No More Learning

During the expedition into the Himālaya a temple
or shrine to which Chinese pilgrims resorted had been destroyed,
and the emperor of China had sent a mission seeking leave to
rebuild it. Muhammad was prepared to grant this permission on
condition that the worshippers paid jizyı, the poll-tax levied from
idolators, and Ibn Batūtah, with a hundred followers, was deputed
to accompany the Chinese mission on its return and to deliver this
decision. He was accompanied to the port of embarkation by an
escort of 1000 horse, without which it would have been unsaſe to
travel through Muhammad's dominions, and his account of his
journey discloses the deplorable condition of the country. The
Gangetic Doāb was seething with revolt. The town of Jalālī, near
11-2


## p. 164 (#206) ############################################

164
[CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
Koil (‘Aligarh) was besieged by 4000 Hindu rebels, and seventy-
eight of the mission's escort were killed on the way thither. Ibn
Batūtah was himself taken prisoner by a band of Hindus, and escaped
with great difficulty, after suffering many hardships. It was no
unusual thing for Muslim governors to be besieged in their cities
by bands of Hindu rebels, and they were sometimes obliged to
appeal to Delhi for assistance. Ahmad Khān, governor of Gwalior,
offered to entertain Ibn Batūtah with the spectacle of the execution
of some Hindus, but the Moor had had his fill of horrors at Delhi,
and begged to be excused.
In 1343 Muhammad was called to the districts of Sunām,
Sāmāna, Kaithal, and Guhrām where the Hindus had entirely
abandoned agriculture and deserted their villages, assembling in
large camps in the jungles, where they lived by brigandage. The
rebellion spread as far cast as the lower slopes of the Himālaya and
called for extensive operations and vigorous action. Muhammad
performed the congenial task thoroughly. The camps of the rebels
were plundered and broken up, and the gangs were dispersed, but
the ringleaders were treated with unusual leniency. They were de-
prived of their ancestral lands, but were brought into Delhi and
settled there with their wives and families. Many became Muslims,
and as many were also ennobled it may be assumed that their con-
version was the price of their preferment.
On his return to Delhi in 1344 Muhammad received Hāji Sa'id
Sarsarī, the envoy sent from Egypt by the Abbasid-al-Hākim II in
response to his prayer for pontifical recognition. The envoy was
received with the most extravagant honours, and the arrogant
Muhammad's self-abasement before him verged on the grotesque.
The king, all the great officers of state, the Sayyids, holy and
learned men, and all who could pretend to any importance went
forth from Delhi to meet the envoy, who bore the Caliph's decree
of recognition and a robe of honour for Muhammad. The king
walked several bowshots barefoot as the envoy approached, and,
after placing the decree and the robe of honour on his head in
token of reverence, kissed his feet several times. Triumphal arches
were erected in the city and alms were lavishly distributed. On
the first Friday after the envoy's arrival the long discontinued
Friday prayers were recited with great pomp and the names of
such previous rulers of India as had failed to secure the formal
recognition of one of the Abbasid Caliphs were omitted from the
formal sermon. The most exaggerated respect was paid to the
envoy. His utterances were recorded and repeated as though they


## p. 165 (#207) ############################################

vi ]
REBELLION IN KARA
165
had been inspired and, as Barani says, 'Without the Caliph's com-
mand the king scarcely ventured to drink a draught of water. '
The festivals of Islam were now again observed, the legends on the
coins were corrected and Muhammad sent Hāji Rajab Burqaʻī to
Egypt as envoy to the Caliph.
In 1344 a rebellion broke out in Kara. This rich district had
been farmed for an immense sum to a worthless debauchee, who
bore the title of Nizām-ul-Mulk. He discovered, when he attempted
to fulfil his promise to the king, that he could not collect the tenth
part of what he had contracted to pay to the treasury and, in his
drunken despair, raised the standard of rebellion, styling himself
Sultān 'Alā-ud-din. The king was assembling troops at Delhi when
news was received that 'Ain-ul-Mulk had justified the clemency with
which he had been treated by marching from Oudh and capturing
and slaying Nizām-ul-Mulk, and the news was confirmed by the
arrival of the rebel's skin. The Shaikhzāda of Bastām, who had
married the king's sister, was sent to complete the work and to
restore order in the Kara district, and stamped out the embers of
rebellion with great severity.
The king's attention was now turned to the Deccan where the
revenue collections had fallen by ninety per cent. The decrease
was probably due to the introduction of the farming system and to
consequent rebellions, but Muhammad was easily persuaded to
attribute it to the sloth and peculation of the collectors appointed
by Qutlugh Khān. On December 8, 1344, the poet Badr-i-Chāch
was sent from Delhi to recall Qutlugh Khān from Daulatābād,
and his brother, Maulānā Nizām-ud-dīn, a simple man devoid of
administrative experience, was sent from Broach to succeed him,
but with restricted powerz. Muhammad, ever ready to remedy dis-
orders by new devices, now divided the Deccan into four revenue
divisions (shiqq) to each of which was appointed a governor upon
whom the enforcement of new regulations and the extortions of
the uttermost tanga of the revenue were strictly enjoined. The
removal of the mild and pious Qutlugh Khān, whose benevolent
rule and readiness to stand between the people and the king's
wrath had won the love of Hindu and Muslim alike, excited the
gravest apprehensions, and a discontent which might at any moment
burst into the flame of rebellion ; and the king's avowed intention
of collecting annually 670 millions of tangas from the four divisions,
and the selection of the agents who were to enforce the demand,
increased the people's alarm. Mālwa was included in the Deccan
and formed with it one shiqa, to the government of which was


## p. 166 (#208) ############################################

166
( ch.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTÝ
appointed ‘Azīz Khammārt, a low. born, unscrupulous and extortion-
ate official who had won an evil reputation as revenue collector in
the 'thousand' of Amroha, a tract containing about 1,500 villages,
and whose propensity to cruelty was now stimulated by the express
injunctions of the king, whose fury stigmatised all officials and
farmers in the Deccan, but above all the centurions,' as traitors and
rebels. In respect of this class 'Azīz received special instructions.
Impelled by the hope of plunder and profit the 'centurions,' said the
king, were the instigators and fomenters of every revolt and rebellion,
and 'Aziz, liberally supplied with troops and funds, was to use his
utınost endeavour to destroy them. These injunctions fell upon
willing ears, and 'Aziz, immediately after his arrival at Dhār, the
seat of his government, caused eighty-nine 'centurions' to be put to
death before his official residence. This barbarous act excited
among the 'centurions' of Gujarāt and the Deccan a horror which
was enhanced by the king's official approval of it. Not only did
Muhammad himself send 'Aziz a robe of honour and a farmān prais-
ing his services to the state, but the courtiers and great officers at
the capital were commanded to follow their master's example.
This insane policy produced its inevitable result. The king had
declared war against a whole class of his servants and the 'centurions'
of Dābhoi and Baroda in Gujarāt were the first to take up the
challenge. Taking advantage of the dispatch by Muqbil, governor
of Gujarāt, of the annual remittance of revenue from his province
they fell upon the caravan and were enriched not only by the tribute
but by quantities of merchandise which the merchants of Gujarāt
were sending to Delhi under the protection of the convoy.
When the news of the rebellion reached Delhi the king appointed
a council of regency consisting of his cousin Fīrūz, Malik Kabir,
and Khvāja Jahān and towards the end of Ramazān, A. H. 745, leſt
Delhi, never to return. He halted for some days at Sultānpur,
about twenty-two miles west of Tughluqābād, in order to avoid
marching during the fast, and on Shawwal 1 (February 5, 1345)
1 In the Bibliotheca Indica edition of the text of Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuz Shāh. ‘Azīz
is always styled Himār (“the ass'). In the Cairo text of Ibn Batūtah the Bibliotheca
Indica text of Budaunī, and the Bombay text of Firishta he is called Khammār
('the Vintner'), which seems to have been his correct designation. Between the two
words, as usually written, there is a difference of only one dot, the omission of which
may be due to a scribe's carelessness or may be an author's deliberate pleasantry.
2 This term literally translates the 'amirs of hundreds' or yūzbāshi, who were not,
however, purely military officers, but revenue officials responsible for the collection
of taxes in groups of about a hundred villages each, who were entitled to a com
mission of five per cent, on their collections.


