammad
had occupied the throne for a year, in establishing Fath Shāh.
Muhammad was relegated to the women's quarters in the palace,
where he was well treated.
a


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286
(cui.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
The history of Kashmir for the next half century is no more
than a record of the strife of turbulent nobles, each with a puppet
king the least important actor on the stage, to place on the throne.
Their intrigues and conflicts are of little interest.
One solitary event during this period is worthy of record. This
was the appearance in Kashmir, during the first reign of Fath Shāh
(1489-1497) of a preacher from Tālish, on the shores of the Caspian,
named Shams-ud-din, who described himself as a disciple of Sayyid
Muhammad Nur Bakhsh of Khurāsān, and preached a strange
medley of doctrines. He named his sect Nür Bakhsh ('Enlighten-
ing'), after his master, but its tenets resembled in no way any
doctrines ever taught by Sayyid Muhammad. Shams-ud-din pro-
fessed to be an orthodox Sunnī, like the majority of the inhabitants
of the valley of Kashmir, but the doctrines set forth in his theo.
logical work entitled Ahwatah, or ‘most comprehensive,' are de-
scribed as a mass of infidelity and heresy, conforming neither to
the Sunni nor to the Shiah creed. He insisted on the duty of
cursing the first three orthodox Caliphs and the prophet's wife,
'Ayishah, a distinctively Shiah practice which strikes at the root
of Sunni orthodoxy and accentuates the chief difference between
the sects. He differed from the Shiahs in regarding Sayyid Mu-
hammad Nur Bakhsh as the promised Mahdi, who was to appear
in the last days and establish Islam throughout the world, and
taught much else which was irreconcilable with the doctrines of
any known sect of Islam.
Mirzā Haidar the Mughul, who conquered Kashmir in 1541,
found the sect strongly represented at Srinagar, and, obtaining a
copy of the Ahwatah, sent it to the leading Sunni doctors of the
law in India, who authoritatively pronounced it to be heretical.
Armed with this decision Mirzā Haidar went about to extirpate
the heresy. 'Many of the people of Kashmir,' he writes, 'who were
strongly attached to this apɔstasy, I brought back, whether they
would or no, to the true faith, and many I slew. A number took
refuge in Sufi-ism, but are no true Sufis, having nothing but the
name. Such are a handful of dualists, in league with a handful of
atheists to lead men astray, with no regard to what is lawful and
what is unlawful, placing piety and purity in night watches and
abstinence from food, but eating and taking without discrimina-
tion what they find : gluttonous and avaricious, pretending to inter-
pret dreams, to work miracles, and to predict the future. ' Ortho-
doxy was safe in Mirzā Haidar's hands.
The enthronement of Fath Shāh was a blow to the Sayyids, but


## p. 287 (#333) ############################################

xu]
RISE OF THE CHAKK TRIBE
287
within the next few years the chiefs of the popular party quarrelled
among themselves, and in 1497 Muhammad Shah, now about six-
teen years of age, was restored by Ibrāhīm Mākarī, whom he made
his minister, designating Iskandar Khān, the elder son of Fath
Shāh, as his heir; but in 1498 Fath Shāh regained the throne, only
to be expelled again in 1499, when he escaped to the plains of India,
where he died.
Muhammad Shāh was the first to raise a number of the Chakk
tribe to high office, by appointing as his minister Malik Kāji Chakk,
with whose assistance he retained the throne, on this occasion,
until 1526. The Mākarīs and other clans resented the domination
of the Chakks, and made more than one attempt to raise Iskandar
Khān to the throne, but the pretender fell into the hands of his
cousin Muhammad, who blinded him. This action offended Kāji
Chakk, who deposed Muhammad, and raised to the throne his elder
son, Ibrāhim I.
Abdal Mākari fled into the Punjab after the failure of the last
attempt to raise Iskandar to the throne, and there found Nāzuk, the
second son of Fath Shāh, with whom, after obtaining some help
from Bābur's officers in the Punjab, he returned to Kashmir. Malik
Kāji Chakk and Ibrāhim I met him at Naushahra (Nowshera), and
were utterly defeated. Kāji Chakk fled to Srinagar, and thence
into the mountains, but Ibrāhīm appears to have been slain, for he
is no more heard of. He reigned for no more than eight months
and a few days.
Abdal Mākari enthroned Nāzuk Shāh at Nowshera in 1527, and
advanced on Srinagar, which he occupied. After dismissing his
Mughal allies with handsome presents he sent to Loharkot for
Muhammad Shāh, and in 1529 enthroned him for the fourth time.
Malik Kāji Chakk made an attempt to regain his supremacy, but
was defeated and fled to the Indian plains. He returned shortly
afterwards, and joined Abdāl in defending their country against a
force sent to invade it by Kāmrān Mirzā, the second son of Bābur.
The Mughuls were defeated and retired into the Punjab.
Abdāl Mākari and Kāji Chakk again fought side by side in
1533, when a force sent by Sultān Sa'id Khān of Kāshghar and
commanded by his son Sikandar Khān and Mirzā Haider invaded
the Kashmir valley from the north, and by their ravages inflicted
terrible misery on the inhabitants. The battle was indecisive, but
the army of Kashmir fought so fiercely from morning until evening
that the invaders were fain to make peace and withdraw from the
country, relinquishing some of their plunder. Their departure was


## p. 288 (#334) ############################################

288
(cit.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
>
followed by a severe famine, during which large number died of
hunger and many more fled the country.
Muhammad Shāh died in 1534, having reigned four times, and
was succeeded by his surviving son, Shams-ud-din II, who died in
June or July, 1540, when Nāzuk Shāh was restored.
In this year Mirzā Haidar the Mughal again invaded Kashmir.
He was with Humāyūn at Lahore, and obtained some assistance
from him on promising, in the event of success, to govern Kashmir
as his vassal. He had with him no more than 400 horse, but was
joined by Abdāl Mākari and Zangi Chakk, who, having rebelled in
Kamrāj, had been defeated by Kāji Chakk. His allies engaged
Kāji Chakk's attention by threatening a frontal attack while he
marching by Punch, where the passes were undefended, turned the
enemy's right flank and, on November 22, 1540, entered Srīnagar
unopposed.
Mirzā Haidar, aided by Abdal Mākari and Zangi Chakk, occu-
pied himself with the administration of his easily won kingdom,
while Kāji Chahk fled to Delhi and sought aid of Sher Shāh, who
placed at his disposal 5000 horse. He returned to Kashmir in 1541,
but was defeated by Mirzā Haidar and found an asylum in Baram-
galla, where he was joined, in 1543, by his kinsman Zangi Chakk,
who had become suspicious of Haidar's attitude towards him. An
attempt to recover Srinagar was defeated in 1544, and they were
compelled to return to Baramgalla, where, in 1545, Kāji Chakk and
his son Muhammad died of fever. In the following year Zangi
Chakk and his son Ghāzi attacked a force under Haidar's officers,
and both were killed. These opportune casualties among
his
enemies allowed Haidar leisure to receive with due honour a mis-
sion from Käshghar, his own country, and to lead into Kishtwār an
expedition which was compelled to retreat after suffering heavy
losses and accomplishing nothing. Expeditions to Rājāori and the
region beyond Bāltistān were more successful, and these districts
were annexed in 1548.
In 1519 the Chakk tribe gave offence to Islām Shāh Sūr of Delhi
by harbouring Haibat Khān and other Niyāzi Afghāns who had
rebelled against him. They made their peace with Delhi, but
attempted to utilise Haibat Khān as a counterpoise to Mirzā Haidar
in Kashmir. Mirzā Haidar was strong enough to frustrate this
design, but was obliged, in order to strengthen his position, to con-
ciliate Islām Shāh by a remittance of tribute.
The affection of racial superiority by the Mughuls gave great
offence to the natives of Kashmir, and in 1551 Haidar's officers at


