No More Learning

Kabk and many others were taken alive and carried by
Ghāzi Malik to Delhi, where they were thrown under the feet of
elephants. Traces of the column built of their heads on the plain
outside the Budaun gate are said to have been visible more than
two hundred and fifty years later, in the reign of Akbar. Their
wives and children were sold as slaves in Delhi and in the principal
cities of northern India. During 'Alā-ud-din's reign the Mughuls
only once again ventured to invade his kingdom. In 1307-08 a
chieftain named Iqbālmand led a horde across the Indus and was
defeated and slain. The captives were, as usual, sent to Delhi and
crushed to death, and this last defeat deterred the barbarians from
invading India until the disorders arising from the misgovernment
of ‘Alā-ud-din's son, Qutb-ud-din Mubārak, invited their aggression.
In 1306-07 "Alā-ud-dīn observed that Rāmachandra oi Deogir
had for three successive years failed to remit to Delhi the revenues
of the Ellichpur province, and a large army was sent under the
command of Kāfür Hazārdīnārī, now
entitled Malik Nāib, or
lieutenant of the kingdom, to punish his negligence and reduce
him to obedience. The expedition had a secondary object. The
wiſe of raja Karan of Gujarāt, Kamala Devī, longed for the society
of her daughter, Deval Devī, who had been carried off by her
father to Deogir, and Malik Nāib was instructed to secure her and
bring her to Delhi.
Karan, after his flight from Gujarāt, had not remained an idle
guest at Rāmachandra's court, but had rebuilt the town and fortress
of Nandurbār and ruled, as Rāmachandra's vassal, a small princi-
pality. Malik Nāib passed through Mālwa and entered the Deccan,
and Alp Khān, governor of Gujarāt, who had been ordered to co-
operate with him, attacked Karan, who for two months offered a
most determined resistance.
Shankar Deo, the eldest son of Rāmachandra, had for some time
been a suitor for the hand of Deval Devī, but Karan's Rajput pride
1 Ghāzi, ‘one who defeats and slays infidels in war. ' Ibn Batūtah mentions an
Arabic inscription of Tughluq on the Friday mosque of Multān, which ran as
follows : 'I have encountered the Tātārs ontwentynine occasions and defeated
them : hence I am called Malik-ul-Ghāzi. ' From this inscription it appears that
there was never peace on the frontier. The historians record only invasions in
force, in the course of which the Mughuls evaded or overcame the frontier
garrisons and advanced for some distance into India.


## p. 113 (#153) ############################################

y]
CAPTURE OF DEVAL DEVI
113
would not consent to his daughter's union with one whom he stigma
tised as a Marāthā. Shankar took advantage of Karan's difficulties
to renew his suit, and sent his younger brother Bhim Deo with an
escort to convey Deval Devi to Deogir. Karan could not but prefer
for his daughter an alliance with the Yadava prince to captivity
with the unclean foreigners, and surrendered her to Bhim Deo, who
carried her off towards Deogir.
Alp Khān, ignorant of Deval Devi's departure, attempted to
capture her by overwhelming her father with his whole force,
defeated him, and pursued him towards Deogir. In the neighbour-
hood of that fortress he granted leave to three or four hundred
of his men to visit the wonderful cave temples of Ellora, situated
in the hills above the town. While they were inspecting the temples
they perceived, marching towards them, a Hindu force which they
suspected of the intention of cutting them off, and accordingly re-
ceived with a flight of arrows. The force was, in fact, Deval Devi's
escort, commanded by Bhim Deo, and one of the arrows wounded
the horse on which the princess rode. As the pursuers came up with
her, her attendants revealed her identity and besought them to
respect her honour. She was at once escorted to Alp Khān, who
retired to Gujarāt and dispatched her thence to Delhi, where she
rejoined her mother and was married, in the summer of 1307, to
Khizr Khān, the king's eldest son. The story of their loves is told
by Amir Khusrav in a long poem. The enmity between Malik Nāib
and Alp Khān, which had fatal results for the latter at the end
of the reign, undoubtedly arose from his forestalling the eunuch
on this occasion.
Malik Nāib obviated any future default in the remittance of the
revenues of Ellichpur by appointing Muslim officers to administer
the province, and advanced to Deogir, where Rāmachandra, pro-
fiting by past experience, was prepared to make his submission.
Leaving his son Shankar Deo in the citadel he went forth with his
principal officers of state to make obeisance to the king's represen-
tative. He was courteously received and was sent to Delhi with a
letter of recommendation from Malik Näib. The gifts which he
offered in place of the arrears of tribute due from him and as
a peace offering included 700 elephants, and the king, with a
1 The Yādavas of Deogir, like the Jādons of Sindkhed, who claimed descent
from them, boasted a Rājput lincage, but the undoubted Rājputs of Rājasthān and
Gujarāt, who suspect the Hindus of the south of a strain of Dravidian blood are
loth to admit such claims. It was on account of his nebulous claim to Rājput
descent that Jādon Rão of Sindkhed regarded the marriage of his daughter, Jiji
Bai, to Shahji the Marāthā, father of Shivají, as a mesalliance.
C. H. I. (II.
8


## p. 114 (#154) ############################################

114
THE KHALJIS
[ CH.
1
1
generosity which was attributed to a superstitious regard for Deogir
and its ruler as the origin of his wealth and power, freely pardoned
him, bestowed on him the title of Rāi-i-Rāyān ('Chief of chiefs')
and appointed him to the government of Deogir as a vassal of Delhi.
While Malik Nāib was engaged in restoring Muslim supremacy
in the Deccan an army from Delhi was besieging Siwāna in Mārwār,
described later, in the Ain-i-Akbari, as one of the most important
strongholds in India. The siege progressed languidly until 'Alā-ud-
din himself appeared on the scene and infused such vigour into
the operations that Sital Deo, the raja, sued for peace. In order to
escape the humiliation of appearing before his conqueror as a sup-
pliant he caused a golden image of himself to be made and sent it,
with a hundred elephants and many other gifts to 'Alā-ud-din,
but he was disappointed, for the king retained all the gifts and
returned a message to the effect that no overtures would be con-
sidered until Sital Deo made them in person. After his submission
'Alā-ud-din parcelled out Mārwār arnong his own nobles and swept
the fort clean of everything that it contained, 'even the knives and
needles,' but permitted the raja to retain the empty stronghold.
Kāner Deo of Jālor had been permitted to return to his do-
minions, though he had once aroused the king's wrath by the foolish
vaunt that he was prepared at any time to meet him in the field.
The boast was not forgotten, and on the raja's exhibiting signs of
contumacy 'Alā-ud-din sent against him, in bitter contempt, an army
under the command of one of the female servants of his palace,
named Gul-i-Bihisht (the Rose of Paradise”). The woman was a
capable commander, the Kāner Deo was on the point of surrendering
to her when she fell sick and died. Her son Shāhin, who succeeded
her in the command, had less military ability than his mother, and
was defeated and slain, but after the arrival of reinforcements under
Kamāl-ud-din Gurg ('the Wolf') Jālor was taken and Kāner Deo
and his relations were put to death.
In 1308 'Alā-ud-din made a second attempt to establish his
authority in Telingāna, and a large army under the command of
Malik Nāib and Khvāja Hāji was dispatched from Delhi by way of
De gir. He had no intention of annexing more territory than could
be conveniently administered from Delhi, and Malik Näib's instruc-
tions were to insist upon no more than the formal submission of the
raja of Warangal and an undertaking to pay tribute. Rāmachandra
hospitably entertained the whole army during its halt at Deogir,
and when it advanced towards Telingāna supplied it with an efficient
commissariat.


