No More Learning

Sher Khān sent Jalāl Khān and Khavāss
Khān to hold the gate of Bengal, and Humāyūn sent Jahāngir Quli
Beg the Mughal to attack it. Jahāngir Quli's ſorce was surprised
at the end of a day's march and routed, the commander himself


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XI)
THE RISE OF SHER SHAH
275
being wounded. Humāyūn then advanced in force to attack the
position, and during his advance Mahmūd, the ex-king of Bengal,
died at Kahalgāon, after learning that Sher Khān had put his two
sons to death.
Jalāl Khān, who feared to encounter the whole strength of
Humāyūn's army, avoided it by escaping into the hills to the south
of his position, and fled thence to Gaur, where he joined his father,
while Humāyūn advanced steadily towards the same place. Sher
Khān, alarmed by his approach, collected his treasure and fled into
Rādha, and thence into the Chota Nāgpur hills. Humāyūn entered
Gaur without opposition, renamed the place Jannatābād, caused the
khutba to be recited and coin to be struck in his name, and spent
three months there in idleness and pleasure while his officers
annexed Sonārgāon, Chittagong, and other ports in his name. He
foolishly made no attempt to pursue Sher Khān, and lingered
aimlessly at Gaur until the climate bred sickness in his army and
destroyed many of his horses and camels. In the meantime Sher
Khān descended from the Chota Nāgpur hills, captured the fortress
of Rohtas, raided Monghyr, and put the Mughul officers there to
the sword. At the same time, in 1539, Humāyūn received news of
Hindāl Mirzā's rebellion at Delhi, and was overwhelmed by the
accumulation of evil tidings. After nominating Jahāngir Quli Beg
to the government of Bengal and placing at his disposal a contingent
of 5000 picked horse, he set out with all speed for Agra, but Sher
Khān intercepted his retreat by marching from Rohtas to Chausa,
on the Ganges. Here he was able to check Humāyūn's retreat for
three months, and extorted from the emperor, as the price of an
undisturbed passage for his troops, the recognition of his sovereignty
in Bengal. Having thus lulled Humāyūn into a sense of security,
he fell upon his army and defeated and dispersed it.
On his return to Bengal he was harassed for some time by the
active hostility of Humāyūn's lieutenant, Jahāngir Quli Beg, but
ultimately disposed of his enemy by inveigling him to an interview
and causing him to be assassinated. He thus became supreme in
Bengal, and the increasing confusion in the newly established
Mughul empire enabled him to oust Humāyün and ascend the
imperial throne.
When he marched from Bengal in 1540 to attack Humāyün he
leſt Khizr Khãn behind him as governor of the province. Khizr
Khān's head was turned by his elevation, and though he refrained
from assuming the royal title he affected so many of the airs of
royalty that Sher Shāh, as soon as he was established on the
18-2


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276
[ CH. XI ]
THE KINGDOM OF BENGAL
imperial throne, marched into Bengal with the object of nipping
his lieutenant's ambition in the bud. Khizr Khān, who was not
strong enough to try conclusions with the conqueror of Delhi,
welcomed his master with the customary ſormality of the East,
and was immediately seized and thrown into prison. Sher Shāh
obviated a recurrence of his offence by dividing Bengal into a
number of small prefectures, the governors of which were respon-
sible, for the regular collection and remittance of the revenue, to
Qāzi Fazilat of Agra, who was appointed supervisor of the now
disintegrated kingdom of Bengal.
The independence of Bengal, due partly to the weakness and
preoccupation of the sovereigns of Delhi between 1338 and 1539,
and partly to the existence, between 1394 and 1476, of the buffer
state of Jaunpur, dated from the later days of the reign of Muham•
mad Tughluq, and endured, despite the two abortive attempts of
Firūz Tughluq to subvert it in the reigns of Iliyās and his son
Sikandar, until Humāyūn destroyed it by establishing himself, for
three months in 1539, on the throne of Gaur. It was restored by
Sher Khān's defeat of Humāyūn at Chausa, but again destroyed
by Sher Shāh after his ascent of the imperial throne.
The annals of Bengal are stained with blood, and the long list
of Muslim kings contains the names of some monsters of cruelty,
but it would be unjust to class them all as uncultured bigots void
of sympathy with their Hindu subjects. Some certainly reciprocated
the attitude of the lower castes of the Hindus, who welcomed them
as their deliverers from the priestly yoke, and even described them
in popular poetry as the gods, come down to earth to punish the
wicked Brāhmans. Others were enlightened patrons of literature.
At the courts of Hindu rajas priestly influence maintained Sanskrit
as the literary language, and there was a tendency to despise the
vulgar tongue, but Muslim kings, who could not be expected to
learn Sanskrit, could both understand and appreciate the writings
of those who condescended to use the tongue in which they them-
selves communicated with their subjects, and it was the Muslim
sultan rather than the Hindu raja that encouraged vernacular
literature. Nāsir-ud-din Nusrat Shāh, anticipating Akbar, caused
the Mahābhārata to be translated from Sanskrit into Bengali, and
of the two earlier versions of the same work one possibly owed
something to Muslim patronage and the other was made to the
order of a Muslim officer at the court of Sayyid 'Alā-ud-din Husain
Shāh, Nusrat's father, who is mentioned in Bengali literature with
affection and respect.


