No More Learning

Mahmūd now governed Bengal as his father's deputy, and made
the most of an opportunity which was closed by his early death in
April, 1229, for he defeated and slew raja Britu, possibly the raja of
Kāmrūp, who had, until that time, defeated the Muslims on every
occasion on which they had attacked him. On Mahmūd's death
Balkā, the son of 'Iwaz, caused himself to be proclaimed king of
Bengal under the title of Ikhtiyār-ud-din Daulat Shāh Balkā, and
it was not until the winter of 1230-31 that Iltutmish was able to lead
an army into Bengal to crush the rebellion. Balkā was captured and
probably put to death, and ‘Alā-ud-dīn Jāni was appointed governor
of Bengal.
a
1 According to another account 'Iwaz had died before this time and it was his
son Nāsir-ud-din who invaded Bihār and was afterwards defeated and slain by
Mahmūd, but this account and another, which describes Nāsir-ud-din as Balkā,
seem to be based on a confusion of the events of 1227 with those of 1229-31.


## p. 55 (#93) ##############################################

In ]
MĀLWA
55
The king's next task was the recovery of his fief, Gwalior,
which, since the death of Aibak, had been captured by the Hindus,
and was now held by the raja Mangal Bhava Deo, son of Māl Deo,
and in February, 1232, he invested the fortress, which he besieged
until December 12, when the raja Aled by night and succeeded in
making his escape. Iltutmish entered the fortress on the following
morning and, enraged by the stubborn resistance which he had en-
countered and by the raja's escape, sullied his laurels by causing
700 Hindus to be put to death in cold blood. On January 16, 1233,
he set out on his return march to Delhi, where, in this year, he
purchased the slave Bahā-ud-din Balban, who eventually ascended
the throne as Ghiyās-ud-din Balban.
Iltutmish had now established his authority throughout the
dominions which Aibak had ruled, and in order to fulfil the duty of
a Muslim ruler towards misbelieving neighbɔurs and to gratify his
personal ambition set himself to extend those dominions by conquest,
In 1234 he invaded Mālwa, captured the city of Bhilsa, and advance
ed to Ujjain, which he sacked, and, after demolishing the famous
temple of Mahākāli and all other temples in the city, carried off to
Delhi a famous lingam, an image of Vikramāditya, and many idols.
The lingam is said by some to have been buried at the threshold of
the Friday mosque of Old Delhi, and by others to have been
buried at the foot of the great column of red sandstone built by
Iltutmish.
This famous column, known as the Qutb Minār, was founded in
1231-32 in honour of the saint, Khvāja Qutb-ud-din Bakhtyār Kāki,
of Ush, near Baghdād, who, after residing for some time at Ghaznī
and Multān, settled at Delhi, and lived at Kilokhri, highly honour-
ed by Iltutmish, until his death on December 7, 1235. The name
of the column has no reference, as is commonly believed, to Qutb-ud-
din Aibak, the master and patron of Iltutmish.
After the king's return from Mālwa a serious religious distur-
bance broke out at Delhi, where a large community of fanatics of
the Ismāʻīlī sect had gradually established itself. They may have
been irritated by persecution but they appear to have believed
that if they could compass the king's death they might be able to
establish their own faith as the state religion. They plotted to
assassinate Iltutmish when he visited the great mosque for the
Friday prayers, which he was wont to attend unostentatiously and
without guards. One Friday, accordingly, while the congregation
was at prayers, a large body of Ismāʻīlīs ran into the mosque armed,
1 Otherwise Birbal Deo.


## p. 56 (#94) ##############################################

56
Ć CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
a
drew their swords, and attempted to cut their way through the
kneeling multitude to the Sultan, but before they could reach him
he made his escape and, the alarm having been given, the people
crowded the roofs, walls, and gateways of the mosque and with
a shower of arrows and missiles annihilated the heretics. Such
adherents of the sect as remained were diligently sought and were
put to death.
In the winter of 1235-36 Iltutmish led an expedition against
the Khokars, whose hostility to the Muslim rulers of India had
survived the extinction of the dynasty of Ghūr, but on his way he
was stricken with an illness so severe that it was necessary to carry
him back to Delhi in a litter. As his life was ebbing the courtiers,
a
desirous of averting the horrors of a disputed succession urged him
to name his successor. Mahmūd, the only one of his sons who,
having reached maturity had shown any promise, was dead, and
the dying monarch named his daughter Raziyya. The courtiers,
scandalised by this suggestion, urged the insuperable objection of
her sex, and the king, languidly replying that they would find her
a better man than any of her brothers, turned his face to the wall
and died, on April 29, 1236, after a reign of twenty-six years.
Iltutmish was the greatest of all the Slave Kings. His achieve-
ments were hardly equal to those of his master, but he never had,
as Aibak had, the moral and material support of a great empire.
What he accomplished he accomplished by himself, often in the
face of great difficulties, and he added to the dominions of Aibak,
which he found dismembered and disorganised, the provinces of
Sind and Mālwa. That he was even more profuse than his master
is little to his credit, for the useless and mischievous prodigality of
eastern rulers is more often the fruit of vanity than of any finer
feeling, and at a court at which a neat epigram or a smart repartee
is almost as profitable as a successful campaign the resources of a
country are wasted on worthless objects.
The courtiers, disregarding their dying master's wishes, raised
to the throne his eldest surviving son, Rukn-ud-din Fīrūz, who had
proved himself, as governor of Budaun, to be weak, licentious and
worthless. The nobles assembled at the capital returned to their
.
fiefs with well-founded misgivings, and Fīrūz, relieved of the re-
straint of their presence, devoted himself entirely to pleasure, and
squandered on the indulgence of his appetites the treasure which
1 The oldest extant authority is here followed. Other historians give dates
corresponding with April 17, May 2, and May 5. One gives a date corresponding
with May 19, 1237, but this is certainly incorrect, and is probably due to a scribe's
error.


## p. 57 (#95) ##############################################

m]
RUKN-UD-DİN FİRÓZ
51
his father had amassed for the administration and defence of the
empire. He took a childish delight in riding through the streets on
an elephant and scattering gold among the rabble, and so neglected
public business that the direction of affairs fell into the hands of his
mother, Shāh Turkān, who, having been a handmaid in the harem,
now avenged the slights which she had endured in the days of her
servitude. Some of the highly born wives of the late king were put
to death with every circumstance of indignity and those whose lives
were spared were subjected to gross and humiliating contumely.
The incompetence and sensuality of Fīruz and the mischievous
activity of his mother excited the disgust and indignation of all, and
passive disaffection developed into active hostility when the mother
and son barbarously destroyed the sight of Qutb-ud din, the infant
son of Iltutmish. Nor was intestine disorder the only peril which
threatened the kingdom, for the death of Iltutmish had been the
opportunity of a foreign enemy. Malik Saif-ud-din Hasan Qarlugh,
a Turk who now held Ghaznī, Kirmān and Bāmiyān, invaded the
upper Punjab and, turning southwards, appeared before the walls of
Multān. Saif-ud-din Aibak, governor of Uch, attacked and routed
him and drove him out of India, but to foreign aggression the more
serious peril of domestic rebellion immediately succeeded. Ghiyās.
ud-din Muhammad, a younger son of Iltutmish, rebelled in Oudh,
detained a caravan of treasure dispatched from Bengal, and plun.
dered many towns to the east of Jumna, and 'Izz-ud-din rebelled in
Budaun. In the opposite direction the governors of Multān, Hānsī
and Lahore formed a confederacy which, to within a distance of
ninety miles from Delhi, set the royal authority at naught. In Bengal
no pretence of subordination remained. In 1233 'Izz-ud-din Tughril
Taghān Khān had succeeded Saif-ud-din Aibak as governor of the
province, but Aor Khān, who held the fief of Debkot, had established
his independence in the country to the north and east of the Ganges
and had recently attempted to expel Tughril from Lakhnāwati. He
had been defeated and slain, but neither antagonist had dreamt of
appealing to Delhi, and Tughril, who now ruled the whole of Bengal,
was bound by no ties, either of sentiment or interest, to the unworthy
successor of Aibak and Iltutmish.
When Firüz awoke to a sense of his danger his situation was
already desperate. He turned first to attack the confederacy which
threatened him from the north-west, but as he was leaving Delhi
he was deserted by his minister Junaidi, who fled and joined 'Izz-
ud-din Jāni at Koil, whence both marched to join the confederates