## p. 115 (#155) ############################################

v)
CONQUESTS IN THE SOUTH
113
Malik Näib, after passing Indūr, the frontier town between the
kingdoms of Deogir and Warangal, wasted the country with fire and
sword, driving its inhabitants before him towards Warangal. The
reigning king at this time was Pratāparudradeva II, the seventh
known raja of the Kākatiya dynasty, who had succeeded to the
throne when his grandmother Rudramma Devī, alarmed, in 1294,
by the news of 'Alā-ud-din's descent on Deogir, abdicated in his
favour. The statement of the historian Budauni, who says that the
dynasty had reigned for 700 years before its final extinction in 1321,
is corroborated by Hindu tradition, but so far as our knowledge at
present extends the first of the line was Tribhuvanamalla Betmarāja,
who reigned in the first half of the twelfth century.
Rudramma Devi had surrounded the city of Warangal with an
outer wall of earth, which enclosed an area about two miles in
diameter, and within this was an inner wall of stone, with a circum-
ference of four miles and six hundred and thirty yards, which had
been designed by her husband Ganpati and completed under her
supervision, and formed an inner line of defence. The invaders,
after numerous assaults in which the garrison suffered heavy loss,
carried the outer line of defence and captured large numbers of the
citizens with their families, and the raja tendered his submission,
offering, as an immediate indemnity, three hundred elephants, seven
thousand horses, and large quantities of coined money and jewels,
and, for the future, the payment of an annual tribute. The terms
were accepted, and Malik Näib returned towards Delhi, where the
news of his success, which preceded him, relieved the prevalent mis-
givings as to his fate, for during the siege the Hindus had intercepted
the postal runners between the army and the frontier of Telingāna.
Reports which he brought of the great wealth of the temples
and the Hindu rulers of the extreme south excited the king's
cupidity, and in 1310 Malik Nāib and Khvāja Hāji were again sent
southwards with a large army to plunder the kingdom of the
Hoysāla Ballālas, which lay to the south of the Krishna, and to
explore the southern extremity of the peninsula. The army marched
again by way of Deogir, where Shankar Deo had succeeded his
father who had, in the words of an uncompromising historian, 'gone
to hell either late in 1309 or early in 1310. Historians are not
agreed on Shankar's attitude to the Muslims. Some describe him
as being as loyal as his father, but one says that his fidelity was not
above suspicion, and that Malik Nāib deemed it prudent to protect
1 The number is given by most historians as 3000, but an exaggeration may
be suspected, and the more probable number has been given.
8-2


## p. 116 (#156) ############################################

116
THE KHALJIS
\CH.
his communications by establishing a military post at Jālna, on the
Godāvari. From Deogir he took the direct route to Dvāravatipura,
the capital of the Hoysāla Ballālas, called by Muslim historians
Dhorasamundar, the ruins of which are still to be seen at Halebid,
in the Hassan district of the Mysore State. The rapidity of his
advance took the Hindus by surprise ; Vira Ballāla III, the tenth
raja of the dynasty, was captured in the first attack on his capital,
and the city itself fell, with great case, into the hands of the in-
vaders. Thirty-six elephants, the plunder of the great temple, and
all the raja's treasures rewarded them, and a dispatch announcing
the victory was sent to Delhi. From Dvāravatipura Malik Nāib
marched to the kingdom of the Pāndyas in the extreme south of
the peninsula, to which the attention of 'Alā-ud-din had been
attracted by recent events. Sundara Pāndya had slain his father,
Kulashekharadeva, and attempted to seize his throne, but was
defeated by his brocher, Vira Pāndya, and in 1310 fled to Delhi.
Malik Näib advanced to Madura, which Vira had evacuated, plun-
dered and destroyed the great temple, and thence marched east-
wards to the coast. Here he founded, either at Rāmeswaram on the
island of Pāmban or on the mainland opposite to it, a mosque which
he named after his master.
According to Muslim historians Malik Nāib found two rajas
ruling kingdoms in this region. One was Vīra Pandya, and the
other was probably Ravivarman or Kulashekharadeva of Kerala.
Both were defeated and plundered, and a Muslim governor was left
at Madura. An interesting fact recorded of the expedition into the
kingdom of Dvāravatipura is the encounter of Malik Näib army at
Kadūr with some Moplahs, who are described as half Hindus, and
lax in their religious observances, but as they could repeat the
Kalima, or symbol of Islam, their lives were spared.
Malik Näib left Madura on April 24 and reached Delhi on
October 18, 1311 with the enormous spoils of his enterprise, which
included 312 elephants, 20,000 horses, 2,750 pounds of gold, equal
in value to 100,000,000 tangas, and chests of jewels. No such booty
had ever before been brought to Delhi : the spoils of Deogir could
not compare with those of Dvāravatīpura and Madura, and the
king, when receiving the leaders of the expedition in the Palace of
the Thousand Pillars at Siri, distributed largesse to them and to the
learned men of Delhi with a lavish hand.
'Alā-ud-din's power, having reached its zenith, began to declinę.
He had hitherto shown considerable administrative capacity, and,
. -


## p. 117 (#157) ############################################

v]
THE NEW MUSLIMS
117
though headstrong and self-willed, had usually sought and frequently
followed the advice of others, even to the abandonment of some of
his most cherished dreams; but his intellect was now clouded and
his naturally fierce temper embittered by ill-health, and though he
was physically and mentally less capable than formerly of transact.
ing business of state, he rejected the counsels even of his own chosen
ministers, and insisted on administering his vast dominions by the
light of his own unaided intelligence, with the result that the affairs
of the kingdom fell into such disorder that his declining years were
darkened by rebellions and disturbances.
The new Muslims had been a perpetual source of trouble and
anxiety during the reign. It was they who had rebelled when the
army was returning from the conquest of Gujarat, and the followers
of Ākat Khān had been New Muslims. They were generally dis-
contented, not entirely without cause. They had exchanged the
cool highlands of the north for the burning plains of Hindūstān,
and their change of domicile and change of faith had not been
adequately rewarded. Their prince, Ulghū Khān, had been treated
with distinction by Firüz, but he had been blinded by 'Alā-ud-din,
and if he was still alive was living in captivity and misery. No other
Mughul appears to have attained to wealth or high place, which is
not surprising, for though a few leaders may have received some
veneer of civilisation the mass of the tribe was probably not far
removed in habits and customs from the ignorant and filthy savages
described with such warmth of feeling and language by their some-
time captive, the poet Amir Khusrav. 'Alā-ud-din dismissed all
New Muslims from his service. They were permitted to enter that
of any noble who would employ them, but those who could not
obtain or would not accept such employment were told that they
might depart whither they would. Many were too proud to serve
the courtiers, and remained without employment until they could
surreptitiously creep back into the royal service in inferior positions
and on insufficient wages. They waited in vain for signs of relent-
ment in the king, and at length in their despair hatched a wild plot
to assassinate him while he was hawking ear Delhi. The plot was
discovered and the vengeance taken was characteristic of 'Alā-ud-
din. Orders were issued that every New Muslim, wherever found,
whether at Delhi or in the provinces, should be put to death, and
obedience was ensured by a promise that the slayer of a New
Muslim should become the owner of all that his victim had pos-
sessed. Between twenty and thirty thousand were massacred, and


