No More Learning

He enlarged the existing royal palace and parcelled out
land among his nobles, bidding them build palaces and houses for
themselves. Mallū Qādir Shāh of Mālwa, who had been expelled
from his kingdom by Shujā‘at Khān, Sher Shāh's governor, was
now at his court, and described in detail the beauties of the deer-
park of Māndū, inspiring Mahmúd to lay out a replica of it. Here
he lived in great splendour and luxury, indulging, besides the
usual lusts of an oriental prince, his propensity for powerful and
poisonous drugs, which he took not only for their intoxicating and
stupefying effect, but also as aphrodisiacs.


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342
(CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
The raja of Idar had, since Humāyūn's invasion, behaved as an
independent monarch, remitting no tribute, and when, in 1549, a
small force was sent to demand the arrears due he opposed the
royal troops and compelled them to retire, but a larger force under
'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān Rūmi, who had been appointed to the com-
mand of the foreign legion, captured Idar and compelled the
raja to pay tribute. Farahshād, one of the Turkish officers who had
deserted Sulaimān Pashā on his withdrawal, acted as 'Imād-ul-
Mulk's standard bearer and behaved with great gallantry, for which
he was rewarded with the title of Fath Jang Khān. In the follow-
ing year a similar expedition was dispatched to Sirohi, the country
round about which was plundered ; but there was no design,
apparently, of reducing Sirohi to the condition of a vassal state
paying regular tribute. In 1551 it was necessary to suppress the
predatory Rājputs who infested the heart of the kingdom and had
murdered a doctor of the law travelling from Pātan to Ahmadābād.
A massacre reduced the survivors to temporary obedience.
One of Mahmūd's immediate attendants, Burhān-ud-din, a man
who made pretensions to piety, and one of whose duties it was to
lead the prayers when the king was in the field, offended him one
day by disrespectful behaviour, and Mahmūd in his wrath sentenced
him to death by being bricked up in a wall. The barbarous sentence
was put into execution, but Mahmūd happened to pass while the
wretch's head yet protruded, took pity on him, and caused the
structure to be pulled down. He was much lacerated and injured
by the pressure of the mortar and rubble, but with care he re-
covered, and lived to resent his sufferings rather than to be grateful
for his life. His resentment exhibited itself again in disrespect,
and the king used language which leſt no doubt that he would not
escape the punishment to which he had once been sentenced, but the
celebration of the prophet Muhammad's birthday, on February 15,
1554, temporarily diverted Mahmūd's attention from the matter.
At the conclusion of the feast which marked the occasion Mahmud,
stupefied with wine and drugs, withdrew to his bedroom, where he
was attended by Daulat, the nephew and accomplice of Burhān-
ud-din, who had also taken the precaution of corrupting the royal
bodyguard, known as the Lion-slayers. It was an easy matter for
Daulat to cut the king's throat as he lay on his bed, and Burhān.
ud-din issued summonses in the king's name to all the chief officers
of state. Most obeyed, and were assassinated by the royal guards, ten
being slain in this manner, including the famous vazīr, Asaf Khān,
but ‘Abd-ul-Karīm I'timād Khān suspected mischief, and remained


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XII)
DEATH OF MAHMUD III
343
a
at home. Burhān-ud-dīn then bestowed titles upon the soldiers of
the guard and the menial servants of the palace, promised to pro-
mote them to the principal offices in the kingdom, and in the
morning caused the royal umbrella to be raised over his head and
proclaimed his accession.
The surviving nobles led their troops to the palace and attacked
the usurper, who fell at their first onslaught, and then proceeded
to determine the succession, which was no easy matter, for Mahmūd,
who had a nervous dread both of providing an heir who might
be put forward as a competitor for the throne and of a disputed
succession after his death, had taken the barbarous precaution
of procuring an abortion whenever a woman of his harem became
pregnant. Inquiries were made in the harem and it was reported
that one child, Khalil Shāh, had escaped the cruel law. After the
burial of Mahmūd the nobles demanded the delivery of Khalil
Shāh, that he might be enthroned, but were informed that
mistake had been made, and that there remained no heir to the
throne. It would appear that some fraud had been intended, but
that when the moment arrived the conspirators lost heart and
abandoned their design.
Inquiries were made and a young prince entitled Razi-ul-Mulk,
the great grandson of Shakar Khān, a younger son of Ahmad I
was raised to the throne under the title of Ahmad Shāh II.
The leaders of the nobles who placed Ahmad II on the throne
were I'timād Khān and Sayyid Mubārak Bukhārī, and it was the
former who assumed the office of regent, while the later retired
to Mahmūdābad, which he occupied as his fief. All the nobles of the
kingdom were virtually independent, and each lived on his estate,
leaving I'timād Khān to carry on a pretence of administering the
whole country in the name of the youthſul king.
The port of Damān was held by one Sayyid Abu-'l-Fath, who,
as he neither paid taxes nor materially acknowledged the central
government, could except no support when, in 1559, the Portuguese
viceroy, Constantino de Braganza, attacked him, drove him first
from Damān and then from Pārdī, and established the Portuguese
firmly in Damān and Bulsār, securing native support by assigning
the customs of the former port to the governor of the island of
Salsette, which was within the dominions of Ahmadnagar.
Ahmad II was virtually a prisoner in the hands of I'timād
Khān, and after passing five years in this condition he reached an
age at which he became sensible of the restraint to which he was
subjected, and of the minister's usurpation of his rights. He fled


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344
[CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĂNDESH
was
and threw himself on the protection of Sayyid Mubārak Bukhārī
at Mahmūdābād, where a number of nobles, influenced more by
the Sayyid's prestige and by hostility to I'timād Khān than by
loyalty to a sovereign whom they hardly knew, assembled. I'timād
Khān and his partisans marched against his confederacy, and the
death of Sayyid Mubārak from an arrow involved the defeat and
dispersal of the army assembled round the king. Ahmad wandered
for some days a helpless fugitive in the jungles, until he
obliged to return to his master, who carried him back to Ahmadā -
bād and imprisoned him in the palace.
'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān and Tātār Khăn Ghūrī, disgusted with
I'timād Khān's monopoly of power, dragged forth their guns and
bombarded his house at Ahmadabād, and the regent fled to Hālol,
near Chāmpāner, taking the young king with him. Here he began
to assemble his army, and civil war was on the point of breaking
out when peacemakers intervened and effected a composition
whereby I'timād Khān retained the office of regent and the custody
of the king and the other nobles parcelled out the kingdom among
themselves, 'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān, I'timād Khan's principal opponent,
receiving Broach, Chāmpāner, Nāndod, and other districts between
the Māhi and Narbada rivers. To the king was assigned land
sufficient for the maintenance of 1500 horse, but this was no more
than a concession to his vanity, for he remained almost as closely
guarded as before.
I'timād Khān could not, however, entirely seclude him, and he
used to amuse himself by hatching, with those officers who gained
access to him, boyish plots for the assassination of the regent, and
by drawing his sword and severing the soft stem of a plantain tree,
with the childish boast that he could thus cleave in two his tyrant.
All this was reported to I'timād Khān, who, though he well knew
that the boy was incapable of any desperate deed, began to fear
lest some officer should earn the king's gratitude and the coveted
post of regent by giving effect to wishes so unreservedly expressed.
He therefore, in July 1562, caused Ahmad to be assassinated and
his body to be flung out of the citadel into the open space between
the river and the house of a noble entitled Vijīh-ul-Mulk Abūji
Tānk, and when it was discovered gave out that Ahmad Shāh must
have gone secretly to Vajih-ul-Mulk's house on some amorous
adventure and have been slain by some injured person before he
could be recognised.
The death of Ahmad II revived the question of the succession,
now more complicated than ever, as no scion of the royal house
a