## p. 167 (#209) ############################################

VI]
REBELLION IN GUJARAT
167
>
continued his march towards Gujarāt. While at Sultānpur he was
disturbed by the news that 'Azīz had marched against the rebels.
In oppressing the poor, in plundering the rich, in torturing and
slaying the helpless, 'Aziz had few equals, and was a servant after
his master's heart, but Muhammad knew that he was no soldier
and learnt to his vexation, but without surprise, that the rebels
.
had defeated and captured him and put him to death with
torture.
The king marched from Sultānpur to Anhilvāra (Pātan) in
Gujarāt, and, leaving Shaikh Mu'izz-ud-din and other officers in
that town to reorganise the administration of the province, passed
on to Mount Ābū, whence he sent an army to Dabhoi and Baroda
against the centurions,' who were defeated with heavy loss and,
after collecting their wives and families, retired towards Daulatābād.
The king then marched to Broach and thence sent a force to inter-
cept them. His troops came up with them on the bank of the
Narbada, again defeated them, captured their wives and families,
camp equipage and baggaged and slew most of the men, A few of
their leaders contrived to escape on barebacked horses, and took
refuge with Mān Singh, raja of Baglāna, who imprisoned them and
took from them such money and jewels as they had succeeded in
carrying off. The royal troops halted on the Narbada, and there
their leader, Malik Maqbūl, received and promptly executed an
order to arrest and execute the 'centurions' of Broach, who had
accompanied him. There is no suggestion that these officers had
failed in their duty, but they were 'centurions' and that was enough
for Muhammad. The few who escaped the executioner's sword fled
to Daulatābād, where their account of the king's ferocity added
fuel to the fire of sedition in the Deccan.
At Broach Muhammad found such employment as suited his
temper. The collection of the revenue had been neglected for some
time past, and the tale of arrears was heavy. Extortionate collectors
were appointed, no excuse was accepted and what was due was
exacted with the utmost severity. Inability to pay, as well as
obstinacy in refusing payment, was punished with death, and the
ghastly list of executions was increased by means of a minute and
careful investigation of the past behaviour of the people. Whoever
had in any way helped the rebels, whoever expressed sympathy
with them, whoever bemoaned their fate, was put to death, and as
though the
of his proceedings in Gujarāt were not
sufficient to exasperate his subjects in the south, the king appointed
two notorious oppressors to conduct an inquisition into the conduct
rumours


## p. 168 (#210) ############################################

168
(ch.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
a
at
and opinions of his people at Daulatābād. One of these reached the
city, and the other, Zain Banda, Majd-ul-Mulk, travelling less
expeditiously, had not passed beyond Dhār when it became evident
that a rebellion was on the point of breaking out at Daulatābād.
Th actual outbreak was accelerated by an act of ill-timed severity.
Two officers were sent from Broach to Daulatābād with orders to
Maulānā Nizām-ud-din, the feeble governor, to collect 1500 horse
and to send the 'centurions' of his province to Broach under escort.
The escort was assembled and the 'centurions' were dispatched
from Daulatābād, but at the end of the first day's march took
counsel together and, preferring the chances of a rebellion to the
certainty of death, slew Malik 'Ali and Malik Ahmad Lāchin, who
were conducting them to court, and returned to Daulatābād. Here
they imprisoned Nizām-ud-din, seized the fort, with the treasure
which had accumulated in it owing to the insecurity of the roads,
which had rendered remittances to Delhi impossible, and proclaimed
one of their number, Ismā‘il Mukhthe Afghān, king of the Deccan,
under the title of Nāsir-ud din Shāh. The treasure was distributed
to the troops, and Mahārāshtra was parcelled out into fiefs which
the ‘centurions' divided among themselves. The rebellion was
its height when the remnants of the 'centurions' of Dābhoi and
Baroda, who had been imprisoned in Baglāna, escaped and joined
their fellows at Daulatābād.
Muhammad at once assembled a large force at Broach and
marched to Daulatābād. The rebels came forth to meet him, but
were defeated with heavy loss and, with their wives and families,
took refuge in the citadel which Muhammad himself had made
impregnable, while Hasan the centurion, entitled Zafar Khān, the
rebels from Bidar, and the brothers of Ismā'il Mulk retired to
Gulbarga with a view to consolidating their position in the outlying
districts of the province since the neighbourhood of Daulatābād was
no longer safe.
The royal troops were permitted to sack the city of Daulatābād
and plunder the defenceless inhabitants, the Muslims among whom
were sent as prisoner to Delhi with dispatches announcing a great
victory over the rebels. The king then opened the siege of the
citadel and sent 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sartiz, who had been governor of
Ellichpur when the rebellion broke out and had fled. to court, to
Gulbarga to crush the rebellion in that region.
Meanwhile the provinces of the extreme south were slipping
1 This name appears in the texts of various histories as Mukh, Mugh, and Fath,
the Blibilothecea Indica text of Barani has been followed here.


## p. 169 (#211) ############################################

VI]
REVOLT OF THE DECCAN
169
from the king's grasp. Vira Ballāla III of Dvāravatipura estab-
lished his independence ; Kampli was occupied by one of the sons
of its valiant raja, who apostatised from Islam and restored Hindu
rule southward of the Tungabhadra ; and Krishna or Kānhayya
Nāik, apparently a scion of the Kākatīyas, expelled all Muslim.
officers from Telingāna and established himself at Warangal.
Muhammad had been besieging the citadel of Daulatābād for
three months when he received news of another serious rebellion
in Gujarāt, where Taghi, a cobbler, had assembled a band of rebels
who promised to become formidable owing to the disaffection which
the king had excited throughout the province. Taghi, despite his
humble antecedents, was a man of ability and energy. He attached
to his cause the remnant of the centurions of Gujarāt and some of
the Hindu chieftains of the hilly country on the east of the province,
and attacked Pātan, where he captured and imprisoned the governor,
Shaikh Mu'izz-ud-din, and some of his officers, and put to death his
assistant, Malik Muzaffar. From Pātan he marched to Cambay,
and, after plundering that town, ventured further southward, and
laid siege to Broach, recently the king's headquarters. On hearing
that Broach was besieged Muhammad decided that his presence was
more urgently required in Gujarāt than in the Deccan. Appointing
Khudāvandzāda Qavām-ud-din, Malik Jauhar, and Shaikh Burhān
Bilārāmi to the command of such troops as he could leave before
Daulatābād, and to the government of the province, he set out for
Broach. Taghi, on learning of his approach, raised the siege and
fled towards Cambay with no more than 300 horse, and Muhammad
sent Malik Yusuf Bughrā with 2000 horse in pursuit of him. Yusuf
came up with the rebels neer Cambay, and, notwithstanding his
superiority in numbers, was defeated and slain. Muhammad now
marched against Taghi in person, but the latter retired before him
to Asāwal, now Ahmadābād, and put to death Shaikh Mu'izz ud-dīn
and his other prisoners. As the king advanced to Asāwal, Taghi
again retired to Pātan, but, emboldened by a relaxation of the
pursuit, the royal army having been obliged by the poor condition
of its horses and the heavy rains to halt for nearly a month at
Asāwal, advanced as far as Kadi, apparently with the object of
attacking the king. Incensed by this insolence Muhammad marched
to meet him. Taghī, in order to encourage his troops to meet an
army commanded by the king in person, had plied them with liquor,
under the influence of which they charged so recklessly that they
succeeded in penetrating the centre of the royal army, but here
they were overpowered by the clephants, and the survivors fled to