## p. 118 (#158) ############################################

118
THE KHALJIS
( CH.
their wives, children, and property were appropriated by their
murderers.
In 1312 Khizr Khān was invested with an umbrella and desig-
nated heir-apparent. 'Alā-ud din hid paid no attention to his son's
education, and the young man had grown up weak, self-indulgent,
thoughtless and slothful. Between him and the favourite, Malik
Nāib, there existed hatred and mistrust. The able and enterprising
minister might well despise the weak and indolent prince, and
Khizr Khān would have been worthless indeed had he felt any-
thing but contempt for a creature so vile as the eunuch.
Malik Nāib was so resentful to Khizr Khān's advancement and
so weary of his quarrels with the prince's mother that he begged
that he might be sent back to the Deccan, where the presence of an
officer of high rank happened to be required. Pratāparudradeva
of Warangal had complained of the great distance to which he was
obliged to send the tribute demanded of him, and had requested
that an officer empowered to receive it might be posted at a
reasonable distance from Warangal ; and Shankar of Deogir had
been guilty of some acts of defiance of the royal authority He
was accordingly dispatched, in 1313, to Deogir, where he put
Shankar to death and assumed the government of the state. In
order to establish his authority in its more remote districts he led
an expedition southwards, captured Gulbarga, and annexed the
tract between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, after taking its
chief fortresses, Rāichũr and Mudgal. After overrunning some of
the southern districts of Telingāna he marched westwards, took the
seaports of Dābhol and Chaul, and then invaded for the second
time the dominions of Vira Ballāla III. Thence he returned to
Deogir and dispatched to Delhi the spoils and tribute which he
had collected.
'Alā-ud-din's excesses had now so undermined his health that
he was compelled to take to his bed. Neither his wife nor his
eldest son bestowed much attention on him. The former, whom
he had neglected, amused herself with arranging and attending
marriages and other festivities of the harem, and the latter could
spare no time from his wine parties, polo matches, music, dancing,
and elephant fights. 'Alā-ud-din summoned Malik Nāib from Deogir
and Alp Khān from Gujarāt, and complained bitterly to the former
of the heartless conduct of his wife and son. The eunuch perceived
an opportunity of destroying all his enemies at once, and assured
his master that his wife and son were in league with Alp Khān to
take his life. An inopportune proposal by the wife that her second


## p. 119 (#159) ############################################

v]
DEATH OF 'ALA-UD-DIN
119
son, Shādi Khān, should be permitted to marry the daughter of Alp
Khān, confirmed 'Alā-ud-dīn's suspicions. Khizr Khān was banished
to Amroha, but on hearing that his father's health was restored
returned to Delhi, in accordance with a vow, to offer thanks at
some of the shrines near the capital. The act of disobedience was
represented as a wilful defiance of authority, and though Khizr
Khān's filial piety at first regained his father's affection, Malik
Naib's persistence and his skilful distortion of facts confirmed the
king's belief in the existence of the conspiracy. Khizr Khān and
Shādi Khān were sent to Gwalior, now apparently used for the first
time as a state prison, their mother was removed from the harem
nd imprisoned at old Delhi, Alp Khān was put to death, and
Kamāl-ud-din Gurg was sent to Jālor to slay his brother, Nizām-
ud-dīn, who commanded that fortress.
These tyrannical acts caused widespread discontent. Alp Khān's
troops in Gujarāt rose in rebellion, and when Kamāl-ud-din Gurg
was sent to restore order they seized him and put him to death
with horrible tortures. The Rānā of Chitor seized many Muslim
officers who held fiefs in his dominions and threw them, bound,
from the battlements of his fortress. In Deogir Harpāl Deo, a
son-in-law of Rāmachandra, proclaimed himself independent and
occupied most of the fortified posts established by the Muslims.
The news of these successive rebellions augmented the king's
disorder, remedies failed of their effect, and he wasted away daily
until, on January 2, 1316, he died, his end, according to the generally
accepted belief, having been hastened by his favourite, who, two
days later, assembled the nobles present in the capital and read to
them his will. This document, possibly authentic, but certainly
procured by misrepresentation and undue influence, disinherited
Khizr Khăn and made Shihāb-ud-dīn 'Umar, a child of five or six
heir to his father. The infant was enthroned and Malik Naīb acted
as regent. He caused Khizr Khān and Shādi Khān to be blinded
and, eunuch though he was, he pretended to marry 'Alā-ud-din's
widow, possessed himself of all her jewellery and private property,
and then again imprisoned her. His object was to destroy the
whole of 'Alā-ud-din's family and ascend the throne himself. He
had already imprisoned Mubārak Khān, 'Alā-ud-din's third son,
a youth of seventeen or eighteen years of age, and now sent some
men of the corps of infantry on guard at the Palace of the Thousand
Pillars, which he had chosen as his residence, to blind him. The
prince reminded the soldiers of the duty which they owed to his
house, bribed them with some jewellery, and sent them back to the


## p. 120 (#160) ############################################

120
THE KHALJIS
[CH.
palace on another errand. That night, thirty-five days after the
death of ‘Alā-ud-dīn, they slew Malik Nāib and his companions.
The nobles then recognised Mubārak as regent for his infant brother,
and for two months he acquiesced in this obviously temporary
arrangement, but on April 1 blinded the unfortunate child and
ascended the throne with the title of Qutb-ud-din Mubārak Shah.
The new king, who had but lately been a prisoner trembling
for his eyesight, if not for his life, began his reign by releasing all
prisoners, by recalling all those who had been banished from the
capital by his father, and by showing clemency and mercy to all
except the murderers of Malik Nāib. Like his father, he could
inspire and profit by treachery, but he could not endure the
sight of his instruments. The soldiers, however, brought their fate
on themselves. They adopted an attitude similar to that of the
Praetorian Guards of the Roman Emperors, and demanded ex-
travagant honours. Their two principal officers, Bashir and Mushir,
were put to death, and the crops was drafted, in small detachments,
to distant garrisons.
Mubārak gained much popularity in the early days of his reign
by the rescission of all his father's harsher enactments. The com-
pulsory tariff was abolished, with the result that the prices of all
commodities rose suddenly, to the great satisfaction of the mercan-
tile community. Some of the lands and endowments resumed by
the despot were restored to the original grantees, and the possession
of wealth by private persons ceased to be regarded as a crime.
The sudden removal of all the harsh restraints which the people
had suffered produced an outburst of licentiousness similar to that
which had disgraced the short reign of Kaiqubād, and once again
the king's example encouraged the extravagance of his subjects,
for his morals were no better than his father's and from the earliest
days of his reign he was entirely under the influence of a vile
favourite. This wretch was by origin a member of one of those
castes? whose touch is pollution to a Hindu, whose occupation is
that of scavengers, and whose food consists largely of the carrion
which it is their duty to remove from byre and field. He was nomi.
nally a Muslim, and received at his conversion the name of Hassan
and from his infatuated master the title of Khusrav Khan and the
office of chief minister of the kingdom.
1 He is described as a Parwārī, a word much mutilated in the Persian texts
of Muslim historians. It is a polite name for the Mahār and Dher caste of western
India, the lowest of all village menials except the Măngs, and so unclean that they
are not permitted to live within the village, but must dwell apart in a separate
quarter.
1