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XII ]
DEATH OF MIRZĀ HAIDAR
289
Bāra mūla, where a mixed force proceeding to restore order in the
eastern districts was encamped, warned him that the Kashmiri
officers were meditating mischief. Mirzā Haidar, though he received
confirmation of their report from the Mākarīs, always his staunch
allies, committed the fatal error of mistrusting his own officers,
whom he accused of contentiousness. The force continued its march
from Bāramūla, the Mughuls were surrounded in the mountains,
eighty officers were slain, others were captured, and a few escaped
to Baramgalla. The outrage was followed by a rising throughout
the provinces, where Mughul officers were either slain or compelled
to flee.
Mirzā Haidar was now left with a handful of Mughuls at Srinagar,
and to oppose the united forces of the Kashmir nobles, who were
now returning from Bāramūla he hastily raised a force from the
lower classes in the capital, who were neither well affected nor
of any fighting value. With no more than a thousand men he
marched from the city and attempted to counterbalance his moral
and numerical inferiority by surprising the enemy in a night attack
on his camp, but was slain in the darkness by some of his own men.
The remnant of the Mughuls was pursued to the citadel of Srinagar,
and after enduring a siege of three days was fain to purchase, by a
timely surrender, a safe retreat from Kashmir.
Thus, late in 1551, ended ten years of Mughul rule in Kashmir,
whose turbulent nobles were now free to resume their intrigues
and quarrels. Nāzuk Shāh was seated, for the third time, on the
throne, and the chiefs of the Chakk tribe extended their influence
by judicious intermarriage with other tribes. An invasion by Haibat
Khān, at the head of a force of Niyāzi Afghāns, was repelled, and
the victory helped Daulat, now the most proininent C'Hakk, to
acquire the supreme power in the state. In 1552 he deposed Nāzuk
Shāh, who had reigned for no more than ten months, and enthroned
his elder son, Ibrāhīm II, whose short reign of three years was
marked by a victory over the Tibetans, who had invaded the king-
dom, and by a great earthquake which changed the course of the
Jhelum, as well as by a quarrel between Daulat Chakk and another
chieftain of the same tribe, Ghāzi Khān son, of Kāji Chakk.
Ghāzi Khăn, whose success secured for him the position which
Daulat had held, deposed Ibrāhīm II in 1555, and placed on the
throne his younger brother, Ismā'il Shāh. The quarrels between
chieftains of the Chakk tribe continued throughout his brief reign
of two years and that of his son and successor, Habib Shāh, who
was raised to the throne on his father's death in 1557, but Ghāzi
C. H. I. III.
19


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290
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
Khān retained his supremacy and in 1558 crushed the serious re-
bellion of Yusuf Chakk, who was supported by Shāh Abu-'l-Ma'āli,
recently escaped from Lahore, where he had been imprisoned by
Akbar, and Kamāl Khān the Gakhar. In 1559 Ghāzi Khān executed
his own son Haidar, who was conspiring against him and had mur.
dered the agent whom he had sent to advise him to mend his ways;
and in the following year crushed another serious rebellion sup.
ported by Mughuls and Gakhars from the Punjab.
In 1561 Ghāzi Khān dethroned and imprisoned Habib Shah,
and, finding that it was no longer necessary to veil his authority
with the name of a puppet, ascended the throne under the title of
Ghāzi Shāh.
The house of Shāh Mirzā had held the throne for 215 years,
from 1346 to 1561, but his descendants since 1470 had exercised
no authority in the state.
In 1562 Ghāzi Shāh sent his son Ahamd Khān in command of
an expedition into Tibet. His advanced guard was defeated, and
instead of pressing forward to its support he fled with the main
body of his force—an act of cowardice which cost him a throne.
Ghāzi Shāh set out in the following years to retrieve the disaster,
but was obliged by his disease to return. He was a leper, who had
already lost his fingers and on this expedition lost his sight. He
learnt that disturbances were impending in the capital owing to
the animosity of two factions, one of which supported the claim of
his son, Ahmad, and the other that of his half-brother, Husain, to
the throne. He returned at once to Srinagar and, being no longer
physically fit to reign, abdicated in favour of his half-brother who
in 1563-64, ascended the throne as Nāsir-ud-din Husain Shāh.
Ghāzi Shāh could not at once abandon the habits formed during
a long period of absolute power and so resented a measure taken
by his brother to remedy an act of injustice committed by himself
that he attempted to revoke his abdication, but found no support,
and was obliged to retire into private life.
Husain's was a troubled reign. His elder brother, Shankar
Chakk, twice rose in rebellion, but was defeated, and a powerful
faction conspired to raise his nephew Ahmad to the throne, but
he inveigled the conspirators into his palace and arrested them.
Ahmad and two others were afterwards blinded, and Ghāzi Shāh's
death is said to have been hastened by grief for his son.
In 1565 the minister, Khān Zamān Khān, fell into disgrace, and
was urged by some of his supporters to seize the royal palace while
the king was hunting, and to raise Ahmad, who had not yet been


## p. 291 (#337) ############################################

XII]
IMPERIAL INTERVENTION
291
blinded, to the throne. Khān Zamān attacked the palace, but his
son, Bahādur Khān, was slain by the king's servants while at.
tempting to force an entry and he himself was captured and suf-
fered death by impalement, his ears, nose, hands, and feet having
first been amputated.
In 1568 a religious disturbance gave Akbar's envoy, Mirzā
,
Muqim, a pretext for interfering in the domestic affairs of the
kingdom. Qāzi Habib, a Sunni was severely wounded with a sword
by one Yusuf, a fanatical Shiah, who was seized and brought before
the doctors of the law, who adjudged him worthy of death, despite
the protests of his victim, who said that so long as he lived his
assailant could not lawfully be put to death. Yusuf was stoned to
death and Husain Shāh replied to the protests of the Shiahs that
he had but executed a sentence passed by the doctors of the law.
Mirzā Muqim, who was a Shiah, demanded the surrender of the
wounded man and those who had pronounced the illegal sentence,
but the latter defended themselves by asserting that they had
passed no sentence of death, but hai merely expressed the opinion
that Yusuf might be executed in the interests of the public tran-
quillity. Husain escaped the clamour of the contending sects by a
river tour, and the jurists were delivered into the custody of Fath
Khăn Chakk, a Shiah, who, after treating them with great harsh-
ness, put them to death by Mirzā Muqim's order, and caused their
bodies to be dragged through the streets of the city.
The affair caused Husain Shāh much anxiety and, believing
that his hesitation to punish the doctors of the law would give
offence to Akbar, he sent him, by Mirzā Muqim, a daughter and
many rich gifts, but Akbar was offended by his envoy's display of
religious bigotry, and put him to death. It was reported in Kashmir
that the emperor was sending back the princess, and this gross
indignity so preyed upon the king's spirits as to increase the weak-
ness and depression caused by an attack of dysentery from which
he was already suffering. While he was in this feeble state of
health his brother 'Ali Khān assembled his troops with the object
of seizing the throne. Husain 's conduct during the recent troubles
had alienated most of his supporters, and he found himself deserted,
and, surrendering the crown to his brother, retired to one of his
villas, where he died three weeks later.
'Ali Shāh, who ascended the throne in 1569-70, was happier in
his relations with Akbar than his brother had been. In 1578 he
received two envoys, Maulānā 'Ishqi and Qāzi Sadr-ud-din, whom
hę sent back to the imperial court with rich gifts and a report,
19-2