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CHAPTER XII
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
ISLAM was introduced into Kashmir at the beginning of the four-
teenth century of the Christian era by Shāh Mirzā, an adventurer
from Swāt, who in 1315 entered the service of Sinha Deva, a chief-
tain who had established his authority in the valley of Kashmir.
Sinha Deva was overthrown and slain by Rainchan, a Tibetan who
also was in his service and is said to have accepted Islam, probably
at the suggestion of Shāh Mirzā, whom he made his minister, en-
trusting him with the education of his children. On Rainchan's death
Udayana Deva, a scion of the old royal house, who had found an
asylum in Kishtwār during the usurpation, returned to the valley
married Kota Devī, Rainchan's widow, and ascended the throne.
He died after a reign of fifteen years, and his widow called upon
Shāh Mirzā to place upon the throne her son, but the minister,
during his long tenure of office, had formed a faction of his own, and
was no longer content with the second place in the state. The
circumstances in which he obtained the first are variously related.
According to one account he proposed marriage to the widowed
queen, who committed suicide rather than submit to the alliance,
but the more probable story is that on Shāh Mirzā's hesitating to
obey her command she assembled her forces, attacked him, and was
defeated. Shāh Mirzā then forcibly married her, and before she
had been his wife for twenty-four hours imprisoned her and ascended
the throne in 1316, under the title of Shams-ud-din Shāh.
The new king used wisely and beneficently the power which he
had thus acquired. The Hindu kings had been atrocious tyrants,
whose avowed policy bad been to leave their subjects nothing beyond
a bare subsistence. He ruled on more liberal principles, abolished
the arbitrary taxes and the cruel methods of extorting them, and
fixed the state's share of the produce of the land at one-sixth. He
was obliged, however, during his short reign, to suppress a rebellion
of the Lon tribe of Kishtwār. He died, after a reign of three years,
in 1349, leaving four sons, Jamshid, 'Ali Sher, Shīrāshāmak, and
Hindā), the eldest of whom succeeded him, but reigned for no more
than a year, being dethroned in 1350 by his next brother, 'Ali Sher,
who ascended the throne under the title of Alā-ud-din.
'Ala-ud-din, with a confidence rare among oriental rulers, made
his next brother, Shīrāshāmak, his minister, and seems to have had


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278
( ch.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
no reason to repent his choice. The events of his reign, which are
very briefly chronicled, included a severe famine, a conspiracy which
was frustrated, and the promulgation of a law, said to have been
effectual, depriving women of light character of any share in the
property left by their husbands.
'Alā-ud-din died in 13591, and was succeeded by his brother,
Shirāshāmak, who assumed the title of Shihāb-ud-din, which was
probably his real name, for that by which he was known before
his accession means 'the little milk-drinker', and was probably a
childish nickname.
Shihāb-ud-din has left a reputation both as an administrator and
as a warrior. He founded two towns and caused landed estates to
be carefully demarcated, to prevent encroachments on the crown
lands. At the beginning of his reign he led an army to the borders
of Sind, and defeated the Jām on the banks of the Indus. Returning
thence, he gained a victory over the Afghāns at Peshāwar, and
marched through Afghānistan to the borders of the Hindu Kush,
but was compelled to abandon his enterprise, whatever its object
may have been, by the difficulties which he encountered in attempt.
ing to cross that range. Returning to India he established a
cantonment in the plains, on the banks of the Sutlej, where he met,
in 1361, the raja of Nagarkot (Kängra), returning from a raid on
the dominions of Firūz Tughluq of Delhi. The raja, who is said to
have conciliated Shihāb-ud-din with a liberal share of his spoil,
suffered for his temerity? , and received no assistance from Shihāb-
ud-din, who returned to Kashmir.
For reasons which have not been recorded Shihāb-ud-din dis-
inherited and banished to Delhi his two sons, Hasan Khān and 'Ali
Khān, and designated as his heir his brother Hindāl, who succeeded
him, under the title of Qutb-ud-din, on his death in 1378. A rebel-
lion of some of his predecessor's officers obliged him to send an
expedition, which was successful, for the recovery of the fortress of
Lokarkot'.
Qutb-ud-din was for a long time childless and, recalling from
Delhi his nephew Hasan Khān, made him his heir, but Hasan's
impatience exceeded his gratitude, and he conspired with a Hindu
courtier against his patron. The plot was discovered, and Hasan
and his accomplice fled to Loharkot, but were seized by the land-
holders of that district and surrendered to Qutb-ud-din, who put
1 The chronology of the kings of Kashmir is bewildering. See 7 R. A. S. , 1918, p. 451.
2 See Chapter VII.
3 In 33° 50' N, and 74° 23' Ę.


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XII]
SIKANDAR THE ICONOCLAST
279
>
the Hindu to death and imprisoned his nephew, of whom no more
is heard.
Two sons were born to Qutb-ud-din in his late years, Sikandar
known before his accession as Sakār or Sankār, and Haibat Khān.
Qutb-ud-din died in 1394 and his widow, Sūra, placed Sikandar,
on the throne and to secure his undisputed retention of it put to
death her daughter and her son-in-law. It was probably at her
instigation that Rāi Madārī, a Hindu courtier, poisoned Sikandar's
brother, Haibat Khān, but this act incensed the young king, who
called the Hindu to account for it. Rāi Madārī, in order to escape
an embarrassing inquiry, sought and obtained leave to lead an ex-
pedition into Little Tibet. He was successful, and, having occupied
that country, rebelled. Sikandar marched against him, defeated
and captured him, and threw him into prison, where he committed
suicide by taking poison.
In 1398 the Amir Tīmūr, who was then at Delhi, and proposed
to retire by the road which skirted the spurs of the Himālaya, sent
his grandson Rustam and Mu'tamad Zain-ud-din as envoys to
Sikandar. They were well received, and when they left Kashmir
Sikandar sent with them as his envoy Maulānā Nūr-ud-din, and left
Srinagar with the intention of waiting personally on the conqueror.
The envoys reached Tīmūr's camp in the neighbourhood of Jammu
on February 24, 1399, and the rapacious courtiers, without their
master's knowledge, informed Nūr-ud-din that Tīmūr required
from Kashmir 30,000 horses and 100,000 golden dirhams. The envoy
returned to his master and informed him of this extravagant
demand. Sikandar, whose gifts did not approach in value those
required by the courtiers, turned back towards Srinagar, either in
despair or with a view to collecting such offerings as might be ac-
ceptable, and Tīmūr, who was expecting him, failed to understand
the delay in his coming. The members of Nür-ud-din's mission who
were still in the camp informed him of the demand and he was
incensed by the rapacity of his courtiers, and sent Mu'tamad Zain-
ud-din with the returning mission to request Sikandar to meet him
on the Indus on March 25, without fear of being troubled by ex-
orbitant demands. Sikandar again set out from Srinagar, but on
reaching Bāramūla learnt that Tīmūr had hurriedly left the Indian
frontier for Samarqand, and returned to his capital.
Hitherto the Muslim kings of Kashmir had been careless of the
religion of their subjects, and free from the persecuting spirit, but
Sikandar amply atoned for the lukewarmness of his predecessors.
He was devoted to the society of learned men of his own faith,