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8111 )
MUZAFFAR III
345
a
was known to exist. I'timād Khān solved it by producing a child
named Nathū and swearing that he was the son of Mahmud III by
a concubine. He explained his birth by saying that Mahmūd, when
he discovered that the concubine was pregnant, handed her over
to him with instructions to procure an abortion, but that he, dis-
covering that the girl was in the sixth month of her pregnancy,
could not find it in his heart to subject her to an operation which
would almost certainly be fatal, and retained her in his house,
concealing the birth of the child and bringing him up in secret.
The story was in the last degree improbable, for greater facilities
for carrying out Mahmūd's unnatural orders must have existed in
the royal harem than elsewhere, and no explanation of the pre-
ference shown for a collateral when Ahmad II was enthroned was
offered, but an heir had to be found, for none of the nobles would
have submitted to any one of their order, and I'timād Khān's oath
was accepted and the child was enthroned as Muzaffar III.
The history of Muzaffar's ten years' reign is but a record of
perpetual strife between the great nobles, each of whom was inde-
pendent in his fief, while I'timād Khān retained the office of
regent.
The whole of northern Gujarāt, as far south as Kādī, was
divided between Mūsā Khān and Sher Khān Fūlādi, two Afghāns,
and Fath Khān, a Baluch ; the country between the Sābarmāti
and the Māhi was held by I'timād Khān, and Dholka and Dhand-
hūkā by Sayyid Mīrān, son of Sayyid Mubārak Bukhāri; Chingiz
Khān, son of I'timād Khān's enemy, 'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān Rūmī,
held Sūrat, Nāndod, and Chāmpāner, and his brother-in-law,
Rustam Khān, Broach ; and Kāthīāwār was held by Amin Khān
;
Ghūrī.
A
very
brief sketch of the conflicts between these factious nobles
will suffice.
In 1563 the Afghāns Mūsā Khān and Sher Khān expelled Fath
Khān from northern Gujarāt, and drove him to take refuge with
I'timād Khān, who attacked the Afghāns but was defeated and
driven back to Ahmadābād. The Afghāns then marched to attack
him, and he was defeated at Jotāna and fled and sought aid of
Chingiz Khān, who accompanied him to Jotāna. No further fighting
took place, a peace being arranged, but after the nobles had re-
turned to their fiefs Chingiz Khān wrote to I'timād Khān, casting
doubts on the king's birth. The regent replied that his oath had
been accepted, and that Chingiz Khān's father, had he been alive,
would have corroborated it. Chingiz Khān then openly demanded


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346
(CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
more land for the support of his troops. I'timād Khān evaded the
demand by advising him to recover the district of Nandurbār,
which had formerly belonged to Gujarat and was now held by
Muhammad II of Khāndesh. Chingiz Khān fell into the trap and
in 1566 marched to Nandurbār, which he occupied, and, encouraged
by his success, advanced towards Thălner, but was attacked and
defeated by Muhammad II and Tufāl Khān of Berar, and compelled
to flee to Broach, where he proceeded, in 1568, to reorganise his
army, in which work he was assisted by the rebellious Mirzās,
Akbar's kinsmen, who had fled from the empire and sought a refuge
in Gujarat. He now resolved to avenge himself on I'timād Khān
for the trick which he had played him, and marched on Ahmadā.
bād, requesting the regent to withdraw to his fiefs, as he was com-
ing to pay his respects to the king, and it was undesirable that they
should meet in the capital. I'timād Khān and the king marched
towards Nadiād, near which place the armies met. There was no
battle, for I'timād Khān, who had heard much of the war-like dis-
position of the Mirzās, was smitten with sudden panic, and fled to
Dūngarpur, whence he sent a message to Akbar, who was then be-
fore Chitor, inviting him to invade Gujarāt.
The rest of the army dispersed, the Sayyids of Bukhārā going
to Dholka, Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk to Ma'mūrābād, and Ulugh Khān and
Marjān Jhūjhār Khān with the young king to Virpurl. Sher Khān
Fūlādī, jealous of the power so suddenly acquired by Chingiz Khān,
hinted that he required a share of the spoils, and Chingiz Khān,
anxious to conciliate him, ceded to him all territory to the west of
the Sābarmāti.
Muhammad II of Khāndesh profited by these disputes to assert
his claim to the throne of Gujarāt, which was certainly less open
to suspicion than that of Muzaifar III, and invaded the kingdom
with an army of 30,000 horse, but was defeated before Ahmadābād
by Chingiz Khān and the Mirzās and driven back to his own coun-
try. Chingiz Khān rewarded the Mirzās with extensive fieſs in the
Broach district, but in a short time it was discovered that they were
encroaching on the land of their neighbours and had been guilty of
cruelty and oppression on their estates. They defeated a force sent
against them by Chingiz Khān, but retired into Khāndesh.
Meanwhile Muhammad Ulugh Khān and Marjān Jhūjhār Khan,
who had been awaiting help from I'timād Khān or from Sher Khān
Fūlādi, were disappointed and, joining Ikhtiyar-ul-Mulk, marched
1 In 23° 11' N. and 73° 29' E.
>
a


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XIII 1
AKBAR INVADES GUJARAT
317
with him to Ahmadābād to make their peace with Chingiz Khān.
A redistribution of fiefs was agreed upon, and Chingiz Khān pro-
mised to treat the other nobles as his equals in all respects, but
neither party trusted the other, and Ulugh Khān was warned that
Chingiz Khān was meditating his assassination. He provided for his
safety by inducing Jhūjhār Khān to decapitate Chingiz Khān with
his sword' as the three were riding together to the polo ground, and
he and his partisans took possession of the citadel while their troops
plundered those of Chingiz Khān, and Rustam Khān rode off, with
his brother-in-law's corpse, to Broach.
Ulugh Khān and Jhūjhār Khān, who were joined by Sher Khān
Fūlādī, invited I'timād Khān to return to Gujarāt, and he assumed
the office of regent, but there was little confidence between the
parties, and I'timad Khān refused to leave the capital when the
other nobels marched to expel the Mirzās, who had returned to
Broach and resumed possession of their former fiefs. His suspicions
were so bitterly resented that those who had recalled him to power
agreed to divide his fiefs among themselves, but they quarrelled
over the division of the spoil, and I'timād Khān succeeded in
detaching Jhūjhār Khān and inducing him to join him at Ahmadā.
bād. Ulugh Khān joined Sher Khān Fülādi at Ghiyāspur, opposite
to Sarkhej, on the Sābarmātī, and the king, taking advantage of
these dissensions, fled from Ahmadābād and joined the camp at
Ghiyāspur. I'timād Khān wrote to Sher Khān, impudently repu-
diating his own solemn oath and asserting that Muzaffar III was
not the son of Mahmud III, and that he had therefore deposed him
and invited the Mirzās from Broach in order that one of them
might ascend the throne. The Mirzās arrived, and when the quarrels
between the two parties had continued for some time without any
definite result I'timād Khān again invited Akbar to invade the
country.
Sher Khān Fūlādi was besieging Ahmadābād when the imperial
army reached Pātan, and fled, carrying with him Muzaffar III, when
he heard of its arrival. The Mirzās at the same time fled to Baroda
and Broach, and on Akbar's arrival at Ahmadābād I'timād Khān,
Ulugh Khān, Jhūjhār Khān, and Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk submitted to
him and entered his service.
In 1572 Muzaffar III fled from the camp of Sher Khān Fūlādi,
who had not treated him well and on November 15 was found by
two of the imperial officers lurking in the neighbourhood of Akbar's
1 For this crime Akbar afterwards, on the complaint of Chingiz Khān's mother,
caused Jhūjhār Khāu to be crushed to death by an elephant.
>


## p. 348 (#394) ############################################

348
[CH. Xin
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
camp at Jotāna. On November 20 he appeared before Akbar, who
detained him as a political prisoner, and Gujarāt was formally
annexed to the empire.
Some time after the annexation Muzaffar was permitted to live
in retirement in Kāthīāwār, but in 1583 a rebellion appeared to
offer him an opportunity of recovering his throne, and he joined
the rebels. After ten years of hopeless adventure, during the greater
part of which time he was a fugitive, he fell into the hands of the
imperial troops in 1593, and committed suicide by cutting his
throat.