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292
[ CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
gratifying to the emperor, that the khutba had been recited in
Kashmir in his name. His reign of nearly nine years was troubled
by the usual rebellions, and by one severe famine in 1576. He died
in 1579 from the effects of an accident at polo similar to that which
caused the death of Qutb-ud-din Aibak of Delhi, the high pommel
of his saddle entering his belly, and was succeeded by his son, Yusuf
Shāh.
The early years of Yūsul's reign were even more than usually
full of incident. He was immediately called upon to quell a serious
rebellion headed by his uncle, Abdāl Chakk, and had no sooner
suppressed it than Mubarak Khān, a leading Sayyid, rose in rebel-
lion and usurped the throne. A counter-rebellion displaced the
Sayyid, who approached Yûsuf and owned him as his sovereign,
but the reconciliation came too late, for Lohar Chakk, Yūsuf's
cousin, seized the throne.
Yusuf left Kashmir, and on January 2, 1580, appeared before
Akbar at Fathpur. Sīkri, and sought his aid. In August he left the
court armed with an order directing the imperial officers in the
Punjab to assist him in regaining his throne.
His allies were pre-
paring to take the field when many of the leading nobles of Kashmir,
dreading an invasion by an imperial army, sent him a message
promising to restore him to his throne if he would return alone.
He entered Kashmir and was met at Baramgalla by his supporters.
Lohar Chakk was still able to place an army in the field and sent
it to Baramgalla, but Yusuf, evading it, advanced by another road
on Sopur, where he met Lohar Chakk and, on November 8, 1580,
defeated and captured him, and regained his throne.
The remainder of the reign produced the usual crop of rebellions,
but none so sericus as those which had already been suppressed.
His chief anxiety, henceforth, was the emperor. He was indebted
to him for ro material help, but he would not have regained his
throne so easily, and might not have regained it at all, had it not
been known that Akbar was prepared to aid him. The historians
of the imperial court represent him, after his restoration, as Akbar's
governor of Kashmir, invariably describing him as Yusuf Khān,
and he doubtless made, as a suppliant, many promises of which no
trustworthy record exists. His view was that as he had regained
his throne without the aid of foreign troops he was still an inde.
pendent sovereign, but he knew that this was not the view held
at the imperial court, where he was expected to do homage in
person for his kingdom. In 1581 Akbar, then halting at Jalālābād
on his return from Kābul, sent Mir Tahir and Sālih Divāna as


## p. 293 (#339) ############################################

inj
ANNEXATION
293
envoys to Kashmir but Yusuf, after receiving the mission with
extravagant respect, sent to court his son Haidar, who returned
after a year. His failure to appear in person was still the subject
of remark and in 1584 he sent his elder son, Ya'qub, to represent
him. Ya'qub reported that Akbar intended to visit Kashmir, and
Yusuf prepared, in fear and trembling, to receive him, but the
visit was postponed, and he was called upon to receive nobody
more important than two new envoys, Hakim 'Ali Gilāni and Bahā-
ud-din.
Ya'qub, believing his life to be in danger, fled from the imperial
camp at Lahore, and Yūsuf would have gone in person to do homage
to Akbar, had he not been dissuaded by his nobles. He was treated
as a recalcitrant vassal, and an army under raja Bhagwān Dās
invaded Kashmir. Yusuf held the passes against the invaders, and
the raja, dreading a winter campaign in the hills and believing
that formal submission would still satisfy his master, made peace
on Yusuf's undertaking to appear at court. The promise was ful-
filled on April 7, 1586, but Akbar refused to ratify the treaty which
Bhagwān Dās had made, and broke faith with Yūsuf by detaining
him as a prisoner. The raja, sensitive on a point of honour, com-
mitted suicide.
Ya'qub remained in Kashmir, and though imperial officers were
sent to assume charge of the administration of the province, at-
tempted to maintain himself as regent, or rather as king, and carried
on a guerrilla warfare for more than two years, but was finally
induced to submit and appeared before Akbar, when he visited
Kashmir, on August 8, 1589.
Akbar's treatment of Yūsuf is one of the chief blots on his
character. After a year's captivity the prisoner was released and
received a fief in Bihār and the command of five hundred horse.
The emperor is credited with the intention of promoting him, but
he never rose above this humble rank, in which he was actively
employed under Mān Singh in 1592 in Bengal, Orissa, and Chuta
Nagpur.


## p. 294 (#340) ############################################

CHAPTER XIII
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
The great empire of Muhammad Tughluq was dismembered
partly by his own ferocious tyranny and partly by the weakness of
his successors. Bengal revolted in 1338 and the Deccan in 1347,
during Muhammad's lifetime. There were no further defections in
the reign of his successor Firūz, who had some success in Bengal,
but failed to recover the province, but the twenty-five years which
followed the death of Firūz witnessed the accession of one weak.
ling after another to the throne of Delhi, the destruction of such
power as still remained in the hands of the central government by
the invasion of Tīmūr, and the establishment of independent prin-
cipalities in Sind, Oudh, Khāndesh, Gujarāt, and Mālwa.
Malik Ahmad, the founder of the small principality of Khāndesh
was not, however, a rebel against the king of Delhi, but against
the Bahmani dynasty of the Deccan. In 1365 he joined the rebel-
lion of Bahram Khān Māzandarāni against Muhammad I, the second
king of that line, and when he was compelled to flee from the
Deccan established himself at Thālner, on the Tāpti. By 1382 he
had conquered the surrounding country and ruled his small terri-
tory as an independent prince. He was known both as Malik Raja
and Raja Ahmad, but he and his successors for some generations
were content with the title of Khān, from which circumstance their
small principality became known as Khāndesh, 'the country of
the Khāns. ' His dynasty was distinguished by the epithet Fāruqi,
from the title of the second Caliph, 'Umar, al-Fārūq, or "The Dis-
criminator,' from whom Ahmad claimed descent.
The kingdom of Gujarāt was established in 1396. Farhat-ul.
Mulk, who had been appointed governor of the province by Fīrūz
Shāh, had long ceased to pay any heed to orders received from
Delhi and the inhabitants groaned under his yoke. In 1391 Mu-
hammad Shāh, the youngest son of Firūz, appointed Zafar Khăn
to the government of Gujarāt, and sent him to establish his autho-
rity there. The new governor was the son of a Rajput convert to
Islam, Wajih-ul-Mulk of Didwāna, governor of Nāgaur. On January
4, 1392, he defeated and mortally wounded Farhat-ul-Mulk at
Gāmbhū, eighteen miles south of Pātan, and gradually reduced to
obedience all disorderly elements in the province. In 1396 the