## p. 280 (#326) ############################################

280
[ch.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
whom his generosity attracted from Persia, Arabia, and Mesopo-
tamia, and it was perhaps the exhortations of bigots of this class
that aroused in him an iconoclastic zeal. He destroyed all the most
famous Hindu temples in Kashmir, and the idols which they con-
tained, converting the latter, when made of the precious metals,
into money. His enthusiasm was kept alive by his minister, Sinha
Bhat, a converted Brāhman with all a convert's zeal for his new
faith, who saw to it that his master's hostility extended to idolators
as well as to idols. With many innocuous Hindu rites the barbarous
practice of burning widows with their deceased husbands was pro-
hibited, and finally the Hindus of Kashmir were offered the choice
between Islam and exile. Of the numerous Brāhmans some chose
the latter, but many committed suicide rather than forsake either
their faith or their homes. Others, less steadfast, accepted Islam,
and the result of Sikandar's zeal are seen to-day in Kashmir, where
there are no more than 524 Hindus in every 10,000 of the popula-
tion. The ferocious bigot earned the title of Butshikan, or the
Iconoclast.
He died in 1416, leaving three sons, Nür Khān, Shāhi Khān and
Muhammad Khān, of whom the eldest succeeded him under the title
of 'Ali Shāh. The renegade Brāhman, Sinha Bhat, retained his office
until his death, and the persecution of Hindus was not relaxed.
Shortly before the end of the reign Sinha Bhat died, and 'Ali Shāh
appointed his own brother, Shāhi Khān, minister, and shortly after-
wards desiring, in an access of religious zeal, to perform the pil-
grimage to Mecca, nominated him as regent and left Srīnagar. He
had not, however, left the country before his father-in-law, the raja
of Jammū, and the raja of Rājāori succeeded in convincing him of
the folly of leaving a kingdom which, after his absence in a far land,
he could never expect to recover, and provided him with an army
which expelled Shāhi Khān and restored him to his throne.
Shāhi Khān fled and took refuge with Jasrat, chief of the tur-
bulent Khokar tribe, who had incurred the resentment of Tīmūr
by failing to keep his promise to aid him during his invasion of
India and by plundering his baggage, and had been carried off
to Samarqand, whence he had escaped on Tīmūr's death, which
occurred on February 28, 1405.
'Ali Shāh marched against Jasrat and Shāhi Khān, but foolishly
exhausted his army by a forced march, and Jasrat, on being in-
formed of its condition, suddenly attacked it in the hills near the
Tattakuti Pass, and overwhelmed it. Ali Shāh's fate is uncertain.
According to one account he escaped, but as he is no more heard


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XII ]
ZAIN-UL-ĀBIDIN
281
of it is more probable that, as is stated in other records, he was
captured by Jasrat's troops.
Shāhi Khān ascended the throne of Kashmir in June, 1420, under
the title of Zain-ul-'Ābidin, and was not unmindful of his benefactor,
whose successes in the Punjab, which slipped from the feeble grasp
of the Sayyid king of Delhi, were due in part to support received
from Kashmir.
Zain-ul-Abidin may be regarded as the Akbar of Kashmir. He
lacked the Mughul's natural genius, spirit of enterprise, and physical
vigour, and his outlook was restricted to the comparatively narrow
limits of his kingdom, but he possessed a stock of learning and ac-
complishments from which Akbar's youthful indolence had, to a
great extent, excluded him, his views were more enlightened than the
emperor's, and he practised a tolerance which Akbar only preached,
and found it possible to restrain, without persecution, the bigotry of
Muslim zealots. He was in all respects, save his love of learned
society, the antithesis of his father, the Iconoclast, and in the one
respect in which he most resembled him he most differed from him
in admitting to his society learned Hindus and cultural Brāhmans.
His learning delighted his hearers, and his practical benevolence
enriched his subjects and his country. He founded a city, bridged
rivers, restored temples, and conveyed water for the irrigation of the
land to nearly every village in the kingdom, employing in the exe-
cution of these public works the malefactors whom the ferocious
penal laws of his predecessors would have put to death. Theft and
highway robbery were diminished by the establishment of the
principle of the responsibility of village communities for offences
committed within their lands, and the authoritative determina-
tion of the prices of commodities, economically unsound though
it was, tended, with other regulations framed with the same object,
to prevent the hoarding of food supplies and imported goods.
The fierce intolerance of Sikandar had left in Kashmir no more
than eleven families of Brāhmans practising the ceremonies of their
faith. The exiles were recalled by Zain-ul-'Ābidin, and many of
those who had feigned acceptance of Islam now renounced it and
returned to the faith of their ancestors. The descendants of the
few who remained in Kashmir and of the exiles who returned are
still distinguished as Malmās and Banamās. All, on undertaking to
follow the rules of life contained in their sacred books, were free to
observe all the ordinances of their faith which had been prohibited,
even to the immolation of widows, which a ruler so enlightened
might well have excluded from his scheme of toleration. Prisoners