## p. 58 (#96) ##############################################

58
[ CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
of the Punjab. Firüz continued his march, but had not advanced
beyond the neighbourhood when the officers with him and the slaves
of his household murdered two of his secretaries and other civil
officials, including Junaidi's son, and at the same time the news of
a serious revolt at Delhi recalled him to the capital. His mother
had made preparations for putting to death his half-sister Raziyya,
whose abilities she regarded as a menace to his authority, but the
populace, aware of the high esteem in which the princess had been
held by her father, rose in her defence, and before Fīrūz could reach
Delhi his mother was a prisoner in the hands of the victorious rebels.
Those who had defied his authority at Tarāori deserted him and
joined the people of Delhi in raising Raziyya to the throne, and
Firūz, who took refuge in Kilokhri was seized and put to death on
November 9, 1236, after a reign of six months and seven days.
The task which lay before the queen would have taxed even her
father's powers. Junaidi and the g. ,vernors of Multān, Hānsi, Lahore
and Budaun, who were marching on Delhi, had all been implicated
in excluding her from the throne, and still declined to recognise her.
She summɔned to her aid Nusrat-ud-din, who had been appointed
to Budaun after the defection of 'Izz-ud-din Jānī, but before he could
cross the Ganges he was defeated by the confederates, in whose hands
he died, and they besieged her in her capital, but she marched out
and encamped on the banks of the Jumna. She was not strong
enough either to give or accept battle, but she turned her proximity
to their camp to good account and by means of dexterous intrigues
fomented distrust and dissension among them. She induced 'Izz-ud-
din Jānī and Ayāz of Multān to visit her and to treat for the betrayal
of some of their associates, and then circulated in the rebel camp an
account of all that had passed at the conference. Consternation fell
upon all, no man could trust his neighbour, and Saif-ud-din Kūji of
Hānsī, 'Alā-ud-din Jāni of Lahore, and Junaidi, who were to have
been surrendered to her, mounted their horses and fled, but were
pursued by her cavalry. Jāni was overtaken and slain near Pāel,
Kūjī and his brother were taken alive and put to death after a short
imprisonment, and Junaidi fled into the Sirmur hills, where he died.
Raziyya's astuteness thus dissolved the confederacy and estab-
lished her authority in Hindūstān and the Punjab, where Ayāz was
rewarded for his desertion of his associates with the government of
Lahore in addition to that of Multān, and Khvāja Muhazzib-ud-din
Husain, who had been assistant to the fugitive minister, Junaidi,
succeeded him in his office and in his title of Nizām-ul-Mulk. The


## p. 59 (#97) ##############################################

in )
RAZIYYA
$9
queen's energy and decision secured for her also the adhesion of the
governors of the more distant provinces of Bengal and Sind, who
voluntarily tendered their allegiance, but she found it necessary to
send a force to the relief of Ranthambhor, where the Muslim garrison
had been beleaguered by the Hindus since the death of Iltutmish.
Qutb-ud-din Husain, who commanded the relieving force, drove off
the Hindus, but for some unexplained reason withdrew the garrison
and dismantled the fortress.
Raziyya now laid aside female attire, and appeared in public,
both in the court and in the camp, clothed as a man and unveiled.
This seems to have given no cause for scandal, but she aroused the
resentment of the nobles by the appointment of an African named
Jalāl-ud-din Yāqūt to the post of master of the horse, and by
distinguishing him with her favour. Later historians suggest or
insinuate that there was impropriety in her relations with him, but
the contemporary chronicler makes no such allegation, and it is
unnecessary to believe that she stooped to such a connexion, for the
mere advancement of an African was sufficient to excite the jealousy
of the Turkish nobles, who formed a close corporation.
Notwithstanding the vindictive zeal with which Iltutmish had
pursued Ismā'ilian and Carmathian heretics, some appear to have
escaped death, and Delhi now again harboured large numbers of
these turbulent fanatics, who had assembled from various provinces
of the kingdom and were excited by the harangues of a Turk named
Nūr-ud-din, a zealous preacher and proselytizer. On Friday, March
5, 1237, the heretics made a second organised attempt to overthrow
the established religion, and to the number of a thousand entered the
great mosque from two directions and fell upon the congregation.
Many fell under their swords and others were killed by the press of
those who attempted to escape, but in the meantime the Turkish
nobles assembled their troops and, aided by many of the congrega-
tion who had gained the roof of the mosque and thence hurled
missiles on their foes, entered the courtyard and slaughtered the
heretics to a man.
Discontent in the capital bred disaffection in the provinces. By
the death of Rashid-ud-din ‘Ali the command of the fortress of
Gwalior had devolved upon Ziyā-ud-din Junaidī, a kinsman of the
late minister. He was believed to be ill-disposed towards the
government, and on March 19, 1238, both he and the historian
Minhāj-ud-din were compelled by the governor of Baran to leave
Gwalior for Delhi. The historian cleared his reputation and was
restored to favour, but of Junaidi nothing more is heard. A more
a


## p. 60 (#98) ##############################################

60
(CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
formidable rebel was Ayāz, governor of the Punjab, who, resenting
Yaqūt's influence at court, repudiated his allegiance to the queen.
Towards the end of 1239 Raziyya marched into the Punjab to reduce
him to obedience, and Ayāz submitted without a contest, but was
deprived of the government of Lahore and compelled to retire to
Multān. From this district he was shortly afterwards expelled by
Saif-ud din Hasan Qarlugh, who, having in 1230 been driven by the
Mughuls from Kirman and Ghazni, had retired into Sind, where he
had been awaiting an opportunity of establishing himself to the east
of the Indus.
Raziyya returned to Delhi on March 15, 1240, but on April 3
was again compelled to take the field. The Turkish nobles, headed
by the lord chamberlain, Ikhtiyār-ud-din Aitigin, resented the power
and influence of Yaqut and instigated Ikhtiyār-ud-din Altūniya,
governor of Bhātinda, to rebel. When the army reached Bhātinda
the discontented nobles slew Yāqūt, imprisoned Raziyya, whom they
delivered into the custody of Altūniya, and directed their confede-
rates at Delhi to raise to the throne Mu'izz-ud-din Bahrām, third
son of Iltutmish and half-brother of Raziyya. Bahram was pro-
claimed on April 22, and when the army returned to Delhi on May
5, its leaders formally acknowledged him as their sovereign, but made
their allegiance conditional on the appointment of Aitigin as regent
for one year. Aitigin married the king's sister and usurped all the
power and most of the state of royalty, and Bahrām, chafing under
the regent's arrogance and the restraint to which he was subjected,
on July 30 incited two Turks to stab, in his presence, both Aitigin
and the minister, Nizām-ul-Mulk. Aitigin was killed on the spot,
but the minister was only wounded, and made his escape. To save
appearances the assassins suffered a brief imprisonment, but were
never brought to punishment, and Bahrām appointed as lord
chamberlain Badr-ud-din Sunqar, a man of his own choice.
Meanwhile Altūniya was bitterly disappointed by the result of
his rebellion. The courtiers had made him their catspaw, and had
appropriated to themselves all honours and places, leaving him
unrewarded. Aitigin was dead, Nizām-ul-Mulk was discredited, and
there was nobody to whom the disappointed conspirator could turn.
He released Raziyya from her prison, married her, and, having
assembled a large army, marched to Delhi with the object of re-
placing his newly wedded wife on her throne, but on October 13
Bahrām defeated him near Kaithal, and on the following day he
and Raziyya were murdered by the Hindus whom they had sum-
moned to their assistance.


