No More Learning

Ulugh
Khān drew a pitiable picture of his brother's fear and anxiety and
so worked on his uncle's feelings by describing his hesitation between
taking poison and fleeing to a distant country that he persuaded the
old man to visit Kara in person, and himself carried to 'Alā-ud-din
the assurance of his uncle's forgiveness and the news of his approach-
ing visit.
Fīrūz, disregarding the warnings of his counsellors, set out from
Delhi and travelled down the Ganges by boat, escorted by his
troops, which moved by land under the command of Ahmad Chap.
‘Alā-ud-din crossed from Kara to Mānikpur and, as the royal barge
came into sight, drew up his troops under arms and sent his brother
to lure Fīrūz into the trap set for him. 'Alā-ud-din was represented
as being still apprehensive and the king was implored not to permit
his troops to cross to the eastern bank of the river, and to dismiss
all but a few personal attendants. The murmurs of the courtiers
were met with the explanation that 'Alā-ud-din's troops were drawn
up to receive the king with due honour, Fīrūz Shāh's complaints
of 'Alā-ud-dīn's obstinacy were silenced by the excuse that he was
occupied in preparing a feast and in arranging his spoils for pre-
sentation, and Ulugh Khān even persuaded his uncle to order his
few personal attendants to lay aside their arms. As Fīrūz landed
‘Alā-ud-din advanced to meet him and bowed to the ground. The
kindly old man raised him up, embraced him, and chid him for his
fears, and then took his hand and led him towards the boat, still
speaking affectionately to him. 'Alā-ud-din gave a preconcerted
signal and one of his companions, Muhammad Sālim, struck two
blows at the king with a sword, wounding him with the second.
Fīrūz attempted to run towards his boat, crying “Alā-ud-din,
wretch, what have you done ? ! But another assassin, Ikhtiyār-ud.
din, came up behind him, struck him down, severed his head from
his body, and presented it to 'Alā-ud-din. The few attendants of
the king were murdered and the royal umbrella was raised above
the head of 'Alā-ud-din, who was proclaimed king in his camp on
July 19, 1296. The unnatural wretch caused the head of his uncle
and benefactor to be placed on a spear and carried through Mānikpur
and Kara, and afterwards through Ajodhya. The faithful Ahmad


## p. 99 (#139) #############################################

vl
DEATH OF FIROZ
99
>
Chap would not acknowledge the usurper but returned by forced
marches, and led the army, exhausted by a most arduous march in
the rainy season, into Delhi.
‘Alā-ud-din, doubting his power to cope with the adherents of
Firuz Shāh's lawful heir, was hesitating whether he should march
on Delhi or retire into Bengal when his difficulty was solved by his
old enemy, his mother-in-law. Arkali Khān, the heir, was at Multān,
and Fīrūz Shāh's widow, 'the most foolish of the foolish,' deeming
that a king de facto was necessary, in such a crisis, to the security
of Delhi, proclaimed the younger son of Fīrūz as king, under the
title of Rukn-ud-din Ibrāhīm. Arkali Khān sulked at Multān and
his partisans at Delhi refused to recognise his brother. These divi.
sions encouraged 'Alā-ud-din to march on Delhi and his spoils
provided him with the means of conciliating the populace. At
every stage a balista set up before his tent scattered small gold and
silver coins among the mob. At Budaun he halted, for an army
had been sent from Delhi to bar his way, but no battle was fought,
for the nobles were lukewarm in the cause of Ibrāhīm and 'Alā-ud.
din's bursting coffers justified a transference of allegiance. He was
thus enabled to advance on Delhi at the head of an army of 60,000
horse and 60,000 foot, and Ibrāhīm, after a feeble demonstration,
fled towards Multān with his mother and the faithful Ahmad Chap,
and on October 3, 1296, ‘Alā-ud-din was enthroned in the Red Palace
of Balban, which he made his principal place of residence.
The new king, having gained the throne by an act of treachery
and ingratitude seldom equalled even in oriental annals, conciliated
the populace by a lavish distribution of his southern gold, but his
example was infectious and attempts to follow it disturbed the early
years of his reign. These and other causes, irruptions of the Mughuls
and the necessity for subjugating the Hindu rulers of Rājputāna,
Mālwa and Gujarāt protected the Deccan for a while from a second
visitation, for the king of Delhi could not conduct war after the
fashion of the desperater adventurer who had been ready to risk all on
a single throw.
Ulugh Khan and Hijabr-ud-din were sent with an army of
40,000 to Multān to secure the persons of Arkali Khān, Ibrāhīm,
and their mother. The city surrendered at once and the princes
and their few remaining adherents fell into the hands of Ulugh
Khān, and by the king's instructions they, their brother-in-law
Ulghū Khān the Mughul and Ahmad Chap were blinded when they
reached Hānsī, and the widow of Fīruz was kept under close restraint.
a
7-2