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282
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
undergoing sentences inflicted in former reigns were released, but
disobedience to the milder laws of Zain ul-'Ābidin did not go un-
punished. Alms was distributed in moderation to the deserving
poor, and the jizya, or poll-tax on non-Muslims, was abolished.
Accumulations of treasure in conquered territory were allotted to the
troops as prize-money, and the inhabitants were assessed for taxes at
the moderate rates which satisfied a king who was able to meet most
of the expenses of the administration from the produce of the royal
mines. The currency, which had been debased by the indiscrimi-
nate conversion into coin of idols composed of metal of varying
degrees of fineness, was gradually rehabilitated, and the king's de-
crees, engraved on sheets of copper and terminating with impreca.
tions on any of his descendants who should depart from them, were
distributed to the principal towns of the kingdom.
Zain-ul--Abidin was proficient in Persian, Hindi, and Tibetan,
besides his own language, and was a munificent patron of learning
poetry, music, and painting. He caused the Mahābhārata and the
Rājalarangini', the metrical history of the rajas of Kashmir, to be
translated from Sanskrit into Persian, and several Arabic and Persian
works to be translated into the Hindi language, and established
Persian as the language of the court and of public offices. He shared
Akbar's scruples with regard to the taking of life, forbade hunting,
and abstained entirely from flesh during the month of Ramzān; and
in other relations of life his morals were unquestionably superior to
Akbar's, for he was faithful throughout his life to one wife, and
never even allowed his eyes to rest on another woman. In other
respects he was no precisian, and singers, dancers, musicians, acro-
bats, tumblers, and rope dancers amused his lighter moments. A
skilled manufacturer of fireworks, whose knowledge of explosives was
not entirely devoted to the arts of peace, is mentioned as having
introduced firearms into Kashmir.
The enlightened monarch maintained a friendly correspondence
with several contemporary rulers. Abu Sa'id Shāh, Bābur's grand-
father, who reigned in Khurāsān from 1458 to 1468, Buhlūl Lodi,
who ascended the throne of Delhi in 1451, Jahān Shāh of Azarbāijān
and Gilān, Sultān Mahmud Begarha of Gujarāt, the Burji Mamlūks
of Egypt, the Sharif of Mecca, the Muslim Jām Nizām-ud-din of
Sind, and the Tonwār raja of Gwalior, between whom and the king
of Kashmir love of music formed a bond, were among those with
whom he exchanged letters and complimentary gifts.
1 This, which is believed to be the only genuinely historical work in the Sanskrit
language, has been admirably translated by Sir Aurel Stein,


## p. 283 (#329) ############################################

xu ]
FRATRICIDAL STRIFE
283
Early in his reign Zain-ul-'Ābidin associated with himself in the
government, and even designated as his heir, his younger brother
Muhammad, but Muhammad predeceased him, and though the king
admitted his son Haidar Khān to the confidential position which
his father had held the birth of three sons of his own excluded his
nephew from the succession. These were Adam Khān, Hāji Khān,
and Bahrām Khān, three headstrong young men whose striſe em-
bittered his declining years. Hāji Khān, his father's favourite, was
the least unworthy of the throne, and Bahrām employed himself
chiefly in fomenting dissensions between his two elder brothers.
Ādam Khān recovered Baltistān, or Little Tibet, and Hāji Khān
the fort and district of Loharkot, both of which provinces had
revolted. Adam Khān returned first to the capital, and, as the
brothers were clearly seeking an opportunity to measure their
strength against each other, his father detained him at Srīnagar,
Hāji Khān then returned from Loharkot with the object of attacking
both his father and his brother, who marched from the capital to
meet him. He was defeated, and fled to Bhimbar, where the main
road from the plains of the Punjab enters the Kashmir mountains,
and Zain-ul-Abidin celebrated his victory with a ferocity foreign
to his character by massacring his prisoners and erecting a column
of their heads.
Adam Khān now remained at Srinagar with his father for six
years, participating largely in the administration of the kingdom.
He slew many of the adherents of his fugitive brother and per-
secuted their families. At this period Kashmir suffered from a
severe famine, and the king was obliged temporarily to reduce the
land tax, in some districts to one-fourth and in others to one-seventh
of its normal amount.
After the famine Adam Khān was entrusted with the govern-
ment of the Kamrāj district, but complaints of his rapacity and
cruelty earned for him from his father a rebuke which provoked
him to rebellion, and he assembled his troops and marched against
his father. Zain-ul-'Ābidin succeeded in recalling him to a sense
of his duty, and permitted him to return to Kamrāj, but recalled
from exile at the same time Hāji Khān. The news of his brother's
recall again provoked Ādam Khān to rebel, and he attacked and
slew the governor of Sopur and occupied that city. His father
marched against him and defeated him, but he remained encamped
on the northern bank of the Jhelum, opposite to the royal camp,
until he heard of Hāji Khān's arrival at Bāramūla, when he fled to
the Indus. Zain-ul-'Abidin and his second son returned to Srīnagar,


