No More Learning

A pound of grain cost twenty-
two or twenty-three grains of silver, and the people were reduced
to eating unnatural and loathsome food. Ibn Batūtah saw some
women cutting strips from the skin of a horse which had been dead
for some months, and eating them, cooked hides were exposed for
sale in the bazars, and people thronged round the butchers to
catch and drink the blood of slaughtered cattle. Some travellers
resting in the deserted city of Agroha, now Hissar, found a man
cooking a human foot, and as the famine grew ever more severe
human flesh became a common article of food.
Muhammad was not regardless of the sufferings of his people.
A daily ration of grain was issued for six months to all the citizens
of Delhi, and cooked food was distributed at the wealthy college
which his eccentric piety had endowed at the tomb of the worthless
Qutb-ud-din Mubārak, and at other shrines in the city. Large
sums of money were advanced to enable husbandmen to buy seed
and plough-cattle, to sink wells, and to improve and extend their
holdings, but the king insisted on the application of these grants
or loans to the objects for which they were made, and to no other.
In some cases the starving people were too weak to carry out the
works for which the money was granted, in others they were con-
vinced, by the continued failure of the rains of the futility of
spending money on tilling and sowing the parched land, and they
applied the grants to their own immediate needs. This was regarded
as contumacy and Muhammad punished the miserable transgressors
with such rigour that the tale of executions shocked and disgusted
even those accustomed to his barbarous severity, and this measure
of relief produced more misery than would have resulted from a
policy of inaction.
It was not only at Daulatābād that the news of the king's sick-
ness in Telingāna had given rise to reports of his death. The
rumour had been circulated and had gained some credence at
Delhi and in its neighbourhood. Sayyid Ibrābīm the Pursebearer,
son of Sayyid Jalāl-ud-din Ahsan of Madura, was a favourite of the
king, whose confidence in the son was so little shaken by the father's
rebellion that Ibrāhim was left as governor of the districts of Hānsī
and Sirsa when Muhammad left Delhi for the south. He heard and
was inclined to credit the news of the king's death, and when a
large remittance of treasure of Sind reached Hānsi on its way to
Delhi he detained the convoy on the pretext that the roads were
unsafe, with the intention of seizing the treasure and establishing
his independence as soon as he should receive confirmation of the


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154
(CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
news of the king's death, but on learning that the rumour was false
he allowed the convoy to pass on to Delhi. No overtact of rebel.
lion had been committed, and had Ibrāhim kept his own counsel,
he might have escaped suspicion, but he had incautiously mentioned
his design in the presence of his servants, and the matter reaced
the king's ears. Owing to the regard which he had for Ibrāhim he
hesitated to proceed to extremities against him, and he might have
escaped had not a treasonable speech, rashly uttered, been reported
at court. He was arrested and confessed, under fear of torture,
his real object in detaining the treasure, and the king put him to
death.
Nusrat Khân now discovered that he was not able to remit
to Delhi even a quarter of the sum of ten millions of tangas which
he had promised to pay annually from the revenues of Bidar, and
rose in rebellion. Reinforcements were sent to Qutlugh Khān at
Daulatābād, and he marched against the rebel, besieged him in
Bidar, captured him, and sent him to Delhi,
Muhammad now decreed a fresh evacuation of Delhi, actuated
on this occasion by a desire for the welfare of his subjects. The
fertile province of Oudh had for many years prospered under the
mild and paternal rule of its governor, 'Ain-ul-Mulk, and from its
overflowing granaries the king purposed to relieve the misery of
his people. Any attempt to transport grain through the starving
and turbulent Doāb would have been foredoomed to failure, and
since he could not bring food to his people he led his people to the
food. On the western bank of the Ganges, near the site of the
ancient city of Khor, in 27° 33' N. lat. and 79° 35' E. long. at a dis-
tance of 165 miles from Delhi, he caused a city of booths to be built,
to which he gave the Sanskrit name of Sargadwāri (Swarga-dwāra),
'the Gate of Paradise,' and which he made his headquarters for the
next six years. To this city he brought the inhabitants of Delhi,
and here they were fed. 'Ain-ul Mulk and his brothers loyally
supported him, encamped on the opposite bank of the river, and
conveyed the hoarded grain of Oudh to Sargadwārī, the temporary
booths of which were replaced in the following year by more per-
manent buildings, where the citizens of Delhi dwelt, not only in
plenty, but in moderate comfort.
Neither his people's distress nor his preoccupation in relieving
it could restrain the king from indulging his vain dreams of world-
empire, and in 1337–38, the year after the foundation of Sargadwāri,
he perpetrated one of his greatest acts of folly. The dream of con-
quering Transoxiana and Persia had faded, but there were other