## p. 61 (#99) ##############################################

INI ]
'THE FORTY
61
The situation at court was now extremely complicated. Sunqar,
the new lord chamberlain, was as arrogant and as obnoxious to
his master as his predecessor had been. Nizām-ul-Mulk, who had
condoned the attempt on his life and still held office as minister,
resented, equally with Bahrām, Sunqar's usurpation of authority,
and allied himself with the king. Sunqar perceived that his life
would not be safe as long as Bahrām reigned and conspired to
depose him, but committed the error of confiding in Nizām-ul-Mulk.
He would not believe that the minister had really forgiven Bahrām
and could not perceive that he was subordinating his resentment to
his interest. He received Sunqar's emissary apparently in privacy,
but as soon as he had departed dispatched a confidential servant
who had been concealed behind a curtain to acquaint Bahrām with
what he had heard. Bahrām acted with promptitude and decision ;
he rode at once to the meeting to which Nizām-ul-Mulk had been
summoned and compelled the conspirators to return with him to
the palace. Sunqar was dismissed from his high office, but his
influence among the great Turkish nobles, or slaves, who were
now known as 'the Forty' saved his life for the time, and his
appointment to Budaun removed him from the capital. Three
other leading conspirators fled from the city, and in November,
1241, Sunqar's return from Badaun without permission gave the
king a pretext for arresting him and putting him to death. This
necessary act of severity greatly incensed the Forty.
The consideration of the position of the Forty affords a con-
venient opportunity for an explanation of the name by which the
dynasty under which they acquired their influence is known, for to
most Europeans the appellation 'Slave Kings' must appear to be
a contradiction in terms. In an eastern monarchy every subject is,
in theory, the slave of the inonarch and so styles himself, both in
conversation and in correspondence. To be the personal slave of
the monarch is therefore no disgrace, but a distinction, and, as
eastern history abundantly proves, a stepping-stone to dignity and
power. The Mamlūk or Slave Sultans of Egypt are a case in point.
The Turks were at this time the most active and warlike people of
Asia, and the Ghaznavids, themselves sprung from a Turkish slave,
the princes of Ghúr, and other houses, surrounded themselves with
slaves of this nation who, often before they received manumission,
filled the highest offices in the state. Loyal service sometimes
earned for them a regard and esteem which their master withheld
from his own sons, born in the purple and corrupted from their
cradles by flattery and luxury. A faithful slave who had filled with


## p. 62 (#100) #############################################

62
[CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
credit the highest offices was sometimes rewarded with the hand
of his master's daughter in marriage, and was preferred to an un.
worthy or degenerate son or nephew. Alptigin had been the slave
of 'Abd-ul-Malik the Sāmānid and Sabuktigin the slave and son-
in-law of Alptigin. Qutb-ud-din Aibak was Muhammad's viceroy in
India for some time before he received manumission, and succeeded
his master in the Indian conquests. He was indeed succeeded by
his son, but Ārām Shāh was almost immediately compelled to
make way for Iltutmish, Aibak's son-in-law and the ablest of his
slaves. During the reign of Iltutmish the leading Turks formed
themselves into a college of forty, which divided among its members
all the great fiefs of the empire and all the highest offices in the
state. The commanding genius of Iltutmish preserved the royal
dignity intact, but in the reigns of his children the power of the
Forty was ever increasing. Raziyya lost her throne by her prefer-
ence for one who was not of their number and her brother Bahrām
was no more than their nominee. There can be no doubt that the
throne itself would ordinarily have been the prize of one of the
Forty had not the jealousies of all prevented them from yielding
precedence to one. They were thus content to own the nominal
authority of one or other of the offspring of Iltutmish, but their
compact with Bahrām at the time of his accession clearly indicated
their determination to retain all authority for themselves, and the
king, by destroying one of their number, sealed his fate.
Bahrām was friendless, for the crafty Nizām-ul-Mulk, who had
assumed the mask of loyalty for the purpose of destroying an
enemy, so dexterously concealed his betrayal of Sunqar's plot that
he retained the confidence of the Forty, whose resentment against
Bahrām was so strong that it was not even temporarily allayed by
the invasion of a foreign enemy who deprived the kingdom of a
province. The Mughuls, who had expelled the Qarlugh Turks from
Ghaznī, now appeared before Multān under their leader, Bahādur
Tāir, the lieutenant of Chaghatai Khān and of his grandson Hulāgū.
Kabir Khān Ayāz, who had expelled Saif-ud-din Hasan Qarlugh
and re-established himself in Multān, confronted them with such
resolution that they turned aside and marched to Lahore, a more
tempting prey. The citadel was ill-furnished with stores, provisions,
and arms and the citizens were not unanimous in opposition to the
invaders, for the merchants, who were accustomed to trade in
Khurāsān and Turkistān, were largely dependent on the goodwill
of the Mughuls and held their passports and permits, which were
indispensable in those countries and might even protect them at


## p. 63 (#101) #############################################

II ]
THE MUGHULS AT LAHORE
63
Lahore. The garrison was weak and the governor relied on assist-
ance from Delhi which never reached him.
The feeble-minded king had now entrusted his conscience to
the keeping of a darvish named Ayyüb, at whose instigation he put
to death an influential theologian who was highly esteemed by the
Forty, and thus still further estranged that influential body. On
learning of the Mughul invasion he ordered his army to march to the
relief of Lahore, but the nobles, fearing lest their absence from
the capital should give him an opportunity of breaking their power,
hesitated to obey. Procrastination served them for a time but they
were at length compelled to depart, and Nizām-ul-Mulk employed
their resentment and their apprehensions for the purpose of avenging
the king's attempt on his life. When the army reached the Sutlej
he secretly reported that the Turkish nobles were disaffected and
sought the king's sanction to their destruction. The shallow Bahrām,
suspecting no guile, readily consented, and the minister exhibited to
the Forty his order approving their execution, and easily persuaded
them to return to Delhi with a view to deposing him.
Qarāqush, the governor of Lahore, defended the city to the
best of his ability, but the dissensions among the citizens and the
misconduct of his troops caused him to despair of success, and after
burying his treasure he fled by night, leaving the city on the pre-
text of making a night attack on the besiegers' camp. On the follow-
ing day, December 22, 1241, the Mughuls took the town by storm.
They suffered heavy losses, including that of their leader, in the
street fighting which ensued, but before retiring they annihilated the
citizens and razed the walls to the ground. Qarāqush returned,
recovered his treasures and retired to Delhi.
The army, in open rebellion, arrived at Delhi on February 22,
1242, and besieged the king in the White Fort until the month of
May. He had received an accession of strength by the adhesion of
Qarāqush and one other faithful Turkish noble but he had fallen
under the influence of a slave named Mubārak Farrukhī, at whose
instance he committed the supreme folly of imprisoning these two
nobles, and the same pernicious influence restrained him from
coming to terms with the Forty, who were ready, after more than
two months' fighting, to secure their safety by an honourable com-
position. Nizām-ud-din seduced from their allegiance, by large
bribes, the ecclesiastics, who were the king's principal supporters,
and on May 10 the city and fortress were captured by the con-
federate nobles, and Bahrām was put to death five days later,
a