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CH. XII ]
SULTĂN MUZAFFAR I
295
strife between two rival kings Mahmud Shāh and Nusrat Shāh,
and the impossibility of determining to whom allegiance was due,
furnished him with a pretext for declaring himself independent,
and he was joined in the following year by his son Tātār Khān,
who, having espoused the cause of the pretender Nusrat Shāh, had
been compelled to flee from Delhi. Zafar Khān was preparing to
march to Delhi when he was deterred by tokens of Tīmūr's im-
pending invasion, and devoted the whole of his attention to his
campaign against the Rājput state of Idar, which he subdued in
1400.
In 1399 Mahmud Shāh of Delhi and large numbers of fugitives
fleeing before Tīmūr arrived in Gujarāt. They were hospitably
received, but Mahmūd considered that Zafar Khān's attitude to
him was not sufficiently deferential, and retired to Mālwa, where
he took refuge with Dilāvar Khān Ghūrī, the governor.
In 1403 Tātār Khān, learning that Iqbāl Khān, or Mallū, who
had driven him from Delhi, had so humiliated Mahmud Shāh that
the latter had fled from him, urged his father to march on Delhi
and assume control of the situation, but Zafar Khān was well
stricken in years and shrank from the enterprise. He so far yielded
to his son's importunity as to place a force at his disposal in order
that he might wreak his vengeance on his former antagonist, but
Tātār Khān, finding himself at the head of an army, rose against
his father, seized him and imprisoned him at Asāwal, and caused
himself to be proclaimed king under the title of Nāsir-ud-din
-
Muhammad Shāh. Having thus secured his father he appointed
his uncle Shams Khān regent of the kingdom, with the title of
Nusrat Khān, and set out for Delhi in order to carry out his
original project, but as soon as he had left Asāwal Zafar Khăn
persuaded the regent, his brother, to follow the rebel and privily
compass his death. Shams (Nusrat) Khān set out for Tātār's camp
and there poisoned him in a draught of wine, and on his return
released his brother and restored him to his throne, which he now
ascended under the title of Sultan Muzaffar.
In 1407 Muzaffar invaded Mālwa and besieged the king, Hüshang
Shāh, in Dhār. The pretext for this attack was his resolve to
avenge the death of his old friend and comrade, Dīlāvar Khăn, who
had been poisoned by his son Hūshang. Dhār fell, and Hüshang
was captured and imprisoned, and Muzaffar established his own
brother, Nusrat Khān (Shams Khān) in Dhār.
After capturing Dhār Muzaffar learnt that Ibrahim Shāh of
Jaunpur, having annexed some districts to the east of the Ganges,


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296
[CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHẮNDESH
intended to attack Delhi ; he thereupon marched from Malwa to
the support of Mahmūd Shāh Tughluq, carrying with him the cap-
tive Hushang. The menace deterred Ibrāhīm from prosecuting his
enterprise and Muzaffar returned to Gujarāt.
Nusrat Khăn had made himself so odious by his exactions in
Mālwa that the army expelled him, and elected Mūsā Khān, a
cousin of Hūshang as their governor, and Muzaffar, who was not
prepared to permit the army of Mālwa to rule the destinies of that
country, sent his grandson Ahmad, son of Tātār Khān, to restore
Hüshang who was sent with him. Ahmad reinstated Hüshang in
Mālwa and returned to Gujarāt, where he was designated heir to
the kingdom by his grandfather.
Muzaffar died in June, 1411, and Ahmad was confronted on his
succession, by a serious rebellion, headed by his four uncles, Firūz
Khăn, Haibat hãn, Sa’adat Khăn, and Sher Khăn, who resented
their nephew's elevation to the throne. He succeeded, without
bloodshed, in inducing them to acknowledge him as their sovereign,
and was enabled to turn his arms against Hushang Shāh of Mālwa
whom he had summoned to his aid but who had determined, instead
of assisting him, to profit by his difficulties. Hūshang who had
hoped to find him fully occupied with the rebels, retreated pre-
cipitately when he learnt that the rebellion had been extinguished
and that Ahmad was marching against him, but his retirement
was followed by a fresh rising of the rebels, who were however,
defeated and dispersed. The rebellion of the raja of Jhālāwar then
called Ahmad into Kāthīāwār, and during his absence in that region
Hūshang at the invitation of Ahmad's uncles, again invaded Gu.
jarāt, and Ahmad, returning from Jhālāwar sent his brother Latif
Khān against their uncles and 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sha'bān one of his
nobles, against Hüshang who, finding that he was not supported
retired to Mālwa, while Latii Khān dispersed the rebels and com.
pelled them to seek refuge with the Chudasama chief of Girnār
in Sorath. Ahmad proceeded to chastise the raja for harbouring
them, defeated him in the field, and besieged him in his fort on
the Girnār hill. He purchased peace by a promise to pay tribute,
and Ahmad, who was suddenly called away by a report of the
invasion of Nandurbār, left two of his officers to collect the tribute
and returned to his new city of Ahmadābād, which he had built
on the site of Asāwal, to assemble troops for the expulsion of the
invader.
Raja Ahmad of Khandesh had died on April 29, 1399, leaving
two sons, Nasir and Hasan, to inherit his dominions. Nasir had