## p. 100 (#140) ############################################

100
( CH.
THE KHALJIS
During the early years of his reign ‘Alā-ud-din was ably and
faithfully served by four men, his brother Ulugh Khān, Nusrat
Khān, who was rewarded for his services at Deogir with the post
of minister, Zafar Khān, who had served him well at Kara, and
Alp Khān of Multān. 'Alā-ul-Mulk, his faithful lieutenant at Kara,
-
received the post of Kolwal of Delhi, being now too gross for more
active employment.
'Alā. ud-din had been no more than a few months on the throne
when a large horde of Mughuls invaded his kingdom. Zafar Khān,
who was sent against them, defeated them with great slaughter
near Jullundur, and his victory was celebrated with rejoicings at
Delhi, but his military genius rendered him an object of jealousy
and suspicion to his master.
After the repulse of the Mughuls the king considered the case
of those nobles whom his own bribes had seduced from their allegi-
ance to his predecessor. It ill became him to condemn them but
it was evident that they were not to be trusted, and cupidity and
policy pointed in the same direction. They were despoiled by
degrees, first of their hoards and then of their lands, and when
nothing else remained they suffered in their persons. Some were
put to death, some were blinded, and some were imprisoned for
life, and the families of all were reduced to beggary. All deserved
their fate, but none was so guilty as he who decided it.
In 1297 'Alā-ud-dīn resolved to undertake the conquest of the
Hindu kingdom of Gujarāt which, though frequently plundered,
had never yet been subdued, and had long enjoyed immunity, even
from raids. Ulugh Khān and Nusrat Khān were selected for the
task and invested and took its ancient capital, Anhilvāra, now
Pātan, captured the wife of raja Karan, its ruler, and sent to Delhi
as a trophy the idol which had been set up at Somnāth to replace
that destroyed by Mahmūd. Raja Karan and his daughter, Deval
Devī, fled, and found an asylum for a time with Rāmachandra of
Deogir. Nusrat Khān plundered the wealthy merchants of the port
of Cambay and obtained, with much other booty, a Hindu eunuch
nicknamed at first Kāfür and afterwards Hazārdīnārī, 'the thousand
dinār Slave' from the price which he had originally been bought.
This wretch became successively the king's vile favourite, lieutenant
of the kingdom, and, for a short time before and after 'Alā-ud-din's
death, its ruler.
After establishing a Muslim government in Gujarāt Ulugh Khān
and Nusrat Khān set out for Delhi, and at Jālor distributed the
plunder taken in the expedition. The allotment of the greater part


## p. 101 (#141) ############################################

v]
'ALA-UD-DIN'S DREAMS
101
of it caused grave discontent, and the new Muslims mutinied and
slew Nusrat Khān's brother and a nephew of 'Alā-ud-din. The
great drums were sounded, the troops responded to the call to arms,
and the mutineers, outnumbered, took to flight and were pursued
with great slaughter. Those who escaped took refuge with various
Hindu chieftains principally with Hamīr Deo, raja of Ranthambhor,
but were unable to escape vicarious punishment, for the fierce tyrant
of Delhi put their wives and families to death in circumstances of
revolting brutality, and Nusrat Khān avenged his brother's death
by delivering the wives of the murderers to the embraces of the
scavengers of Delhi, an unspeakable degradation.
The historians of India attribute to 'Alā-ud-din the introduction
of the barbarous practice of visiting the sins of rebels on the heads
of their innocent wives and children ; but the accusation is not
strictly just, for there are instances of the practice before his time.
It was he, however, who first elevated it into a political principle.
In this year the Mughuls again invaded India and took the
fortress of Sibi, which Zafar Khān recaptured after a short siege,
and took their leader with 1700 of his followers and their wives
and daughters, and sent them to Delhi ; but the success was an-
other step towards his ruin.
Hitherto 'Alā-ud-din had prospered in everything to which he
had set his hand, and his success had turned his brain. He detected
an analogy between himself with his four faithful servants and the
founder of his faith with his four companions and successors, Abu
Bakr, 'Usmān, 'Umar, and 'Alī, and dreamed of spiritual as well as
material conquests. In the latter he sought to surpass Alexander
of Macedon and in the former Muhammad. He would ask his boon
companions, over the wine. cups, why he should not surpass both.
His suggestion that he should declare himself a prophet was received
in silence by his associates but his proposal to emulate Alexander
was applauded.
These projects had been considered at the royal symposia for
some time before 'Alā-ud-Mulk the Kotwal, who by reason of his
corpulence was excused from attendance at court oftener than
once a month, was commanded to deliver his opinion upon them.
After demanding that the wine should be removed and that all but
the king's most intimate associates should withdraw he deprecated
'Alā-ud-din's wrath and proceeded to speak his mind. Innovations
in religion, he said, were for prophets, and not for kings. Their
success depended not on might, nor on power, but on the will of
the Lord of Hosts. It was useless for a king, however great, to