## p. 64 (#102) #############################################

64
[CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
On the capture of the city 'Izz-ud-din Balban, entitled Kishlū
Khān, caused himself to be proclaimed king, but his action was
repudiated by his associates, who assembled at the tomb of Iltutmish
to determine the succession. Their choice fell upon 'Alā-ud-din
Mas'ūd, the son of Firüz Shāh, and Qutb-ud-din Husain was ap-
pointed regent. Nizām-ul-Mulk was permitted at first to retain
office as minister, but so disgusted the nobles by his arrogance that
on October 28 he was put to death, and Qarāqush was made lord
chamberlain. Kishlü Khān was consoled for his disappointment
with the fiefs of Nāgaur, Mandāwar, and Ajmer, and the gift of an
elephant.
At the beginning of Masóūd's reign the governor of Budaun
conducted a successful campaign against the Rājputs of Katehr, the
later Rohilkhand, but was shortly afterwards poisoned while revolv-
ing schemes of wider conquest, and Sanjar, entitled Gurait Khān,
having ensured the obedience of the native landholders of Oudh,
invaded Bihār, where the Hindus had taken advantage of the
dissensions among their conquerors to re-establish their dominion.
He plundered the province, but was slain before the walls of its
capital. While these events were occurring in the eastern provinces
the Qarlugh Turks again attacked Multān and were repulsed, but in
this achievement the kingdom had no part, for Ayāz, after turning
aside, unaided, the Mughul, had renounced his allegiance to Delhi
and his son, Abu Bakr, now ruled Multān as an independent
sovereign. The kingdom had thus lost Bengal and Bihār on the east
and on the west and north-west Multān, Sind, and the upper Punjab,
wasted by Mughuls and occupied by the Khokars.
After the death of Nizām-ul-Mulk the office of minister was
allotted to Najm-ud-din Abu Bakr and that of lord chamberlain,
with the fief of Hānsī, on Bahā-ud-din Balban, who was afterwards
entitled Ulugh Khān and eventually ascended the throne. He will
henceforth be designated Balban, the ambitious 'Izz-ud-din Balban
being described by his title, Kishlũ Khān.
In December, 1242, Tughril, governor of Bengal and the most
powerful of the satraps, who resented Kurait Khān's invasion of
Bihār, though it had temporarily passed out of his possession,
inarched to Kara, on the Ganges above Allahabad, with the object
of annexing to his government of Bengal that district and the pro-
vince of Oudh, but the historian Minhāj-ud-din, who was accredited
to his camp as the emissary of Tamar Khān, the new governor of
Qudh, succeeded in persuading him to return peaceably to Bengal.
>


## p. 64 (#103) #############################################

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III
Map 2

60
72
75
80
88
Cbur
Parashür
Chami
Jbelum
Cbenab
Ravi
Lahor
Beas
30
at
Multan
Sutlej
Biebmaputra
lede
DELHI
Burs Budron
Muita
Audhya
KINGDOM OF DELHI
Genger
Kabmopuli
25
Chambe!
Prayern Benares
Anbolone
Tropic of
Cancei
Bhilse
Rum
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## p. 64 (#104) #############################################

1


## p. 65 (#105) #############################################

ITI]
BENGAL
65
Mas'ûd now released from confinement his two uncles, Nāsir.
ud-din Mahmud', who afterwards ascended the throne, and Jalāl-
ud-din, and appointed one to the government of Bahrāich and the
other to that of Kanauj, in which situations they acquitted them-
selves well.
Towards the end of 1243 the raja of Jaipur in Cuttack, called
Jājnagar by Muslim historians, invaded and plundered some of the
southern districts of Bengal, and in March, 1244, Tughril marched
to punish him and met the Hindu army on April 16, on the northern
bank of the Mahānadi. The Hindus were at first driven back, b'it
rallied and defeated the Muslims, among whom a supposed victory
had, as usual, relaxed the bonds of discipline. Tughril was followed,
throughout his long retreat to his capital, by the victorious Hindus,
who appeared before the gates of Lakhnāwati', but retired on
hearing that Tamar Khān was marching from Oudh to the relief of
Tughril.
Tamar Khān arrived before Lakhnāwati on April 30, 1245, and,
alleging that his orders authorised him to supersede Tughril, de-
manded the surrender of the city. Tughril refused to comply and
on May 4 was defeated in a battle before the walls and driven into
the town. Peace was made by the good offices of Minhāj-ud-din,
and Tughril surrendered the city but was permitted to retire with
all his treasure, elephants, and troops, to Delhi, where he was
received with much honour on July 11 and was appointed, a month
later, to the government of Oudh, vacated by Tamar. He died in
Oudh on the day (March 9, 1247) on which 'Tamar, who was then
in rebellion, died at Lakhnāwati.
Later in 1245 a large army of Mughuls under Manqūta invaded
India, drove from Multān Hasan Qarlugh, whose second attempt
at ousting Abu Bakr had been successful, and besieged Uch, but
raised the siege and retired when they heard that the king, who
was marching to its relief, had reached the Beas.
The character of Mas ūd had gradually succumbed to the
temptations of his position, and he had become slothful, impatient
1 Not to be confounded with his elder brother, also named Mahmūd, whohad
died, as governor of Bengal, during the reign of his father, Iltutmish.
? This is the event regarding which so many historians, both Eastern and Western
have been misled by a misreading in the Tabaqāt-i-Nāsiri, due to the ignorance or
carelessness of a scribe, who substituted for the Persian words meaning the mis-
believers of Jājnagar'a corruption which might be read the infidels of Chingiz
Khăn. ' Much ink has been spilt over the question, and much ingenuity has been
displayed in conjectures as to the route by which the Mughuls reached lower Bengal,
but the question has now been laid to rest. Chingiz Khān had, by this time, been
dead for eighteen years, and neither he nor any of his Mughuls ever invaded Bengal.
C. H. I. JII
5


## p. 66 (#106) #############################################

66
[CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
of the tedium of business, and inordinately addicted to drink, sen-
suality, and the chase. Rebellions, which he lacked the strength or
the energy to suppress, rendered him apprehensive and suspicious
of all around him, and his severity and lack of discrimination in
punishment alienated from him the Forty, who now turned their
eyes towards his uncle, Nāsir-ud-din Mahmūd, a youth of seventeen
or eighteen, who was nominally governor of Bahrāich. When their
invitation reached him his mother, an ambitious and resourceful
woman, spread a report that her son was sick and must go to
Delhi for treatment. She placed him in a litter and sent him from
Bahrāich with a large retinue of servants. When night fell the
prince was covered with a woman's veil and set on a horse, and the
cavalcade pressed on to Delhi with such caution and expedition
that none but the conspirators was aware of his arrival in the city.
On June 10, 1246, Masóūd was deposed and thrown into prison,
where he perished shortly afterwards, doubtless by violence, and
Mahmud was enthroned in the Green Palace.
Of Mahmūd, who was an amiable and pious prince, but a mere
puppet, absurd stories are told by the later historians. He is said
to have produced every year two copies of the Koran, written with
his own hand, the proceeds of the sale of which provided for his
scanty household, consisting only of one wife, who was obliged to
cook for him, as he kept no servant. This story, which is told of
one of the early Caliphs, is not new, and, as related of Mahmūd, is
not true, for he is known to have had more than one wife. His
principal wife was Balban's daughter, who would certainly not
have endured such treatment, and as he presented forty slaves, on
one occasion, to the sister of the historian Minhāj-ud-din it can
hardly be doubted that his own household was reasonably well
supplied in this respect. The truth seems to be that the young
king possessed the virtues of continence, frugality and practical
piety, rare among his kind, and had a taste in calligraphy which led
him to employ his leisure in copying the Koran, and that these
merits earned for him exaggerated praise.
On November 12 Mahmud, on the advice of Balban, his lord
chamberlain, left Delhi in order to recover the Punjab. He crossed
the Rāvi in March, 1247, and after advancing to the banks of the
Chenāb sent Balban into the Salt Range. Balban inflicted severe
punishment on the Khokars and other Hindu tribes of those hills
and then pushed on to the banks of the Indus, where he despoiled
Jaspăl Sehra, raja of the Salt Range, and his tribe. While he was
encamped on the Jhelum a marauding force of Mughuls approached