## p. 349 (#395) ############################################

CHAPTER XIV
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
Malwa, like Gujarāt, became independent of Delhi on the dis-
solution of that kingdom after the invasion of Tīmūr, at the end
of the fourteenth century.
The date of the appointment of Dilāvar Khān Ghūrī, the Afghān
governor, is not precisely known, but he was certainly in Mālwa in
1392, and was probably appointed by Firūz Shāh of Delhi, who
died in 1388. He remained quietly in Malwa while Tīmūr sacked
Delhi, and when Mahmūd Shāh Tughluq, fleeing before the con-
queror, sought an asylum and was disappointed by his reception in
Gujarāt, Dilāvar Khān received him as his sovereign, and enter-
tained him with princely hospitality until he was able, in 1401, to
return to his capital.
Alp Khān, Dilāvar Khān's son and heir, strongly disapproved
of the deference shown to Mahmūd, which he considered to be in-
compatible with the independence of Mālwa, and, while the royal
guest remained at Dhār, withdrew to Māndū, where he occupied
himself in perfecting the defences of that great fortress city.
Dilāvar Khān never assumed the style of royalty, though he
could maintain no pretence of dependence on Delhi, whose nominal
lord was a prisoner in the hands of an ambitious minister, but in
1406 Alp Khān, impatient for his inheritance, removed his father
by poison, and ascended the throne under the title of Hüshang Shah.
In the following year Muzaffar I of Gujarāt invaded Mālwa
on the pretext of avenging the death of his old friend, defeated
Hüshang before Dhār, drove him into the citadel, forced him to
surrender, and carried him off a prisoner to Gujarāt, leaving in
Mālwa, as governor, his own brother Nusrat Khān.
Nusrat Khān treated Mālwa as a conquered country, and his
rule was so oppressive and extortionate that the army expelled
him, and elected as their ruler Hūshang's cousin, Mūsā Khān, who,
fearing the vengeance of the king of Gujarāt, established himself
in Māndū, the fortifications of which were now complete. Hūshang,
on hearing of this usurpation, implored Muzaffar to restore him to
his throne, swearing on the Koran that he was guiltless of his
father's death, and Muzaffar, who had his own outraged authority
to assert, sent his grandson Ahmad Khān, with an army to restore
Hushang.


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350
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
His orders were executed, and Ahmad Khān, after restoring
Hüshang at Dhār, then the capital of Mālwa, returned to Gujarāt,
but Mūsā Khān, who still held Māndū, was not inclined to submit,
and most of the nobles of the kingdom, who were at Māndū with
him, though they favoured Hushang's cause feared to join him, as
their wives and families would be left exposed to Mūsā's wrath.
Hūshang marched to Māndū, and some combats took place
between his troops and those of his cousin, but he had no means
of reducing the fortress and marched off, but took possession of
the kingdom by establishing military posts in the principal towns.
Malik Mughis Khalji, said to have been descended of the elder
brother of Jalāl-ud-din Firūz Khalji of Delhi, and Malik Khizr,
sons of Hüshang's paternal aunts, left Mūsā Khān and joined
Hūshang, and Mūsā, who could not maintain an army without the
revenues of the country, which his rival was collecting, was induced
by Mughis to vacate Māndū, which was promptly occupied by
Hūshang.
Hüshang's two abortive invasions of Gujarāt, undertaken for
the purpose of supporting rebels against Ahmad I, who succeeded
his grandfather on the throne of that kingdom in 1411, have already
been described in Chapter XII. He gained neither credit nor ad-
vantage from these attacks on a former benefactor, and he estranged
his brother-in-law, Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, by his tardiness in
assisting him when Ahmad attacked him in 1417. Another invasion
of the north-eastern districts of Gujarāt in 1418 ended in a dis-
graceful retreat, and Ahmad, exasperated by these unprovoked
attacks, in 1419 invaded Mālwa, defeated Hüshang in a battle
fought near Māndū, drove him into that fortress, plundered his
country, and retired to Gujarāt at the beginning of the rainy season.
In 1422 Hüshang undertook a most adventurous enterprise.
Believing that elephants were required to make good his military
inferiority to his neighbour of Gujarāt he resolved to lead a raid
into Orissa, and to capture a number of these beasts from the raja
He cannot have understood the nature of the expedition on which
he embarked, for he had to traverse the forests of Gondwāna, then
an unknown country to the Muslims, but his objective was Jājpur,
the capital of Orissa, distant more than 700 miles in a straight line
from Mandū.
Leaving his cousin Mughis as his regent in Mālwa he set out
at the head of 1000 horse, carrying with him some horses and
merchandise which might enable him to pass as a merchant. He
1 In 20'51' N. and 86° 20' E.


## p. 351 (#397) ############################################

XIV)
EXPEDITION TO ORISSA
351
travelled expeditiously, and in due course arrived before Jājpur,
though it is difficult to believe that he was no more than a month
on the road. At Jājpur the raja, one of the line founded by Chora
Ganga of Kalinganagar, sent a message to Hūshang, at the spot
where he was encamped, and asked him why he did not bring his
caravan into the city. Hūshang replied that his men were too
numerous to find accommodation, and the raja promised to visit
his encampment, to inspect his merchandise and to pay, either in
cash or elephants, for anything that he might purchase. On the
day appointed the raja came forth attended by 500 horse, and
Hūshang had the stuffs which he had brought with him spread on
the ground for his inspection. They were damaged by a shower of
rain which fell, and by the hoofs of the horses of the raja's escort,
and the damage supplied the pretended merchants with a pretext
for quarrelling with the Hindus, whom they attacked and put to
flight, the raja himself being taken prisoner. Hūshang then dis-
closed his identity and informed the raja that he had come to
Orissa in search of elephants. The leading men of Jājpur sent an
envoy to ask him to formulate his demands, and on learning that
he required elephants sent him seventy-five. He then set out for
his own country, but carried the raja with him as far as the frontier
of the Jajpur state. On his homeward way he learnt that Ahmad I
had invaded Mālwa and was besieging Māndū, but he found time
to capture Kherlal and carry off the raja as his prisoner. As he
approached Māndū Ahmad withdrew his troops from the trenches
in order to oppose his entry, but he contrived to evade his enemy
and entered the fortress.
The rest of this campaign has already been described in the
preceding chapter. Hüshang was again unfortunate, and after his
defeat returned to Māndu and, having allowed his army a brief
period of repose, marched to Gāgraun', and besieged and captured
that town. Thence he marched to Gwalior, and had been besieging
the fortress for a month when Mubārak Shāh of Delhi advanced
by way of Bayāna to attack him. He raised the siege and marched
towards the Chambal, but Mubārak had gained his object by re-
lieving Gwalior, and hostilities were averted by a treaty, under
which each king agreed to return to his own capital.
The raja of Kherla, since he had been made prisoner by Hüshang
in 1422, had acknowledged him as his overlord and paid him tribute,
thus giving offence to his former suzerain, Ahmad Shāh Bāhmani
of the Deccan, who still claimed his allegiance and, in 1428, besieged
1 Įn 21° 56' N. and 78° 1' E, 2 In 24° 38' N, and 76°12' E,


## p. 352 (#398) ############################################

352
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
Kherla, but on Hüshang's marching to its relief retired southwards
for three stages, closely followed by Hüshang. He then halted to
receive Hūshang's attack, which at first suceeded, but his army
was attacked, at the moment when victory seemed assured, by
Ahmad Shāh Bahmani, who had been lying in ambush, and was
put to flight. Its rout was so complete that the ladies of Hüshang's
harem fell into the hands of the victors, while the army of Mālwa
fled headlong to Māndū. The scrupulous and pious Ahmad sent
his prisoners to their lord under an escort of 500 horse.
Hushang's campaign against Qādir Khān of Kālpi has been
described in Chapter X. Kālpi was captured, but Qādir Khan,
whose chief offence against Hüshang had been the assumption of
the royal title, was reinstated on swearing fealty. Hūshang was
much annoyed on his homeward march by the quarrels of his four
sons, Ghazni Khān, Usmān Khān, Fath Khān, and Haibat Khān,
graceless and worthless youths.
After his return to Mandū he was engaged in punishing robbers
and when he had completed this task he founded the city of Ho-
shangābād, on the Narbada. Here he was alarmed by an accident
which he took for an omen of death. A ruby fell one day from his
jewelled crown, and though his courtiers endeavoured to reassure
him, an attack of diabetes confirmed his fears. He left Hoshanga-
bād and returned to Māndū, and on his way thither designated his
eldest son as his heir. A number of the nobles, to whom Ghazni
Khān was obnoxious, supported the pretensions of Usman Khān,
who had been imprisoned for having grossly insulted his elder
brother, and intrigues were set on foot for his liberation, to which
the king would not consent.
Hüshang died on July 6, 1435, within a day's march of Māndū,
and Ghazni Khān, who had the powerful support of his cousin
Mughīs and his son Mahmūd Khān, was proclaimed under the title
of Muhammad Shāh.
He was a confirmed drunkard, and left the administration almost
entirely in the hands of Mughīs and Mahmud Khān, but displayed
a malignant activity in putting to death his three brothers and
blinding his nephew and son-in-law, Nizām Khān, and his three
young sons. This barbarity alienated Mahmud Khān, who began
to scheme to depose the tyrant and to seize the throne for himself.
His design was revealed to the king, who made arrangements to
have him assassinated, but Mahmūd discovered the preparations
a nd to protect himself took precautions so marked that they could
not pass unnoticed, and the king took him into his harem and in