## p. 121 (#161) ############################################

v} :
PLOT AGAINST MUBARAK
121
As soon as Mubārak was firmly established on the throne he
took steps to restore order in the rebellious provinces of Gujarāt
and Deogir. 'Ain-ul-Mulk Multāni was sent to the former province,
and after he had quelled the rebellion Mubārak's father in-law,
who received the title of Zafar Khān, was appointed its governor.
The other task Mubārak reserved for himself and, having appointed
as regent in the capital a slave named Shāhin, upon whom he con-
ferred the title of Vafā Malik, he set out in 1317 for the Deccan.
The usurper Harpāl was not a formidable foe, and fled from Deogir
as the army approached it, but was pursued and captured, and
after he had been flayed and decapitated his skin was stretched
upon, and his head placed above, one of the gates of the city.
Mubārak spent the rainy season of 1318 at Deogir, once more
parcelled out Mahārāshtra among Muslim cfficers, and appointed
military governors to Gulbarga and Sāgar, and even to distant
Dvāravatīpura. During his sojourn at Deogir he built the great
mosque which yet stands within the walls of Daulatābād, as the
town was afterwards named, using in its construction the materials
of demolished temples, the pillars of which are still recognisable
as Hindu handiwork. When the rains abated he appointed Malik
Yaklaki to the government of Deogir, sent his favourite, Khusrav
Khān, on an expedition to Madura, and set out for Delhi. On his
way thither a serious conspiracy against his life was formed by his
cousin Asad-ud-din, the son of Yaghrush Khān, brother of Fīrūz
Shāh. Mubārak was to have been assassinated in the camp, but
the plot had ramifications in the capital, for two coins struck at
Delhi in A H. 718 (A. D. 1318-19) bear the title of Shams-ud-din
A.
Mahmūd Shāh, which was either that which Asad-ud-dīn intended
to assume or, more probably, that of a ten-year old son of Khizr
Khān, whose elevation to the throne was, according to Ibn Batūtah,
the object of the conspiracy. It was arranged that Mubārak should
be attacked in his harem on an occasion on which he diverged, for
the distance of a few marches, from the route followed by the
army, and took a different road attended only by a small guard,
but one of the conspirators lost heart and disclosed the design to
Mubārak, and Asad-ud-dīn and his confederates were seized and
executed. ' Mubārak at the same time caused all the family and
descendants of his grand-uncle, Yaghrush Khān, at Delhi, to the
number of twenty-nine, some of whom were mere children, to be
put to death.
From Jhāin Mubārak dispatched an officer to Gwalior to put to
death Khizr Khān, Shādī Khān, and Shihāb-ud-dīn 'Umar. As the
a
а


## p. 122 (#162) ############################################

122
THE KHALJIS
(CH.
three princes had already been blinded their murder was wanton
and superfluous, but Mubārak coveted Deval Devī, the wife
of his eldest brother, and after the murder of her husband the
unfortunate princess was brought to Delhi and placed in his
harem.
The murder of his brothers appears to have whetted Mubārak's
appetite for blood, and on his return to Delhi he summoned from
Gujarāt his father-in-law, Zafar Khān, and for no apparent reason
put him to death. He also executed Shāhin, who had been left as
regent at Delhi, and though historians allege no specific crime
against this victim it can hardly be doubted that he had been
implicated in the recent conspiracy.
Mubārak now indulged in the grossest licentiousness and the
most disgusting buffoonery. He delighted to appear before his
court tricked out in female finery and jewels. Harlots and jesters
were assembled on his palace roof and greeted the great nobles,
such men as 'Ain-ul-Mulk Multāni and Qarā Beg, who held no
fewer than fourteen offices, with lewd gestures and foul abuse, and,
descending from the roof, ran naked among the courtiers, et gestu
turpi et obscoeno in vestes nobilium honoratorum mingebant. Yet
the degraded youth who could organise and enjoy such scenes as
these assumed a character to which no former ruler of Delhi had
ventured to aspire. Others had eagerly sought recognition by, and
proudly owned allegiance to the Caliphs, and even 'Alā-ud-din had
readily abandoned his brief and impious dream of posing as a
prophet. It remained for his son, who inherited his vices without
his genius, to arrogate to himself the titles of Supreme Pontiff and
Vicegerent of the God of heaven and earth, and to assume the
pontifical title of al-Wāsiq-billāh.
Hisām-ud-din , half-brother of Khusrav Khān, and partner with
him in the king's affections, was sent to Gujarāt in the place of
Zafar Khān, and his first act there was to attempt to raise a rebellion
against his master, but the nobles of the province refused to follow
such a leader, seized him, and sent him to Delhi, where, for his
own sake and that of his brother, he was not only pardoned, but
restored to favour.
Malik Yaklaki, encouraged by reports of the demoralisation of
the court, raised the standard of rebellion in Deogir and proclaimed
his independence, but was defeated and captured by an army sent
against him and carried, with his associates, to Delhi, where
Mubārak’s perverted sense of justice permitted him to put the
subordinates to death while he inflicted on Yaklaki no heavier
a
a


## p. 123 (#163) ############################################

v)
KHUSRAP KHANS TREASON
123
punishment than mutilation of the nose and ears, and shortly after-
wards appointed him governor of Sāmāna.
Khusrav Khān was meanwhile active in the south. Having col.
lected much booty in the Madura district he returned to Telingāna,
where he was detained by the rainy season and beguiled the tedium
of inaction with ambitious dreams. He discussed with his intimates
the possibility of establishing himself as an independent ruler in the
south, and would have put the design into execution had not some
of the officers of the army reported it to the king and compelled him
to lead them back to Delhi. Mubārak ignored the report and, in
his impatience to embrace his favourite, ordered him to travel from
Deogir to the capital in a litter and by posting relays of bearers on
the road enabled him to perform the journey of nearly 700 miles in
seven days. Khusrav Khān at once resumed his former ascendency
and persuaded his master that the reports sent from the camp were
false and malicious. When his accusers reached Delhi, prepared to
substantiate their charges and expecting at least commendation for
their fidelity, they were dismissed from their posts and forbidden the
court, and one of them, Malik Talbagha of Kara, was thrown into
prison.
Khusrav Khān's treasonable design had failed principally be-
cause he had, although he was in chief command, no personal troops
to support him against the nobles of whose contingents his army
was composed, and so deeply was the king infatuated that, not.
withstanding the revelation of his favourite's treachery, he lent a
sympathetic ear to his complaints and permitted him to raise in
Gujarāt a corps of 40,000 horse, largely composed of and exclusively
commanded by members of his despised tribe. The long meditated
treason was now nearly ripe for execution and, after a design for
assassinating Mubārak in the hunting field had been abandoned as
too dangerous, it was decided that he should be put to death in his
palace.
Khusrav Khān, by complaining that his nightly attendance
prevented him from meeting his relations, obtained possession of
the keys of the palace gates, and was enabled to admit large numbers
of his relations and of his corps of horse to the palace, in the lower
story of which they used nightly to assemble. A warning given to
Mubarak on the eve of his death by his former tutor was repeated
to Khusrav Khān, and served only as å text for hypocritical pro-
testations, which entirely disarmed suspicion. On the night of
April 14, 1320, all was ready and he who had uttered the warning
to the king was cut down as he was inspecting the guard. The