## p. 102 (#142) ############################################

102
(CH.
THE KHALJIS
attempt the foundation of a new religion, for unless he were truly
inspired of God he would not long be able to deceive himself, much
less the world.
‘Alā-ud-din remained for some time sunk in thought, and at
length, raising his head, acknowledged the justice of the rebuke
and declared that he had abandoned his impious design. Against
the second project ‘Alā-ul-Mulk had no moral objections to urge,
but he observed that a great part of India remained yet un.
conquered, that the land was a constant prey to marauding Mughuls,
that there was no Aristotle to govern the realm in the king's absence
and that there were no officers to whom the government of conquered
kingdoms could be entrusted. Waxing bolder he exhorted 'Alā-ud.
din to avoid excess in wine, and to devote less of his time to the
chase and more to public business. The king professed himself
grateful for this candid advice and generously rewarded his honest
counsellor, but he could not forgo the petty vanity of describing
himself on his coins as 'the Second Alexander. '
In 1299 an army of 200,000 Mughuls under Qutlugh Khvāja
invaded India. Their object on this occasion was conquest, not
plunder ; they marched from the Indus to the neighbourhood of
Delhi without molesting the inhabitants, encamped on the banks
of the Jumna, and prepared to invest the city. Reſugees from the
surrounding country filled the mosques, streets, and bazars, supplies
were intercepted by the invaders, and famine was imminent. The
king appointed 'Alā-ul-Mulk to the government of the city and led
his army out to the suburb of Sīrī, where he summoned his nobles
to join him. The timid Kotwal ventured to resume the character
of adviser, and implored ‘Alā-ud-din to temporise with the Mughuls
nstead of risking all by attacking them at once, but the king re-
fused, in his own phrase, to sit on his eggs like a hen. “Man,' he
said, with good-humoured contempt, to the unwieldy Kotwal, 'you
are but a scribe, the sun of a scribe ; what should you know of
war ? ' On the morrow he attacked the Mughuls. The bold and
impetuous Zafar Khān charged the enemy's left with such vigour
that he drove it before him and pursued it until he was lost to the
sight of the rest of the army. Other bodies of the enemy turned
and followed him, so that he was surrounded and slain, after re-
fusing to surrender. Even in this moment of peril ‘Alā-ud-din and
Ulugh Khān saw with satisfaction that the object of their jealousy
had rushed to certain death, made no attempt to support or succour
him, and contented themselves with a languid demonstration against
the diminished army which remained opposed to them ; but the


## p. 103 (#143) ############################################

v]
REBELLION OF AKAT KHAN
103
valour of Zafar Khān had so impressed the invaders that they
retreated precipitately in the night, and when the sun rose 'Alā-ud.
din, finding that they had decamped, returned to Delhi, hardly less
thankful for the death of Zafar Khān than for the flight of the
enemy. It is said that the name of Zafar Khān was for some years
afterwards used by the Mughuls as that of Richard of England is
said to have been used by the Saracens of Palestine, and that they
would urge their weary beasts to drink by asking whether they had
seen Zafar Khān, that they feared to slake their thirst.
The strength of Ranthambhor, formerly an outpost of the
Muslims, but long since a stronghold of the Hindus, had defied
Balban's arms and daunted Firüz ; its ruler, Hamīr Deo, who
boasted descent from Prithvi Rāj, had recently insulted 'Alā-ud-din
by harbouring the rebellious New Muslims, and the king resolved to
punish him. Ulugh Khān and Nusrat Khān were sent against him
and, having first reduced Jhāin, encamped before Ranthambhor.
The death of Nusrat Khān, who was slain by a stone from a balista,
discouraged the army, and a sortie by Hamīr Deo drove Ulugh
Khān back to Jhāin. 'Alā-ud-din marched from Delhi to his aid
but halted for some days at Tilpat to enjoy his favourite recreation,
the chase. After a long day's sport he and his small escort were
benighted at a distance from his camp, and when he rose in the
morning he ordered his men to drive some game towards him while
he awaited it, seated on a stool. His absence had caused some
anxiety, and as he awaited the game his brother's son, Ākat Khān,
arrived in search of him with a hundred horse, New Muslims of his
own retinue. Ākat Khān's ambition was suddenly kindled by the
sight of his uncle's defenceless condition and he ordered his Mughul
archers to draw their bows on him. The king defended himself .
bravely, using his stool as a shield, and a faithful slave named Mānik
stood before him and intercepted the arrows, but he was wounded
in the arm and fell. Some foot soldiers of his escort ran up and,
drawing their swords, stood round him, crying out that he was dead.
Ākat Khān, without waiting to ascertain whether they spoke the
truth, galloped back to the camp, announced that he had slain ‘Alā.
ud-din, and demanded the allegiance of the army. He held a
hurried and informal court, at which some officers rashly came for-
ward and offered him their congratulations, but when he attempted
to enter the harem the more cautious guards refused to admit him
until he should produce his uncle's head.
In the meantime stray horsemen, to the number of sixty or
seventy, had gathered round 'Alā-ud-dīn and dressed his wounds,