## p. 170 (#212) ############################################

170
[
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
CH
Pātan, leaving their camp and baggage in the hands of the enemy,
who slew the baggage guard of 500 men. The son of Yusuf Bughrā
was placed in command of a force detached to pursue the rebels
and Taghi caused his followers to collect their wives, followers and
dependants at Pātan and to remove them to Khambāliya', whither
he retired. Thence he fled further into Kāthiāwār and took refuge
with the raja of Gunar (Junagarh) who afforded him 'wood and
water in the hills and forests of his small kingdom.
Muhammad meanwhile advanced to Pātan, where he received
the submission of the Hindu chieftains of the province, and from
the raja of Mandal and Pātri' an offering of the heads of some of
the rebels who had taken refuge with him. While at Pātan he
received the news that the Deccan, where everything had gone ill
with his cause since his departure, was lost to him. The 'centurion'
Hasan, who had received from the Afghān king the title of Zafar
Khān, had marched to Bidar and, with the help of reinforcements
received from Daulatābād and from Kānhayya Nāik of Warangal,
had defeated and slain 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sartiz and dispersed his army.
His victory was the death-blow to the royal cause in the Deccan,
and as Hasan approached Daulatābād the royal troops raised the
siege and hastily retreated on Dhār. Nāsir-ud-din Ismā'īl Shāh
left the citadel and met the conqueror at Nizāmpur, about three
and a half miles from the fortress, where he entertained him for
fourteen days. Ismā'il, an old man who loved his ease, clearly
perceived that Hasan was the man of the hour, and resolved to
descend gracefully from a throne which he had not sought and
professed not to desire. Summoning his officers, he announced to
them his intention of abdicating and professed his readiness to
swear allegiance to any, worthier than himself, on whom their
choice might fall. The election of Hasan was a foregone conclusion.
It was he who had driven the royal troops from the Deccan, and
his claim to descent from the half-mythical hero, Bahman son of
Isfandiyār, seemed to mark him out for the honour of royalty. On
August 3, 1347, he was acclaimed by the assembled nobles of the
Deccan under the title of Abu'l-Muzaffar 'Alā-ud-din Bahman Shāh",
and founded a dynasty which ruled the Deccan for nearly a hundred
and eighty years.
1 Situated in 22° 9'N. and 69° 40'E.
2 Two towns immediately to the east of the Little Rann, Mandal is in
23° 16'N. and 71° 55'E, and Pātri in 25° 10' N. and 71° 48'E.
3 That this was his title is proved by a contemporary inscription and legends on
coins, as well as by independent historical evidence. European historians have hither-
to accepted unquestioningly Firishta's absurd legend of his having assumed the title
‘Alā-ud-din Hasan Kankū Bahmani in honour of one Gangu, a Brāhman whose slave


## p. 171 (#213) ############################################

VI )
INDEPENDENCE OF THE DECCAN
171
The king had aleardy summoned Khvāja Jahān and other nobles
from Delhi with a large army, with a view to dispatching them to
the Deccan, but the news of Bahman Shāh's success deterred him from
attempting the recovery of the southern provinces while Taghi was
still at large in Kāthiāwār and disaffection was riſe throughout his
dominions, and he resolved to restore order in Gujarāt before attem•
pting to recover his lost provinces. The local officials and chieftains
who had come from the Daulatābād province to wait on him, on
learning this decision, returned in a body to Daulatābād, where they
settled down quietly as loyal subjects of Bahman Shāh.
The loss of the Deccan was a bitter blow to Muhammad, and
after his custom he sought counsel and consolation of Barani, the
historian. He sadly likened his kingdom to a sick man oppressed
by a variety of diseases, the remedy of one of which aggravated
the rest, so that as soon as he had restored order in one province
another fell into disorder, and he appealed to Barani for historical
precedents for the course to be followed in such a case. Barani could
give him but little comfort. Some kings so situated, he said, had
abdicated in favour of a worthy son and had spent the rest of their
lives in seclusion, while others had devoted themselves to pleasure
and had left all business of state in the hands of their ministers. The
king replied that he had intended, had events shaped themselves
according to his will, to resign the government of his kingdom to his
cousin Firūz, Malik Kabir, and Khvāja Jahān, and to perform the
pilgrimage to Mecca, but that the disobedience of his people had so
inflamed his wrath and his severity had so aggravated their con-
tumacy that he could not escape from the vicious circle, and must
continue, while he lived, to wield the sword of punishment.
Having definitely abandoned the idea of recovering the Deccan
he was able to devote the whole of his attention and resources to
the suppression of Taghi's rebellion and to the re-establishment of
his authority in Gujarāt and Kāthiāwār. He spent the rainy season
of 1348 at Mandal and Pātrī, engaged in re-organising his army
and in improving the administration of Gujarāt. At its close he
marched into Kāthīāwār with the object of subjugating the raja of
Girnār, who had harboured the rebel. The raja, with a view to
averting his vengeance, was preparing to seize and surrender Taghi,
but the latter, being apprised of the design, fled from Kāthīāwār to
Sind. The rainy season of 1349 was spent in the neighbourhood
he had formerly been. His regal name was Bahman, and it is only to his successors
that the epithet Bahmani is properly applied. The meaning of the addition Lankū
has not been established, but it is probably a corruption of Kaikāūs, the name of
Bahman Shāh's father.


## p. 172 (#214) ############################################

172
[ CH. Vì
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
of Girnār, which fortress Muhammad captured, establishing his
authority in all the ports of the Kāthiāwār coast. Not only the
raja of Girnār, but Khengār, raja of Cutch, whose dominions ex.
tended into Kāthiāwār, and the minor chieftains of the peninsula
appeared before him and made their submission to him, acknow-
ledging him as their over-lord. From Girnār he marched to Gondal,
in the centre of Kāthiāwār, where he was attacked by a fever which
prostrated him for some months. Here he spent the rainy season
of 1350, and here he received news of the death of Malik Kabir at
Delhi, which deeply grieved - him. Khvāja Jahān and Malik
Maqbūl were sent to Delhi to carry on the administration of the
kingdom and Muhammad ordered the nobles at Delhi to join him
with their contingents, to reinforce the army with which he pur-
posed to invade Sind and punish the Jām, who had harboured the
rebel Taghi. Contingents were likewise summoned from Dīpālpur,
Multān, Uch, and Sehwān, so that it was at the head of a great
host that the king, in October, 1350, set out for Sind. Aster crossing
the Indus he was joined by a force of four or five thousand Mughul
auxiliaries under Ultūn Bahādur, who had been sent by the Amir
Farghan to his assistance. He then marched on towards Tattah,
and was within thirty leagues of that town on Muharram 10, 752
(March 9, 1351) which, being a day of mourning, he observed by
fasting, He broke his fast with a hearty meal of fish, and the fever
from which he had suffered in the previous year returned. He still,
however, travelled on by boat, but was obliged to rest when within
fourteen leagues of Tattah, and as he lay sick fear fell upon his great
army, held together by his personal authority alone. Far from
home, encumbered with their wives and families, within reach of
the enemy, and attended by allies whom they feared hardly less,
they knew not what should become of them on the death of their
leader. On March 20, 1351, the event which they dreaded came to
pass, “and so,' says Budauni, 'the king was freed from his people
and they from their king. '
Enough has perhaps been said of the extraordinary character
of Muhammad Tughluq. He was a genius, with an unusually large
share of that madness to which great wit is nearly allied, and the
contradictions of his character were an enigma to those who knew
him best. Both Barani and Ibn Batūtah are lost in astonishment
at his arrogance, his piety, his humility, his pride, his lavish
generosity, his care for his people, his hostility to them, his pre-
ference for foreigners, his love of justice and his ferocious cruelty,
and can find no better description of their patron than that he was
a freak of creation.