## p. 353 (#399) ############################################

XIV ] USURPATION OF THE KHALJIS
353
the presence of his wife, who was Mahmūd's sister, conjured him
to be faithful to him. Mahmūd swore that he harboured no designs
against him and begged the king to slay him if he suspected him.
The king excused himself for his suspicions, and outward harmony
was restored, but mutual distrust remained and increased, and
Mahmūd, shortly after the interview in the harem, caused his master's
death by a dose of posion administered in his wine.
A faction among the nobles raised to the throne Muhammad's
son Masóūd Khān, a boy of thirteen years of age, and, believing
Mahmud Khān to be yet ignorant of the late king's death, sum-
moned him to the palace in Muhammad Shāh's name, and, when
he refused to attend, went to his house in a body to arrest him ;
but he had concealed armed men in the house, and when the nobles
entered it they were arrested and imprisoned. Those of their fac-
tion who had remained with Masóūd Khān assembled the royal
troops and raised an umbrella over his head, and Mahmūd marched
on the palace to secure the persons of Masʼūd and his younger
brother, 'Umar Khān. Some fighting occurred between the royal
troops and those of Mahmūd, and lasted until the evening, when
the two boys were so terrified that they persuaded their attendants
to allow them to flee from the palace by night. Masūd Khān
sought the protection of a holy Shaikh, and found his way to
Gujarāt, and in the morning his supporters, having nothing left
to fight for, dispersed, and Mahmūd took possession of the royal
palace. He offered the crown to his father, Malik Mughīs, then
engaged in hostilities against the Hāra Rājputs of Harāotī, but
he hastened to Māndū, declined the honour, and urged his son
to ascend the throne. Mahmūd was accordingly proclaimed on
May 13, 1436.
There was still much disaffection among the nobles, who re-
sented the usurpation of the throne by one of their number, and
Mahmud was obliged, immediately after his accession, to cope with
a rebellion which assumed serious dimensions owing to the presence
in the rebel ranks of Ahmad Khān, a surviving son of Hushang.
The rebellion was crushed, and the leading rebels, including Ahmad
Khān, were pardoned and received fiefs, but they rebelled again,
and Malik Mughis was employed to crush them. Ahmad Khān, the
most formidable of them, was poisoned by a musician at the insti-
gation of Mughīs, and operations against the others were in pro-
gress when Ahmad I of Gujarāt invaded Mālwa with the object of
placing Masóūd Khān on his father's throne. The course of this
campaign has been traced in the preceding chapter. Ahmad Shāh
Ç. H. I. III,
23


## p. 354 (#400) ############################################

354
[ CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
was compelled to retire to Gujarāt, and died, in 1442, before he
could fulfil his promise to Mas'ud Khān.
Mahmud Shāh's troubles were not ended by Ahmad Shāh's
retreat. 'Umar Khan, the younger son of Muhammad Shāh had
fled from Gujarāt to Chitor, whence he had again crossed the fron-
tier of Mālwa and was welcomed by the garrison of Chanderi, who
acknowledged him as king. He had been slain during Ahmad Shāh's
invasion, but the garrison had proclaimed another pretender, Malik
Sulaiman, under the title of Shihab-ud-din Shāh, Mahmúd besieg-
ed Chanderi for seven months, during which period the pretender
died, and finally carried it by assault, but during the siege Raja
Dongar Singh the Tonwăr, of Gwalior, had invaded Mālwa and laid
siege to a town named Shahr-i-Nau, not now traceable. Mahmud
invaded Gwalior, plundered and devastated the country, defeated
the Hindus, and drove them into the fortress, which he besieged.
Dongar Singh raised the siege of Shahr-i-Nau and retired into his
own dominions, and Mılımūd, whose sole object had been the ex-
pulsion of the invader, returned to Māndū, where he completed the
great mosque founded by Hūshang.
The feeble Sayyid, Muhammad Shāh, now occupied the throne
of Delhi, the affairs of which kingdom were in the utmost conſu-
sion, and a faction amɔng the nobles, who admired the energy and
enterprise of Mahmūd Shāh of Mālwa, and were, perhaps, affected
by the consideration that he was a member of a family which
had already ruled India, not without glory, invited him to Delhi,
and offered him the throne. In 1440 he marched northwards and
encamped before Tughluqābad, within eight miles of the city, but
his partisans were either too weak to afford him any assistance or
had repented of the advances made to him, for the royal army,
commanded nominally by Muhammad Shāh's son 'Alā-ud-din, and
actually by Buhlūl Lodi, marched furth to meet him. Mahmūd
retained one division of his army in reserve, and sent two, under
his sons Ghiyās ud-din and Qadr Khān, against the enemy. The
battle, which lasted until nightfall, was indecisive, and Muhammad
Shāh proposed terms of peace, of which the principal condition
was Mahmūd's retirement. The offer was readily accepted, for
Mahmud had learnt that during his absence the mob had risen in
Māndū removed the gilded umbrella from the tomb of Hūshang,
and raised it over the head of a pretender. The nobles of Delhi
were, however, deeply disgusted with the meanness of spirit which
permitted an invader thus to depart in peace, and when Buhlūl
Lodi violated the treaty by following the retreating army and


## p. 355 (#401) ############################################

XIV ]
WAR WITH KUMBHA RĀNĀ
355
taking some plunder the exploit was magnified into a great victory,
and honour was satisfied.
On reaching Māndū, on May 22, 1441, Mahmūd found that the
rebellion had been suppressed by his father, and rested for the
remainder of the year, but marched in 1442 to punish Kumbha,
the Rānā of Chitor, for the assistance which he had given to 'Umar
Khān, the son of Muhammad Shāh Ghūri. On his way he learnt
that Nasir Khān, son of Qādir Khān, governor of Kālpī, had as-
sumed the royal title, styling himself Nasir Shāh, and had, more-
over, adopted strange heretical opinions, which he was spreading
in his small state. He was minded to turn aside and punish him,
and actually marched some stages towards Kālpi, but was pe
suaded by his courtiers to pardon the offender, who had sent an
envoy with tribute and expressions of contrition, and to pursue
the object with which he had left Māndū.
After entering the Rānā's dominions he captured a fort and
destroyed a temple, and advanced to Chitor, the siege of which he
was forming when he learnt that the Rānā had retired into the
hills. He followed him thither, and the Rānā returned to Chitor.
While Mahmūd was preparing again to form the siege of Chitor
his father, Malik Mughīs, who had led an expedition against Man-
dasor, died, and he retreated to Mandasor, followed by the Rānā,
who, in April, 1443, attacked him, but was defeated, and suffered
a second defeat in a night attack which Mahmūd made on his
camp. The Rānā then retired to Chitor and Mahmūd, who had
decided to postpone until the following year the siege of that
fortress, returned to Māndū.
Immediately on his return he received a mission from Mahmûd
Shāh Sharqi of Jaunpur, who complained of the misconduct of
Nasir Khān of Kālpi, and sought perinission to attack him, which
was granted. Mahmūd afterwards repented of having acceded to
the request of Mahmūd Sharqi, and desired him to desist from
molesting Nasir Khān, who had fled to Chanderſ and sought his
assistance. Mahmūd Sharqi evaded a decided answer and on
January 12, 1445, Mahmūd Khaljī marched for Chanderi. Thence
he marched on Kālpi, avoiding the army of Jaunpur, which was
drawn up at Erij to meet him. An indecisive battle was fought
near Kālpi, and desultory fighting, in which neither gained any
decided advantage, continued for some months, at the end of which
period peace was madel Nasir Khān, who promised amendment,
was to be restored by degrees to the districts comprising the small
1 See Chapter X.
23-2