## p. 67 (#107) #############################################

III ]
ADVANCEMENT OF BALBAN
67
the opposite bank but, on finding an army prepared to receive
them, retired. There now remained neither fields nor tillage beyond
the Jhelum, and Balban, unable to obtain supplies, rejoined the
king on the Chenāb, and on May 9 the army arrived at Delhi.
In October Balban led an expedition against the disaffected
Hindus of the Doāb, took, after a siege of ten days, a fortress near
Kanauj, and then marched against a rajal whose territory had
formerly been confined to some districts in the hills of Bundelkhand
and Baghelkhand, but who had recently established himself in the
fertile valley of the Jumna. Balban attacked him so vigorously in
one of his strongholds that he lost heart, and retired by night to
another fortress, further to the south. The Muslims, after pillaging
the deserted fort, followed him through defiles described as almost
impracticable, and on February 14, 1248, captured his second strong-
hold, with his wives and children, many other prisoners, cattle and
horses in great numbers, and much other plunder. Balban rejoined
Mahmūd, now encamped at Kara, and on April 8 the army set out
for Delhi. At Kanauj Mahmūd was met by his brother, Jalāl-ud.
din, who was now appointed to the more important fiefs of Sambhal
and Budaun.
He warned Mahmūd against the ambition of Balban,
whom he accused of secretly aiming at the throne, but the warning
was unheeded, and after Mahmūd's return to Delhi Jalāl-ud-din,
fearing that his confidence had been betrayed, fled from Budaun
and joined the Mughuls in Turkistān.
In 1249 Balban was employed in chastising the turbulent people
of Mewāt, the district to the south of Delhi, and in an unsuccessful
attempt to recover Ranthambhor, which had been restored by the
Hindus since it had been dismantled by Raziyya's troops, and was
now held by Nāhar Deo. He returned to Delhi on May 18, and
August 2, the king married his daughter and he became almost
supreme in the state. Mahmūd appointed him lieutenant of the
kingdom and his place as lord chamberlain was taken by his brother,
Saif-ud-din Aibak, Kashli Khān. In the early months of 1250
Balban was again engaged in restoring order in the Doāb.
In this year the north-western provinces of the kingdom were
thrown into confusion by a complicated dispute between the great
fief-holders. Kishlū Khān of Nāgaur demanded that the fiefs of
Multān and Uch should be bestowed upon him and though there
was some difficulty in ousting Ikhtiyār-ud-din Kuraiz, who had
expelled the Qarlughs from the province, his request was granted
1 The name of this raja is uncertain. It appears to have been either Dhalki
or Dhulki, of Mahalki.
on
5-2


## p. 68 (#108) #############################################

68
[CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
on condition of his relinquishing Nāgaur and his other fiefs to
Kuraiz. Ignoring this condition he marched from Nāgaur, expelled
Kuraiz from Multān and Uch and occupied those places. Hasan
the Qarlugh immediately attacked him at Multān and although he
was slain his followers concealed his death and persuaded Kishlū
Khān to surrender the city. Sher Khān Sunqar then marched
from his headquarters at Bhātindi, expelled the Qarlughs, and
replaced his lieutenant Kuraiz in Multān. The situation was anoni-
alous and complicated. The governor appointed by royal authority
had surrendered the city to a foreign enemy, and Sunqar held it
by right of conquest from that enemy, and Kuraiz, his deputy,
strengthened his claim by capturing, in December, from a force of
Mughul marauders a large number of prisoners, whom he sent as
a peace-offering to Delhi. Kishlũ Khān, on the other hand, had
defied the royal authority by failing to surrender Nāgaur, whither
he had again retired after his discomfiture at Multān, and early in
1251 Mahmúd marched to Nāgaur to enforce the fulfilment of this
condition. After much prevarication Kishlū Khān submitted, and
retired to Uch, still heli by one of his retainers, and Kashli Khān,
Balban's brother, was installed in Nāgaur, but meanwhile Sundar
had marched to Uch and was besieging the fortress. Kishlū Khān,
who was related to Sundar, incautiously placed himself in his power
while attempting to effect a composition and was imprisoned, com-
pelled to issue orders for the surrender of Uch, and sent to Delhi.
Balban, who was related to both Sunqar and Kishlū Khān, adjusted
the quarrel by appointing the latter to Budaun.
In November Balban led an expedition against Chāhad the
Achārya, rajı of Chanderi and Narwar and the most powerful
Hindu chieftain in Mālwa. He is said to have been able to place
in the field 5000 horse and 200,000 foot, but he was defeated and
his capital was taken, though no permanent settlement was made
in Mālwa, and the army returned to Delhi on April 24, 1252, with
much booty and many captives,
During Balban's absence those who were jealous of his great
power, including Mahmūd's mother and Raihān, a eunuch
verted from Hinduism, who had already shown some aptitude for
factious intrigue, poisoned the king's mind against him, and found
many sympathisers and supporters among the Forty, who resented
the excessive predominance of one of their number. Balban's con-
donation of the offences of his disobedient cousin, Sunqar, furnished
a text for the exhortations of the intriguers, who succeeded in
persuading Mahmūd that it was necessary to vindicate his authority
con-


## p. 69 (#109) #############################################

III ]
DISGRACE OF BALBAN
69
by punishing Sunqar, and in the winter of 1252-53 Balban was com-
pelled to accompany his master on a punitive expedition and to
submit to the daily increasing arrogance of his enemies. At the
Sutlej the conspirators attempted his assassination, but fortune,
or his own vigilance, befriended him, and having failed in their
attempt they persuaded Mahmūd to banish him to his fief of Hānsī,
hoping that an overt act of disobedience would furnish a pretext
for his destruction, but they were disappointed, for Balban obeyed
the order in dignified silence. The expedition had been merely
an excuse for his humiliation, and the army retired to Delhi im-
mediately after his dismissal.
The rancour of the vindictive eunuch was not yet sated, and
he persuaded the king to
to transfer the fallen minister from
Hānsi to Nāgaur, and so confidently anticipated resistance that he
sent the royal army, in June, 1253, to enforce obedience, but again he
was disappointed, for Balban retired without a murmur to his new
fief. Hānsī was bestowed nominally upon an infant son of the king
by a wiſe other than the daughter of Balban, but was occupied by
a partisan of Raihān as the child's deputy.
Kashli Khan shared his brother's disgrace, and was deprived of
his office and sent to the fief of Kara, all real power at court was
usurped by the eunuch, and even the leading members of the Forty
were fain to content themselves with minor offices. Sunqar, dis-
mayed by his patron's sudden fall, had fled to Turkistān, leaving
his three fiefs, Bhātinda, Multān and Uch, in the hands of deputies
whose surrender enabled the king to bestow them on Arsalān Khān
Sanjar Chast, one of the Forty who was then hostile to Balban.
Balban displayed, meanwhile, an equivocal activity. He invaded
the Hindu state of Būndī, attacked and defeated Nāhar Deo of
Ranthambhor, and returned to Nāgaur with much booty, prepared,
apparently, either to take credit for his exploits or to devote his
spoils to the improvement of his own military strength, as circum-
stances should dictate. Mahmud, under the guidance of Raihān,
led a successful expedition against the Hindus of Katehr and
returned to Delhi on May 16, 1254. Five months later he learnt
that his fugitive brother Jalāl-ud-din and Balban's cousin Sunqar
had returned from Turkistān and joined forces in the neighbourhood
of Lahore with the object of establishing themselves in the Punjab
under the protection of the Mughuls.
Meanwhile the rule of Raihān at Delhi was daily becoming
more intolerable, and the Turkish nobles whose jealousy of Balban
had associated them with the eunuch felt keenly, as his insolence


## p. 70 (#110) #############################################

70
[ CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
increased, the disgrace of their subservience to him. He maintained
a gang of ruffians to molest those who were not well affected towards
him and the historian Minhāj-ud-din complains that for a period
of six months or more he dared not leave his house to attend the
Friday prayers for fear of these bullies. Nearly all the great nobles
of the kingdom sent messages to Balban imploring him to return
to the capital and resume his former position. A confederacy was
formed, and Balban from Nāgaur, Arsalān Khān Sanjar of Bhātinda,
Bat Khān Aibak of Sunām, and Jalāl-ud-din and Sunqar from
Lahore assembled their troops at Bhātinda. In October the king
and Raihān marched from Delhi to meet them, and an indecisive
affair of outposts, which threw the royal camp into confusion, was
fought near Sunām. After celebrating, the 'Id-ul-Fitr (November 14)
at this place Mahmúd retired, a weck later, to Hānsi, and the con-
federates advanced to Guhrām and Kaithal. They were loth to
attack the king and endeavoured to attain their object by means
of intrigue and secret negotiations. Jalāl-ud-din expected that his
brother would be deposed and that he would be raised to the throne,
but Balban, who seems to have entertained a genuine affection for
his weak and pliant son-in-law, was not prepared to gratify this
ambition. The Turkish nobles in the king's camp favoured, almost
unanimously, the cause of the confederates, and on December 5,
while the army was retreating from Hānsī towards Jind, the eunuch
was dismissed from his high office and invested with the fief of
Budaun. On December 15 Bat Khān Aibak was sent to thank
Mahmūd for this act and to request an audience for the conſederate
nobles, but the imminent reconciliation was nearly frustrated by
the malice of the eunuch, who arranged to have the emissary
assassinated. The design was fortunately discovered and Raibān
was at once dismissed to Budaun, and on December 30 Balban and
his associates were received by the king. Balban at once resumed
his former place at the head of affairs and on January 20, 1255,
returned with Mahmūd to Delhi. Jalāl-ud-din was rewarded for
his services to the confederacy and consoled for the disappointment
of his ambition by his brother's formal recognition of his indepen-
dence in Lahore.
After Balban's return another ramification of the conspiracy
against him came to light. Qutlugh Khān of Bayāna, one of his
leading opponents, now outwardly reconciled, had secretly married
the king's mother, who had formerly exercised much influence over
her son and had been Raihān's chief ally. Mahmūd's eyes were
opened to the network of intrigue by which he had been surrounded,