## p. 173 (#215) ############################################

CHAPTER VII
THE REIGN OF FIRŪZ TUGHLUQ, THE DECLINE AND
EXTINCTION OF THE DYNASTY, AND THE INVASION
OF INDIA BY TAIMUR
The death of Muhammad left the army without a leader and
threw it into confusion. Some historians allege that on his death-
bed he designated his cousin, Firūz, the son of Rajab, as his heir,
but these are the panegyrists of Firūz, who made no attempt to
claim the throne but merely associated himself with other officers
in the endeavour to extricate it from a perilous situation. Its
Mughul allies under Oltūn Bahādur were regarded with apprehen-
sion and, having been rewarded for their services, were requested
to retire to their own country. They were already retreating when
they were joined by Naurūz Gurgin, a Mughal officer who had
served Muhammad for some years and now deserted with his con-
tingent and disclosed to Oltūn the confusion which reigned in the
army. The army had already begun a straggling and disorderly
retreat when it was attacked in flank by the Mughuls and in rear
by the Sindis and plundered, almost without opposition, by both.
The dispirited and demoralised host had been at the mercy of its
enemies for two days when the officers urged Firūz, now forty-six
years of age, to ascend the throne, but the situation was complicated
by his professed unwillingness to accept their nomination and by the
presence of a competitor, a child named Dāvar Malik, whose claims
were vehemently urged by his mother, a daughter of Ghiyās-ud-din
Tughluq. She was silenced by the objection that the crisis required
a man, not a child, at the head of affairs, and on March 23, 1351,
the nobles overcame the protests of Firüz by forcing him on to the
throne and acclaiming him. Having ransomed the captives taken by
the Mughuls and the Sindis he attacked and drove off the enemy, so
that the army was able to continue its retreat to Delhi without
molestation, while a force was left in Sind to deal with the rebel
Taghi.
On his way towards Delhi Fīrūz learned that the aged minister,
Khvāja Jahān, had proclaimed in the capital, under the title of
Ghiyās-ud-din Muhammad, a child whom he declared to be the son
of Muhammad Tughluq, but whom the historians represent as sup-
posititious. We have, however, no impartial chronicle of this reign


## p. 174 (#216) ############################################

174
(CH
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
and there is much to justify the belief that the child was Mu.
hammad's son and that the allegation that he was not was an
attempt by panegyrists to improve their patron's feeble hereditary
title!
To the people of Delhi the boy's relationship, whether genuine
or fictitious, to their old tyrant was no recommendation, and num:
bers fled from the city to join Fīrūz. The king was relieved of much
anxiety by the receipt of the news of the death of Taghi in Sind,
and by the adhesion to his cause of Malik Maqbūl, the ablest noble
in the kingdom, a Brāhman of Telingāna who had accepted Islām
and whom he made his minister.
The cause of the child king was hopeless and Khvāja Jahān re-
paired as a suppliant to the camp and was kindly received and
pardoned, against the advice of the officers of the army, but as he
was retiring to Sāmāna, where be proposed to spend the rest of his
life in seclusion, he was followed by an officer entitled Sher Khān,
who put him to death.
On August 25, 1351, Fīrūz entered Delhi without opposition and
ascended the throne. He conciliated his subjects by remitting all
debts due to the state and by abstaining from any endeavour to
recover the treasure which had been lavished by Khvāja Jahān in
his attempt to establish his nominee. For the first year of his reign
he was fully employed in restoring peace and order in the kingdom,
which had been harried and distracted by the freaks and exactions
of his predecessor. Bengal and the Deccan were lost, and he made
no serious attempt to recover either, but in the extensive territory
still subject to Delhi he did his best to repair Muhammad's errors.
He appointed Khvāja Hisām-ud-din Junaid assessor of the revenue,
and within a period of six years the assessor completed a tour of
inspection of the kingdom and submitted his report. Firūz reduced
the demand on account of land revenue so as to leave ample pro-
vision for the cultivator and further lightened his burdens by
abolishing the pernicious custom of levying benevolences from pro-
vincial governors, both on first appointment and annually. The
result of these wise measures an enormous expansion of the
cultivated area, though the statement that no village lay waste and
no culturable land remained untilled is certainly an exaggeration.
In fertile tracts thriving villages inhabited by a contented peasantry
dotted the country at intervals of two miles or less, and in the
neighbourhood of Delhi alone there were 1200 garden villages in
which fruit was grown and which paid yearly to the treasury 180,000
1 Sce J. R. A. S. , for July, 1922,
was


## p. 175 (#217) ############################################

11 ]
PUBLIC WORKS OF FIROZ
175
tangas. The revenues from the Doāb, which had been nearly de-
populated by the exactions of Muhammad amounted to 8,000,000
tangas, and that of the crown lands of the whole kingdum to
C8,500,000 tangas, each worth about twenty pence. At a later period
of his reign, in 1375, Firüz abolished some twenty-five vexatious
cesses, mostly of the nature of octroi duties, which had weighed
heavily upon merchants and tradesmen. The immediate loss to the
public exchequer was computed at 3,000,000 tangas annually, but
the removal of these restrictions on trade and agriculture naturally
produced a fall in prices, so that wheat sold in Delhi at eight
jitals and pulse and barley at four jītals the man, the jital being
worth rather more than one-third of a penny. These rates
were virtually the same as those fixed by 'Alā-ud-Din Khalji, but in
the reign of Fīruz there was no arbitrary interference with the law
of supply and demand, except in the case of sweatmeats, the manu-
facturers of which were justly compelled to allow the consumer to
benefit by the fall in the price of the raw material.
It was not only by lightening the cultivator's burden that Fīrūz
encouraged agriculture. He is still remembered as the author of
schemes of irrigation, and traces of his canals yet remain. Of these
there were five, the most important being the canal, 150 miles long
which carried the waters of the Jumna into the arid tract in which
he founded his city of Hisār-i Firūza (Hissār). He also sank 150
wells for purposes of irrigation and for the use of travellers and
indulged a passion for building which equalled, if it did not surpass
that of the Roman Emperor Augustus. The enumeration of three
hundred towns founded by him must be regarded as an exaggeration
unless we include in the number waste villages restored and re-
populated during his reign, but the towns of Firūzābād, or New
Delhi, Fathābād, Hissār, Fīrūzpūr near Budaun, and Jaunpur were
founded by him, and he is credited with the construction or restora-
tion of four mosques, thirty palaces, two hundred caravanserais, five
reservoirs, five hospitals, a hundred tombs, ten baths, ten monu-
mental pillars, and a hundred bridges.
While resting at Delhi after his return from Sind Firūz per-
formed the quaintly pious duty of atoning vicariously for the sins
of his cousin. In his own words he caused the heirs of those who
had been executed during the reign of his late lord and master,
and those who had been deprived of a limb, nose, or eye to be
appeased with gifts and reconciled to the late king, so that they
executed deeds, duly attested by witnesses, declaring themselves
to be satisfied. These were placed in a chest, which was deposited