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284
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
where Hāji Khān atoned by faithful service for past disobedience
and was rewarded by being designated heir to the throne.
Shortly after this time the king fell sick, and a faction persuaded
Ādam Khăn to return to the capital, but his arrival at Srinagar
was distasteful to his father, and he was ill received. Others, with
better intent, endeavoured to bring about a reconciliation between
the two elder brothers, but the attempt was foiled by Bahrām Khān,
and Ādam Khān retired to Qutb-ud-dinpur, near the city.
As the old king grew weaker his counsellors, dreading a fratri-
cidal war, begged him to abdicate in favour of one of his sons, but
he rejected their advice, and the three princes remained under
arms, It is needless to recite at length their intrigues. " Hāji Khān
was supported by his brother Bahrām, and by the majority of the
nobles, and Ādam Khān was obliged to leave Kashmir, so that
when Zain-ul-Abidin died, in November or December, 1470, Hāji
Khān ascended the throne without opposition as Haidar Shāh.
With the death of Zain-ul-Abidin the power of the royal line
founded by Shāh Mirzā declined, and the later kings were mere
puppets set up, pulled down, and set up again by factious and
powerful nobles, who were supported by their clansmen. The most
powerful and most turbulent of these tribes was the Chakk clan,
who even in the reign of Zain-ul-'Ābidin, became such a menace
to the public peace that he was obliged to expel them from the
Kashmir valley, but under his feebler successors they returned,
and, after exercising for a long time the power without the name
of royalty, eventually usurped the throne.
Haidar Shāh was a worthless and drunken wretch who entirely
neglected public business and permitted his ministers to misgovern
his people as they would. His indulgence of their misconduct was
tempered by violent outbursts of wrath which alienated them from
him, and his elder brother Adam Khān, learning of his un popularity,
returned towards Kashmir with a view to seizing the throne, but
on reaching Jammū was discouraged by the news of the death of
Hasan Kachhi and other nobles on whose support he had reckoned,
and who had been put to death on the advice of a barber named
Lūli. He remained at Jammū, and, in assisting the raja to expel
some invaders from his dominions, received a wound from the effects
of which he died.
The nobles now conspired to raise to the throne Bahrām Khān,
Haidar Shāh's younger brother, but Hasan Khān, his son, who had
been raiding the Punjab, returned to maintain his claim to the
throne, and when his father, in December, 1471, or January, 1472,
а


## p. 285 (#331) ############################################

xii ]
DECLINE OF THE ROYAL POWER
285
slipped, in a drunken fit, on a polished floor, and died of the injuries
which he received, Ahmad, Aswad, one of the most powerful of the
courtiers, caused him to be proclaimed king under the title of Hasan
Shāh.
Bahrām Khān and his son Yusuf Khān, who had intended to
contest Hasan's claim to the throne, were deserted by their troops,
and, leaving the valley of Kashmir, took refuge in the hills of Kama,
to the west of Kamrāj. Shortly afterwards a faction persuaded
them to return, but they were defeated by Hasan Shāh's army, and
both were captured. Bahrām was blinded and died within three
days of the operation.
Ahmad Aswad, who had been entitled Malik Ahmad, acquired
great influence over Hasan Shāh, who, though less apathetic than
his father, displayed little devotion to business. He sent an expe-
dition under Malik Yāri Bhat to co-operate with the troops of the
raja of Jammū in ravaging the northern districts of the Punjab,
where Tātār Khān Lodi represented the military oligarchy over
which his cousin Buhlūl presided at Delhi. The town of Sialkot
was sacked, and Malik Yāri Bhat returned with as much plunder
as enabled him to form a faction of his own, and when Hasan Shāh
required tutors and guardians for his two young sons he confided
Muhammad, the elder, to Malik Naurūz, son of Malik Ahmad, and
Husain, the younger, to Yāri Bhat. This impartiality encouraged
both factions, and their passions rose to such a height that Malik
Ahmad forfeited his master's favour by permitting his troops to
become embroiled, in the royal presence, with those of his rival,
and was thrown into prison, where he presently died.
The mother of the two young princes was a Sayyid, and the
king, after the death of Malik Ahmad, selected her father as his
minister. The Sayyids became, for a time, all powerful in the state,
Malik Yārī Bhat was imprisoned and many other nobles fled from
the valley of Kashmir. Among these was Jahāngir, chief of the
Mākū clan, who established himself in the fortress of Loharkot.
In 1489 Hasan Shāh, whose constitution had been enfeebled by
debauchery, died, and the Sayyid faction raised to the throne his
elder son, Muhammad in whose name they ruled the kingdom, but
their arrogance so exasperated the other nobles that they chose
as their candidate for the throne Fath Khān, the son of Hasan's
uncle, Adım Khān, and succeeded, before the child Muhammad
had occupied the throne for a year, in establishing Fath Shāh.
Muhammad was relegated to the women's quarters in the palace,
where he was well treated.
a


## p. 286 (#332) ############################################

286
(cui.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
The history of Kashmir for the next half century is no more
than a record of the strife of turbulent nobles, each with a puppet
king the least important actor on the stage, to place on the throne.
Their intrigues and conflicts are of little interest.
One solitary event during this period is worthy of record. This
was the appearance in Kashmir, during the first reign of Fath Shāh
(1489-1497) of a preacher from Tālish, on the shores of the Caspian,
named Shams-ud-din, who described himself as a disciple of Sayyid
Muhammad Nur Bakhsh of Khurāsān, and preached a strange
medley of doctrines. He named his sect Nür Bakhsh ('Enlighten-
ing'), after his master, but its tenets resembled in no way any
doctrines ever taught by Sayyid Muhammad. Shams-ud-din pro-
fessed to be an orthodox Sunnī, like the majority of the inhabitants
of the valley of Kashmir, but the doctrines set forth in his theo.
logical work entitled Ahwatah, or ‘most comprehensive,' are de-
scribed as a mass of infidelity and heresy, conforming neither to
the Sunni nor to the Shiah creed. He insisted on the duty of
cursing the first three orthodox Caliphs and the prophet's wife,
'Ayishah, a distinctively Shiah practice which strikes at the root
of Sunni orthodoxy and accentuates the chief difference between
the sects. He differed from the Shiahs in regarding Sayyid Mu-
hammad Nur Bakhsh as the promised Mahdi, who was to appear
in the last days and establish Islam throughout the world, and
taught much else which was irreconcilable with the doctrines of
any known sect of Islam.
Mirzā Haidar the Mughul, who conquered Kashmir in 1541,
found the sect strongly represented at Srinagar, and, obtaining a
copy of the Ahwatah, sent it to the leading Sunni doctors of the
law in India, who authoritatively pronounced it to be heretical.
Armed with this decision Mirzā Haidar went about to extirpate
the heresy. 'Many of the people of Kashmir,' he writes, 'who were
strongly attached to this apɔstasy, I brought back, whether they
would or no, to the true faith, and many I slew. A number took
refuge in Sufi-ism, but are no true Sufis, having nothing but the
name. Such are a handful of dualists, in league with a handful of
atheists to lead men astray, with no regard to what is lawful and
what is unlawful, placing piety and purity in night watches and
abstinence from food, but eating and taking without discrimina-
tion what they find : gluttonous and avaricious, pretending to inter-
pret dreams, to work miracles, and to predict the future. ' Ortho-
doxy was safe in Mirzā Haidar's hands.
The enthronement of Fath Shāh was a blow to the Sayyids, but