## p. 356 (#402) ############################################

356
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
state of Kālpi, and Mahmud Khalji returned to Māndū, where he
occupied himself in building a hospital.
In October, 1446, he again invaded the Rānā's dominions He
halted at Ranthambhor, removed Bahār Khān from the command
of that fortress, appointed Malik Saif-ud-din in his stead, and next
halted on the Banās, while his army besieged the Rānā in Mān-
dalgarh. The siege was raised on the Rānā's promising to pay
tribute for the fortress, and Mahmūd marched on Bayāna. When
he was within two leagues of the fortress the governor, Muhammad
Khān, sent to him his younger son, Auhad Khān, with 100 horses
and 100,000 tangas as tribute, and Mahmūd, having sent compli-
mentary gifts in return, halted until he had ascertained that Mu-
hammad Khān had substituted his name for that of ‘Alam Shāh
of Delhi in the khutba and had struck coin in his name, and then
retired by way of Ranthambhor, near which place he captured a
minor fortress, and continued his journey towards Māndū, sending
Tāj Khān with 8000 horse and twenty-five elephants to besiege
Chitor. Before reaching Māndū he collected 125,000 tangas as
tribute from the raja of Kota.
Towards the end of 1450 Mahmūd, as has been already recorded
in the preceding chapter, invaded Gujarāt in support of Kanak
Dās, raja of Chāmpāner, but retired to Māndū without effecting
anything or gaining anything beyond an instalment of tribute from
Kanak Dās. His invasion of Gujarāt in the following year, which
.
has also been described, ended in a disastrous defeat, which
not retrieved by a raid on Surat, carried out by his son in 1452.
In 1454 he led a punitive expedition against the rebellious
Hāra Rājputs on his northern frontier, put many of them to the
sword, and sent their children into slavery at Māndū. Marching
on to Bayāna, he collected tribute from the governor, Dāūd Khān,
who had succeeded his father, Muhammad Khān, confirmed him
in the government, and composed a long-standing dispute between
him and Yūsuf Khān of Hindaun. On his return to Māndū he
appointed his younger son, Fidāi Khān, entitled Sultān 'Alā-ud din,
to the command of the fortress of Ranthambhor and the govern-
ment of Harāolī, the district of the Hāra Rājputs.
Later in the same year Mahmūd invaded the Deccan at the
invitation of two rebellious nobles, and laid siege to the fortress of
Māhūr, but raised the siege and retired when 'Alå-ud-din Ahmad
Shāh Bahmani marched to the relief of the fortress.
In 1455 he again attacked the Rānā, marching to Chitor and
ravaging his dominions. Kumbha attempted to purchase peace by
was


## p. 357 (#403) ############################################

XIV)
ŘECONQUEST OF AJMER
357
a large indemnity, but as the money sent bore his own name and
device it was indignantly returned, and the devastation of the
country continued. Māhmūd retired to Māndu for the rainy season,
but returned, when it was past, to Mandasor, and began the syste•
matic conquest of that region. He occupied a standing camp,
and sent his troops in all directions to lay waste the country.
While he was thus employed it was suggested to him that it would
be a work of merit to recover from the idolators the city of Ajmer,
which contained the holy shrine of Shaikh Mu'in-ud-din Chishti,
and he marched rapidly on the city and invested it. Gajānhar,
the Rājput commander, made daily sorties, all of which were un-
successful, and on the fiſth day of the investment ordered a general
sortie, which was driven back into the city. The pursuers entered
with the pursued, and the city was won after great slaughter in
the streets. Mahmūd paid his devotions at the shrine, appointed
Khvāja Ni'matullāh, whom he entitled Saif Khān, governor of the
city, founded a mosque, and marched to Māndalgarh. Temples
were destroyed and the country was devastated in the neighbour-
hood of this fortress, the siege was opened, and the approaches
were carried up to the walls. On October 19, 1457, the place was
carried by assault, with great slaughter. A remnant of the garrison
shut itself up in the citadel, but was compelled by want of water
to surrender, and the lives of the men were redeemed by a promise
to pay 1,000,000 tangas. The temples in the fortress were
thrown, a mosque was built of their stones, Mahmūd turned
again towards Chitor, sending columns in different directions to
harass the Rājputs and reduce them to obedience. Būndi was
captured by one column, various districts were harried and placed
under contributions of tribute by others, and heavy idemnities
were exacted from the raja of Kūmbhalgarh and the raja of
Dungarpur, whose fortresses were too strong to be taken without
tedious sieges, to which Mahmūd was not disposed to devote his
time,
After this protracted and successful campaign he returned to
Māndū and in 1461 was duced to embark on a disastrous expe-
dition to the Deccan.
Nizām-ul-Mulk Ghūrī, who was perhaps related to Mahmud,
was a noble at the court of Humāyūn Shāh, known as the Tyrant-. .
the most brutal and depraved of the line of Bahman. He was
traduced at his master's court, and the tyrant caused him to be
assassinated. His family escaped to Māndū and besought Mahmūd
to avenge his death, and the invitation was welcomed by Mahmūd,
over-


## p. 358 (#404) ############################################

358
THE KINGDOM OF MÄLWA
(CH.
a
who composed a recent quarrel with 'Adil Khan II of Khāndesh
and invaded the Deccan. The tyrant Humāyūn had been removed,
and had been succeeded by his infant son, Nizām Shāh, who was
carried into the field by his nobles. When the two armies met,
that of the Deccan gained some slight advantage, but the pre-
cipitate action of a slave named Sikandar Khān, who had charge
of the person of the child king, decided the fate of the day. He
conceived his master's life to be in danger, carried him from the
field, and delivered him to his mother, who was at Firūzābād, in
the south of his dominions.
After his victory Mahmūd occupied Berar and the northern
Deccan, entered Bīdar, the capital, and besieged the citadel, but
meanwhile the guardians of the young Nizām Shāh had sought aid
of Mahmūd Bīgarha of Gujarāt, who had arrived on the frontiers of
the kingdom with 80,000 horse. Mahmúd Gāvān, one of Nizām's
two ministers, marched by Bir to meet him and assembled a force
of 20,000 horse. Mahmud Bigraha placed a similar force at his
disposal and Mahmūd Khalji found his direct line of retreat barred.
He retired hastily by way of eastern Berar, followed by Mahmud
Gāvān, who cut off his supplies and so harassed him that he aban-
doned his elephants, after having blinded them, and burnt his
heavy baggage. His retreat soon became a rout, and to avoid his
pursuers he plunged into the forests of the Malghāt, where his
army was nearly destroyed. Over 5000 perished of thirst, and the
Korkūs fell upon the remnant and slaughtered large numbers.
Mahmūd put the Korkū chieftain to death, but his vengeance could
not save his army, few of whom returned to Māndū.
He learnt little from this disaster and later in 1462, again in-
vaded the Deccan with 90,000 horse, but the army of the Deccan
was drawn up to meet him at Daultabād, and the sultan of Gu-
jarāt once more marched to Nandurbār. On this occasion Mahmūd
Khalji retired before it was too late, and again traversed the Mel.
ghāt on his homeward way, but his march was now leisurely, and
,
his troops suffered from nothing more serious than the difficulty of
the roads.
In 1465 Mahmūd was much gratified by the arrival at Māndū
of Sharaf-ul-Mulk, an envoy from al-Mustanjid Billāh Yūsuf, the
puppet ‘Abbāsid Caliph of Egypt, who brought for him a robe of
honour and a patent of sovereignty. The honour was an empty
one, such patents being issued chiefly for the purpose of filling the
coffers of the needy pontiffs who were in theory the Commanders
of the Faithful, and in practice obsequious courtiers of the Mamlūk