## p. 176 (#218) ############################################

176
[CH.
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
in the tomb of Muhammad in the hope that God would show him
mercy.
Bengal had for some years ceased to acknowledge the authority
of Delhi. In 1338 Mubārak, styling himself Fakhr-ud-din Mubārak
Shāh, had established himself in Eastern Bengal, and had been
succeeded in 1349 by Ikhtiyār-ud-din Ghāzi Shāh; and in 1339
'Alā-ud din 'Ali Shāh had assumed independence in Western Bengal.
In 1345 Hāji Iliyās, styling himself Shams-ud-din Iliyās Shāh, had
made himself master of Western Bengal, and in 1352 had over-
thrown Ghāzi Shāh and established his dominion over the whole of
Bengal.
Emboldened by success, and by the indifference of Firūz,
Iliyās had rashly invaded Tirhut with the object of annexing the
south-eastern districts of the new restricted kingdom of Delhi,
but Filūz was now free to punish this act of aggression, and in
November, 1353, marched from Delhi with 70,000 horse to repel
the invader. Iliyās retired before him into Tirhut, and thence to
his capital, Pāndua, but mistrusting the strength of this stronghold,
continued his retreat to Ikdāla, a village situated on islands in the
Brāhmaputra and protected by the dense jungle which clothed the
river's banks, whither Firūz followed him. Firüz failed to reduce
Ikdāla and Iliyās endeavoured to detain the invaders in Bengal
until the advent of the rainy season, in the hope that the un-
healthiness of the climate and the difficulty of communicating with
Delhi would place them at his mercy, but Fīrūz preferred an
dignified retreat to almost certain disaster. Iliyās followed and
.
attacked him, but was defeated with some loss and Firūz continued
his retreat without further molestation and on September 1, 1354,
entered Delhi.
After his return he founded on the banks of the Jumna im.
mediately to the south of the present city of Delhi, a new capital
which he called Fīrūzābād, a name which he had already vauntingly
bestowed on the city of Pāndua. The new town occupied the sites
of the old town of Indarpat and eleven other villages or hamlets,
and contained no fewer than eight large mosques. A regular service
of public conveyances, with fixed rates of hire connected it with
Old Delhi, ten miles distant. In the following year Firūz, when
visiting Dipālpūr, gave directions for the cutting of a canal from
the Sutlej to Jhajjar, a town within forty miles of Delhi, and in
1356 he founded Hissār on the sites of two villages Larās. i. Buzurg
and Larās-i-Khurd. The neighbourhood was arid, and the new
town was supplied with water by two canals, one from the Jumna,
in the neighbourhood of Karnāl, and the other from the Sutlej,
un-


## p. 177 (#219) ############################################

VII ]
EXPEDITION TO BENGAL
177
near the point at which it emerges from the mountains. The canal
from Dipālpūr to Jhajjar also passed at no great distance from the
new town.
In December, 1356, the king was gratified by the receipt of a
robe of honour and a commission recognising his sovereignty in
India from the puppet Abbasid Caliph in Egypt, but the envoy
also bore a letter which commended to him the Bahmani dynasty
of the Deccan in terms which made it clear that the Caliph recog-
nised its independence. At the same time envoys arrived with
complimentary gifts from Iliyās, and obtained from Fīrūz recog-
nition of the independence of Bengal.
Throughout this reign the country was remarkably free from
irruptions of the Mughuls, of which only two are recorded, both of
them being successfully repulsed.
In 1358 a plot was formed against the life of Fīrūz. His cousin
Khudāvandzāda, who had unsuccessfully claimed the throne for
her son, now lived at Delhi, and she and her husband arranged
that the king should be assassinated by armed men on the occasion
of a visit to her house, but the plot was frustrated by her son,
Dāvar Malik, who was not in sympathy with his stepfather, Khusrav
Malik, and contrived to apprise Firūz by signs that his life was in
danger, thus causing him to depart sooner than was his wont, and
before the arrangements for his assassination were complete. On
returning to his palace he sent troops to surround the house, and
the men who were to have slain him were arrested and disclosed
the plot. Khudāvandzāda was imprisoned, her great wealth was
confiscated, and her husband was banished.
Iliyās was now dead, and had been succeeded in Bengal by his
son, Sikandar Shāh, and in 1359 Firüz, regardless of his treaty
with the father, invaded with a large army the dominions of the
son. The transparently frivolous pretext for the expedition was
the vindication of the rights of Zafar Khān, a Persian who had
married the daughter of Fakhr-ud-din Mubārak Shāh of Eastern
Bengal and whose hopes of sitting on the throne of his father-in-law
had been shattered by the conquest and annexation of Eastern
Bengal by Iliyās. On the conquest of the country Zafar Khān had
fled to the coast and embarked on a ship which carried him round
Cape Comorin to Tattah, whence he had made his way to the
court of Firūz, who appointed him, in 1357, deputy minister of the
kingdom.
Firūz halted for six months at Zafarābād on the Gumti and
founded in its neighbourhood a city which became known
C H. I. III
12
as


## p. 178 (#220) ############################################

178
(ch.
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
Jaunpur. Muslim historians derive the name from Jauna, the title
by which Muhammad Tughluq had been known before his accesº
sion, but the city of Firūz was not the first town on the site and
Hindus derive the name, which occasionally takes the form of Jamna-
pur, from Jamadagni, a famous rishi.
At the end of the rainy season Fīrūz continued his march into
Bengal, and Sikandar, following his father's example, retired to
Ikdāla. The second siege was no more successful than the first,
and Sikandar was able to obtain peace on very favourable terms.
He is said to have promised to surrender Sonārgāon, the capital
of Eastern Bengal, to Zafar Khān, but the promise, even if made,
cost him nothing, for Zafar Khān preferred the security and emolu.
ments of his place at court to the precarious tenure of a vassal
throne. From partial historians we learn that Sikandar agreed to
pay an annual tribute of forty elephants, but the same historians
are constrained to admit that he obtained from Fīrūz recognition
of his royal title, a jewelled crown worth 80,000 tangas and 5,000
Arab and Turkish horses.
Firūz halted at Jaunpur during the rainy season of 1360, and
in the autumn led an expedition into Orissa. It is not easy, from
the various accounts of the operations, to follow his movements
with accuracy, but his objective was Purī, famous for the great
temple of Jagannāth. As he advanced into Orissa, which is des-
cribed as a fertile and wealthy country, the raja fled and took
ship for a port on the coast of Telingāna. Firūz reached Purī,
occupied the raja's palace, and took the great idol, which he sent
to Delhi to be trodden underfoot by the faithful. Rumours of an
intended pursuit reached the raja, who sent envoys to sue for
peace, which he obtained by the surrender of twenty elephants
and a promise to send the same number annually to Delhi, and
Firüz began his retreat. He attempted to reach Kara on the
Ganges, where he had left his heavy baggage, by a route more
direct than that by which he had advanced, traversing the little
known districts of Chota Nāgpur. The army lost its way, and wan.
dered for six months through a country sparsely populated, hilly,
and covered with dense jungle. Supplies were not to be had, and
numbers perished from the hardships and privations which they
suffered, but at length the troops emerged from the hills and
forests in which they had been wandering into the open plain.
Meanwhile the absence of news from the army had caused at Delhi
unrest so grave that Maqbūl, the regent, had considerable difficulty
in maintaining order, but news of the army allayed the excitement
>
1


## p. 179 (#221) ############################################

VII)
CAPTURE OF KANGRA
179
of the populace, and the king was received on his return with great
rejoicing
In 1351 Fīrūz marched from Delhi with the object of attempting
to recover the fortress of Daulatābād, but his progress
was arrested
by reports that the raja of Kāngra had ventured to invade his
kingdom and plunder some of the districts lying at the foot of the
mountains, and he marched to Sirhind with the object of attacking
Kāngra. On his way to Sirhind he observed that a canal might be
cut to connect the waters of the Saraswati with those of another
river, probably the Markanda, which rises near Nāhan and flows past
Shāhābad, to the south of Ambāla. The two streams were divided
by high ground, but the canal was completed by the labours of
50,000 workmen. In the course of the excavation large fossil bones
were discovered, some of which were correctly identified as those
of elephants, while others were ignorantly supposed to be those of a
race of prehistoric men. The records of the reign have proved useful
as a guide to later and more scientific investigators, and led to the
discovery of the fossil bones of sixty-four genera of mammals which
lived at the foot of the Himālaya in Pliocene (Siwālik) times, of
which only thirty-nine genera have species now living. Of eleven
species of the elephant only one now survives in India, and of six
species of bos but two remain.
Firuz enriched Sirhind with a new fort, which he named Fīrūzpur,
and continued his march northwards towards Kāngra by way of
the famous temple of Jwālamukhi, where he dealt less harshly
than usual with the Brāhman priests. A panegyrist defends him
from the imputation of encouraging idolatory by presenting a golden
umbrella to be hung over the head of the idol, which he seems, in
fact, to have removed; but he ordered that some of the sacred
books, of which there were 1300 in the temple, should be trans-
lated, and one in particular, treating of natural science, augury,
and divination, was rendered into Persian verse by a court poet,
A'azz-ud-din Khālid Khānī, and named by him Dalāʻil-i-Firuz
Shāhi. Firishta describes the book as a compendium of theoretical
and practical science, and even the rigidly orthodox Budaunī admits
that it is moderately good, free neither from beauties nor defects,
which is high praise from him. Budauni mentions also some
profitable and trivial works on prosody, music, and dancing,' which
were translated. There seems to be no reason for crediting the
statement, made with some diffidence by Firishta, that Fīrūz broke
up the idols of Jwālamukhi, mixed their fragments with the flesh
of cows, and hung them in nosebags round the Brāhmans' necks,
un-
12-2