## p. 71 (#111) #############################################

INI
BALBAN'S RETURN TO POWER
91
and Qutlugh and his wife were dismissed to Oudh, in order that
they might be as far as possible from the court. Raihān was
transferred, at the same time, from Budaun to Bahrāich, a less
important fief, but it was discovered a few months later that he was
in dangerous proximity to Qutlugh Khān, and Sanjar Chast was
sent to remove him from Bahrāich. He was arrested and imprisoned
by Qutlugh Khān but in August made his escape, attacked Bahrāich
with a small force, defeated and captured the eunuch, and put him
to death.
Early in 1256 Mahmūd and Balban marched to punish Qutlugh
Khān, who advanced to Budaun and defeated a detachment sent
against him. As the main body of the army approached he retired
and contrived to elude Balban's pursuit and on May 1 the army
returned to Delhi. After its return Qutlugh attempted to conquer
his old fief, Kara-Mānikpur, but was defeated by Sanjar Chast and
endeavoured to retrcat into the Punjab in order to seek service at
Lahore under Jalāl-ud-din. He followed the line of the Himālaya
and marched to Santaurgarh", where he gained the support of
Ranpāl, raja of Sirmūr, but on January 8, 1257, Balban marched
from Delhi and Qutlugh fled. Balban continued his advance, driving
both Qutlugh and the raja before him and, after plundering Sirmūrº,
returned to Delhi on May 15.
Kishlú Khān had been reinstated in Multān and Uch during
Raihān's ascendency and had since thrown off his allegiance to
Delhi and acknowledged the suzerainty of the Mughul Hulāgū,
whose camp he visited and with whom he left a grandson as a
hostage for his fidelity. When the army returned from Sirmūr to
Delhi he was in the neighbourhood of the Beās and marched north-
eastwards until he was joined by Qutlugh Khān, when their
combined forces marched southwards towards Sāmāna. Balban
marched from Delhi to meet them and came into contact with
them in the neighbourhood of Kaithal. A faction of discontented
ecclesiastics had written from Delhi, urging the rebels to advance
fearlessly and seize the capital, but the intrigue was discovered and
at Balban's instance the traitors were expelled from the city. The
rebels followed, however, the advice of their partisans, eluded
Balban, and, after a forced march, encamped on June 21 before
Delhi, hoping to find the city in friendly hands, but were disappointed
to learn that the loyal nobles were exerting themselves to assemble
1 In the hills below Mussoorie, lat. 30° 24' N. long. 78° 2' E.
2 The ancient capital of the state of Sirmūr, ‘now a mere hamlet surrounded
by extensive ruins, in the Kiārda Dūn. ' Nāhan, the modern capital, was not
founded until 1621.


## p. 72 (#112) #############################################

72
(CH.
THE SLAVE KINGS
troops and repair the defences, and that the governor of Bayāna was
approaching the city with his contingent. Balban remained for two
days in ignorance of the rebels' march to Delhi but they knew that
he might at any moment cut off their retreat, and many disaffected
officers who had joined them now deserted them and made their
peace with the king, and on June 22 Kishlū Khān and Qutlugh Khân
fled towards the Siwāliks, whence the former, with the two or three
hundred followers who still remained to him, made his way to Uch.
In December an army of Mughuls under the Nūyin Sălin in-
vaded the Punjab and was joined by Kishlú Khān. They dismantled
the defences of Multān and it was feared that they were about to
cross the Sutlej. On January 9, 1258, the king summoned all the
great fief-holders, with their contingents, to aid him in repelling the
invaders, but the Mughuls, whether alarmed by this demonstration
or sated with plunder, retired to Khurāsān. Their retreat was
fortunate, for the condition of the kingdom was so disordered that
the army could not safely have advanced against a foreign foe. Two
fief-holders, Sanjar of Oudh and Mas'ūd Jāni of Kara, had disobeyed
the royal summons, the Hindus of the Doāb and the Meos of Mewāt,
to the south of the capital, were in revolt and the latter had carried
off a large number of Balban's camels, without which the army could
hardly have taken the field. For four months the troops were
occupied in restoring order in the Doāb and in June marched to
Kara against the two recalcitrant fief-holders. The latter fled, but
received a promise of pardon on tendering their submission, and
after the return of the army to Delhi appeared at court and were
pardoned. Shortly afterwards Sanjar received the fief of Kara and
Masóūd Jāni was promised the government of Bengal, from which
province Balban Yüzbaki, the governor, had for some time remitted
no tribute, but the latter, on hearing that he was to be superseded,
secured his position by remitting all arrears. He died in 1259, but
the promise to Masóūd Jāni was never fulfilled.
Early in 1259 the disorders in the Doāb necessitated another
expedition, and after the punishment of the rebels the principal fiefs
in the province, as well as those of Gwalior and Bayāna, were best-
owed upon Sunqar.
In 1260 the Meos cxpiated by a terrible punishment a long
series of crimes. For some years past they had infested the roads
in the neighbourhood of the capital and depopulated the villages
of the Bayāna district, and had extended their depredations east-
wards nearly as far as the base of the Himālaya. Their impudent


## p. 73 (#113) #############################################

INI ]
DEATH OF MAHMUD
73
robbery of the transport camels on the eve of a projected campaign
had aroused Bilban's personal resentment, and on January 29 he
left Delhi and in a single forced march reached the heart of Mewāt
and took the Meos completely by surprise. For twenty days the
work of slaughter and pillage continued, and the ferocity of the
soldiery was stimulated by the reward of one silver tanga for every
head and two for every living prisoner. On March 9 the army re-
turned to the capital with the chieftain who had stolen the camels,
other leading men of the tribe to the number of 250, 142 horses,
and 2,100,000 silver tangas. Two days later the prisoners were
publicly massacred. Some were trampled to death by elephants,
others were cut to pieces, and more than a hundred were flayed
alive by the scavengers of the city. Later in the year those who
had saved themselves by flight returned to their homes and ventured
on reprisals by infesting the highways and slaughtering wayfarers.
Balban, having ascertained from spies the haunts and movements of
the bandits, surprised them as before by a forced march, surrounded
them, and put to the sword 12,000 men, women and children.
A most gratifying mission from the Mughuls now arrived at
Delhi. Nāsir-ud-din Muhammad, son of Hasan the Qarlugh, had
been negotiating a marriage between his daughter and Balban's
son, and had sent Balban's agent to Hulāgū's court at Tabriz,
where he was received with great honour. On his return to Delhi
he was accompanied by a Mughul officer of high rank from the
north-western fruntier of India, who was authorised to promise, in
Hulāgū's name, that depredations in India should cease.
The contemporary chronicle closes here, and there is a hiatus
in the history of Muhammadan India, which later historians are
unable to fill, from the middle of the year 1260 to the beginning of
1266. In attempting to explain the abrupt ending of the Tabaqát.
i-Nāsiri some say that the author was poisoned by the order of
Balban, whose displeasure he had incurred, others that he was
thrown into prison and starved to death, but these tales rest on no
authority and are probably pure conjecture.
The next historical fact of which we are aware is that Mahmud
Shāh ſell sick in 1265 and died on February 18, 12661. He is said
to have designated his father-in-law as his successor but, as no
male heir of the house of Iltutmish survived, the accession of the
powerful regent followed as a matter of course, and he ascended
the throne under the title of Ghiyās-ud-din Balban.
1 One authority alone says that he fell sick in 1264 and died on March 1,
1265, but the text is not satisfactory.