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VI ]
INVASION OF TIBET
155
lands to subdue. Beyond the vast mountain chain which bounded
his kingdom on the north-east lay the mysterious land of Tibet,
and beyond that again the great empire of China, and an army
which could traverse the mountains might, Muhammad believed,
take those two countries by surprise. Of the nature of the country
and the inhabitants, the narrow passes, the perilous mountain paths,
the sheer precipices, and the bitter cold to be endured by troops
bred in the scorching plains of India he could form no idea, and
he persuaded himself that dread of his wrath would carry his troops
over all obstacles. An army of 100,000 horse and a large number of
foot was assembled at Delhi under the command of Malik Nikpai,
who held the honorary post of chief of the inkstand-bearers, and
was dispatched on the desperate adventure. The troops marched
by way of Nāgarkot, or Kangra, the capture of which in this year
is recorded in an ode of Badr-i-Chāch, and entered the mountains
after plundering and devastating the villages on their lower slopes.
They advanced by a narrow road, which would admit no more than
one horseman at a time, along the precipitous mountain side, but
safely reached the stronghold, which Ibn Batütah call Warangal,
of the local chieftain, where they halted after their toilsome journey.
Here they were overtaken by the heavy and drenching rains of the
mountains, which spread disease among men and horses and de-
stroyed large numbers of both. The officers sought and received
permission to lead their men back to the plains, there to await the
end of the rainy season, when a second attempt might be made to
traverse the mountains, and they set out with all their plunder, but
the mountaineers had aseembled to harass their retreat and occupied
the gorges and defiles. Great stones and felled trees were hurled
from the heights on the retreating host, laden with its plunder,
stragglers were cut off, the passes were held and stoutly defended,
and the highlanders so thoroughly performed their task that they
destroyed the army almost to a man, and recovered all the plunder.
Nikpāj, two other officers, and about ten horsemen were all who
returned to Delhi and the king was deeply humiliated. He was
obliged to conclude with the mountaineers who had destroyed his
army a treaty of peace, in which the only condition to his advantage
was an undertaking to pay tribute for the land cultivated by them
in the plains, which was at all times liable to be overrun by his
troops.
The effects of this campaign on the kingdom were disastrous.
Not only had a great army and the enormous quantity of treasure
which accompanied it been lost, but Muhammad's reputation had
>


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156
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
(ch
received such a blow that disaffection in the regions groaning under
his tyranny blazed into rebellion, and he was never again able to
place himself at the head of such a host as he had assembled for
the conquest of China.
In 1338-39 Bahrām Khān, governor of Eastern Bengal, died,
and an officer of his troops proclaimed his independence in that
province under the title of Fakhr-ud-din Mubārak Shāh. The
tortuous course of events in Bengal which resulted in the death of
Qadr Khăn, governor of Lakhnāwati and in the establishment of
Fakhr-ud-din Mubārak in the eastern and of Shams-ud-din Iliyās in
the western province and finally, in 1352, as sultan of all Bengal
will be traced in Chapter XI. Muhammad's activities were para-
lysed by the blow which he had received in the Himālaya and by
the havoc which famine had wrought in his dominions, and he
could take no steps to restore his authority in the eastern provinces,
so that Bengal was permanently lost to him.
In the following year, 1339-40, came news of another serious
rebellion in the Deccan. 'Ali Shāh Kar (the Deaf'), an officer
)
serving under Qutlugh Khān, was sent to collect and escort to
Daulatābād the revenue due from the province of Gulbarga, the
defencelessness of which tempted him to rebellion. He attacked
and slew Bhairon, the Hindu officer who held Gulbarga, raised a
force by means of the treasure which he should have conveyed to
Daulatābād, marched to Bīdar, slew the governor, and occupied
the town. Here, however, he was defeated by Qutlugh Khān,
surrendered to him, and was sent to Delhi.
The king himself was now embarrassed by a rebellion. 'Ain-ul-
Mulk, governor of Oudh, had for many years governed his province
with ability and clemency and had acquired great influence and
popularity. The successful victualling of Sargadwāri was due
entirely to his prudence and foresight and to his admirable arrange-
ments for the conveyance of grain to the temporary city. Many of
the respectable inhabitants of Delhi, fearing the king's tyranny,
had withdrawn from the city and had settled in Oudh, where they
received generous treatment at the hands of 'Ain-ul-Mulk, who
attached them to himself and ensured the extension of cultivation
in his province by granting them villages in fee. With these
immigrants had come others, less desirable fugitives from justice,
who were harboured on the immoral eastern principle that it is
dishonourable to surrender to justice even a malefactor who has
sought an asylum with a protector. “Ain-ul-Mulk was humiliated
by a demand for their surrender, but the chief cause of his estrange-