## p. 124 (#164) ############################################

124
THE KHALJIS
( ch.
uproar which ensued disturbed Mubārak in the upper story of his
palace and he asked Khusrav Khān to see what was amiss. Khusrav,
having ascertained from a glance into the courtyard that the work
was already begun, told him that the men were trying to catch
some horses which had broken loose. Even as he spoke the assas-
sins were ascending the stairs and Mubārak, as they burst into his
room, sprang up in terror and ran towards the female apartments,
but Khusrav seized him by the hair and held him while Jāharya,
one of the Parwāris, stabbed him to death. His head was severed
from his body and thrown into the courtyard, as a signal to all that
the throne was vacant, and the outcastes broke into the harem,
murdered the children of the royal family, and outraged the women.
When Mubārak's head was recognised the royal guards on duty
at the palace fled, and left all in the hands of Khusrav's tribesmen.
The palace was illuminated and all the great nobles then present in
the capital were summoned to court, and hastened thither in
ignorance of what had happened. They were detained until the
morning and were then forced to attend a court at which the out-
caste was proclaimed king under the title of Nāsir-ud-din Khusrav
Shāh. The proclamation was followed by a massacre of many of
the old servants of 'Alā-ud-dīn and Mubārak, whose known fidelity
rendered them dangerous to the usurper; and the Khalji dynasty,
which had reigned for no more than thirty years, but had given to
the Muslim empire in India its first administrator, was wiped out.
Khusrav possessed himself of the person of the unfortunate princess
Deval Devī, who had been successively the wiſe of Khizr Khān and
of his brother and murderer Mubārak. Against the union with the
foul outcaste who became her third husband 'her proud Rājput
blood must indeed have risen. '
In the distribution of honours and rewards with which Khusrav,
following the usual custom, inaugurated his reign his own near
relations and those of his tribe who had most distinguished them-
selves in the late tumult were the most favoured, but an attempt
was made to conciliate those powerful nobles who had been en-
trapped and compelled unwillingly to countenance by their presence
the enthronement of the outcaste, and Wahid-ud-din Quraishi was
entitled Tāj-ul-Mulk and permitted to retain office as minister.
'Ain-ul-Mulk Multāni received the titles of 'Alam Khān and Amir-
ul-Umarā, but Khusrav applied himself especially to the conciliation
of the son of the powerful Ghāzi Malik, Fakhr-ud-din Muhammad
Jauna, whom he appointed master of the horse, Ghāzi Malik himself


## p. 125 (#165) ############################################

v]
DEFEAT OF KHUSRAV
125
had always avoided the intrigues of the capital, and seems never to
have visited Delhi during Mubārak's brief and profligate reign, but
he was dreaded by the gang of outcastes and pseudo-Muslims now
in power both as a loyal adherent of the Khalji dynasty and as a
rigid Muslim, and his son was valuable either as a supporter or as a
hostage. The attempt to secure him failed, and he escaped from
Delhi at midnight with only two or three followers, and took the
road to Dipālpur, his father's headquarters. A force sent in pursuit
of him failed to overtake him, and Jauna was joyfully welcomed by
his father at Dipālpur. The governor of Multān hesitated to support
Ghāzi Malik against the king de facto, but was slain by a less
scrupulous officer, Malik Bahrām Aiba, who led the army of Multān
to Dipālpur and joined the old warrior who stood forth as the
champion of Islam.
Islam stood in sore need of a champion. None of Khusrav's
tribe was a Muslim in more than name, and only a few had made
profession of the faith. Muslim historians record with indignation
the open celebration of idolatrous worship at court and the gross
insults offered to their faith. Mosques were defiled and destroyed
and copies of the scriptures of Islam were used as seats and stools.
Ghāzi Malik now set out for Delhi. He was first opposed by
Yaklaki, the noseless and earless governor of Sāmāna, but swept the
ſeeble obstacle from his path. Yaklakī fled to Sāmāna and was
preparing to join Khusrav at Delhi when the landholders of the
district rose against him and cut him to pieces. At Sirsa Ghāzi
Malik defeated and put to flight an arıny under the command of
Hisām-ud-din, the usurper's half-brother, and continued his march
to Delhi. Khusrav prepared to meet him near the old fort at
Indarpat, and in attempting to secure the fidelity of his troops by
donations varying in amount from four to two and a half years' pay
and to conciliate by means of gifts the most respected professors of
the religion which he and his followers had outraged, completely
emptied the treasury. His profusion availed him little, for 'Ain-ul-
Mulk, who was hardly less powerful than Ghāzi Malik, deserted him
and withdrew with his troops into Mālwa.
The armies met on September 5, and though 'Ain-ul-Mulk's
defection had damped the spirits of the usurper's faction his troops
fought bravely until they were overpowered by Ghāzi Malik's
veterans. Khusrav attempted to save himself by flight, but was
found lurking in a garden, and was brought before the conqueror
and beheaded. Ghāzi Malik halted for the night at Indarpat, where


## p. 126 (#166) ############################################

126
[CH. V ]
THE KHALJIS
he received from some of the leading citizens the keys of the gates
of Siri, and on the following day he entered the Palace of the
Thousand Pillars and wept as he beheld scene of destruction of
his old master's family. He asked whether there yet remained any
descendant of 'Alā-ud-din who might claim his allegiance, but was
informed that the whole family had been extinguished and was
urged to ascend the throne. After a decent profession of reluctance
he was proclaimed king on September 8, under the title of Ghiyās-
ud-dīn Tughluq Shāh.
a


## p. 127 (#167) ############################################

CHAPTER VI
THE REIGNS OF GHIYĀS-UD-DIN TUGHLUQ AND
MUHAMMAD TUGHLUQ, AND THE SECOND CON-
QUEST AND REVOLT OF THE DECCAN
TUGHLUQ's ascent of the throne recalls that of Jalāl-ud-din
Firüz Khalji. Both were aged warriors called upon to restore the
dominion of Islam, menaced by the extinction of the dynasties which
they had long served, but here all similarity between them ends.
The powers of Firüz were failing when he was called to the throne,
and his reign would have closed the history of his family but for the
usurpation of his unscrupulous but vigorous nephew. Tughluq on
the other hand, though old, was in full vigour of mind, and during
his short reign displayed none of the contemptible weakness of
Firüz. He was able to enforce many of the salutary laws of 'Alā-ud.
din and to enact others which restored order in a kingdom which
had nearly passed from the grasp of Islam. He enjoyed the
advantage of pure Turkish lineage, his elevation excited no jealousy
among the nobles who had formerly been his equals, and he was
able, within a week of his accession, to pacify the capital and
within forty days his sovereignty was everywhere acknowledged.
One of his first acts was to provide for surviving females of the
Khalji house by suitable marriages. He pursued and punished
with great severity all who had been in any way concerned in
marrying the beautiful Deval Devī to the vile upstart Khusrav ;
he provided with lands and employment all old officials who had
faithfully served the fallen dynasty, and he distributed appoint-
ments among his own adherents, the chief of whom, Fakhr-ud-din
Muhammad Jauna Khān, his eldest son, received the title of Ulugh
Khān and was designated heir apparent; he recovered the treasure
which had been lavished by the usurper or had been plundered
during the confusion of his short reign, and thus replenished his
empty treasury. In giving effect to this unpopular measure he
encountered much difficulty and opposition. Khusrav, in order to
1 This, a tribal name, is usually transliterated “Tughlaq. ' Mr. Stanley Lane
Poole prefers Taghlak, Sir Aurel Stein (Ruins of Desert Cathay) gives the name of the
tribe, which inhabits the neighbourhood of Khotan, as Taghlik, doubtless represent-
ing faithfully the modern pronunciation. I follow the traveller Ibn Batūtah, who is
explicit on the point and must have known how the word was pronounced at Delhi
in his day, seeing that Muhammad Tughluq was his patron. See 3. R. A. S. , July,
1922. But Professor D. S. Margoliouth points out that it is also a personal name.
6