## p. 359 (#405) ############################################

XIV)
MAHMŨD RECOVERS KHERLA
359
Sultans of Egypt, but it was highly prized by the lesser sultans in
India.
Nizām-ul-Mulk, an officer of Nizām Shāh of the Deccan, now
led a large army against the fortress of Kherla. Sirāj-ul-Mulk, who
held it for Mālwa, was helplessly drunk when the enemy arrived
before the fortress, but his son attempted to withstand the invader.
He was defeated and fled, and Nizām-ul-Mulk occupied Kherla.
Mahmūd retaliated by sending Maqbul Khān against Ellichpur,
the capital of Berar, and though he failed to capture the city he
laid waste the fertile district in which it stood and returned to
Māndū with much spoil, but in the following year a treaty of peace
was concluded with Muhammad III, who had succeeded his brother
Nizām on the throne of the Deccan and Mahmūd's possession of
Kherla was confirmed but the integrity of Berar, with that exception,
was maintained.
In the same year Mahmūd marched to Kūmbhalgarh and be.
sieged Rānā Kumbha, who was then in that fortress. Learning
that Chitor was denuded of troops, Mahmūd ordered his officers to
assemble an army, as quietly and unostentatiously as possible, at
Khaljīpur, hard by Mandasor, in order that a sudden descent might
be made on the Rānā's capital, but Kumbha discovered the design
and sallied from Kūmbhalgarh to attack him. He was defeated,
but succeeded in making good his retreat to Chitor, and as the
opportunity of surprising the fortress had been lost Mahmūd re-
turned to Māndū. While he had been thus engaged Sher Khān, a
Turkish officer in his service, had captured Amreli in Kāthiāwār
and slain its raja, Chītā.
Muhammad III of the Deccan had broken the treaty of 1466
by tampering with the loyalty of Maqbul Khān, Mahmūd's governor
of Kherla, who transferred his allegiance to the southern kingdom
and surrendered the fortress to the son of the raja whom Mahmūd
had imprisoned. Mahmūd's sons, Tāj Khān and Ahmad Khān,
made a forced march to Kherla, defeated the raja's son, put him to
flight, and re-occupied the fortress. The Gonds with whom he took
refuge, on hearing that Tāj Khān was preparing to attack them, sent
the fugitive to him in chains. Mahmūd visited Kherla, and march-
ed thence to Sārangpur, where he received Khvāja Kamāl-ud-din
Astarābādī, an envoy from 'Tīmūr’s great-grandson, Sultān Abu-Sa'id,
king of Transoxiana, Khurāsān, and Balkh. When the envoy
departed he was accompanied by Shaikhzāda 'Alā-ud-din, whom
Mahmūd sent as his ennoy to Abu-Sa'id.
In 1468 the landholders of Kachwāra raided some of the
a


## p. 360 (#406) ############################################

360
[ CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MÅLWA
districts of Mālwa, and Mahmūd at once marched to punish them.
His son Ghiyās-ud-dīn built, in an incredibly short space of time,
a fortress which he named Jalālpur, on the border of Kachwāra,
which was occupied by a garrison which curbed the predatory ten-
dencies of the rebels.
In the same year Mahmud marched to Chanderi, and thence
sent Sher Khān and Fath Khān to capture the town of Karahra,
160 miles distant from his camp. They invested the place and
pushed forward their parallels until they were able to throw lighted
combustibles into one quarter of the town. The fire spread, and
destroyed 3000 houses, and the town was captured without difficulty,
no fewer than 7000 prisoners being taken. Mahmūd was informed
at Chanderi of the outbreak of the conflagration, and is said to
have ridden in one night from that town to Karahra in order to
witness the discomfiture of the unbelievers, but this is hardly
credible.
In the course of this expedition Mahmūd received, on February
20, 1469, Shaikhzāda Muhammad Qarmali Qutb Khān Lodi, and
K apúr Chand, son of Karī Singh, raja of Gwalior, who came as en-
voys from Buhlūl Lodi, king of Delhi, to seek his help against Husain
Shāh of Jaunpur, whose repeated attempts to gain possession of Delhi
gave its master no rest and appeared, at this time, to be certain of
success. Bayāna was held out as the bait, and Mahmūd promised,
in return for the cession of this district, to supply Buhlül with 6000
horse whenever he might have need of them.
After the dismissal of this mission Mahmud returned to Māndü,
exhausted with unceasing warfare. He was now sixty-eight years
of age, and during a reign of more than thirty-three years he had
preferred the song of the lark to the cheep of the mouse, and to be
worn out rather than rusted out. In the course of his return march
to his capital he suffered severely from the fierce heat of an Indian
summer, and on June 1, 1469, shortly after his arrival at Māndū, he
expired.
He was the greatest of the Muslim kings of Mālwa, which reached
its greatest extent during his reign. His ambition may be
measured by his attempts to conquer Delhi, Gujarāt, Chitor, and
the Deccan, in all of which he failed but against his failures must
be set his signal successes against the Rāna Kumbha and many minor
Rājput chieftains, his enlargement of the frontiers of his kingdom,
and the high estimation in which he was held by his con-
temporaries. His recognition by the phantom Caliph, worthless
though it was, proved, at least, that his fame had reached distant


## p. 361 (#407) ############################################

XIV)
GHIYĂS-UD-DÍN
361
Egypt, and the mission from Sultan Abu-Saʻīd conveyed to him the
more valuable regard of a king in fact as well as in name. He
earned a reputation as a builder, and one of his works was a column
of victory an Māndū, erected to commemorate his successes against
Rānā Kumbha of Chitor. The more famous column of victory at
Chitor is said to commemorate victories over Mahmūd of Gujarāt
and Mahmud of Mālwa. If this is so it, like some tall bully lifts
its head and lies. ' Mahmūd I failed to capture Chitor, but the
Rānā never gained any important victory over him. The successes
of the Gahlots against Mālwa were gained by Sangrama Singh, not
by Kumbha, against Mahmūd II, not Mahmūd I.
Mahmūd was a good Muslim. He substituted the unpractical
and inconvenient lunar calendar, sacred to Islam, for the solar
calendar in all public offices, he destroyed temples and idols and
slew or enslaved their worshippers, and he was so scrupulous about
meats that when he was besieging the citadel of Bidar he harassed
the saint Khalilullāh Butshikan, son of Shāh Ni'matullāh of Māhān,
with questions regarding a supply of lawful vegetables for his table.
The saint expressed surprise that one who was engaged in attacking
a brother Muslim and slaying his subjects should be so scrupulous
in the matter of his food. Mahmūd acknowledged, with some
embarrassment, the justice of the rebuke, but pleaded that the
laws of the faith had never suſliced to curb the ambition of kings.
Mahmud I was succeeded by his eldest son, Ghiyās ud-din, who
took his seat on the throne two days after his father's death. He
earned the gratitude of his servants by retaining in their posts all
those whom his father had appointed, and displayed a confidence
in the loyalty of his near relations rarely found in an eastern king.
His next brother, Tāj Khān, was confirmed in his fiefs and received
the title of 'Alā-ud-din, and his younger brother, Fidāi Khān, was
permitted to retain the government of Ranthambhor and other
districts. His declaration of policy resembled that of the Roman
emperor Augustus. His father, he said, had extended his sway
over the whole land of Mālwa, and it should be his care to hold
what had been acquired, not to molest his neighbours. So averse
was he from war that when Buhlūl Lodi raided Pālampur, near
Ranthambhor, he would not take the field himself, but ordered
Sher Khān, governor of Chanderī, to obtain satisfaction from the
invader, which task was sufficiently well performed, and when, in
1484, he marched from Māndū in response to an appeal from the
raja of Chāmpāner, who had sought his aid against Mahmūd Be.
garha, he was suddenly smitten with compunction, and consulted