## p. 180 (#222) ############################################

180
(CH.
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
and that he sent the principal idol as a trophy to Medina. The
raja of Kāngra surrendered after standing a very short siege, and
was courteously received and permitted to retain his territory as a
fief of Delhi.
The enforced retreat from Sind and the insolence of the Sindis
had rankled in the memory of Fīrūz ever since his accession, and
in 1362 he set out for that country with an army of 90,000 horse
and 480 elephants. He collected on the Indus a large fleet of boats,
which accompanied the army down-stream to Tattah, the capital of
the Jāms of Sind, which was situated on both banks of the river.
The ruler was now Jām Māli, son of Jām Unnar, and he was assisted
in the government by his brother's son, Bābaniya. Both were reso-
lute in defending the city, and the royal army was exposed to the
sorties of the garrison and suffered from a severe famine and from
an epizootic disease which carried off or disabled three-quarters of
the horses of the cavalry. The garrison, observing their plight,
sallied forth and attacked them in force, and though they were
driven back within the walls Fīrūz, who was humiliated at the same
time by the capture of his entire fleet, decided to retreat for a time
to Gujarāt, where his troops might recruit their strength and replace
their horses.
The troops suffered more severely during the retreat than during
the siege. The disease among the horses lost none of its virulence,
and grain still rose in price. The starving soldiery fell out by the
way and died, and the survivors were reduced to eating carrion
and hides. The principal officers were obliged to march on foot
with their men, and treacherous guides led the army into the Rann
of Cutch, where there was no fresh water, so that thirst was added
to their other privations, and they suffered terrible losses. Once
again no news of the army reached Delhi for some months, and
Maqbūl, the regent, had great difficulty in restraining the turbulence
of the anxious and excited populace, and was at length reduced to
the expedient of producing a forged dispatch. The execution of
one of the treacherous guides induced the others to extricate the
army from its perilous position and it emerged at length from the
desert and salt morass into the fertile plains of Gujarāt. Dispatches
to Delhi restored order in the city, and the governor of Gujarāt,
Nizām-ul-Mulk, who had failed to send either guides or supplies to
the army, was dismissed from his post, Zafar Khān being appointed
in his place.
During the rainy season of 1363 Fīrüz was employed in Gujarāt
in repairing the losses of his army. Officers and men received


## p. 181 (#223) ############################################

VII ]
CONQUEST OF SIND
181
-
liberal grants to enable them to replace their horses, the revenues
of the province were appropriated to the reorganisation of the army,
and requisitions for material of war were sent to Delhi. The king
was obliged to forgo a favourable opportunity for interference in the
affairs of the Deccan, where Bahman Shāh had died in 1358 and
had been succeeded by his son, Muhammad I. His son-in-law,
Bahrãm Khān Māzandarāni, who was governor of Daulatābād,
resented the elevation of Muhammad, against whom he openly
rebelled three years later, and now invited Firūz to recover the
Deccan, promising him his support, but the king would not abandon
his enterprise in Sind, and Bahrām was disappointed.
Firūz Shāh's return to Sind was unexpected, and the people,
who were quietly tilling their fields, fled before him destroyed that
portion of Tattah which stood on the eastern bank of the Indus,
and took refuge behind the fortifications of mud on the western
bank. Firūz, hesitating to attempt the passage of the river under
these defences, sent two officers with their contingents up the Indus,
which they crossed at a cansiderable distance above the town and,
marching down the western bank, made an unsuccessful attack on
the town. After this failure they were recalled and the king sent to
Delhi for reinforcements and, while awaiting their arrival reaped
and garnered the crops, so that his army was well supplied while
the garrison of Tattah began to feel the pinch of famine. When the
reinforcements arrived the Jām lost heart and sent an envoy to sue
for peace. Fīrūz was inclined to leniency, and Bābaniya and the
Jām, on making their submission to him, were courteously received,
but were informed that they would be required to accompany him
to Delhi and that an annual tribute of 400,000 tangas, of which the
first instalment was to be paid at once, would be required. These
terms were accepted and the Jām and Bābaniya accompanied Firūz
to Delhi as guests under mild restraint. The rejoicings on the
return of the army were marred by the lamentations of those who
had lost relations during the disastrous retreat to Gujarāt, and Firūz,
who had already, while wandering in the Rann, sworn never again
to wage war but for the suppression of rebellion, now publicly ex-
pressed regret for having undertaken the expedition to Sind, and
ordered that the estates and property of the deceased should des-
cend, rent-free, to their heirs.
In 1365—66 envoys from Bahrām Khān Māzandarāni, who was
now in rebellion against Muhammad Shāh Bahmanī, arrived at
court and besought Firūz to come to the aid of those who wished
to return to the allegiance of Delhi, but were curtly told that
>


## p. 182 (#224) ############################################

182
( CH.
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
whatever they suffered was the just and natural punishment of
their rebellion against Muhammad Tughluq, and were dismissed.
In 1372–73 the faithful minister, Maqbul Khānjahān, died,
and was succeeded in his honours and emoluments by his son, who
received his father's title of Khānjahān; and in the following year
Zafar Khān, governor of Gujarāt, died, and was succeeded by his
son, Daryā Khān, who also received his father's title.
The affectionate disposition of Fīrūz received a severe blow
from the death of his eldest son, Fath Khān, on July 23, 1374, and
we may attribute to his grief the gradual impairment of his faculties,
evidence of which may be observed shortly after his son's death.
At first he withdrew entirely from public business, and when he
resumed its responsibilities one of his first acts was entirely foreign
to his previous character. Shams-ud-din Dāmaghāni, a meddle-
some and envious noble, insisted that the province of Gujarāt was
assessed for revenue at too low a rate, and offered, if placed in
charge of it, to send annually to Delhi, in addition to the revenue
for which the province had been assessed, 100 elephants, 400,000
tangas, 400 slaves, and 200 horses. Fīrūz was loth to disturb Zafar
Khān, but demanded of his deputy, Abú Rijā, the additional con-
tributions suggested by Dāmaghāni. Abū Rijā declared that the
province could not bear this impost and Fīrūz ordinarily solicitous
to alleviate the burdens of his subjects, dismissed him and his master,
Zafar Khān, and appointed Dāmaghāni governor of Gujarāt. On
his arrival in the province the new governor encountered the most
determined opposition to his extortionate demands and, finding
himself unable to fulfil his promise, raised the standard of rebellion,
but was overpowered and slain by the centurions of Gujarāt, who
sent his head to court. Firūz then appointed to the government of
Gujarāt Malik Mufrih, who received the title of Farhat-ul-Mulk.
In 1377 Fīrūz was engaged in repressing a rebellion in the
Etāwah district, where the revenue could seldom be collected but
by armed force; and two years later found it necessary to take
precautions against a threatened inroad of the Mughuls, which his
preparations averted. In the same year his usually mild nature
was stirred to a deed of vengeance worthy of his predecessor.
Kharkū, the raja of Katehr, had invited to his house Sayyid Mu-
hammad, governor of Budaun, and his two brothers, and trea-
cherously slew them. In the king's pious estimation the heinousness
of the crime was aggravated by the descent of the victims and in
the spring of 1380 he marched into Katehr and there directed a
massacre of the Hindus so general and so in discriminate that, as