## p. 128 (#168) ############################################

128
( CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
conciliate the professors of the dominant religion, had made large
giſts, ostensibly for charitable purposes, to the leading shaikhs, or
religious teachers. Three of these had refused to touch any money
coming from a source so polluted and most of those who had feared
to refuse the gift had prudently kept the money in deposit and
restored it when called upon to do so, but Shaik Nizām-ud-din
Auliyā, the most renowned of them all, who had received as much as
half a million tangas, replied that he had at once distributed in charity
all that he had received and was not in position to make restitution.
Public opinion forbade, in the case of a religious leader so pro-
minent and so renowned for sanctity, the torture or duress to which
humbler delinquents were subjected and the king was obliged to
accept the explanation instead of the money, but the Shaikh was a
marked man, and was almost immediately denounced for indul.
gence in the ecstatic songs and dances of darvishes, a form of
devotion regarded as unlawful by rigid Sunnis of the established
religion. Tughluq summoned him before an assembly of fifty-three
theologians, and though he was forced to bow to their decision that
these religious exercise were not unlawful relations between him
and the Shaikh remained strained until his death, in which it is
not improbable that the Shaikh was implicated.
The odium incurred by the forcible recovery of the usurper's
giſts was dissipated by the king's judicious liberality and his care for
the welfare of his subjects. Unlike his son he did not seek to
conciliate the few and astonish the many by enormous gifts to
favoured individuals, but on occasions of public rejoicing his
bounty, widely diffused, earned popularity and the only malcontents
were the rapacious, whose avarice was disappointed by his settled
policy of promoting the welfare of the public and discouraging the
accumulation of great wealth by individuals.
Private property confiscated under the harsh rule of ' Ala-ud-din
and still retained by the state was restored to its former owners ;
all the usurper's decrees were revoked; public works of utility,
such as forts in which peaceful husbandmen might seek a refuge
from brigands, and canals to irrigate their fields were undertaken,
and highway robbery was suppressed; but Tughluq devoted his
attention above all to the encouragement of agriculture. Gardens
were planted, the land tax or rent due to the state was limited to
one-tenth or one-eleventh of the gross produce, which was to be
assessed by the collectors in person, and not estimated from the
reports of informers and delators; the revenue was to be collected
with due regard to the cultivator's power to pay, and all officials


## p. 129 (#169) ############################################

VI ]
ADMINISTRATION. POSTS
129
were reminded that the surest method of improving the revenue
the extension of cultivation, not the enhancement of the
demand, and thus ruined villages were restored, waste land was
reclaimed, and the area under cultivation was extended. Fief-
holders and local governors were held responsible for the observance
of this policy and it was ordained that the emoluments of the
collectors of the revenue should consist in the exemption of their
holdings from taxation, and should not be derived from extortion.
Some privileges were accorded to the nobles, place-seekers were
forbidden to haunt the public offices, and torture was prohibited in
the recovery of debts due to the state and was restricted to cases of
theft and embezzlement.
One class was subjected to repressive legislation. Tughluq not
unreasonably, considering the circumstances of his elevation to the
throne, decreed that while it should be possible for Hindus to live
in moderate comfort none should be permitted to amass such wealth
as might nurture ambition. The decree, though harsh, was not
altogether unnecessary, and it has benefited posterity by causing
the concealment of portable wealth which, discovered in after ages,
has shed much light on history.
Tughluq personally was a rigid Muslim, punctilious in the
observance of all the ordinances of his faith, and especially in
avoiding intoxicants. He forbade the manufacture and sale of
wine and enforced, as far as possible, the observance of the Islamic
law. He was devoid of personal pride and vanity and his elevation
to the throne made no difference in his relations with his family,
his associates, and his immediate attendants.
The security and order which reigned in the kingdom within a
short time of his accession were due hardly less to his admirable
system of communications than to his other measures of adminis-
trative reform. Postal systems had from time immemorial existed
in India, but during recurring periods of disorder, such as Khusrav's
reign, shared the general disintegration of all administrative machi-
nery, and Tughluq may be credited with the inauguration of the
perfect system found existing in the reign of his son and successor,
and minutely described by the Moorish traveller, Ibn Batūtah.
Posts were carried by horsemen, called ulāq (ulāgh), or by
runners, called dāwat. For the former, horses were posted at
distances of seven or eight miles along the roads, but the stages
travelled by the latter were but the third of a kurüh, or about
two-thirds of a mile. Ibn Batūtah mistranslates the word dawat,
properly dhāwat, as 'the third of a kurüh,' but it means simply
C. H. I. IN
9


## p. 130 (#170) ############################################

130
[ CH
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
a
'a runner. ' He says that these occupied huts, without the villages,
at every third part of a kurüh on the roads, and were always ready
,
to start at a moment's notice. Each carried a staff tipped with
copper bells, and when he left a post town he took his letters in
his left hand and his staff in his right, shaking it so that the bells
jingled, and ran at full speed towards the next post-house, where
a runner, warned of his approach by the sound, awaited him, took
the letters from him, and ran at ſull speed in like manner towards
the next post-house.
In parts of India a modification of this system still exists. The
staff, or short spear, with its cluster of bells, is still carried, but
the runner's stage is about five miles, which he is expected to cover,
at his peculiar jog. trot, in an hour, but these runners carry bags
containing the public mails. Tughluq's apparently carried only a
few official dispatches and, as Ibn Batūtah says, ran at full speed.
Five minutes would therefore be a liberal allowance of time for
each stage, and, as there was no delay at the post-houses, it may
be calculated that news travelled at the rate of nearly two hundred
miles in twenty-four hours. News of Ibn Batūtah's arrival at the
mouth of the Indus reached Delhi, between eight hundred and
nine hundred miles distant by the postal route, in five days. The
king, was thus in close touch with the remotest corners of his
kingdom, and the service was rapid even for heavier burdens. In
the next reign fresh fruit transported from Khurāsān and
Ganges water for the royal table from Hindūstān to Daulatābād
on the heads of postal runners.
The province of the Deccan, under the rule of Malik Qavām-ud-
din, who had been appointed to its government with the title of
Qutlugh Khān, remained loyal to the new dynasty, but Pratāparud-
radeva of Warangal appears to have believed that his fealty to
Delhi was dissolved by the extinction of the Khaljīs, and in 1321
Tughluq sent his eldest son, Ulugh Khān, to reduce him again to
obedience.
The prince met with no opposition during his advance, and
opened the siege of Warangal. The earthern rampart of Rudram-
madevi was stoutly defended, but the Hindus were outmatched in
the combats which were daily fought beneath it, and so many
were slain that Pratāparudradeva attempted to purchase peace by
promises of tribute, hoping to obtain terms similar to those to
which Malik Nāib had agreed, but the offer was rejected. In the
meantime, however, the Hindus, as in the former siege, had been
engaged in cutting the communications of the besiegers, and the
was