## p. 287 (#333) ############################################

xu]
RISE OF THE CHAKK TRIBE
287
within the next few years the chiefs of the popular party quarrelled
among themselves, and in 1497 Muhammad Shah, now about six-
teen years of age, was restored by Ibrāhīm Mākarī, whom he made
his minister, designating Iskandar Khān, the elder son of Fath
Shāh, as his heir; but in 1498 Fath Shāh regained the throne, only
to be expelled again in 1499, when he escaped to the plains of India,
where he died.
Muhammad Shāh was the first to raise a number of the Chakk
tribe to high office, by appointing as his minister Malik Kāji Chakk,
with whose assistance he retained the throne, on this occasion,
until 1526. The Mākarīs and other clans resented the domination
of the Chakks, and made more than one attempt to raise Iskandar
Khān to the throne, but the pretender fell into the hands of his
cousin Muhammad, who blinded him. This action offended Kāji
Chakk, who deposed Muhammad, and raised to the throne his elder
son, Ibrāhim I.
Abdal Mākari fled into the Punjab after the failure of the last
attempt to raise Iskandar to the throne, and there found Nāzuk, the
second son of Fath Shāh, with whom, after obtaining some help
from Bābur's officers in the Punjab, he returned to Kashmir. Malik
Kāji Chakk and Ibrāhim I met him at Naushahra (Nowshera), and
were utterly defeated. Kāji Chakk fled to Srinagar, and thence
into the mountains, but Ibrāhīm appears to have been slain, for he
is no more heard of. He reigned for no more than eight months
and a few days.
Abdal Mākari enthroned Nāzuk Shāh at Nowshera in 1527, and
advanced on Srinagar, which he occupied. After dismissing his
Mughal allies with handsome presents he sent to Loharkot for
Muhammad Shāh, and in 1529 enthroned him for the fourth time.
Malik Kāji Chakk made an attempt to regain his supremacy, but
was defeated and fled to the Indian plains. He returned shortly
afterwards, and joined Abdāl in defending their country against a
force sent to invade it by Kāmrān Mirzā, the second son of Bābur.
The Mughuls were defeated and retired into the Punjab.
Abdāl Mākari and Kāji Chakk again fought side by side in
1533, when a force sent by Sultān Sa'id Khān of Kāshghar and
commanded by his son Sikandar Khān and Mirzā Haider invaded
the Kashmir valley from the north, and by their ravages inflicted
terrible misery on the inhabitants. The battle was indecisive, but
the army of Kashmir fought so fiercely from morning until evening
that the invaders were fain to make peace and withdraw from the
country, relinquishing some of their plunder. Their departure was


## p. 288 (#334) ############################################

288
(cit.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
>
followed by a severe famine, during which large number died of
hunger and many more fled the country.
Muhammad Shāh died in 1534, having reigned four times, and
was succeeded by his surviving son, Shams-ud-din II, who died in
June or July, 1540, when Nāzuk Shāh was restored.
In this year Mirzā Haidar the Mughal again invaded Kashmir.
He was with Humāyūn at Lahore, and obtained some assistance
from him on promising, in the event of success, to govern Kashmir
as his vassal. He had with him no more than 400 horse, but was
joined by Abdāl Mākari and Zangi Chakk, who, having rebelled in
Kamrāj, had been defeated by Kāji Chakk. His allies engaged
Kāji Chakk's attention by threatening a frontal attack while he
marching by Punch, where the passes were undefended, turned the
enemy's right flank and, on November 22, 1540, entered Srīnagar
unopposed.
Mirzā Haidar, aided by Abdal Mākari and Zangi Chakk, occu-
pied himself with the administration of his easily won kingdom,
while Kāji Chahk fled to Delhi and sought aid of Sher Shāh, who
placed at his disposal 5000 horse. He returned to Kashmir in 1541,
but was defeated by Mirzā Haidar and found an asylum in Baram-
galla, where he was joined, in 1543, by his kinsman Zangi Chakk,
who had become suspicious of Haidar's attitude towards him. An
attempt to recover Srinagar was defeated in 1544, and they were
compelled to return to Baramgalla, where, in 1545, Kāji Chakk and
his son Muhammad died of fever. In the following year Zangi
Chakk and his son Ghāzi attacked a force under Haidar's officers,
and both were killed. These opportune casualties among
his
enemies allowed Haidar leisure to receive with due honour a mis-
sion from Käshghar, his own country, and to lead into Kishtwār an
expedition which was compelled to retreat after suffering heavy
losses and accomplishing nothing. Expeditions to Rājāori and the
region beyond Bāltistān were more successful, and these districts
were annexed in 1548.
In 1519 the Chakk tribe gave offence to Islām Shāh Sūr of Delhi
by harbouring Haibat Khān and other Niyāzi Afghāns who had
rebelled against him. They made their peace with Delhi, but
attempted to utilise Haibat Khān as a counterpoise to Mirzā Haidar
in Kashmir. Mirzā Haidar was strong enough to frustrate this
design, but was obliged, in order to strengthen his position, to con-
ciliate Islām Shāh by a remittance of tribute.
The affection of racial superiority by the Mughuls gave great
offence to the natives of Kashmir, and in 1551 Haidar's officers at