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VI ]
REBELLION OF 'AIN-UL-MULK
157
ment from the king was the latter's design of transferring him to
the government of the Deccan in the place of Qutlugh Khān. The
avowed reason for the transfer was 'Ain-ul-Mulk's efficiency and
success as a provincial governor, from which some improvement in
the situation in the Deccan might be expected, but it was generally
known that the deplorable condition of the southern provinces was
due not to any fault of Qutlugh Khān, who was a loyal and able
governor, but to the pernicious system of farming the revenues,
and 'Ain-ul-Mulk feared, probably with justice, that the king's real
motive in transferring him from Oudh was jealousy of his power
and influence, and that the object of appointing him to a govern-
ment in which Qutlugh Khān had failed was to ensure his disgrace
and destruction. His brothers, who had loyally assisted him in the
government of Oudh now urged him not to submit to the caprice
of an ungrateful master, but to rely on the support of the people
by whom he was so well beloved. Opportunity favoured him, for
the elephants, horses, pack animals and cattle of the royal army
had been sent across the Ganges into Oudh for grazing, and the
rebellion was precipitated by the seizure of those animals, while
'Ain-ul-Mulk fled from the camp and joined his own army on the
cast of the Ganges. He assumed the title of Sultān 'Alā-ud-din,
and Muhammad, for the first time in his reign, had cause to tremble
for his throne and his life. The disaster to his army in the Himālaya
had impaired his prestige and his severity and cruelty had alienated
the nobles in his cainp, on whose fidelity he could no longer rely.
The rebel army, though composed of poor material, was more
numerous than his own, and he desired to avoid an immediate
battle. Hastily summoning reinforcements from Delhi and other
towns, he marched rapidly towards Kanauj, seeking the protection
of its walls. The rebels on the eastern bank marched from Ban.
garmau, and it seemed that Muhammad's only hope of safety lay in
outstripping them. When it became known that they had crossed
the river he was much alarmed, for he did not believe that they
would have vertured on this step without encouragement from
traitors in his own camp. The rebels, to the number of 50,000,
attacked bis outposts by night, and the battle soon became general.
Notwithstanding the overwhelming numerical superiority of the
enemy, the Persians, Turks and Khurāsānis in the royal army
fought valiantly, and at dawn the rebels were in full flight and
were pursued for twenty miles. Many, including two of 'Ain-ul-
Mulk's four brothers, were slain in the battle or the pursuit, or
drowned in the Ganges. Malik Ibrāhīm, one of 'Ain-ul-Mulk's