## p. 74 (#114) #############################################

CHAPTER IV
GHIYĀS-UD-DIN BALBAN, MUʻIZZ-UD-DIN KAIQUBAD,
AND SHAMS-UD-DIN KAYUMARS
The Forty could ill brook the elevation of one of their own
number to the throne. The disorders of the late reign had been
largely due to revolts against Balban's supremacy, and the jealousy
of one noble had reſt the Punjab from the kingdom, but in the
absence of an heir of the line of Iltutmish the recognition of Balban's
sovereignty was the only alternative to anarchy. Balban, on the
other hand, was resolved on founding a dynasty and, as a necessary
step to that end, on destroying the confederacy whose strength lay
in the weakness of the crown.
His first, and probably his most unpopular reform, was the
establishment of a rigid ceremonial at his court, which differed
entirely from that of his mcek and unassuming predecessor. His
maxim was that the freedom which came naturally and easily to
one born to a throne could not be safely used by a monarch who
had acquired one, and was surrounded by courtiers who had formerly
been his equals ; but his policy ministered to his pride, for though
his original position among the royal slaves had been extremely
humble he claimed descent from Afrāsiyāb of Tūrān, and pretended,
on this ground, to an innate right to sovereignty. His court was
an austere assembly where jest and laughter were unknown, whence
wine and gaming, to which he had formerly been addicted, were
banished, partly because they were forbidden by the Islamic law
but chiefly because they promoted good ſellowship and familiarity,
and where no detail of punctilious ceremony was ever relaxed. He
atoned for former laxity by a rigid observance of all the ceremonial
ordinances of his faith, and at meals his favourite companions were
theologians and his favourite topic the dogmas of Islam. His justice
knew no respect of persons, if we except a prejudice against the
Forty. Malik Baqbaq, a great noble who maintained from the
revenues of his fief of Budaun 4000 horse, caused one of his servants
to be beaten so unmerciſully that he died under the lash. When
Balban next visited Budaun the man's widow demanded justice,
and Malik Baqbaq was flogged to death and the news-writer who
had suppressed the circumstance was hanged over the city gate.
Haibat Khān, who held the great fief of Oudh, slew a man in a fit
of drunken rage, and when the victim's relations appealed to Balban


## p. 75 (#115) #############################################

CH, IV )
BALBAN'S SEVERITY
75
>
he caused Haibat Khān to be flogged with five hundred stripes and
then delivered him to the widow, saying, “This murderer was my
slave, he is now yours. Do you stab him as he stabbed your
husband. ' Haibat Khān found intercessors who induced the woman
to stay her hand, and purchased his freedom for 20,000 tangas, but
was so overcome with shame that to the day of his death he never
left his house. Balban more than once announced that he would
treat his own sons in like manner in similar circumstances. An
officer who was defeated by rebels was hanged over the gate of the
city which was the seat of his government. This was not a proper
punishment for incapacity or ill fortune, but the officer was, like
Baqbaq and Haibat Khān, one of the Forty. Balban was occasion-
ally, as will be seen from the chronicle of his reign, capricious as
well as cruel in his punishments. A virtue eulogised by Muslim
historians was his capacity for weeping at sermons, but he could
remain unmoved by the sight of cruel executions.
The informers or news-writers formed a branch of the public
service to which he devoted special attention and were an important
feature of Muslim rule in India, as of all despotic rule over large
areas in which extensive delegation of authority is necessary. They
were appointed by the king and were independent of local governors,
the affairs of whose provinces it was their duty to report and on
whose actions they were, in some sort, spies. Their position was
extremely delicate and Balban took great pains in selecting and
exercised great caution in promoting them,
His ambition of emulating Mahmūd of Ghazni and Sultān Sanjar
the Saljūq was restrained by the ever present menace of a Mughul
invasion. To the courtiers who urged him to conquer Gujarāt and
recover Mālwa and other provinces lost to the kingdom he replied
that he had the will to do far more than this but had no intention
of exposing Delhi to the fate of Baghdād. His energies found a
vent in the hunting field, where his strenuous expeditions, in which
he was accompanied by large bodies of horse and foot, were com-
mended by the Mughul Hulāgū as useful military exercises. Balban
was much gratified by this commendation and complacently ob-
served that those whose business it was to rule men knew how to
appreciate in others the qualities of a ruler.
The record of his reign is chronologically less exact than that
of preceding reigns, for our principal authority is Ziyā-ud-din
Barani, an interesting and discursive but unmethodical writer with
no taste for chronology. He seldom troubles to assign a date to an
event and never troubles to see that it is correct.


## p. 76 (#116) #############################################

76
( ch.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
era
One of the first to recognise that the accession of Balban had
inaugurated a new was Arsalān Tātār Khān, now governor of
Bengal, who had latterly withheld from Mahmūd material recogni-
tion of his sovereignty, but at once sent Balban a gift of sixty-
three elephants.
The Meos had recovered from their severe chastisement and
infested the jungle which had been permitted to grow unchecked
round Delhi. They plundered travellers on the roads, entered the
city by night, and rubbed the inhabitants in their houses, and even
by day robbed and stripped water-carriers and women drawing
water from the large reservoirs just within the city walls, so that
it became necessary to shut the gates on the western side of the
city immediately after the hour of afternoon prayer. During the
year following his accession Balban was occupied in exterminating
the robbers. The jungle was cleared, the Meos lurking in it were
put to death, a fort was built to command the approaches to the
city from the west, and police posts were established on all sides.
A recrudescence of turbulence among the Hindus of the Doāb,
who had entirely closed the roads between Bengal and Delhi,
necessitated measures of repression and precaution, and all impor-
tant towns and villages in this region were granted as fiefs to
powerful nobles, who cleared the jungles which harboured gangs
of brigands, slew large numbers of Hindus and enslaved their
wives and children. Balban himself remained for many months in
the districts of Patiyālī, Kampil, Bhojpur, and Jalāli, extirpated
all highway robbers, built forts at those places, garrisoned them
with Afghāns, who received lands in their vicinity for their main-
tenance, and by these measures secured the tranquillity of the
roads between Delhi and Bengal for a century.
While he was thus engaged he learnt that the Hindus of Katehr
had risen and were overrunning and plundering that province in
such force that the governors of Budaun and Amroha were unable
to take the field against them. He hastily returned to Delhi,
assembled his best troops and, having misled his enemy by an-
nouncing his intention of hunting, made a forced march and
appeared in Katehr sixty hours after he had left the capital. The
rebels in arms, taken completely by surprise, fled, and Balban
terribly avenged his outraged authority. All males over the age of
eight were put to death, the women were carried off into slavery,
and in every village through which the army passed huge heaps of
corpses were left, the stench of which poisoned the air as far as
the Ganges. The region was plundered and almost depopulated,


## p. 77 (#117) #############################################

IV ]
RECOVERY OF THE PUNJAB
77
and those of the inhabitants who were spared were so cowed that for
thirty years order reigned in the province and the districts of Budaun,
Amroha, Sambhal, and Gunnaur had peace.
In 1268-69 Balban led his army into the Salt Range with the
object, primarily, of preparing for the re-establishment of the royal
authority in the Punjab, and, secondarily of obtaining a supply of
horses for his army. His operations were successful ; the Hindus
were defeated and plundered and so many horses were taken that
the price of a horse in his camp fell to thirty or forty tangas.
In the course of this campaign a grave abuse inseparable from
the lax feudal system of India and constantly recurring in the history
of Islamic kingdoms in that country was first brought to Balban's
notice. Iltutmish had provided for the king's personal troops by
grants of land in fee, on condition of service. Most of the actual
grantees were now dead and the survivors were unfit for service, but
the immunity which they had enjoyed under the feeble Mahmud
encouraged them to advance the impudent claim that their fiefs had
been granted unconditionally and in perpetuity. It appeared likely
that an inquiry would arouse discontent and disaffection and even
Balban was obliged to leave the question at rest for the time, but in
1270, in the course of an expedition during which he restored the
city of Lahore and re-established a provincial government in the
upper Punjab the quality of the contingent supplied by the grantees
necessitated the investigation of the matter, and he discovered, on
his return to Delhi, that there was a general tendency on the part of
the actual holders of the lands to evade their personal liability for
service and that many of the able-bodied, as well as those who were
too young or too old to take the field, sent as substitutes useless and
unwarlike slaves. The grants were resumed and the grantees were
compensated beyond their deserts by the allotment of subsistence
allowances, not only to themselves but to their descendants, but this
did not satisfy them and they carried their grievance to the aged
Fakhr-ud-din, Kolwal of Delhi, who worked on Balban's feelings by
the irrelevant argument that old age was no crime and that if it were
he, the Kotwal, was one of the chief offenders. The emotional king
failed to detect the fallacy and, after weeping bitterly, rescinded the
reasonable orders which he had issued and wasted the resources of
the state by confirming the grants unconditionally.
Balban's intention of founding a dynasty and his attitude towards
the Forty were no secret, and his own cousin, Sher Khān Sunqar,
the most distinguished servant of the kingdom, who now held the