## p. 183 (#225) ############################################

vit ]
DEVASTATION OF KATEHR
183
one historian says, 'the spirits of the murdered Sayyids themselves
arose to intercede'. Kharkū fled into Kumaun and was followed
by the royal troops who, unable to discover his hiding place, visited
their disappointment on the wretched inhabitants, of whom vast
numbers were slain and 23,000 captured and enslaved. The ap-
proach of the rainy season warned Firūz to retire from the hills of
Kumaun, but his thirst for vengeance was not yet sated. Before
leaving for Delhi he appointed an Afghān to the government of
Sambhal, and ordered him to devastate Katehr annually with fire
and sword. He himself visited the district every year for the next
five years and so supplemented the Afghān's bloody work that 'in
those years not an acre of land was cultivated, no man slept in
house, and the death of the three Sayyids was avenged by that of
countless thousands of Hindus. '
In 1385, the last year of these raids, Firūz founded near Budaun
a strong fort which he named Fīrūzpur, but the miserable in-
habitants called it in derision Ākhirīnpūr ('the last of his cities')
and the gibe was fulfilled, for Firūz now lapsed into a condition of
senile decay, and could no more found cities or direct the ship of
state. As a natural consequence of the failure of his intellect his
minister, Khānjahān, became all powerful, and soon abused his
power. In 1387 he persuaded Fīrūz that Muhammad Khān, his
eldest surviving son, was conspiring with Zafar Khān and other
nobles to remove him and ascend the throne. Fīrūz, without in.
quiring into the matter, authorised the minister to arrest those
whom he had accused, and Zaſar Khān was summoned from his
fief of Mahoba on the pretext that his accounts were to be exa-
mined, and was confined in Khānjahān's house. The prince evaded,
on the plea of ill-health, attendance at a darbār at which he was
to have been arrested, but privately gained access to the royal
harem by arriving at the gate in a veiled litter which was supposed
to contain his wife. His appearance, fully armed, in the inner
apartments at first caused consternation, but he was able to gain
his father's ear, and easily persuaded him that the real traitor was
Khānjahān, who intended to pave his own way to the throne by
the destruction of the royal family. Armed with his father's autho-
rity, he led the household troops numbering ten or twelve thousand,
and the royal elephants to Khānjahān's house. The minister, on
hearing of his approach, put Zafar Khān to dcath and sallied
forth with his own troops to meet his enemies. He was wounded
1
Perhaps the village about three miles south of Budaun, which appears in the
Indian Atlas as Firūzpūr Iklehri.


## p. 184 (#226) ############################################

184
[ .
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
un-
and retired into his house, whence he made his escape by an
guarded door and fled into Mewāt, where he took refuge with a
Rājput chieſtain, Koka the Chauhān. His house was plundered
and his followers were slain, and Muhammad Khān returned to
the palace. Fīrūz, no longer capable of governing, associated his
son with himself not only in the administration, but also in the
royal title, and caused him to be proclaimed, on August 22, 1387,
under the style of Nāsir-ud-din Muhammad Shāh.
One of Muhammad's first acts was to send Sikandar Khān,
master of the horse, into Mewāt to seize Khānjahān, with a promise
of the government of Gujarāt as the reward of success. Khānjahān
was surrendered by Koka, and Sikandar Khān, after carrying his
head to Delhi, set out for Gujarāt. Muhammad was hunting in
Sirmūr when he heard that Farhat-ul-Mulk and the centurions of
Gujarāt had defeated and slain Sikandar Khān, whose broken troops
had returned to Delhi. He returned at once to the capital, but
instead of taking any steps to punish the rebels neglected all
public business and devoted himself entirely to pleasure. For five
months the administrative machinery, which had been adjusted by
Firuz in the earlier years of his reign, worked automatically, but
the apathy and incompetence of Muhammad became daily more
intolerable, and many of the old servants of the crown assembled
a large force and rose against him nominally in the interests of
Firūz. An envoy who was sent to treat with them was stoned and
wounded, and Muhammad was forced to take the field against
them, but, when hard pressed, they succeeded in forcing their way
into the palace and, after two days' indecisive fighting, placed the
decrepit Firūz in a litter and carried him into the field. The device,
which is of frequent occurrence in Indian history, succeeded. The
troops with Muhammad believed that their old master had deliber-
ately taken the field against his son and deserted Muhammad, who
fled into Sirmūr with a few retainers. Firūz promoted his grandson,
Tughluq Khān, son of the deceased Fath Khān, to the position
lately held by Muhammad, and conferred on him the royal title.
On September 20, 1388, Firūz died, at the age of eighty-three, after
a reign of thirty-seven years.
Indian historians praise Fīruz as the most just, merciful, and
beneficent ruler since the days of Nāsir-ud-din Mahmūd, son of
Iltutmish, and there is some similarity between the characters of
the two, though Fīrūz was in almost every respect superior. Both
were weak rulers, but Firūz was far less weak and vacillating than
Mahmúd, and both were benevolent, but the benevolence of Firūz
3
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vn]
DEATH OF FİRUZ
185
was more active than that of Mahmūd. Fīrūz possessed far more
ability than Mahmūd, and his weakness consisted largely in an
indolent man's distaste for the details of business and in unwilling-
ness to cause pain. His benevolence was indiscriminate, for he
showed as much indulgence to the corrupt official as to the indigent
husbandman, and his passion for constructing works of public utility
was due probably as much to vanity as to benevolence. The dis-
continuance of the practice of demanding large gifts from place-
holders was intended to relieve the poorer classes, on whom the
burden ultimately fell, and was perhaps not wholly without effect,
but placeholders continued to enrich themselves, and many amassed
large fortunes. Firūz Shāh's connivance at corruption and his
culpable leniency destroyed the effect of his own reforms. Old and
inefficient soldiers were not compelled to retire but were permitted
to provide substitutes of whose fitness they were the judges, and the
annual inspection of cavalry horses was rendered futile by the many
evasions devised by the king himself. One story is told of his over-
hearing a trooper bewailing to a comrade the hardship of being
compelled to submit his horse for inspection. He called the man
to him and asked him wherein the hardship lay, and he explained
that he could not expect that his horse would be passed unless he
offered the inspector at least a gold tanga, and Fīrūz gave him the
coin. The perversity of the act is not perceived by the historian
who records it, and he merely praises Fīrūz for his benevolence.
Similar laxity prevailed in the thirty-six departments of state, and
in the checking and auditing of the accounts of fiefs and provincial
governments. There was a great show of order and method, and a
pretence was made of annually scrutinising all accounts, but not-
withstanding all formalities 'the king was very lenient, not from
ignorance of accounts and business, which he understood well, but
from temperament and generosity. ' The working of the mint sup-
plies an instance of the fraud and peculation which were rife. In
1370-71 Firuz extended his coinage by minting, for the convenience
of the poorer classes, pieces of small denominations, and the integrity
of the officers of the mint was not proof against the opportunity
for peculation offered by this large issue. Two informers reported
that the six jītal pieces were a grain short of standard purity, and
the minister, Maqbul Khānjahān, whose anxiety to hush the matter
up suggests his complicity, sent for Kajar Shāh, the mintmaster,
who was the principal offender, and directed him to devise a means
of establishing, to the king's satisfaction, the purity of the coin.
Kajar Shāh arranged that the coins should be melted before the