## p. 289 (#335) ############################################

XII ]
DEATH OF MIRZĀ HAIDAR
289
Bāra mūla, where a mixed force proceeding to restore order in the
eastern districts was encamped, warned him that the Kashmiri
officers were meditating mischief. Mirzā Haidar, though he received
confirmation of their report from the Mākarīs, always his staunch
allies, committed the fatal error of mistrusting his own officers,
whom he accused of contentiousness. The force continued its march
from Bāramūla, the Mughuls were surrounded in the mountains,
eighty officers were slain, others were captured, and a few escaped
to Baramgalla. The outrage was followed by a rising throughout
the provinces, where Mughul officers were either slain or compelled
to flee.
Mirzā Haidar was now left with a handful of Mughuls at Srinagar,
and to oppose the united forces of the Kashmir nobles, who were
now returning from Bāramūla he hastily raised a force from the
lower classes in the capital, who were neither well affected nor
of any fighting value. With no more than a thousand men he
marched from the city and attempted to counterbalance his moral
and numerical inferiority by surprising the enemy in a night attack
on his camp, but was slain in the darkness by some of his own men.
The remnant of the Mughuls was pursued to the citadel of Srinagar,
and after enduring a siege of three days was fain to purchase, by a
timely surrender, a safe retreat from Kashmir.
Thus, late in 1551, ended ten years of Mughul rule in Kashmir,
whose turbulent nobles were now free to resume their intrigues
and quarrels. Nāzuk Shāh was seated, for the third time, on the
throne, and the chiefs of the Chakk tribe extended their influence
by judicious intermarriage with other tribes. An invasion by Haibat
Khān, at the head of a force of Niyāzi Afghāns, was repelled, and
the victory helped Daulat, now the most proininent C'Hakk, to
acquire the supreme power in the state. In 1552 he deposed Nāzuk
Shāh, who had reigned for no more than ten months, and enthroned
his elder son, Ibrāhīm II, whose short reign of three years was
marked by a victory over the Tibetans, who had invaded the king-
dom, and by a great earthquake which changed the course of the
Jhelum, as well as by a quarrel between Daulat Chakk and another
chieftain of the same tribe, Ghāzi Khān son, of Kāji Chakk.
Ghāzi Khăn, whose success secured for him the position which
Daulat had held, deposed Ibrāhīm II in 1555, and placed on the
throne his younger brother, Ismā'il Shāh. The quarrels between
chieftains of the Chakk tribe continued throughout his brief reign
of two years and that of his son and successor, Habib Shāh, who
was raised to the throne on his father's death in 1557, but Ghāzi
C. H. I. III.
19


## p. 290 (#336) ############################################

290
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
Khān retained his supremacy and in 1558 crushed the serious re-
bellion of Yusuf Chakk, who was supported by Shāh Abu-'l-Ma'āli,
recently escaped from Lahore, where he had been imprisoned by
Akbar, and Kamāl Khān the Gakhar. In 1559 Ghāzi Khān executed
his own son Haidar, who was conspiring against him and had mur.
dered the agent whom he had sent to advise him to mend his ways;
and in the following year crushed another serious rebellion sup.
ported by Mughuls and Gakhars from the Punjab.
In 1561 Ghāzi Khān dethroned and imprisoned Habib Shah,
and, finding that it was no longer necessary to veil his authority
with the name of a puppet, ascended the throne under the title of
Ghāzi Shāh.
The house of Shāh Mirzā had held the throne for 215 years,
from 1346 to 1561, but his descendants since 1470 had exercised
no authority in the state.
In 1562 Ghāzi Shāh sent his son Ahamd Khān in command of
an expedition into Tibet. His advanced guard was defeated, and
instead of pressing forward to its support he fled with the main
body of his force—an act of cowardice which cost him a throne.
Ghāzi Shāh set out in the following years to retrieve the disaster,
but was obliged by his disease to return. He was a leper, who had
already lost his fingers and on this expedition lost his sight. He
learnt that disturbances were impending in the capital owing to
the animosity of two factions, one of which supported the claim of
his son, Ahmad, and the other that of his half-brother, Husain, to
the throne. He returned at once to Srinagar and, being no longer
physically fit to reign, abdicated in favour of his half-brother who
in 1563-64, ascended the throne as Nāsir-ud-din Husain Shāh.
Ghāzi Shāh could not at once abandon the habits formed during
a long period of absolute power and so resented a measure taken
by his brother to remedy an act of injustice committed by himself
that he attempted to revoke his abdication, but found no support,
and was obliged to retire into private life.
Husain's was a troubled reign. His elder brother, Shankar
Chakk, twice rose in rebellion, but was defeated, and a powerful
faction conspired to raise his nephew Ahmad to the throne, but
he inveigled the conspirators into his palace and arrested them.
Ahmad and two others were afterwards blinded, and Ghāzi Shāh's
death is said to have been hastened by grief for his son.
In 1565 the minister, Khān Zamān Khān, fell into disgrace, and
was urged by some of his supporters to seize the royal palace while
the king was hunting, and to raise Ahmad, who had not yet been