## p. 78 (#118) #############################################

78
[CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
fiefs of Bhātinda, Bhatnair, Sāmāna, and Sunām, had avoided Delhi
since his accession. Sunqar's courage and abilities, no less than his
mistrust, rendered him an object of suspicion to his cousin, now
about sixty-five years of age, and his sudden death at this time is
attributed to poison which Balban caused to be administered to him.
His fiefs of Sāmāna and Sunām were bestowed upon Tātār Khān of
Bengal, one of the Forty, but less formidable than Sunqar, and
Tughril was appointed to Bengal in his place.
Balban soon discovered that in attempting to protect the interests
of his posterity he had endangered the peace of his kingdom. Sunqar
had been dreaded by the Mughuls and by the Khokars and other
turbulent Hindu tribes, and his death revived the courage of both
foreign and domestic enemies. Owing to the renewed activity of the
Mughuls the king transferred his elder son, Muhammad Khān,
entitled Qā'ān Malik, from his fief of Koil to the government of
Multān. This prince was the hope of his line. He was gentle and
courageous, able and learned, a diligent student and a munificent
patron of letters. The poets Amir Khusrav and Amir Hasan began
their literary careers as members of his household, and he invited the
famous Sa'di of Shīrāz to visit him at Multān, and was disappointed
of the honour of entertaining him only by reason of the poet's
extreme age. His table and intimate circle were adorned by the
presence of the learned and the wise, and though wine was in use it
was drunk for the purpose of stimulating, not of drowning, the
intellect. No obscenity or ribald conversation was heard in that
society, nor did cheerfulness and merriment ever transgress the
bounds of decorum. Eastern historians and poets are wont to asso-
ciate the names of princes with fulsome and almost blasphemous
adulation, but in all that has been written of Muhammad Khān
affection, as well as admiration, may be traced. In him were centred
all the hopes of the stern old king ; for him the Forty were doomed,
and for him the blood of near kinsmen was shed. The relations
between father and son were of the most affectionate character, and
Muhammad Khān used to travel every year from Multān to visit
Balban, to enjoy his society, and to profit by his counsels. Before
his departure he was formally designated heir-apparent and was
invested with some of the insignia of royalty.
The character of Balban's second son Mahmud, entitled Bughrā
Khān, was a complete contrast to that of his brother. He was
slothful, addicted to wine and sensual pleasures, and devoid of
generous ambition. His father, though well aware of his faults and


## p. 79 (#119) #############################################

IV ]
REBELLION IN BENGAL
79
the weakness of his character, regarded him with natural tenderness
and attempted to arouse in him a sense of responsibility by bestowing
on him the fief of Sāmāna. Bughrā Khān, who dreaded his father's
critical scrutiny and found the restraint of his society irksome, was
well content to leave the capital ; but for the general advice which
had been deemed sufficient for Muhammad Khān, Balban substi-
tuted, in the case of his younger son, minute and detailed instructions,
accompanied by special warnings against self-indulgence and in-
temperance and a threat of dismissal in case of misconduct.
About the year 1279 the Mughuls again began to appear in
north-western India, and in one of their incursions even crossed the
Sutlej, but though they harried the upper Punjab Delhi had little to
apprehend from them, for domestic enemies had now been crushed,
and a force of seventeen or eighteen thousand horse composed of the
contingents of Muhammad Khān from Multān, Bughrā Khān from
Sāmāna, and Malik Bektars from Delhi so severely defeated them as
to deter them from again crossing the Sutlej.
In the same year Balban learnt with indignation that Tughril
was in rebellion in Bengal. The allegiance of the governors of this
distant and wealthy province to the reigning king had usually
depended on circumstances. A strong ruler was gratified by fre-
quent, though seldom regular remittances of tribute, one less strong
might expect the compliment of an occasional gift, but with any
indication of the king's inability to maintain his authority nearer
home remittances ceased entirely. Lakhnāwati had thus earned at
Delhi the nickname of Balghākpur, 'the city of rebellion. ' Tughril
was encouraged by Balban's advancing age and by a recrudescence
of Mughul activity on the north-western frontier, to withhold
tribute, and Balban ordered Malik Aitigin the Longhaired, entitled
Amin Khān, to march against him from Oudh. Amin Khān was
defeated, many from his army joined Tughril, and those who at-
tempted to save themselves by flight were plundered by the Hindus.
Balban, whom the first news of the rebellion had thrown into such
paroxysms of rage that few durst approach him, was now nearly
beside himself, and caused Amin Khān to be hanged over the gate
of the city of Ajodhya. In the following year an army under Malik
Targhi shared the fate of its predecessor, and Tughril was again
reinforced by deserters. Balban now gnawed his own flesh in his
fury, and when his first outburst of rage was spent prepared to
take the field in person. Fleets of boats were collected on the
Jumna and the Ganges, and Balban, accompanied by his second


## p. 80 (#120) #############################################

80
[CH.
THE HOUSE OF BALBAN
son, Bughrā Khān, set out from Delhi and marched through the
Doāb. In Oudh he mustered his forces, which numbered, including
sutlers and camp-followers, 200,000, and, although the rainy season
had begun he crossed the Gogra and invaded Bengal. Here he was
often compelled by the state of the weather and the roads to halt
for ten or twelve days at a time, and when he reached Lakhnāwati
he found it almost deserted, for Tughril, on hearing of his approach,
had fled with his army and most of the inhabitants to Jājnagarl in
eastern Bengal. After a short halt Balban continued his march
until he reached Sonārgāon, on the Meghna, near Dacca, where he
compelled the raja, Bhoj, to undertake to use his utmost endeavours
to discover Tughril and to prevent his escape by land or water. He
dismayed his army by solemnly swearing that he would not rest
nor return to Delhi, nor even hear the name of Delhi mentioned,
until he should have seized Tughril, even though he had to pursue
him on the sea. His troops, who had not yet even discovered the
place of Tughril's retreat, wrote letters, in the deepest dejection,
bidding farewell to their families at Delhi, and the search for
Tughril began. One day a patrol under Sher Andāz of Koil and
Muqaddir encountered some grain merchants who had been abroad
on business.
When two had been beheaded to loosen the tongues
of the rest, Sher Andāz learned that he was within a mile of Tughril,
who was encamped with his army beside a reservoir. After sending
word to Bektars, commanding the advanced guard, he rode cautiously
on, found the rebel army enjoying a day's halt after the fashion of
undisciplined troops and, fearing lest an incautious movement should
give the alarm, formed the desperate resolution of attacking the
enemy with his party of thirty or forty horsemen. As they galloped
into the camp with swords drawn, shouting aloud for Tughril, the
rebels were too astonished to reckon their numbers or to attempt
resistance and they rode straight for his tent. Amid a scene of the
wildest confusion he fled, and, mounting a barebacked horse,
endeavoured to escape, but was recognised and pursued. Malik
Muqaddir brought him down with a well aimed arrow and was
thenceforward known as Tughril-Kush, 'the Slayer of Tughril? .