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xm]
NASİR KHĀN OF KHĂNDESH
297
received the eastern and Hasan the western districts, and the
former had founded, in 1400, the city of Burhānpur, and had cap-
tured from a Hindu chieftain the strong fortress of Asir, while the
latter had established himself at Thālner, Such a division of the
territories of the small state held no promise of permanence, and
in 1417 the elder brother, Nasir, having obtained assistance from
Hüshang of Mālwa, who had married his sister, captured Thālner
and imprisonei Hasan before a reply could be received to the
latter's appeal for aid to Ahmad of Gujarāt. Nasir, with a view to
forestalling Ahmad's intervention and to repairing the discomfiture
of his father, who had made an unsuccessful attempt to annex the
south-eastern districts of the kingdom of Gujarāt, attacked Nan-
durbār. A relieving force sent by Ahmad compelled Nasīr to retreat
to Asīr, and besieged him in that fortress. Peace was made on
Nasir's swearing fealty to Ahmad, and promising to abstain in
future from aggression, and Ahmad in return recognised Nasir's
title of Khān. Nasir's brother Hasan retired to Gujarāt, where he
and his descendants for generations found a home and intermarried
with the royal house.
From this treaty dates the estrangement between Khāndesh
and Mālwa, which had hitherto been allies. Nasir Khăn resented
Hūshang's failure to support him adequately against Ahmad Shāh
and friendly relations were broken off. In 1429 Nasīr, in spite of
the old animosity of his house towards the Bahmanids, attempted
to form an alliance with the Deccan by giving his daughter in
marriage to ‘Alā ud din Ahmad, son of Ahmad Shāh, the ninth king
of that dynasty, but the union engendered strife, and Khāndesh,
after a disastrous war with her powerful neighbour, was at length
driven into the arms of Gujarāt.
Ahmad himself had advanced as far as Nandurbār, sending
Malik Mahmūd, one of his officers, to besiege Asir, and while at
Nandurbar he heard from his uncle Firüz, who had taken refuge
in Nāgaur, that Hūshang Shāh was about to invade Gujarāt. This
report was followed immediately by the news that Hüshang, in
response to invitations from the rajas of Idar, Chāmpāner, Mandal,
and Nāndod, had crossed his frontier and reached Modāsa? . Ahmad,
although the rainy season of 1418 had begun, at once marched
northward, traversed the country of the disaffected rajas, and ap-
peared before Modāsa. Hūshang beat a hasty retreat, but Ahmad
had no rest. He was obliged to send expeditions to quell a rebel.
lion in Sorath, and to expel Nasir Khān from the Nandurbār
1 In 23° 28' N. and 73° 18' E.


## p. 298 (#344) ############################################

298
GUJARĀT AND KHĂNDESH
. CH
district, which he had invaded in violation of his promise. Both
expeditions were successful, and Nasir was pardoned on its being
discovered that the real culprit was Hūshang's son, Ghazni Khān,
who had not only instigated him to invade the district but had
supplied him with troops.
It was now evident that the real enemy was Hüshang, and
Ahmad, having pardoned the rebellious rajas on receiving from
them double tribute and promises of better behaviour, set out in
March, 1419, to invade Mālwa.
Hūshang came forth to meet him, but was defeated in a fiercely
contested battle and compelled to take refuge in Māndū. Ahmad's
troops devastated the country, but as the rainy season
was at hand
he returned to Ahmadābād, plundering on his way the districts of
Champāner and Nāndod.
In 1420 Ahmad marched to Songarh", and thence, in a north-
easterly direction, towards Māndū, “punishing' on his way, 'the
infidels' of the Sātpūras. Hūshang, dreading another invasion,
sent envoys to crave pardon for his past conduct, and Ahmad
retired, and in 1422 reduced the raja of Chāmpāner to vassalage.
In 1422, during Hūshang's absence on his famous raid into Orissa,
Ahmad invaded Mālwa, capturing Maheshwar on the Narbada on
March 27. He appeared before Māndů on April 5, and besieged it
ineffectually until the beginning of the rainy season, when he retired
into quarters at Ujjain. In the meantime Hüshang returned to
Māndū, and on September 17 Ahmad reopened the siege, but,
finding that he could not reduce the fortress, retired by Ujjain to
Sārangpur, with the object of continuing his depredations in that
neighbourhood, but Hūshang, marching by a more direct route,
met him near Sārangpur on December 26. Neither was anxious to
risk a general action and after desultory and inconclusive hostilities
of two and a half months' duration Ahmad began his retreat on
March 17. He reached Ahmadābād on May 15, and in considera-
tion of his army's labours refrained for more than two years from
embarking on any military enterprise and devoted himself to
administrative reforms. From 1425 until 1428 he was engaged in
hostilities against Idar, which ended in the reduction of Hari Rāi,
the raja, to the condition of a vassal of Gujarāt.
In 1429 Kānhā, raja of Jhālāwar, fled from his state and took
refuge with Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, who, not being strong enough
to protect him, sent him to the court of Ahmad Shāh Bahmani at
Bidar, who dispatched a force into the Nandurbār district to ravage
1 In 21° 10' N, and 73° 36' E.


## p. 299 (#345) ############################################

*u )
WAR WITH THE DECCAN
299
the country. This force was expelled and driven back to Daulatābād,
whereupon Ahmad of the Deccan sent an army under his son ‘Alā-
ud-din Ahmad to invade Gujarāt and re-establish Kānhā in Jhālāwar.
This army, which assembled at Daulatābād, was there joined by
Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, and against the allied forces Ahmad of
Gujarāt sent an army under his eldest son, Muhammad Khān. This
prince defeated the allies at Mānikpunj, about thirty-eight miles
north-west of Daulatābād, and 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad fled to Daulatā.
bād while Nasīr and Kānhā fled into Khāndesh. Muhammad Khān
of Gujarāt perceiving that it would be useless to besiege Daulatā.
bād, laid waste part of Khāndesh and retired to Nandurbār.
In 1430 Khalaf Hasan of Basrah, an officer of the army of the
Deccan attacked Mahim the southernmost port of the kingdom of
Gujarāt and Ahmad of Gujarāt sent his younger son, Zafar Khān,
to the relief of the town, while 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad marched to the
support of Khalaf Hasan. Mahim was taken, but Zafar Khān not
only besieged the army there, but also took Thāna, a port belonging
to the kingdom of the Deccan. The campaign was decided, however
by a battle in which the army of the Deccan was completely defeated
and was forced to evacuate Mahim and retreat.
Ahmad of the Deccan was much chagrined by the news of this
defeat, and led an army in person to invade Baglāna, the small
Rājput state between Gujarāt and Deccan which was protected
by the former, but, on hearing that Ahmad of Gujarāt was march-
ing against him, retired to Bidar. Ahmad of Gujarāt returned to
Ahmadābād and Ahmad of the Deccan again advanced and besieged
the fortress, of Batnols which was gallantly defended by Malik
Saʻādat, an officer of Gujarāt. Ahmad of Gujarāt marched to the
relief of the fortress, and Ah nad of the Deccan, raising the siege,
turned to meet him. A battle was fought in which each army held
its ground but Ahmad of the Deccan, dismayed by the extent of
his losses, retreated in the night.
In 1433 Ahmad led a raid into the Dungarpur state, compelled
the Rāwal to pay a ransom, and left an officer at Kherwāra to
collect tribute. He continued his depredations in Mārwār, compelled
his Kinsman Fīrūz Khān', now governor of Nāgaur, to pay an in-
demnity, and returned to Ahmadābād.
In 1436 Masóūd Khān of Mālwa arrived at Ahmadābād
suppliant seeking redress. His father, Ghazni Khān, had ascended
the throne of Mālwa in 1435 and had been poisoned in the following
year by his cousin, Mahmud Khalji, who had ascended the throne
1 Firūz was the son of Ahmad's grand-uncle, Shams Khăn.
as a