## p. 362 (#408) ############################################

362
į ch.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
the doctors of the law on the legality of aiding an infidel against a
Muslim, and, on their delivering the opinion that such assistance
was unlawful, at once returned to Māndū.
At the beginning of his reign he conferred on his eldest son,
‘Abd-ul-Qadir, the title of Nāsir-ud-din Sultān, designated him as
his heir, and associated him with himself in the business of govern-
ment.
Ghiyās-ud-din found his own chief amusement in the administra-
tion of his harem, which it was his fancy to organise as a kingdom
in miniature, complete in itself. Its army consisted of two corps
of Amazons, of 500 each, one of African and one of Turkish slave
girls, who at public audiences were drawn up on either side of the
throne. The harem contained, besides these, 1600 women, who
were taught various arts and trades, and organised in departments.
Besides the musicians, singers, and dancers, usually found in a
royal seraglio there were goldsmiths, blacksmiths, shoemakers,
weavers, potters, tailors, makers of bows, arrows, and quivers, car-
penters, wrestlers, and jugglers, each, of whom received fixed wages.
their officers, also women being paid at higher rates, also women
who supervised the various craſts and administrative departments.
These women were recruited, at great trouble and expense, from
all parts of India, but a case in which one of his agents abducted a
girl from her parents led him to order the cessation of recruitment
in his own dominions. A replica in miniature of the great bazar
in the city was erected within the precincts of the palace, and was
filled with the artists, artisans and craftswomen of the harem.
The king himself regulated with meticulous nicety the pay and
allowances of all, even to the quantities of grain, fodder and meat
allotted to the various animals employed or domesticated within
the extensive premises set apart for the harem, decided disputes,
and generally wasted in these futile pursuits the time and energy
which should have been devoted to the administration of his
kingdom.
When not thus employed he devoted himself to the ceremonies
of his faith, and to inventing others, to add to the list of those with
which the daily life of a devout Muslim is encumbered. He insisted
on being aroused every night, shortly after midnight, even if force
should be necessary, for the recitation of the voluntary night
prayers, and he abstained, not only from all intoxicants, but from
all food of the legality of which there was the slightest doubt, and
from wearing clothes of materials not sanctioned by the law of
Islam.


## p. 363 (#409) ############################################

XIV)
FOLLY OF GHIYĀS. UD. DİN
363
His folly and profusion were practised upon by rogues and im-
postors, whose fraudulent tricks needed but to be connected in
some way with professions of religion to receive unmerited rewards.
A beggar from Delhi picked up a handful of wheat from a heap
lying in the courtyard of the palace and carried it into the royal
presence. When asked the meaning of his action he explained that
he was one who had committed to memory the whole of the Koran,
which he had recited over each single grain of the wheat in his
hand, which he now offered to the king. Honours and favours were
showered upon him.
Another rogue brought to the king the hoof of an ass, which he
asserted to be a hoof of the ass on which our Lord had entered
Jerusalem. He received 50,000 tangas and was, of course, followed
by three other rogues, each bearing the hoof of an ass, of which he
told the same story and for which he received the same reward.
As though this were not enough, a fifth appeared, with a fifth hoof,
and the king co. nmanded that he likewise should receive 50,000
tangas. The courtiers protested against this folly, and asked their
master whether he believed that the Messiah's ass had five legs.
'Let him have the reward,' replied the crowned fool, 'perhaps he
is telling the truth and one of the others made a mistake. '
At such a court as this beggars of all classes of course abounded,
and the taxes wrung from a thrifty and industrious people were
squandered on rogues, vagabonds and idlers.
Ghiyās-ud-din's declining years were embittered by a violent
quarrel between his two sons, ‘Abud-ul-Qādir, Nāsir-ud-dīn and
Shujā'at Khan 'Alā-ud-din, whose mother, Rāni Khurshid, daughter
of the raja of Baglāna, favoured the cause of the younger. The
miserable king, whose naturally feeble intellect was now impaired
by old age, was incapable of composing the strife, and vacillated
between his heir and his wife's favourite. Murders were committed
on either side, and both appealed to arms. Nāsir-ud-din marched
.
out of the capital and assembled an army, and both his father and
his mother attempted to persuade him to return, the former that
the prince might resume the government of the kingdom, which
had latterly fallen entirely into his hands, and the latter that she
might find an opportunity of putting him to death. Nāsir ud-din's
first attempt to storm the capital was unsuccessful, but the greater
part of the nobles and the army was on his side, and he was
tually admitted by the Bālāpur gate.
He seized his mother and
brother, imprisoned the one and put the other to death, and on
October 22, 1500, ascended the throne with the consent of his
even-


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364
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MÁLWA
father. He caused those of the nobles who had opposed him to be
put to death and designated his second son, Miyān Manjhla, as his
heir, conferring on him the title of Shihāb-ud-din.
Many of the nobles in the provinces, including Sher Khān the
powerful governor of Chanderī, and Muqbil Khān, governor of
Mandasor, declined to believe that the new king had ascended the
throne with his father's conscent, and took up arms against him.
After one unsuccessful attempt to crush this rebellion, and another
attempt, equally unsuccessful, to conciliate the rebels, he took the
field against them, and assembled his army at Naʻlcha, leaving his
son Shihab-ud-din in charge of the capital. At Dhār he received
news of the death of his father, on February 28, 1501, from poison,
administered, as it was generally believed, by his orders. He en-
countered the rebels at Sārangpur and utterly defeated them.
Sher Khān fled to Chanderī, and thence to Erij and Bhānder',
and Nāsīr-ud-din occupied Chanderī, but discovered that a faction
in the town had invited Sher Khān to return and promised him
their active support. He sent a force against the rebel who was
advancing on Chanderi and who was defeated and so severely
wounded that he died in the course of his retreat.
The king
marched as far as the spot where the body had been buried, ex-
humed it, and carried it back to Chanderī, where it was exposed
on a gallows. He then appointed Bihajat Khān governor of Chan-
derī and returned to Māndū, when by deep drinking he aggravated
the natural ferocity of his disposition and by his violent and iras-
cible temper alienated his nobles.
In 1503 he led a marading expedition into the dominions of
the Rānā, and later in the year sent a force to the aid of Dāūd
Khān of Khāndesh, whose dominions had been invaded by Ahmad
Nizām Shāh of Ahmadnagar,
In 1510 Shihāb-ud-din, his son and heir apparent, rose in re-
bellion, and was joined by most of the nobles in the provinces and
many in the capital, who were disgusted by the king's tyranny.
Nāsir-ud-din marched against him and met him, with greatly
inferior numbers, at Dhār. Shihāb-ud-din, encouraged by his
numerical superiority, attacked his father, but was defeated and
fled to Chanderī, and, when he was pursued thither, to Sipri. His
father followed him, and having vainly attempted to persuade him
to return to his allegiance set o'it for Māndū, but died on his way
thither.
Of the manner of his death there are two accounts. According
1 In 24' 31'N. and 73' 45'E.


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XIV ]
MAHMUD II
365
to one he contracted a fever and insisted on bathing in cold water,
which so aggravated his illness that it terminated fatally. Accord-
ing to the other he gave expression to his suspicions of many of his
nobles, whom he believed to have been secretly in correspondence
with Shihāb-ud-din, and uttered menaces, until they beca me so
apprehensive that they poisoned him. Immediately after his death
they unanimo usly raised to the throne, on May 2, 1511, his son
'Alā-ud-din Mahmūd II, who was in the camp, and sent Nāsir-ud-
d'n's body to Māndū for burial.
Shihāb-ud-din, on hearing of his father's death, returned to
Mālwa and marched on Māndū, but Mahmūd II outstripped him
and arrived there first, and when Shihāb-ud-din reached the city
the gates were shut in his face. After attempting, without success,
to persuade the governor of the city, Muhāfiz Khān, to admit him,
he retired to the fortress of Asīr, in Khāndesh.
Mahmūd II confirmed in his post his father's minister, a Hindu
named Basant Rāi, but the Muslim nobles so resented his tenure
of his high place that they murdered him. The intrigues of
Muhāfiz Khān, governor of Māndü, drove Iqbāl Khān and Mukhtass
Khān, two of the leading nobles, into rebellion and they iled to
the Narbada and sent Nusrat Khān, the former's son to Asīr, to
summon Shihāb-ud-din to the throne of Mālwa. The prince was so
overjoyed that he set out at once, riding hard, in the great heart, to
join his adherents, but he succumbed, and on July 29, 1511, died
on the road. The rebels sent his body to Mandū for burial, pro-
claimed his son King under the title of Hūshang II, and marched
into the central districts of Mālwa. A force was sent against them
and defeated them, and Hüshang took refuge in Sehore, but the
leaders convinced the king that they were loyal at heart, and had
rebelled only in consequence of the intrigues of Muhāfiz Khān.
This officer had already angered the king by proposing that he
should put to death his eldest brother, Sāhib Khān, and the quarrel
became so acute that Muhāfiz Khān attacked the king in his
palace. He was defeated and driven off, and avenged himself by
proclaiming Sāhib Khān king under the title of Muhammad I11.
Mahmūi Il escaped from Māndū and withdrew to Ujjain, where
he was joined by Iqbāl Khān, Mukhtass Khān, and Dastur Khān.
Sāhib Khān advanced to Na'lcha and Mahmúd retired to Dipāl-
pur, where most of the nobles, whose wives and families were
in Māudū deserted him. He asked Bihjat Khān governor of
1 Muhammad Il reigned nominally from A. H. 917 to A. H. 921 (A. D. 1511—1516).
His extant coins bear the latter date,