## p. 104 (#144) ############################################

104
THE KHALJIS
[CH.
and on his way towards the camp he was joined by other small
bodies of horse, which brought his numbers up to five or six hundred.
Ascending a knoll he caused the royal umbrella to be raised over
his head, and the sight drew the troops and the courtiers out to join
him. Ākat Khān, finding himself deserted, fled, but was pursued,
taken, and beheaded. The tedium of 'Alā-ud-din's convalescence
was alleviated by the punishment of Ākat Khān's associates, who
were put to death with torture, and when he had recovered he
marched on to Ranthambhor, where Ulugh Khān, encouraged by
the news of his approach, had already opened the siege.
While the siege was in progress news reached him that his
sister's sons, Amir ‘Umar and Mangu Khān, had raised the standard
of revolt in Budaun and Oudh, but loyal fief-holders speedily over-
powered and captured the young men, and sent them to their uncle,
in whose presence their eyes were cut out.
This rebellion had hardly been suppressed when a serious revolt
in the capital was reported. 'Alā-ul-Mulk; the fat Kotwal, was
now dead, and the oppressive behaviour of his successor, Tarmadi,
aroused the resentment of the populace, who found a willing leader
in the Person of Hāji Maulā, an old officer who resented his super-
session by Tarmadi. Encouraged by rumours of discontent in the
army before Ranthambhor he assembled a number of dismissed
and discontented members of the city police and others, and by
exhibiting to them a forged decree purporting to bear the royal
seal, induced them to join him in attacking Tarmadi. On reaching
his house they found that he, like most Muslims in the city, was
asleep, for the faithful were keeping the annual fast, which fell in
that year in May and June, the hottest months of summer. He
was called forth on the pretext of urgent business from the camp,
and was at once seized and beheaded. The crowd which had been
attracted by the disturbance was satisfied by the exhibition of the
forged decree, and Hāji Maulā, having caused the gates of the city
to be shut, attempted to deal with Ayāz, the Kolwal of Siri, as he
had dealt with Tarmadi, but Ayaz had heard of Tarmadi's fate and
refused to be inveigled from the fortress of Siri. Hāji Maulā then
marched to the Red Palace, released all the prisoners, broke into
the treasury, and distributed bags of money among his followers.
He seized an unfortunate Sayyid, with the suggestive name of
Shāhinshāh, who happened to be descended through his mother
from Iltutmish, enthroned him nolens volens, and, dragging the
leading men of the city by force from their houses, compelled them
to make obeisance to the puppet. The dregs of the populace, lured


## p. 105 (#145) ############################################

v]
FALL OF RANTHAMBHOR
105
by the hope of plunder, swelled the ranks of the rebels, but the
more respectable citizens halted between the fear of present violence
and the apprehension of the royal vengeance. In the seven or eight
days during which Delhi was in the hands of the rebels, several
reports of their proceedings reached 'Alā-ud-din, but he set his face,
concealed the news from his army, and continued the siege.
On the third or fourth day after the rebellion had broken out
Malik Hamid-ud-din, entitled Amir-i-Kūh, assembled his sons and
relations, forced the western gate of the city, marched through to
the Bhandarkāl gate and there maintained himself against the deter-
mined attacks of the rebels. His
His small force was gradually swelled
by the adhesion of some loyal citizens, and by a reinforcement of
troops from some of the districts near the capital, and he sallied forth
from his quarters at the Bhandarkāl gate, defeated the rebels, and
slew Hājī Maulā with his own hand. The troops recaptured the Red
Palace, beheaded the unfortunate Sayyid, and sent his head to the
royal camp. 'Alā-ud-din still remained before Ranthambhor but
sent Ulugh Khān to Delhi to see that order was thoroughly restored.
These successive rebellions convinced 'Alā-ud-din that something
was wrong in his system of administration, and after taking counsel
with his intimate advisers he traced them to four causes :
(1) The neglect of espionnage, which left him ignorant of the
condition, the doings, and the aspirations of his people :
(2) The general use of wine, which, by loosening the tongue
and raising the spirits, bred plots and treason ;
(3) Frequent intermarriages, between the families of the nobles
which, by fostering intimacy and reciprocal hospitality, afforded
opportunities for conspiracy; and
(4) The general prosperity which, by relieving many of the
necessity for working for their bread, leſt them leisure for idle
thoughts and mischievous designs.
He resolved to remedy these matters on his return, and in the
meantime brought the siege of Ranthambhor to a successful con-
clusion. Hamir Deo, the New Muslims who had found an asylum
with him, and his minister, Ranmal, who had, with many other
Hindus, deserted him during the siege and joined ‘Alā-ud-din, were
put to death. It was characteristic of 'Alā-ud din to avail himself of
the services of traitors and then to punish them for the treason by
which he had profited. After appointing officers to the government
of Ranthambhor he returned to Delhi to find that his brother
Ulugh Khān, who had been making preparations for an expedition
to the Deccan, had just died,