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300
GUJARẤT AND KHÁNDESH
[ ch.
and deprived him of his inheritance. Ahmad welcomed the oppor-
tunity of intervening and in 1438 invade Mālwa with a view to
seating Mas'üd on the throne of that kingdom. After many months
of fruitless campaigning he was obliged to retire owing to an out-
break of pestilence in his army, and died on August 16, 1442, before
he could fulfil his promise to restore Masóūd. He was succeeded in
Gujarāt by his eldest son, who ascended the throne under the title
of Mu'izz-ud-din Muhammad Shāh. Soon after his accession to the
throne Ahmad had begun to build the town of Ahmadābād on the
site of the old city of Asāwal, and in spite of the constant military
activities of his reign he was able to devote much of his time to the
establishment of this city, which even to-day bears witness to the
taste and munificence of its founder.
While Ahmad had been engaged in espousing the cause of
Mas'ud Khān in Mālwa Nasir Khān of Khāndesh had involved him-
self in hostilities with the Deccan. His daughter had complained
that her husband 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad, who had succeeded his father
in 1435, was neglecting her for a beautiful Hindu girl, and Nasir,
to avenge his daughter's wrongs, invaded Berar, the northernmost
province of the Bahmani kingdom. His son-in-law sent against him
a large army under Khalaf Hasan, who defeated him at Rohankhed
and drove him into his frontier fortress, Laling? , where he besieged
him. Nasir Khān, joined by a large force under his nobles, made
a sortie, but suffered a severe defeat, died on September 20, and
was succeeded by his son, 'Adil Khān I. Khalaf Hasan, hearing
that a force was advancing from Nandurbār to the relief of Laling
retired to the Deccan with his plunder, which included seventy
elephants and many guns.
'Adil Khān I reigned in Khāndesh without incident until 1411,
when he died and was succeeded by his son Mubārak Khān, who
reigned, likewise without incident, until his death on June 5, 1457,
when he was succeeded by his son 'Adil Khān II.
In 1446 Muhammad Shāh of Gujarāt, who was surnamed
Karim or 'the Generous,' marched against Idar, to reduce its ruler,
Raja Bir, son of Punjā, to obedience. Bir appeared before him
and made submission, giving him his daughter in marriage, and
at her intercession, Idar was restored to him. Muhammad next
attacked, at Bāgor, Rānā Kumbha, of Mewār, who fled and took
refuge with the Rāwal of Dungarpur, the chief of his house, but
afterwards appeared before the invader and purchased peace with
a heavy indemnity.
1 In 23° 37' N. and 76° 11' E. 2 In 20° 49' N. and 74° 44' E.


## p. 301 (#347) ############################################

XIII)
WAR WITH MĀLWA
301
In 1449 Muhammad attacked Chāmpāner, with the object of
expelling the raja, Gangādās, and annexing his state. Gangādās
was defeated in the field with great slaughter, and driven into the
hill fortress of Pavagarh, above the city. Muhammad indicated his
intention of permanently occupying the city by constructing a fine
cistern, which was named the Shakar Talāo, and by founding a
palace and some public buildings. Gangādās appealed for help
to Mahnūd Khalji of Mālwa, who marched to his relief, but on
reaching Dahod learnt that Muhammad, in spite of a severe illness
contracted at Chāmpāner, had advanced as far as Godhra to meet
him. He retreated at once to Māndû, and Muhammad, oppressed
by his sickness, was obliged to return to Ahmadābād, where he
died on February 10, 1451.
Three days after his death the courtiers enthroned his eldest
son, Qutb-ud-din Ahmad, and the young king was at once called
upon to cope with a serious invasion of his kingdom. Mahmūd
Khaljī, on learning the seriousness of Muhammad's malady, resolved
to seize the opportunity of conquering Gujarāt, and after his return
to Māndū assembled an army of 100,000 horse and 500 elephants,
and invaded the Nandurbār district. 'Alā-ud-din Suhrāb, who
commanded the fortress of Nandurbār, made no attempt to hold it
against such a force, but surrendered it at once, and consulted his
own safety by swearing allegiance to the invader and entering his
service. After capturing Nandurbār Mahmūd learnt of the death
of Muhammad and marched on Broach, where he summoned Marjān,
the governor, to surrender. Marjān refused, and Mahmūd was about
to besiege the town when, by the advice of 'Alā-ud-din Suhrāb, he
decided, instead, to attack the capital at once, and marched to
Baroda, where he was joined by Gangādās of Ghāmpāner and other
chiefs. Crossing the Māhi river he advanced to Kapadvanj, where
'Alā-ud-din deserted him and joined his old master, who received
him with great favour and conferred on him the title of 'Alā-ul-
Mulk, Ulugh Khān. Qutb-ud-din advanced from Ahmadābād with
40,000 horse and encamped six miles from Kapadvanj. On the
night of April 1, 1451, Mahmūd Khalji left his camp with the object
of making a night attack on Qutb-ud-din, but lost his way, and,
after wandering about all night, found himself by daylight before
his own camp. Disappointed of surprising the enemy, he drew up
his army, and Qutb-ud-din, who had intelligence of what had passed,
advanced to the attack. At a critical moment of the battle which
ensued Qutb-ud-din threw in his reserves, the great army of Mālwa
was utterly defeated, and Mahmûd fled, leaving eighty-one elephants
a


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302
(CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
and all his baggage in the hands of the victors. He halted at a
short distance from the field until five or six thousand men of his
scattered host had assembled round him, and at midnight began his
retreat on Mándū, during which he was much harassed by the Kolis,
who inflicted heavy losses on the remnant of his army.
In 1453 Mahmūd Khalji opened an abortive campaign against
Nāgaur, which was held by Fīrūz Khān, the kinsman of Qutb-ud-din,
but was compelled to retire to Mālwa without having effected
anything. In the same year Firüz Khān died, and his brother
Mujāhid Khān took possession of Nāgaur, expelling Shams Khān,
the son of Firūz Khān, who sought aid of Rānā Kūmbha of Chitor.
The Rānā promised to restore him to his inheritance on condition
that he destroyed three of the bastions of Nāgaur, as a symbol that
the disgrace of the defeat of Mūkal, the Rānā's father, by Firūz
Khān was wiped out. Shams Khān agreed to the condition and was
restored, but when he had recovered his patrimony his nobles refused
to allow him to destroy any part of the fortifications, and Kumbha
returned to Mewār to assemble an army for the reduction of Nāgaur.
Shams Khān fled to Ahmadābād and, by giving a daughter in
marriage to Qutb-ud-din, induced him to send an army to the
defence of Nāgaur, but the Rānā deſeated and almost destroyed the
army, and overran the whole of the Nāgaur territory, though he
failed to take the fortress.
In 1456 Qutb-ud-din marched to Kumbhalgarh to punish
Kūmbha, and on his way thither captured and destroyed the town of
Sirohi and expelled the raja, Sains Mal. He laid waste all the low-
lands of the Rānā's territory, defeated him in the field, and besieged
him in Kumbhalgarh. The fortress was not taken, but Kümbha
was obliged to purchase peace by the payment of ample compensa-
tion to Shams Khān for all the injuries which he had inflicted on
him, and a heavy indemnity to Qutb-ud-din.
On returning to Ahmadābād Qutb-ud-din learned that Ghiyās.
ud-din, the son of Mahmud Khalji, had led a raid into his dominions
as far as Sūrat, but had hurriedly retreated on hearing of his return,
and later in the year Mahmūd sent a mission to propose a treaty
of peace between the two kingdoms, in order that both might be
free to wage holy war against the Hindus of Rājputāna. These
overtures were favourably received, and Mahmūd marched to Dhār
and Muhammad to the frontier of Mālwa in the neighbourhood of
Chāmpāner, where they halted while plenipotentiaries concluded
a treaty binding each to abstain from aggression on the other, and
allotting to Gujarāt the western and to Mālwa the eastern districts