## p. 366 (#412) ############################################

366
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
an
>
Chanderi, to give him an asylum in that fortress, bui Bihjat Khān
replied that he was the servant of the king who held Māndū.
Mahmūd knew not where to turn, and remained irresolute for some
days, until he bethought himself of Medni Rāi the Purbiya, a
Rājput of eastern Hindústān, who held the military government
of a small district in Malwa and was noted for his valour, He
responded to the king's call, and came to his aid, and his accession
induced Bihjat Khān of Chanderi to change his attitude, so that he
sent his son Shiddat Khān to the king with offers of service.
Mahmūd, thus reinforced, marched to meet his brother, who
advanced from Māndü. The armies met in the evening, and while
they were encamped for the night Afzal Khan deserted the prince,
taking half of the army with him to Mahmūd's camp and Mu-
hammad fled without fighting. Mahmūd at once marched on
Māndū, being joined on the way by the remnant of Shihāb-ud-din's
supporters from Schore, and on November 28 found his brother,
who had assembled a number of troops, barring his way to the
capital. Muhammad was defeated, and fled into the fortress, and
Mahmūd, after inffectual attempt to induce him to submit,
opened the siege of the palace. On January 6, 1512 he was admitted
into the fortress, by some of his partisans and Muhammad and
Muhafiz Khān fled, with such jewels and treasure as they could
collect and carry with them, and threw themselves on the protec-
tion of Muzaffar II of Gujarat, who was then encamped at Baroda.
The course of Muhammad's subsequent wanderings has been traced
in the preceding chapter. He found a home, for a time in Berar,
under the protection of 'Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh.
Mahmūd was now established at Māndū, and soon had occasion
to repent of having summoned the Purbiya Rājputs to his aid.
Medni Rai assumed the office of minister, dismissed from their
posts all the old nobles of the kingdom, in whose places he ap.
pointed men of his own faith and race, and induced the king to
sanction the assassination of Afzal Khān and Iqābl Khān, whom
he accused of entering in correspondence with Muhammad. The
Muslim nobles viewed with mingled disgust and apprehension the
supremacy of the idolators in the state, and Sikandar Khān,
governor of Satwās and one of the most important of the great
fief-holders, raised the standard of revolt. Bihjat Khān of Chanderi
excused himself from obeying his sovereign's command to march
against the rebel, and Mansūr Khān of Bhilsa, who obeyed the
royal summons, was so ill supported that he abandoned the attempt
to crush the rebellion, and joined Bihjat Khān at Chanderi. Medni


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XIV ]
PREDOMINANCE OF THE RĀJPUTS
367
Rāi reduced Sikandar Khān to obedience, and by confirming him
in his fiefs induced him to renew his allegiance to Mahmūd.
Bihjat Khān of Chanderſ was still contumacious, and when
Mahmūd marched in person to Āgar sent letters to Sāhib Khān, or
Muhammad Shāh, in Berar, and to Sikandar Shāh Lodi of Delhi,
begging the former to join him and received the crown of Mālwa,
and seeking the assistance of the latter against a king who was
dominated by infidels.
While Mahmūd was awaiting the return of a mission which he
had sent to Bihjat Khān for the purpose of recalling him to his
obedience, he was perturbed by the news of a revolt in his capital,
and of the invasion of his kingdom by Muzaffar II of Gujarāt, but
the revolt was immediately suppressed and Muzaffar was recalled
to Gujarāt by domestic disturbances. No sooner had Mahmūd
been reassured by this news than he learnt that Sikandar Khān
was again in rebellion, and had defeated and slain a loyal officer
who had endeavoured to reduce him to obedience. At the same
time he learnt that his brother had reached Chanderī and had been
proclaimed king by Bihjat Khān and Mansür Khān. He retired to
Bhilsa and remained for some time in that neighbourhood. His
inaction encouraged the rebels to send a force to Sārangpur, but
the governor of that district defeated them, and the news that a
contingent sent to their help by Sikandar Shāh Lodi had retired
restored Mahmūd's spirits, and disheartened, in a corresponding
degree, his enemies. An attempt of Mubāfiz Khān to return to
Māndū was defeated, and the rebels were ready to come to terms,
The king was no less weary of the conflict, which, as he now under-
stood, was being prolonged only in the interest of the Purbiya
Rājputs, and ceded to his brother the districts of Rāisen Bhilsa, and
Dhamonī, besides remitting to hiin a substantial sum for his imme.
diate needs. The retention of the money by Bihjat Khān excited the
apprehensions of Muhammad, who believed that he was about to be
betrayed to his brother, and fled to the protection of Sikandar Shāh
Lodī, thus enabling his host to make an unqualified submission to
Mahmud, who, on December 18, 1513, was received at Chanderi by
Bihjat Khān, who endeavoured, without success, to free him from
his subservience to Medni Rāi.
Early in 1514 thc king returned to Māndū, where he fell
entirely under the influence of the Rājput minister, and at his
instigation put many of the old Muslim nobles of the kingdom to
death. The rest left the court, and even menial servants were dis-
missed, until the king was entirely in their power. He made an


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368
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
effort to free himself by dismissing Medni Rāi, but the minister
refused to accept his dismissal, and the Rājputs were restrained
from violence only by prudential considerations, and promised in
future to abstain from what was their greatest offence in the eyes
of Muslims -- the keeping of Muslim women as concubines. One of
their leaders, Sālibāhan, refused to make this promise, and the
offence thus continued. Mahmūd then attempted to remove Medni
Rāi and Salibāhan by assassination, and succeeded in the case of
the latter, but the former was only wounded, and the Rājputs
attacked the king's small bodyguard of Muslims, but were defeated,
chiefly owing to their fear of provoking the intervention of Muzaffar
II of Gujarāt by proceeding to extremities.
In 1517 Mahmūd lost patience with his Hindu masters, and,
leaving Māndū on the pretext of hunting eluded his Rājput escort
and fled to the frontier of Gejarāt, where he sought aid of Muzaf-
far II, whose ready response to the appeal, and the capture of
Māndū, the terrible massacre of the Rājputs, and Mahmūd's re-
storation to his throne have already been described in the preceding
chapter.
The Rājputs had not all been in Māndū when it was taken by
Muzaffar, and Medni Rāi had established himself in the northren
and eastern districts of the kingdom : his officers held Chanderi
and Gāgraun, and his brother, Silahdi, Rāisen, Bhilsa, and Sarang-
pur.
Mahmūd recalled all his old Muslim nobles and their troops,
and by the advice of Asaf Khān of Gujarāt, who had been left,
with 10,000 horse, by Muzaffar II to assist him against his enemies,
marched first to Gāgraun, which was held by Hemkaran for Medni
Rāi.
Medni Rai was himself with Rānā Sangrama, and, on hearing
that Mahmūd had opened the siege of Gāgraun, implored the Rānā
a town which contained all that was most precious to him.
Sangrama responded to the appeal, and marched with a large army
towards Gāgraun, and Mahmūd, on hearing of his advance, aban.
doned the siege and marched with great rapidity to meet him. His
army encamped within fourteen miles of Sangrama, who, having
ascertained that it was exhausted by its long march, attacked it at
once. On his approach the Muslims took the field in small bodies,
each division falling in as soon as it could arm and mount. The
whole army was thus cut to pieces in detail and utterly defeated.