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106
[CH.
THE KHALJIS
Alā-ud-din now addressed himself, in accordance with the
decision at which he had arrived, to the enactment of laws for the
prevention of rebellion, and, with the severity which was part of his
nature, framed regulations which might have been designed to
punish actual rather than forestall potential rebels. Private property
was the first institution which he attacked, and he began by con-
fiscating all religious endowments and all grants of rent-free land,
both of which supported numbers of useless idlers. Tax-collectors
were appointed and were instructed to extort gold, on any pretext
that could be devised, from all who possessed it. The result of this
ordinance, as described by the contemporary historian, was that
gold was not to be found save in the houses of the great nobles, the
officers of state, and the wealthiest merchants, and that excepting
lands of an annual rental of a few thousand tāngas in the neighbour-
hood of Delhi all rent-free grants in the kingdom were resumed.
The second ordinance established an army of informers, whose
business it was to spy upon all and to report to the king anything
deemed of sufficient importance for his ear. Everything which
passed in the houses of the nobles and officers of state was known,
and was reported the morning after its occurrence, until the victims
of the system hardly dared to converse in open spaces otherwise than
by signs. Even the gossip and transactions of the market place
reached the king's ear.
By the third ordinance the use of intoxicating liquor and drugs
was prohibited, and those who used them were banished from the
city, thrown into prison, or heavily fined. The king himself set the
example of obedience by causing his wine vessels to be broken and
the wine to be poured out near the Budaun gate, but the habit
could not be eradicated. Stills were set up in private houses and
liquor was distilled and sold in secret, or smuggled into the city on
pack animals, under other merchandise, but the system of espionnage
made all attempts at evasion dangerous, and many were compelled
to cross the Jumna and travel twenty or twenty-five miles to satisfy
their craving, for the suburbs were as closely watched as the city
itself. Offenders were cruelly flogged and confined in pits so
.
noisome that many died in their fetid and polluted atmosphere, and
those who were dragged forth alive escaped only with constitutions
permanently shattered. At length 'Alā-ud-din learnt that the use
of intoxicants cannot be prevented by legislation, and the ordinance
was so far relaxed as to permit the private manufacture and con.
sumption of strong drink, but its sale and convivial use remained
forbidden.


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v]
'ALA-UD-DIN'S EDICTS
101
a
The fourth ordinance prohibited social gatherings in the houses
of the nobles and marriages between members of their families with-
out special permission. Fear of the informers ensured obedience,
and even at court the nobles were so closely watched that they
dared not exchange whispered complaints of the tyranny under
which they lived.
'Alā-ud-din next framed a special code of laws against Hindus,
who were obnoxious to him partly by reason of their faith, partly by
reason of the wealth which many of them enjoyed, and partly by
reason of their turbulence, especially in the Doāb. The Hindu
hereditary officials enjoyed a percentage on revenue collections and
the wealthier Hindus and those of the higher castes were inclined
to shift to the shoulders of their poorer brethern the burdens which
they should themselves have borne. All this was now changed, and
it was decreed that all should pay in proportion to their incomes,
but that to none was to be leſt sufficient to enable him to ride on
horse, to carry arms, to wear rich clothes, or to enjoy any of the
luxuries of life. The government's share of the land was fixed at
half the gross produce, and heavy grazing dues were levied on
cattle, sheep, and goats. The officials and clerks appointed to
administer these harsh laws were closely watched, and any attempt
to defraud the revenue was severely punished. Hindus throughout
the kingdom were reduced to one dead level of poverty and misery,
or, if there were one class more to be pitied than another, it was
that which had formerly enjoyed the most esteem, the hereditary
assessors and collectors of the revenue. Deprived of their emolu-
ments, but not relieved of their duties, these poor wretches were
herded together in droves, with ropes round their necks, and hauled,
with kicks and blows, to the villages where their services were
required. The Muslim officials, under Sharaf Qāi, the new minister
of finance, earned the hatred of all classes, and were so despised
that no man would give his daughter in marriage to one of them.
This measure of 'Alā-ud-dīn's is remarkable as one of the very few
instances, if not the only instance, except the jizya, or poll-tax, of
legislation specially directed against the Hindus.
It was not until these repressive and vexatious laws were in
full operation that 'Alā-ud-din, disturbed possibly by murmurs
which had reached his ears, began to entertain doubts of their
consɔnance with the Islamic law, and sought the opinion of Qāzi
Mughis-ud-din of Bayāna, one of the few ecclesiastics who still
frequented the court, on the ordinances and other questions. The
fearless and conscientious gāzi replied that an order for his instant