## p. 303 (#349) ############################################

XI]
MAHMOD BEGARHA
303
of the Rānās dominions as the theatre in which each was to be free
to attack the misbelievers.
In 1457 Qutb-ud-dīn again invaded the dominions of Rānā
Kümbha. He had in his camp the chief of Ābū, who had been
expelled from his mountain fortress by the Rānā, and his first care
was to restore him. Having accomplished this he attacked and
burnt Kumbhalgarh, and slaughtered both men and cattle through-
out the neighbourhood, but though he burnt the fortress he was
unable to take it, and, having devastated the country round about
Chitor, he returned to Ahmadābād, where he died, after a short
illness, on May 18, 1458.
Qutb-ud-din was a young man, and as he had hitherto enjoyed
good health his sudden illness and death aroused suspicions of
poison. He had been addicted to strong drink, and when under its
influence had been violent and quick to shed blood. Suspicion fell
upon his wife, the daughter of Shams Khān of Nāgaur, who was
supposed to have instigated his daughter to administer poison to
her husband in the hope of succeeding to the throne of Gujarāt.
Qutb-ud-din's officers at Nāgaur put Shams Khān to death, and
the king's mother subjected his widow to torture and ultimately
handed her over to her jealous co-wives who avenged the prefer-
ence formerly shown for her by cutting her to pieces.
On Qutb-ud-din's death the great officers of state raised to the
throne his uncle Dāūd, but his prince immediately displayed such
depravity and proceeded to fill the places of those who had enthroned
him with favourites so unworthy that he was deposed aſter a reign
of no more than twenty-seven days, and his younger brother, Abu-'l-
Fath Mahmud was raised to the throne on May 25. Sultān
Mahmūd, a mere youth, was at once involved in the meshes of a
conspiracy to raise his brother Hasan Khān to the throne. The
courtiers who entertained this design approached him and informed
him that the minister, 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sha'bān, was conspiring to
depose him and to place on the throne Mahmūd's son, Shihāb-ud-
din, an infant in whose name he would be able to govern the whole
country as regent. Mahmūd, new to political intrigue, believed
them, and permitted them to arrest the minister and imprison him
over one of the gates of the palace. During the night Malik
'Abdullāh, the superintendent of the elephant stables, who had
access to the young king, informed him privately of the real state
of affairs, and warned him that his throne was in danger. Mahmud
consulted his mother and a few of his immediate attendants, and
at once decided on a course of action. Going in person to the


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304
[ch.
GUJARĀT AND KHANDESH
Tarpūliya gate, where the minister was confined, he easily gained
admission, for the outer precincts of the gate were held by 500 of
his own guards, whom he had lent for the purpose, but he found
more difficulty in removing the scruples of the minister's gaolers,
who were the creatures of the conspirators. By stamping his foot
and demanding in a loud and angry tone the immediate surrender
of the traitor that he might suffer instant death he succeeded both
in overawing the gaolers by a display of the divinity that doth
hedge a king, and in beguiling them into the belief that compliance
with his commands would accomplish their master's design, but as
soon as their prisoner was in the king's power they perceived their
error. He begged his minister to excuse the mistake which he had
made, and to resume his post. The conspirators, supported by their
troops, assembled in the morning at the Tarpūliya gate in the
expectation of removing their enemy by a summary execution, but
to their dismay found the king holding an audience with his minister,
who was standing in his accustomed position behind the throne.
Trusting to numbers, they attempted to assume control of the
situation, but were deserted by many of their troops and by the
city mob, who hesitated openly to take up arms against the king.
They fled, and some gained secure places of refuge, but others were
captured and publicly executed. Among the latter was one who
had attempted to flee, but was too corpulent to use the necessary
expedition, and was discovered lurking in his hiding place. Before
him lay the obvious fate of being trampled to death by an elephant,
and the populace was regaled with the unctuous spectacle.
The conspiracy having been thus frustrated the minister resumed
office, but shortly afterwards retired. Haj Sultāni, one of Mahmūd's
confidants, was appointed in his place, with the title of 'Imād-ul-
Mulk, and Mahmud assumed charge of the administration of his
kingdom. 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sha' bān did not long survive his retire-
ment.
In 1462 Mahmūd, while on a hunting expedition, received an
appeal for help from the guardians of the infant Nizām Shāh of the
Deccan, whose dominions had been invaded by Mahmud Khalji
of Mālwa. Mahmūd of Gujarāt marched to Nandurbār, where a
second messenger informed him that Mahmud Khalji had defeated
the army of the Deccan near Kandhār. Mahmud of Gujarāt there-
fore marched eastward into Khāndesh and cut off his retreat by
that road, so that he was compelled to retire through the Mahādeo
hills in northern Berar, where the army of Mālwa suffered severely
both from want of water and from the attacks of the Korkus.


## p. 305 (#351) ############################################

a
XIII)
j
INVASION OF SORATH
305
In the following year Mahmud Khalji again invaded the Deccan,
but had penetrated no further than the northern confines of Telin-
gāna when the news that the sultan of Gujarāt was again marching
to the help of Nizām Shāh caused him to retreat. Nizām Shāh sent
an envoy to thank his deliverer for the assistance which he had
given him, and Mahmūd of Gujarāt wrote to Mahmūd Khaljī saying.
that it was unfair to molest a child who had not reached maturity,
and warning him that if he invaded the Deccan again he would
find his own country overrun by the army of Gujarāt. The threat
was effectual, and Mahmūd Khalji refrained from further acts of
aggression.
In 1464 Mahmūd of Gujarāt attacked the Hindu chief of Pardi,
near Damān, who had been guilty of piracy. As he was ascending
the hill to capture the fort the chief met him with the keys, and
the stronghold was restored to him on his undertaking to pay
tribute and promising amendment.
In 1466 Mahmūd invaded the territory of Mandalak Chudāsama,
raja of Girnār, his object being to compel the raja to pay tribute.
The state was pillaged, and a number of Hindus perished in the
defence of a famous temple, which was sacked. On the receipt of
this news Mandalak agreed to pay tribute and Mahmūd retired ;
but in the following year, learning that Mandalak was in the habit
of using the insignia of royalty, wrote and commanded him to
discontinue their use, and the raja, dreading another invasion,
obeyed.
On May 31, 1469, Mahmud Khalji of Mālwa died and was
succeeded by his eldest son, Ghiyās-ud-din. The question of the
invasion of Malwa was at this time discussed at the court of
Gujarāt, but Mahmūd showed that the warning which he had
addressed to Mahmud Khalji when the latter was attacking Nizām
Shāh of the Deccan had its origin in principle, and declined to
invade a state which had just suffered the misfortune of losing its
ruler. Later in the year, however, he committed an act as wanton
by leading into Sorath a large army against Mandalak of Girnār.
It was in vain that the raja pleaded that he had remitted tribute
regularly and had been an obedient vassal. Mahmūd replied that
he has come neither for tribute nor for plunder, but to establish
the true faith in Sorath ; and offered Mandalak the choice between
Islam and death. The answer admitted of no argument, and
Mandalak could only prepare to defend himself. He retired to his
citadel, Uparkot, and was there closely besieged. When reduced
to straits he attempted to purchase peace by offering an enomous
C. H. I, III.
20
3
>