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158
(CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
accomplices in rebellion, seized him and carried him before the
minister, Khvāja Jahān, in the hope of earning a pardon, and the
minister, after causing 'Ain-ul-Mulk to be stripped, carried him
before the king. The captive was naked save for a small loin-cloth,
and was mounted on an ox. Following him was a large number of
other prisoners, and the sons of the courtiers disgraced themselves
by crowding round the unfortunate prisoners, heaping abuse on
'Ain-ul-Mulk, spitting in his face, and beating with their fists his
companions in misfortune.
Few rebels who fell into the hands of Muhammad Tughluq
escaped a cruel death, but the tyrant had the grace to remember
the long and faithful service of 'Ain-ul-Mulk, and the captive,
instead of being executed, was condemned to imprisonment in
sackcloth and chains.
From Kanauj Muhammad marched to Bangarmau, and thence
performed a pilgrimage to the shrine of the half-mythical hero
Sālār Mas'ûd, said in story to have been sister's son to Mahmud of
Ghazni, and one of his bravest warriors. From Bahrāich, where
the hero's tomb stands, he sent Khvāja Jahān with a sufficient
force to intercept the remnant of 'Ain-ul-Mulk's army and to pre-
vent the fugitives from entering the kingdom of Bengal. The
minister was also entrusted with the task of collecting all those
who had migrated from Delhi into Oudh, and of conducting them
to their homes. This measure, strange to say, was conceived in
clemency and the fugitives were kindly treated instead of being
dealt with as rebels.
From Bahrāich the king returned to Delhi after an absence of
two and a half years, and here found 'Ali Shāh Kar and his brothers,
who had been sent from the Deccan by Qutlugh Khān. With rare
clemency he contented himself with banishing them to Ghaznī, but
‘Ali Shāh afterwards returned to India without permission, and
was captured and executed. At the same time 'Ain-ul-Mulk was
pardoned, released from prison, and reinstated in the government
of Oudh.
Muhammad's active but inconstant mind had conceived at
Sargadwārī the notion that no sovereign could legitimately wield
authority unless he were commissioned by God's vicegerent on
earth, the Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, and set himself
diligently to inquire who the Caliph was and where he was to be
found. He ascertained from travellers that there still existed in
Egypt a puppet of the house of 'Abbās, who claimed the dignity.
Their information was not very recent, for they styled him al-


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Vi )
RECEPTION OF GHITAS-UD-DIN
159
Mustakfi, while he who bore that title had died or had been
deposed a year earlier, but the coins of A. H. 740 (A. D. 1340-41)
bear the title of al-Mustakſi and the ceremonial performance of
the Friday prayers and the observation of the great festivals of
Islam were suspended until the king should have received the
Caliph's recognition, which he sought by means of a humble
petition, accompanied by costly gifts, but three years passed
before a reply could be received. This act of humility indicated
no change in the king's nature, and neither his arrogance nor his
impatience of contradiction or disobedience was diminished.
Had he only had patience he might have maintained at his
court, like the Mamlūks of Egypt, a submissive Caliph of his own,
for in this year there arrived at Delhi from Transoxiana, where he
had been living under the protection of the Mughul Khān, 'Ala-ud-
din Tarmāshirin, Ghiyās-ud-din Muhammad, son of 'Abd-ul-Qāhir,
son of Yusuf, son of 'Abd-ul-´Aziz, son of the Abbasid Caliph al-
Mustansir of Baghdad, who reigned from 1226 to 1242. His descent
having been verified he was received with great honour. To the
two messengers who arrived at the court seeking permission for
their master to visit it the king gave 5000 tangas, to which were
added 30,000 tangas for Ghiyās-ud-din himself. The leading ecclesi-
astics and theologians of the court were sent as far as Sirsa to
meet him, and the king himself met him at Mas'ūdābād, now
Bahādurgarh. After a ceremonious interchange of gifts he held
Ghiyās-ud-din's stirrup while he mounted and they rode together,
the royal umbrella being held over the heads of both. Ghiyās-ud-
din received extraordinary privileges at court, and the profusion
of the king's liberality to him is not to be reconciled with sanity.
The vessels in his palace were of gold and silver, the bath being
of gold, and on the first occasion of his using it a gift of 400,000
tangas was sent to him; he was supplied with male and female
servants and slaves, and was allowed a daily sum of 300 tangas,
though much of the food consumed by him and his household came
from the royal kitchen ; he received in fee the whole of 'Ala-ud-din's
city of Sīrī, one of the four cities (Delhi, Siri, Tughluqābād, and
Jahanpanāh) which composed the capital, with all its buildings,
and adjacent gardens and lands and a hundred villages; he was
appointed governor of the eastern district of the province of Delhi ;
he received thirty mules with trappings of gold; and whenever he
visited the court he was entitled to receive the carpet on which
the king sat. The recipient of all this wealth and honour was but
a well-born beggar, mean and miserly almost beyond belief. He