## p. 131 (#171) ############################################

VI ]
ULUGH KHAN'S REBELLION
131
>
absence of news from Delhi suggested to 'Ubaid the Poet and the
Shaikhzāda of Damascus, two turbulent and mischievous favourites
of the prince, the fabrication of false news, with the object of facili-
tating their master's usurpation of the throne, and Ulugh Khăn
suffered himself to be led astray.
A report of the king's death was circulated in the camp and
the army was called upon to swear allegiance to the prince as their
new sovereign, but the leading nobles with the expedition knew that
the report was fabricated and withdrew their contingents. One
even suggested that the prince should be put to death as a traitor,
but to this the others would not agree. The siege was raised and the
army, marching in separate divisions, retired to Deogir, pursued and
harassed by the Hindus.
Before the troops reached Deogir they learned by posts from
Delhi that the king still lived, and the treason of the prince and his
counsellors became apparent to all, but the great nobles who had
opposed him were apprehensive of his vengeance, or of his influence
with his father, and fled, with his evil advisers. One died in
Gondwāna, another was slain by a Hindu chieftain who flayed his
body and sent the skin to the prince, and the others were captured
and sent to the prince.
Ulugh Khān travelled post haste to Delhi with the horsemen
and by some means made his peace with his father and betrayed
both his associates and his enemies, who were put to death? .
So successful was Ulugh Khān in persuading his father of his
innocence or his penitence that in 1323 he was permitted to lead
another expedition into Telingāna, and on this occasion he observed
the precaution, which he had formerly neglected, of securing his
lines of communication. His first objective was Bīdar, the ancient
Vidarbha, and having captured that fortress he marched on War.
angal and opened the siege with more vigour than on the first
occasion. The efforts of his troops were supported by such artillery
as that age possessed, catapults and balistae, and their valour,
thus aided, reduced both the outer and the inner lines of defence.
Pratāparudradeva and his family, the nobles of the kingdom with
their wives and children, and the elephants, horses and treasure of
the state, fell into the hands of the victors, and Telingāna, for the
first time, was directly subjected to Muslim rule. The country was
1 In this account of Ulugh Khān's rebellion Ibn Batūtah has been followed.
Barani's confused and perplexing account, which has been followed by other Indian
historians is coloured by his own and Firūz Shāh's regard for Muhammad's
memory. Vide J. R. A. S. , for July, 1922.
9-2


## p. 132 (#172) ############################################

132
(CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
divided into fiefs and districts which were allotted to Muslim nobles
and officers, and Warangal, now renamed Sultānpur, became the
capital of a province of the empire. The news was received at
Delhi with great rejoicings and Ulugh Khān remained for some
time at Sultānpur-Warangal to establish the administration of the
province. His restless activity led him into the ancient Hindu
kingdom of Utkala in Orissa, called by Muslim historians Jājnagar,
the ancestors of whose rulers had stemmed the advance of the earlier
Muslim governors of Bengal. His expedition was a mere raid,
undertaken with no design of permanent conquest, and its only
immediate result was the capture of forty elephants, but the raja,
who had lived for some time at peace with the quasi-independent
rulers of Bengal, of the line of Balban, was disturbed by the discovery
that the Turks were in a position to menace his southern as well as
his northern frontier.
During the prince's absence in the south an army of Mughuls
invaded the kingdom of Delhi from the north-west, but was defeated,
its two leaders being captured and brought to Tughluq's court.
Almost immediately after this event the king received reports from
Bengal which led him to form the resolution of invading that country
in person for the purpose of restoring order and asserting the
supremacy of Delhi, and he called his son from Telingāna to act as
regent during his absence.
It was a civil war arising from conflicting claims to the throne
that summoned Tughluq to Bengal. Shams-ud-din Firūz Shāh of
that country, third son of Nāsir-ud-din Mahmūd Shāh Bughrā and
grandson of Balban, had died in 1318, after a reign of sixteen years,
leaving five sons, of whom the three eldest only need occupy our
attention. These were Shihāb-ud-din Bughrā, who succeeded his
father on the throne at Lakhnāwati, Nāsir-ud. din, and Ghiyās-ud-
din Bahādur, who, having been appointed by his father governor of
Sonārgāon, or Eastern Bengal, had proclaimed his independence in
that province in 1310 and, on his father's death, disputed the title of
his elder brother, Shihāb-ud-din Bughrā, and in 1319 overcame him
and usurped his throne, the succession to which was then claimed
by Nāsir-ud-din, who appealed to Tughluq. The king eagerly
seized so favourable an opportunity of intervention in Bengal, the
allegiance of which to Delhi had been severely shaken by the
downfall of the Khalji dynasty and the rulers of which were bound
by no ties either to Khalj or to Tughluq, but had, on purely
hereditary grounds, a better claim than either to the throne of
Delhi,


## p. 133 (#173) ############################################

V]
EXPEDITION TO BENGAL
133
Tughluq Shāh marched to Bengal by way of Manaich, the town
which had been stormed by Mahmûd of Ghazni. In the year
following his 'accession he had appointed to the government of
this district Tātār Malik, whom he had entitled Zafar Khān. The
governor's first task had been to crush the local Rājput chieftain
who, during the short interval of Hindu supremacy, had established
himself in the district. According to tradition the Rājput was in-
vited to a conference at which the merits of Islam and Hinduism
were discussed and, being convinced of the truth of the former,
accepted it and submitted, thus rendering unnecessary an appeal to
arms. Zafar Khān renamed Manaich Zafarābād? and was firmly
established in the district when the king passed through it on his
way to Bengal. He accompanied the royal army into Tirhut, where
Nāsir-ud-din waited upon Tughluq and did obeisance to him, and
was sent in command of the force dispatched against Lakhnāwati.
All opposition was crushed and Ghiyās-ud-din Bahādur was captured
and brought before the king with a rope around his neck. The
elephants from the royal stables at Lakhnāwati were appropriated
by Tughluq and his army took much plunder, but Nāsir-ud-din
was placed as a vassal monarch on the throne of Western Bengal.
Eastern Bengal, which had for thirteen years been independent
under Bahādur, was annexed and administered as a province of
the kingdom af Delhi.
Meanwhile disquieting news of his son's behaviour in the capital
reached Tughluq. Ulugh Khān. had purchased vast numbers of
slaves and had formed a party by extravagant gifts and grants
to those who he believed could be converted by this means into
adherents. His chief crime appears to have been his intimate
association with the obnoxious Shaikh Nizām-ud-din Auliyā, whose
disciple he had become, and who was believed to have prophesied,
in one of his ecstatic trances, his imminent accession to the throne.
It was also reported that astrologers had prophesied that the king
would never return to the capital alive. Reports of these conver-
sations and machinations reached Tughluq in his camp, and enraged
him. He wrote to the astrologers, menacing them with his dis-
pleasure ; to his son, threatening to deprive him of his office and
to exclude him from any participation in public business ; and to
;
the Shaikh, to whom he addressed the threat that when he returned
from Bengal Delhi would be too small to hold both of them. The
Shaikh is said to have replied with the prophetic menace, which
1 Zafarābād is situated in 25° 42' N. and 82° 44' E. , in the Jaunpur
District of the United Provinces.