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108
[C#
THE KHALJIS
3
execution would save both time and trouble, as he could not consent
to spare the king's feelings at the expense of his own conscience, but,
on being reassured, delivered his opinion on the questions propound-
ed to him. The first was the persecution of the Hindus, which he
pronounced to be not only lawful, but less rigorous than the treat-
ment sanctioned by the sacred law for misbelievers. The apportion-
ment of the plunder of Deogir was a more delicate question, and
though 'Alā-ud-din defended himself by maintaining that the
enterprise had been all his own, and that nobody had even heard
the name of Deogir until he had resolved to attack it, the qāzi
insisted that he had sinned in appropriating the whole of the plunder
and in depriving both the army and the public treasury of their
share. Last came the question of the cruel punishments decreed
for various offences, and the găzi rose from his seat, retired to the
place reserved for suppliants, touched the ground with his forehead,
and cried, 'Your Majesty may slay me or blind me, but I declare
that all these punishments are unlawful and unauthorised, either by
the sacred traditions or by the writings of orthodox jurists. ' 'Alā-
ud-din, who had displayed some heat in the discussion, rose and
retired without a word, and the găzi went home, set his affairs in
order, bade his family farewell, and prepared for death. To his
surprise he was well received at court on the following day. The
king commended his candour, rewarded him with a thousand
tangas, and condescended to explain that although he desired to rule
his people in accordance with the Islamic law their turbulence and
disobedience compelled him to resort to punishments of his own
devising
During the winter of 1302-03 'Alā-ud-din marched into the
country of the Rājputs, and without much difficulty captured Chitor
and carried the Rānā, Ratan Singh, a prisoner to Delhi. At the
same time he dispatched an expedition under the command of
Chhajjū, nephew and successor of Nusrat Khān, from Kara into
Telingāna. For some obscure reason this expedition marched on
Warangal, the capital of the Kākatiya rajas, by the then unexplored
eastern route, through Bengal and Orissa. Unfortunately no detailed
account of the march has been preserved, but the expedition was
a failure. The ar. ny reached Warangal, or its neighbourhood, but
was demoralised by the hardships which it had endured in heavy
rain on difficult roads, and, after suffering a defeat, lost most of its
baggage, camp equipage, and material of war and returned to Kara
in disorder.
The Mughuls had missed the opportunity offered by the siege


## p. 109 (#149) ############################################

v)
MUGHUL INVASION
109
of Ranthambhor and the simultaneous disorders of the kingdom,
but the news of 'Alā-ud-din's departure for Chitor, the siege of
which appeared likely to be protracted, encouraged them to make
another attempt on Delhi, and Targhi, their chief, led an army of
120,000 into India and encamped on the Jumna, in the neighbour-
hood of the capital, but 'Alā-ud-din had already returned from
Chitor. He had lost many horses and much material of war in the
siege and during his retirement, the army of Kara was so disorganised
by the unsuccessful campaign in Telingāna that before it could
reach Baran and Koil the Mughuls had closed the southern and
eastern approaches to the capital, and the movements of the invaders
had been so rapid that they were threatening the city before the
great fief-holders could join the king with their contingents. He
was thus unable to take the field and retired into his fortress of
Siri, where he was beleaguered for two months, while the Mughuls
plundered the surrounding country and even made raids into the
streets of Delhi. Their sudden and unexpected retreat, attributed
by the pious to the prayers of holy men, was probably due to their
inexperience of regular sieges, the gradual assembly of reinforce-
ments, and the devastation of the country, which obliged them
to divide their forces to a dangerous degree in their search for
supplies.
This heavy and humiliating blow finally diverted 'Alā-ud-din's
attention from vague and extravagant designs of conquest to the
protection of the kingdom which he had so nearly lost. On his
north-western frontier and between it and the capital he repaired
all old fortresses, even the most important of which had long been
shamefully neglected, built and garrisoned new ones, and devised
a scheme for increasing largely the strength of his army. This was
no easy matter, for his subjects were already taxed almost to the
limit of their endurance, but he overcame the difficulty by means
of his famous edicts which, by arbitrarily fixing the prices of all
commodities, from the simple necessaries of life to slaves, horses,
arms, silks and stuffs, enabled him to reduce the soldier's pay with-
out causing hardship or discontent, for the prices of necessaries
and of most luxuries were reduced in proportion. Strange as the
expedient may appear to a modern economist, it was less unreason.
able than it seems, for the treasure which he had brought from the
south and had so lavishly distributed had cheapened money and
inflated prices. The fall in the purchasing value of money was,
however, in those days of defective and imperfect means of trans-
port and communication, largely restricted to the capital and the