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160
(CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
ate alone, not from pride or arrogance, but because, as he confessed
to Ibn Batūtah, he could not bear to see other mouths eating his
food and grudged even a lamp in his palace, preferring to sit in
darkness. He personally collected sticks in his garden for firewood,
and stored them, and compelled his personal servants to till his
land. He was dishonest as well as parsimonious, and Ibn Batūtah
vainly demanded payment of a debt which the descendant of the
Caliphs owed him.
Multān was the scene of the next rebellion. Malik Shāhū Lodi,
an Afghăn noble who had a considerable following of his own tribe,
had risen in that province, slain Malik Bihzad, its governor, ex-
pelled another officer, and seized the city. The king assembled his
army and set out from Delhi, but had travelled no more than two
or three stages when he heard of the death of his mother. This
was a real loss to the kingdom, for she was charitable and generous,
not with the insane profusion of her son, but in due measure. The
people, no less than the king, deplored her loss, for her counsels
had to some extent restrained her son's ferocity, and after her
death no such acts of clemency as the pardoning of 'Ain-ul-Mulk,
'Ali Shāh Kar, Húshang, Nusrat Khān, and other rebels are
recorded.
Muhammad would not permit his mourning for his mother to
interrupt the expedition which he had undertaken, but when he
reached Dīpālpur he received a petition from Shāhū expressing
contrition, and learnt at the same time that the rebel and all his
followers had fled beyond his reach into the mountains of Afghani-
stān, and accordingly returned to Delhi. The subsequent rebellions
in Gujarāt and the Deccan were partly due to the severity of the
restrictions placed upon Afghāns in India in consequence of Shāhū's
revolt.
When the king returned to Delhi the famine was at its worst,
and the people were eating human flesh. He had been engaged,
since his return from Sargadwārī, in devising schemes to restore
prosperity to the land which his tyranny had done so much to
devastate. To the regulations which he framed he gave the name
of uslub, or 'methods' and by their means, says Barani, with prob-
ably unconscious irony, agriculture would have been so improved
and extended that plenty would have reigned throughout the earth,
and so much money would have poured into the treasury that the
king would have been able to raise an army capable of conquering
the world – had they been practicable.
A department to deal with all questions relating to agriculture
was created and placed under the charge of a minister called, for


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vi )
THE REGULATIONS
161
no apparent reason, Amir-i-Kühi, or ‘Mountain Lord,' and it was
ordained that the kingdom should be divided into districts thirty
by thirty leagues, or about 1800 square miles, in area, in which not
one span of land was to be left uncultivated, and crops were to
be sown in rotation. This ordinance was the conception of a mere
theorist. No allowance was made for forest, pasture, or unculturable
land, and though the order relating to rotation appears to indicate
some knowledge of the principle of scientific agriculture it is clear,
from the examples given, that these principles were not understood.
Barley, for instance, was to follow wheat ; sugarcane, a most ex.
hausting crop, after which the land should have been allowed to
lie fallow for at least a year, was to follow barley ; and grapes and
dates were to follow sugarcane.
To these districts were appointed
superintendents who, to borrow a term from Anglo-Irish history
which literally translates their designation, were styled 'under-
takers, who undertook to see not only that the regulations were
carried out to the letter, but also to re-people the land and make
every square mile maintain a fixed number of horse soldiers. None
but irresponsible adventurers would have entered into such an
agreement, and even these would have held aloof but for the
immediate inducements offered. The king, who was as bad a judge
of men as he was of affairs, would not a favourite scheme
baulked at the outset, and undertakers were induced to come forward
by gifts of caparisoned horses, rich robes of honour, and estates to
reward them for their promises and large sums of money to enable
them to inaugurate the scheme. These gifts were, as the historian
says, their own blood money, for when they perceived the impossi-
bility of meeting their engagements they appropriated to their own
use all that they had received and trusted to events to enable them
to escape an almost inevitable fate. More than seventy millions of
tangas were thus disbursed in gifts to the undertakers and at the end
of the stipulated term of three years so little of what had been
pro-
mised had been performed that Barani speaks of the performance as
not one hundredth, nay, not one thousandth part of the promise,
and adds that unless Muhammad had died when he did, in his ex-
pedition to Sind, not one of the undertakers would have survived
his resentment.
The second regulation encouraged Mughuls to settle in India.
These fierce nomads might furnish a mobile and efficient army, but
they could not replace the industrious peasantry whose labours had
filled the coffers of the state and who had been, in many tracts,
dispersed and destroyed by famine and oppression. The Mughuls
C. H. I. III.
11
see