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306
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
[ CH.
indemnity, but to no purpose, and, finding that he could no longer
defend Uparkot, he fled with his Rājputs to his hill fort on the
Girnār mountains, but was followed by Mahmūd, who again closely
besieged him until at last, on December 4, 1470, he was compelled
to surrender. He accepted Islam and received the title of Khān
Jahān, and the long line of Chudāsama chiefs of Girnār came to an
end. Mahmud incorporated Girnār in his dominions, and at the
foot of the hill founded the city of Mustāfā-ābād, which became
one of his capitals.
Mahmūd' now learned that while he had been besieging Girnār
Jai Singh, the son of Gangādās of Chāmpāner, had been committing
systematic brigandage and highway robbery in the country between
his stronghold and Ahmadābād. He therefore sent Jamāl-ud-din
Muhammad to govern this tract, conferring on him the title of
Muhāfiz Khān, and he put down thieving and highway robbery
with such a firm hand that the inhabitants, we were told, slept with
open doors.
He had intended at this tiine to reduce the fortress of Chām.
pāner, but he was interrupted by complaints from southern Sind,
where Muslims were said to be persecuted by Hindus. He crossed
the Rann of Cutch by forced marches, and arrived in what is now
the Thār and Parkâr district with no more than 600 horse. An
army of 24,000 horse which he found before him appears, if it were
not that of those who had appealed, at least to have had no hostile
intentions, for its leaders readily entered into negotiations with
him. It proved to be composed of Sūmras, Sodas, and Kalhoras,
and its leaders told him that they were professing Muslims but
knew little of their faith or its rules, and were wont to intermarry
with and to live as Hindus. He invited those who would to enter
his service, and to return with him to Gujarāt, and many accepted
his invitation and received grants of land in Sorath, where teachers
were appointed to instruct them in the faith of Islam.
In 1472 it was reported to Mahmud that 40,000 rebels had risen
against Jäm Nizām-ud-din, the ruler of Sind, whose daughter was
the mother of Mahmūd. According to Frishta these rebels were
Baluchis of the Shiah persuasion, and according to the author of
the Zafar-ul-Wālih they were pirates who dwelt on the sea coast,
owing allegiance to none, and skilled in archery. Mahmūd again
crossed the Rann by forced marches, and appeared in Sind with his
army. The rebels dispersed on hearing of his approach, and Mahmůd
halted, and before he returned received gifts and a letter of thanks
from the Jâm, who also sent his daughter, who was married to


## p. 307 (#353) ############################################

xm]
CONSPIRACY AGAINST MAHMUD
307
Qaisar Khān, grandson of Hasan Khān Iftikhār-ul-Mulk of Khān-
desh, who had taken refuge in Gujarāt.
On his return from Sind Mahmūd marched, on May 14, 1473, to
Jagat (Dwārkā), the holy town on the coast in the north-western
corner of Kāthīāwār, which was sacked by Mahmūd of Ghazni.
Mahmud Samarqandi, a learned poet and merchant sailing from
a port of the Deccan, had been driven ashore at Dwārkā, where the
Hindus had robbed him of all that he had. He appeared at Sultan
Mahmūd's court to demand redress, and the king resolved to chastise
the idolators. He marched to Dwārkā, from which the Hindus,
with their king, Bhim Aled on his approach, plundered and destroyed
the temple, and built a mosque in its place. He then marched to
Arāmura, at the extreme north-western point of the peninsula,
where the army was much troubled by lions, and by venomous
reptiles and insects, to attack the island fortress of Bet Shan-
khodhar, where Bhim and his people had taken refuge. The Hindus
were defeated in a sea-fight and were compelled to surrender, as
their fortress, though well stored with merchandise, had not been
provisioned. The plunder was carried to the mainland and trans-
ported to Mustafa-ābād. Mahmūd Samarqandi was summoned and
called upon to identify his goods; all that he identified was deliver.
ed to him, and over and above this rich presents were bestowed on
him. Finally the king delivered to him his enemy, Raja Bhim, that
he might do with him what he would. Mahmūd Samarqandi
thanked the king, but returned the raja, who was sent to Ahmadābād
and impaled.
In October, 1473, Mahmūd, who had held his court at Mustafa.
ābād since his capture of Girnār, returned after an absence of
nearly five years to Ahmadābād. A fleet of Malabar pirates made
a descent on his coasts, but they were driven off and some of their
ships were captured. In January, 1474, he ravaged part of the
Champāner country and shortly afterwards returned to Mustafa.
ābād (or Junagarh) where he made a practice of spending part of
each year, leaving his minister, Khudāvand Khān b. Yusuf, who
had married his sister, at Ahmadābād in charge of his son
Ahmad.
Mahmūd's tireless energy and ceaseless activity were most
wearisome to his courtiers and officers, and during his absence from
his capital his minister, Khudāvand Khān, having on December 4,
1480, assembled at Ahmadābād, on the pretext of celebrating the
festival 'Id-ul-Fitr at the end of the month's fast, the principal
nobles, formed a conspiracy with the object of deposing Mahmūd
20-2


## p. 308 (#354) ############################################

308
CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
and raising to the throne his son, Ahmad Khān. The minister
desired to put to death 'Imād-ul-Mulk Hāji Sultāni, whose fidelity
to Mahmūd was believed to be unalterable, but Rāi Rāyān, the
chief Hindu noble and one of the leading spirits among the con-
spirators, was a personal friend of 'Imād-ul-Mulk, and refused to
be a party to his death. He proposed to inforın him of the plot
and to gain his acquiescence, and, notwithstanding the minister's
protests, carried out his intention. 'Imād-ul-Mulk feigned acquie-
scence, but secretly summoned his troops from his fiefs and took
other steps to defeat the designs of the conspirators, and Qaisar
Khān Fārūqi, who was at Ahmadābād, privately informed the king
of the affair, so that it came to naught.
Mahmud, instead of arraigning the conspirators, as might have
been expected from the energy of his character, took steps to test
the fidelity of his servants. He made all the necessary preparations
for a sea voyage, and announced that he intended to perform the
pilgrimage to Mecca, leaving his son Ahmad as regent of the king-
dom. The nobles were summoned from Ahmadābād to Cambay to
consider this proposal, and, perceiving that their plot had been
discovered, urged the king to return to Ahmadābād and set the
affairs of the kingdom in order before taking any irrevocable step.
He accepted their advice and returned to Ahmadābād, where he kept
them still on the rack. He desired, he said, to make the pilgrimage,
but must leave the matter to the decision of his counsellors, and
would neither eat nor drink until he had received that decision.
The courtiers were in a quandary.