## p. 110 (#150) ############################################

110
[CH.
THE KHALJIS
suburban area, which were the centre of wealth to a degree hardly
comprehensible by those who use railways. Nevertheless, so drastic
a measure necessarily met with much opposition, which 'Alā-ud-din
overcame, in the case of the grain-merchants, by prohibiting the
purchase of grain elsewhere than at the state granaries, until the
merchants were fain to agree to sell their stocks at a rate lower
than originally fixed, and after surmounting a few initial difficulties
he was able to maintain, through good years and bad, and without
any real hardship to sellers, the scale of prices fixed by him. In the
districts around the capital the land revenue was collected in kind,
so that when scarcity threatened, in spite of edicts, to enhance
price, the king was enabled to flood the market with his own
grain, and in the provinces the governors possessed the same
power.
These measures, crude as was the conception of political economy
on which they were based, attained so well the object at which
they aimed that 'Alā-ud-din was able to raise and maintain a
standing army of nearly half a million horse. Nevertheless in 1304
a horde of Mughuls invaded India under 'Ali Beg, a descendant of
Chingiz, and another leader, whose name is variously given? . The
invasion was a mere raid, undertaken with no idea of conquest.
The Mughuls evaded the frontier garrisons and marched in a south-
easterly direction, following the line of the Himālaya until they
reached the neighbourhood of Amroha, plundering, slaying, ravishing
and burning as they advanced. The king sent the eunuch Kāfür
Hazārdināri, who was already in high favour, and Malik Ghiyās-
ud-din Tughluq, master of the horse, against them. These two
commanders intercepted them on their homeward journey, when
they were burdened with plunder, and defeated them. The two
leaders and 8000 others were taken alive and sent to Delhi, together
with 20,000 horses which the invaders had collected. 'Alā-ud-din
held a court in the open air, beyond the walls of the city, and the
two chiefs were trampled to death by elephants in view of the
people. The other prisoners were decapitated and their heads were
built into the walls of the fortress of Sīrī, where the king habitually
dwelt.
As a reward for his success on this occasion Tughluq was
appointed, in 1305, governor of the Punjab, and at the same time
Alp Khān was made governor of Gujarāt, and ‘Ain-ul-Mulk, governor
of Multān, was sent on an expedition to Jālor and to Ujjain and
1 The variants are Tarzāk, Tiriyāk, Barmāk, Tiriyāl, Tiriyāq, and Tartāq. They
exemplify the unsuitability of the Persian script for the preservation of proper names.


## p. 111 (#151) ############################################

v]
CONQUEST OF MĀLWA
111
Chanderi in Mālwa. As he advanced into Mālwa the raja Koka, or
Haranand, came forth at the head of an army of 40,000 horse and
100,000 foot to oppose him. The armies met on December 9, and
the Hindus, after a determined resistance, were routed. This
victory, the news of which was received with great joy at Delhi,
made the Muslims masters of Ujjain, Māndū, Dhār, and Chanderī,
and so impressed Kaner Deo, the Chauhān raja of Jālor, that he
accompanied 'Ain-ul-Mulk on his return to Delhi and swore allegi-
ance to 'Alā-ud-din.
The Rānā had been imprisoned at Delhi ever since the fall of
Chitor, two years before this time, and was so weary of his confine-
ment that when 'Alā-ud-din demanded of him the surrender of his
beautiful wife Padmani as the price of his liberty he was disposed
to coinply.
His thākurs, or nobles, who were wandering as outlaws
in the hills and jungles of Mewār, heard of his intention and sent
him messages beseeching him not to disgrace the name of Rajput.
They offered to send him poison, which would enable him to avert
dishonour, but the fertile brain of his daughter devised a scheme
for restoring him to liberty without the sacrifice of his honour or
his life. He and his nobles were to feign compliance with the
demand, and a train of litters, ostensibly containing the Rānā's
wife and her retinue, but filled with armed men, was to be sent to
Delhi, escorted by a large force of horse and foot. The cavalcade
reached Ratan Singh's prison in safety, the armed men sprang from
their litters, slew the guards, and carried off their master. Bodies
of Rajputs had been posted at intervals along the road to cover his
Alight, and though they were defeated one by one they so delayed
the pursuers that Ratan Singh reached his country in safety and
assembled in the hills a force which enabled him to raid even the
environs of Chitor. 'Alā-ud-din avenged his discomfiture by re-
moving from the government of Chitor his own son, Khizr Khān,
an indolent and self-indulgent youth, and appointing in his place
Ratan Singh's sister's son Arsi, who had entered his service, and
thus sowed the seeds of dissension among the Rājputs. Many of
the thākurs transferred their allegiance from Ratan Singh who had
forfeited their respect, to Arsī, who remained loyal to 'Alā-ud-din
and until his death attended regularly at court to present his
tribute.
In 1306 the Mughuls invaded India to avenge 'Ali Beg. A horde
under Kabk crossed the Indus near Multān, marched towards the
Himālaya, plundered the country, and was returning homewards
in the hot weather when it found the passage of the Indus barred