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186
(cu.
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
metal was assayed, approached the goldsmiths whose duty it would
be to conduct the experiment in the king's presence, and desired
them secretly to cast into the crucible sufficient silver to bring the
molten metal to the standard of purity. They objected that in
accordance with the ordinary precautions on such occasions they
would be so denuded of clothing that they would be unable to
secrete any silver on their persons, but offered to do what was
required if the silver could be placed within their reach. Kajar
Shāh accordingly arranged that the necessary quantity of silver
should be concealed in one of the pieces of charcoal used for heating
the crucible, and the goldsmiths succeeded in conveying it into the
vessel without being observed, so that the king was hoodwinked
and the metal when assayed, was found to be of the standard
purity. Kajar Shāh's presumed innocence was publicly recognised
by his being carried through the city on one of the royal elephants,
and the two informers were banished, but both the investigations
and the public justification of the mintmaster were mere sops to
public opinion, for Kajar Shāh was shortly afterwards dismissed.
The comments of the contemporary historian are even more in-
teresting, as an example of the view which an educated and intelligent
man could then take of such an affair, than his simple record of the
facts. He can
He can see nothing wrong in the concealment of a crime, in
the punishment of the innocent and the vindication of the guilty,
or in the deception practised on the simple Firūz, but commends
Maqbul Khānjahān for having dexteriously averted a public scandal
The same historian, who has nothing but approval for whatever
was established or permitted in the reign of Firüz, applauds another
serious abuse. Of the irregular troops some received their salaries
in cash from the treasury but those stationed at a distance from the
capital were paid by transferable assignments on the revenue. A
class of brokers made it their business to buy these drafts in the
capital at one-third of their nominal value and to sell them to the
soldiers in the districts at one-half. Shams-i-Sirāj 'Afif has no word
of andemnation for the fraud perpetrated on the unfortunate soldier,
and nothing but commendation for a system which enabled so many
knaves to enrich themselves without labour.
Some of the measures introduced by Firüz for the welfare of
his subjects may be described as grandmotherly legislation. One
of them was a marriage bureau and another an employment bureau.
The marriage of girls who have reached marriageable age is regarded
in India, with some reason, as a religious duty, and Firūz charged
himself with the task of seeing that no girl of his own faith remained
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VII]
THE PILLARS OF ASOKA
187
unmarried for want of a dowry. His agency worked chiefly among
the middle class and the widows and orphans of public servants,
and was most efficient. The employment agency, unlike those of
our day, was concerned chiefly with those who desired clerical and
administrative employment, for at this time the extension of cul.
tivation and the construction of public works provided ample
employment for labourers and handicraftsmen. It was the duty
of the kotwal of Delhi to seek those who were without employment
and to produce them at court. Here Firūz personally made inquiry
into their circumstances and qualifications, and after consulting, as
far as possible, their inclination, provided them with employment.
Whether there was any demand for their services lay beyond the
scope of the inquiry, for the business was conducted on charitable
rather than on economic principles and probably provided sinecures
for many a young idler.
The interest of Firūz in public works was not purely utilitarian,
and he is remembered for two feats of engineering which appear
to indicate an interest in archaeology, but may be more justly at-
tributed to vanity. These were the removal to Delhi, from the sites
on which they had been erected by Asoka, of two great inscribed
monoliths. The first, known as the Mināra-yi-Zarin, or golden
pillars, was transferred from a village near Khizrābād, on the upper
Jumna, to Delhi, where it was re-erected near the palace and great
mosque at Firūzābād, and the second was transported from Meerut
and set up on a mound near the Kushk-i-Shikār, or hunting palace,
near Delhi. The curious may find, in the pages of Shams-i-Sirāj
'Afif, an elaborate and detailed description of the ingenious manner
in which these two great pillars were removed and erected in their
new positions. The difficult feat elicited the admiration of the
Amir Tīmūr when he invaded India, and the pillars, which are still
standing, attracted the attention, in 1615, of 'the famous unwearied
walker,' Tom Coryate, who erroneously supposed the Sanskrit and
Prākrit inscriptions of Asok a to be Greek, and referred them to the
time of Alexander the Great.
The harsher side of Fīrūz Shāh's piety was displayed in the per-
secution of heretics, sectaries, and Hindus. His decree abolishing
capital punishment applied only to those of his own faith, for he
burnt to death a Brāhman accused of trying to propagate his
religion, and the ruthless massacres with which he avenged the
murder of the three Sayyids in Budaun prove his benevolence
to have been strictly limited. In general it seems to have been
due to weakness of character and love of ease, but he could


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188
| CH.
THE LATER TUGHLUQS
be firm when a question of principle arose. In the course of years
Brāhmans had acquired, probably by the influence of Hindu officials,
exemption from the jizya, or poll-tax, leviable by the Islamic law
from all non-Muslims, and Firūz was resolved to terminate an ano.
maly which exempted the leaders of dissent from a tax on dissent,
but the exemption had acquired the character of a prescriptive
right, and his decision raised a storm of discontent. The Brāhmans
surrounded his palace and loudly protested against the invasion of
their ancient privilege, threatening to burn themselves alive, and
thus to call down upon him, according to their belief, the wrath of
heaven. 1 Firūz replied that they might burn themselves as soon as
they pleased, and the sooner the better, but they shrank from the
ordeal, and attempted to work on his superstitious fears by sitting
without food at his palace gates. He still remained obdurate, but
they had better success with the members of their own faith, and it
was ultimately arranged that the tax leviable from the Brāhmans
should be borne, in addition to their own burden, by the lower
castes of the Hindus.
The reign of Firūz closes the most brilliant epoch of Muslim
rule in India before the reign of Akbar. ‘Alā-ud-din Khalji, who,
though differing much from Akbar in most respects, resembled him
in desiring to establish a religion of his own devising, had not only
extended the empire over almost the whole of India, but had
welded the loose confederacy of fiefs which had owned allegiance
to the Slave Kings into a homogeneous state. The disorders which
followed his death failed to shake seriously the great fabric which
he had erected, and the energy of Tughluq and, at first, of his son
Muhammad gave it solidity. The latter prince possessed qualities
which might have made him the greatest of the rulers of Delhi had
they not been marred by a disordered imagination. The loss of the
Deccan and Bengal, occasioned by his tyranny, was not an unmixed
evil. The difficulty of governing the former, owing to its distance
from the centre of administration, had been acknowledged by the
1This is an extreme example of the practice of dharna, so common at one time in
India that it was found necessary to make it an offence under the Penal Code. The
aggrieved person sits at the door of his enemy and threatens to. starve himself to
death, in the belief, common to both, that his enemy will be held responsible for
his death and thus become the object of divine wrath. By the Brāhmanical law
the slaying of a Brāhman involves an infinitely greater degree of guilt than any
other crime, and it is difficult to persuade a Brāhman that his person is not more
sacred than that of other men. Lord Macaulay's description, in his essay
Warren Hastings, of the scene at the execution of Nanda Kumār is, like much
else in his historical writings, pure fiction, but it was certainly only by slow de-
grees that Hindus learned the principles of a law which is the same for the Brāh.
man as for the outcaste.
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189
VII).
TUGHLUQ II
ill-considered attempt to transfer the capital to Daulatābād, and
the allegiance of the latter had seldom been spontaneous and had
depended chiefly on the personality of the reigning sovereign of
Delhi, an uncertain quantity. What remained of the kingdom was
more than sufficient to engross the attention of a ruler of ordinary
abilities, and Firūz had, in spite of two great defects of character,
succeeded in improving the administration and in alleviating the
lot and winning the affection of his subjects. Military capacity and
diligence in matters of detail are qualities indispensable to an
oriental despot, and Fīrūz lacked both. After two unsuccessful
expeditions into Bengal he was ſain to recognise the independence
of that country, and his rashness twice imperilled the existence of
his army. His easy tolerance of abuses would have completely
destroyed the efficiency of that mainstay of absolute power, had it
not been counteracted by the vigilance and energy of his officers,
who were carefully selected and entirely trusted by him. His judge-
ment of character was, indeed, the principal counterpoise to his
imaptience of the disagreeable details of government, and the
personal popularity which he enjoyed as the kindly and genial
successor of a capricious tyrant secured the fidelity of his trusted
officers, but his extensive delegation of authority to them under-
mined the power of the crown. No policy, however well devised,
could have sustained this power under the feeble rule of his
successors and the terrible blow dealt at the kingdom within ten
years of his death, but his system of decentralisation would have
embarrassed the ablest successors, and undoubtedly accelerated
the downfall of his dynasty.