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162
[CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
were attracted to India by enormous gifts, and by favours of every
description, so that at the beginning of every winter numbers of
commanders of tens of thousands and of thousands arrived with
their wives, their families, and their followers, received great sums
of money, horses, and jewels, and were entertained at princely
banquets. This expenditure on an unproductive class maintained
at great cost necessitated further schemes for the improvement
and development of the resources of the state, and the third regu-
lation was framed to this end. Of the details of the scheme nothing
is recorded, nor is it easy to divine what sources of revenue the king
could have tapped other than those which he had already exploited
to the utmost, but as the regulation is said to have been enforced by
clemency mingled with severity it perhaps provided for the levy of
forced loans and benevolences, which led naturally to the framing
of the fourth regulation, enhancing the severity of the penal code.
The frequency and cruelty of the punishments inflicted by the king
bred seditions and rebellion which still further inflamed his wrath
and increased his severity, and even suspects were seized and cruelly
tortured until in their agony they confessed to imaginary crimes
and were executed on their confessions.
Barani relates an interesting conversation which he had with
the king on political offences and their punishment. The occasion
was Muhammad's halt at Sultānpur, about two years after this
time, on his way to suppress the rebellion in Gujarāt. The king,
referring to the disorders and revolts in all parts of his dominions,
expressed a fear lest men should attribute them all to his severity,
but added that he should not be influenced by irresponsible opinion.
He asked Barani, as one versed in history, for what offences kings
of old had been wont to inflict death. Barani admitted the necessity
for capital punishment, without which order could not be main-
tained, and said that the great Jamshid of Persia had inflicted it for
seven offences, viz. apostasy, wilful murder, adultery by a married
man with another's wife, high treason, rebellion, aiding the king's
enemies, and such disobedience as caused injury to the state, trivial
acts of disobedience being expressly excepted. Muhammad then
asked for what crimes capital punishment was sanctioned by the
Islamic law, and Barani replied that there were only three for which
it was provided, apostasy, wilful murder of a Muslim, and rape of
a chaste woman, but that it was understood that kings might,
for the maintenance of peace and order, inflict it for the other
ſour crimes for which it had been sanctioned by Jamshid.


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vi )
IBN BATŪTAH'S MISSION
163
some-
Muhammad replied that Jamshid's code had been framed for earlier
times, when men were innocent and obedient, and that in the latter
times wickedness had increased upon the earth and a spirit of dis-
affection was everywhere abroad, so that it had become necessary
to punish with death acts of disobedience which would formerly
have been regarded as venial, lest the infection should spread and
disaffection breed open rebellion. In this course, he said, he would
persevere until his death, or until his people became submissive.
His reply embodies his whole theory of penal legislation. He re-
garded his people as his natural enemies, and the penal laws
as a means of visiting his personal displeasure on them. They
accepted the challenge, and the hideous rivalry continued until
his death.
On July 22, 1342, Ibn Batūtah left Delhi. Favoured foreigner
though he was his life had been twice in danger. In terror for his
own life, he was sickened by the daily spectacle of the king's cruelty.
‘Many a time,' he writes, 'I saw the bodies of the slain at his gate,
thrown there. One day my horse shied under me and I saw
thing white on the ground and asked what it was, and my com-
panions told me that it was the breast of a man who had been cut
into three pieces. The king slew both small and great, and spared
not the learned, the pious or the noble. Daily there were brought
to the council hall men in chains, fetters, and bonds, and they
were led away, some to execution, some to torture, and some to
scourging. On every day except Friday there was a gaol delivery,
but on Friday the prisoners were not led out, and it was on that day
only that they took their ease and cleansed themselves. May God
preserve us from such calamities ! !
Muhammad took advantage of Ibn Batūtah's desire to leave
India and intention of continuing his travels to appoint him his
envoy to China. 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


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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.