## p. 112 (#152) ############################################

112
THE KHALJIS
( ch.
by a large army under Tughluq, who now bore the title of Ghāzii
Malik. Faint and weary, and well nigh perishing for want of water,
they were compelled to attack the foe who stood in their path, and
of fifty or sixty thousand no more than three or four thousand
escaped. Kabk and many others were taken alive and carried by
Ghāzi Malik to Delhi, where they were thrown under the feet of
elephants. Traces of the column built of their heads on the plain
outside the Budaun gate are said to have been visible more than
two hundred and fifty years later, in the reign of Akbar. Their
wives and children were sold as slaves in Delhi and in the principal
cities of northern India. During 'Alā-ud-din's reign the Mughuls
only once again ventured to invade his kingdom. In 1307-08 a
chieftain named Iqbālmand led a horde across the Indus and was
defeated and slain. The captives were, as usual, sent to Delhi and
crushed to death, and this last defeat deterred the barbarians from
invading India until the disorders arising from the misgovernment
of ‘Alā-ud-din's son, Qutb-ud-din Mubārak, invited their aggression.
In 1306-07 "Alā-ud-dīn observed that Rāmachandra oi Deogir
had for three successive years failed to remit to Delhi the revenues
of the Ellichpur province, and a large army was sent under the
command of Kāfür Hazārdīnārī, now
entitled Malik Nāib, or
lieutenant of the kingdom, to punish his negligence and reduce
him to obedience. The expedition had a secondary object. The
wiſe of raja Karan of Gujarāt, Kamala Devī, longed for the society
of her daughter, Deval Devī, who had been carried off by her
father to Deogir, and Malik Nāib was instructed to secure her and
bring her to Delhi.
Karan, after his flight from Gujarāt, had not remained an idle
guest at Rāmachandra's court, but had rebuilt the town and fortress
of Nandurbār and ruled, as Rāmachandra's vassal, a small princi-
pality. Malik Nāib passed through Mālwa and entered the Deccan,
and Alp Khān, governor of Gujarāt, who had been ordered to co-
operate with him, attacked Karan, who for two months offered a
most determined resistance.
Shankar Deo, the eldest son of Rāmachandra, had for some time
been a suitor for the hand of Deval Devī, but Karan's Rajput pride
1 Ghāzi, ‘one who defeats and slays infidels in war. ' Ibn Batūtah mentions an
Arabic inscription of Tughluq on the Friday mosque of Multān, which ran as
follows : 'I have encountered the Tātārs ontwentynine occasions and defeated
them : hence I am called Malik-ul-Ghāzi. ' From this inscription it appears that
there was never peace on the frontier. The historians record only invasions in
force, in the course of which the Mughuls evaded or overcame the frontier
garrisons and advanced for some distance into India.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

122
THE KHALJIS
(CH.
three princes had already been blinded their murder was wanton
and superfluous, but Mubārak coveted Deval Devī, the wife
of his eldest brother, and after the murder of her husband the
unfortunate princess was brought to Delhi and placed in his
harem.
The murder of his brothers appears to have whetted Mubārak's
appetite for blood, and on his return to Delhi he summoned from
Gujarāt his father-in-law, Zafar Khān, and for no apparent reason
put him to death. He also executed Shāhin, who had been left as
regent at Delhi, and though historians allege no specific crime
against this victim it can hardly be doubted that he had been
implicated in the recent conspiracy.
Mubārak now indulged in the grossest licentiousness and the
most disgusting buffoonery. He delighted to appear before his
court tricked out in female finery and jewels. Harlots and jesters
were assembled on his palace roof and greeted the great nobles,
such men as 'Ain-ul-Mulk Multāni and Qarā Beg, who held no
fewer than fourteen offices, with lewd gestures and foul abuse, and,
descending from the roof, ran naked among the courtiers, et gestu
turpi et obscoeno in vestes nobilium honoratorum mingebant. Yet
the degraded youth who could organise and enjoy such scenes as
these assumed a character to which no former ruler of Delhi had
ventured to aspire. Others had eagerly sought recognition by, and
proudly owned allegiance to the Caliphs, and even 'Alā-ud-din had
readily abandoned his brief and impious dream of posing as a
prophet. It remained for his son, who inherited his vices without
his genius, to arrogate to himself the titles of Supreme Pontiff and
Vicegerent of the God of heaven and earth, and to assume the
pontifical title of al-Wāsiq-billāh.
Hisām-ud-din , half-brother of Khusrav Khān, and partner with
him in the king's affections, was sent to Gujarāt in the place of
Zafar Khān, and his first act there was to attempt to raise a rebellion
against his master, but the nobles of the province refused to follow
such a leader, seized him, and sent him to Delhi, where, for his
own sake and that of his brother, he was not only pardoned, but
restored to favour.
Malik Yaklaki, encouraged by reports of the demoralisation of
the court, raised the standard of rebellion in Deogir and proclaimed
his independence, but was defeated and captured by an army sent
against him and carried, with his associates, to Delhi, where
Mubārak’s perverted sense of justice permitted him to put the
subordinates to death while he inflicted on Yaklaki no heavier
a
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## p. 123 (#163) ############################################

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