## p. 134 (#174) ############################################

134
(ch.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
has since become proverbial, Hanüz Dihli dûr ast, 'Delhi is yet
afar off,' and so it proved to be.
Tughluq sent Bahādur a prisoner to Delhi and himself set out
for Tughluqābād, the capital which he had built for himself to the
south of Old Delhi. He attacked on his way the raja af Tirhut,
whose loyalty was doubtful, and reduced him to submission, and
from Tirhut travelled towards the capital by forced marches, leaving
the army to follow at its leisure.
Tughluqābād was elaborately decorated and Ulugh Khān pre-
pared a welcome for his father by building for his reception at
Afghānpur', a few miles from the city, a temporary kiosk, where
he might take rest and refreshment after his toilsome journey and
before his state entry into his capital.
Ulugh Khān caused this building, which was chiefly of wood, to
be erected from his own designs, employing in the construction of
it one Ahmad, son of Ayāz, known as Malikzāda, an inspector of
buildings whom, on his accession to the throne, he made his minister,
with the title of Khvāja Jahān. The building was so designed as
to fall when touched in a certain part by the elephants, and it
appears that the device was a projecting beam. Ulugh Khān wel.
comed his father at the kiosk, and entertained him at a meal, at
the conclusion of which he begged that the elephants from Bengal
might be paraded and driven round the building. His father ac-
ceded to his request and Ulugh Khān, before the elephants were
brought up, suggested to Shaikh Rukn-ud-din, for whom he had
a special regard, that he should leave the kiosk for his prayers. Im-
mediately after the Shaikh's departure the elephants were brought
up, came into contact with that part of the building which had
been designed to effect its collapse and the whole structure fell
on the old king and crushed him. Diggers were summoned, but
their arrival was purposely delayed, by Ulugh Khān, and the king's
body was discovered, when the debris was removed, bending over
that of his favourite sen, Mahmūd Khān, as though to protect him.
It was commonly believed that the king still breathed when his
body was discovered and was dispatched under the orders of his
He was buried at night in the tomb which he had selected
for himself at Tughluqābād and Ulugh Khān ascended the throne
under the title of Muhammad Shāh? .
1 Probably the village, about five and a half miles to the south-cast of
Tughluqābād, which appears in the Indian Atlas as Aghwanpur.
2 This account, which differs from that of the contemporary Barani and
Indian historians who have followed him, is taken from the narrative of Ibn
Batūtah, whose informant was Shaikh Rukn-ud-din. Vide J. R. A. S. , for
July, 1922.
son.
a


## p. 135 (#175) ############################################

VI)
ACCESSION OF MUHAMMAD TUGHLUQ
135
a
old age.
The death of Ghiyās-ud-din Tughluq occurred in February or
March, 1325, and Shaikh Nizām-ud-din soon followed him, dying
on April 31. Almost at the same time died the greatest of all the
poets of India who have written in Persian, Yamin-ud-dīn Muham-
mad Hasan, known as Amir Khusrav, at the age of seventy-two.
He was of Turkish origin, his father having been a native of the
green-domed city' of Kash, in Turkistān, who, driven from his
home early in the thirteenth century by the horde of the Mughul,
Chingiz Khān, had found an asylum in India. The poet was born
at Patiāla in A. H. 651 (A. D. 1253) and entered the service of 'Alā.
ud-din Khalji as court poet, but later in his life became the disciple
of Shaikh Nīzām-ud-din Auliyā, abandoned the court and worldly
ambitions, and lived in religious retirement, but still wrote poetry.
He was a most prolific writer and estimated the number of couplets
which he had written at more than 400,000 but less than 500,000,
dividing his poems into four classes, youthful effusions ; poems of
early middle age, written when he was putting off childish things
and turning his thoughts to religion; poems written when he had
attained the dignity of a religious teacher; and the poems of his
Each of the four classes bears, as might be expected, the
impress of his views on this world and the next during the period
of his life in which it was produced, but in the second class there
are to be found poems sufficiently courtly to be acceptable to the
vanity of a royal patron.
Amir Khusrav had a deep veneration for Sa'di, whom he enter-
tained when he visited India, and the great poet of Persia repaid
his admirer by recommending him very warmly to 'Alā-ud-din. As
Khusrav himself says in one of his verses, with a play upon words
which cannot be preserved in translation:
The volume of my verse hath the binding of Shirăz.
Amir Khusrav was survived by another poet, Shaikh Najm-ud-
din Hasan, known as Hasan-i-Dihlavi, whose works, less widely
known than Khusrav's, were much admired. Both poets are honour-
ably mentioned in the Tazkirat-ush-Shu'arā and in the Atashkada.
Hasan died in 1338 at Daulatābād in the Deccan, and was buried
there. The celebrated Jāmi refers in highly complimentary terms
to these two poets of Delhi, and they are among the few Indian-
born writers of Persian verse whose works have been read and
admired beyond their own country.
1 Ibn Batūtah says that the Shaikh died before the king's return from Bengal,
and that Ulugh Khān incurred his father's wrath by helping to bear the corpse to
the grave.


## p. 136 (#176) ############################################

136
( ch.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
6
Tughluq, following the example of other founders of dynasties
at Delhi, had left an interesting monument of his short reign in the
fortress capital of Tughluqābād, which he built for himself on a
rocky eminence nearly ten miles to the south of the site afterwards
selected by Shāh Jahān for his city. He founded this town imme-
diately after his ascent to the throne and completed it before he
received the news of the conquest of Telingāna. 'Here,' said Ibn
Batütah, 'were Tughluq's treasures and palaces, and the great
palace which he had built of gilded bricks, which, when the sun
rose, shone so dazzlingly that none could gaze steadily upon it.
There he laid up great treasures, and it was related that he con-
structed there a cistern and had molten gold poured into it so that
it became one solid mass, and his son Muhammad Shāh became
possessed of all of it when he succeeded him. ' Tughluq's mausoleum
in red sandstone and white marble, connected with his town by
a bridge carried on arches, and the massive walls of his fort still
remain, but no palace now dazzles the eye, and the once brilliant
town is entirely deserted.
Muhammad, after remaining for forty days at Tughluqābād,
went in state to the old city of Delhi and there took his seat on
the throne in the palace of the former kings. The city was deco-
rated for his reception and the acclamations of the people were
stimulated by a lavish distribution of gold and silver coins.
The delineation of a character so complex and contradictory as
that of Muhammad Tughluq is no easy task. He was one of the
most extraordinary monarchs who ever sat upon a throne. To
the most lavish generosity he united revolting and ir. discriminate
cruelty ; to scrupulous observance of the ritual and ceremonial
prescribed by the Islamic law an utter disregard of that law in all
public affairs; to a debasing and superstitious veneration for all
whose descent or whose piety commanded respect a ferocity which
when roused respected neither the blood of the prophet nor per-
sonal sanctity. Some of his administrative and most of his military
measures give evidence of abilities of the highest order, others are
the acts of a madman.