## p. 291 (#337) ############################################

XII]
IMPERIAL INTERVENTION
291
blinded, to the throne. Khān Zamān attacked the palace, but his
son, Bahādur Khān, was slain by the king's servants while at.
tempting to force an entry and he himself was captured and suf-
fered death by impalement, his ears, nose, hands, and feet having
first been amputated.
In 1568 a religious disturbance gave Akbar's envoy, Mirzā
,
Muqim, a pretext for interfering in the domestic affairs of the
kingdom. Qāzi Habib, a Sunni was severely wounded with a sword
by one Yusuf, a fanatical Shiah, who was seized and brought before
the doctors of the law, who adjudged him worthy of death, despite
the protests of his victim, who said that so long as he lived his
assailant could not lawfully be put to death. Yusuf was stoned to
death and Husain Shāh replied to the protests of the Shiahs that
he had but executed a sentence passed by the doctors of the law.
Mirzā Muqim, who was a Shiah, demanded the surrender of the
wounded man and those who had pronounced the illegal sentence,
but the latter defended themselves by asserting that they had
passed no sentence of death, but hai merely expressed the opinion
that Yusuf might be executed in the interests of the public tran-
quillity. Husain escaped the clamour of the contending sects by a
river tour, and the jurists were delivered into the custody of Fath
Khăn Chakk, a Shiah, who, after treating them with great harsh-
ness, put them to death by Mirzā Muqim's order, and caused their
bodies to be dragged through the streets of the city.
The affair caused Husain Shāh much anxiety and, believing
that his hesitation to punish the doctors of the law would give
offence to Akbar, he sent him, by Mirzā Muqim, a daughter and
many rich gifts, but Akbar was offended by his envoy's display of
religious bigotry, and put him to death. It was reported in Kashmir
that the emperor was sending back the princess, and this gross
indignity so preyed upon the king's spirits as to increase the weak-
ness and depression caused by an attack of dysentery from which
he was already suffering. While he was in this feeble state of
health his brother 'Ali Khān assembled his troops with the object
of seizing the throne. Husain 's conduct during the recent troubles
had alienated most of his supporters, and he found himself deserted,
and, surrendering the crown to his brother, retired to one of his
villas, where he died three weeks later.
'Ali Shāh, who ascended the throne in 1569-70, was happier in
his relations with Akbar than his brother had been. In 1578 he
received two envoys, Maulānā 'Ishqi and Qāzi Sadr-ud-din, whom
hę sent back to the imperial court with rich gifts and a report,
19-2


## p. 292 (#338) ############################################

292
[ CH.
THE KINGDOM OF KASHMIR
gratifying to the emperor, that the khutba had been recited in
Kashmir in his name. His reign of nearly nine years was troubled
by the usual rebellions, and by one severe famine in 1576. He died
in 1579 from the effects of an accident at polo similar to that which
caused the death of Qutb-ud-din Aibak of Delhi, the high pommel
of his saddle entering his belly, and was succeeded by his son, Yusuf
Shāh.
The early years of Yūsul's reign were even more than usually
full of incident. He was immediately called upon to quell a serious
rebellion headed by his uncle, Abdāl Chakk, and had no sooner
suppressed it than Mubarak Khān, a leading Sayyid, rose in rebel-
lion and usurped the throne. A counter-rebellion displaced the
Sayyid, who approached Yûsuf and owned him as his sovereign,
but the reconciliation came too late, for Lohar Chakk, Yūsuf's
cousin, seized the throne.
Yusuf left Kashmir, and on January 2, 1580, appeared before
Akbar at Fathpur. Sīkri, and sought his aid. In August he left the
court armed with an order directing the imperial officers in the
Punjab to assist him in regaining his throne.
His allies were pre-
paring to take the field when many of the leading nobles of Kashmir,
dreading an invasion by an imperial army, sent him a message
promising to restore him to his throne if he would return alone.
He entered Kashmir and was met at Baramgalla by his supporters.
Lohar Chakk was still able to place an army in the field and sent
it to Baramgalla, but Yusuf, evading it, advanced by another road
on Sopur, where he met Lohar Chakk and, on November 8, 1580,
defeated and captured him, and regained his throne.
The remainder of the reign produced the usual crop of rebellions,
but none so sericus as those which had already been suppressed.
His chief anxiety, henceforth, was the emperor. He was indebted
to him for ro material help, but he would not have regained his
throne so easily, and might not have regained it at all, had it not
been known that Akbar was prepared to aid him. The historians
of the imperial court represent him, after his restoration, as Akbar's
governor of Kashmir, invariably describing him as Yusuf Khān,
and he doubtless made, as a suppliant, many promises of which no
trustworthy record exists. His view was that as he had regained
his throne without the aid of foreign troops he was still an inde.
pendent sovereign, but he knew that this was not the view held
at the imperial court, where he was expected to do homage in
person for his kingdom. In 1581 Akbar, then halting at Jalālābād
on his return from Kābul, sent Mir Tahir and Sālih Divāna as


## p. 293 (#339) ############################################

inj
ANNEXATION
293
envoys to Kashmir but Yusuf, after receiving the mission with
extravagant respect, sent to court his son Haidar, who returned
after a year. His failure to appear in person was still the subject
of remark and in 1584 he sent his elder son, Ya'qub, to represent
him. Ya'qub reported that Akbar intended to visit Kashmir, and
Yusuf prepared, in fear and trembling, to receive him, but the
visit was postponed, and he was called upon to receive nobody
more important than two new envoys, Hakim 'Ali Gilāni and Bahā-
ud-din.
Ya'qub, believing his life to be in danger, fled from the imperial
camp at Lahore, and Yūsuf would have gone in person to do homage
to Akbar, had he not been dissuaded by his nobles. He was treated
as a recalcitrant vassal, and an army under raja Bhagwān Dās
invaded Kashmir. Yusuf held the passes against the invaders, and
the raja, dreading a winter campaign in the hills and believing
that formal submission would still satisfy his master, made peace
on Yusuf's undertaking to appear at court. The promise was ful-
filled on April 7, 1586, but Akbar refused to ratify the treaty which
Bhagwān Dās had made, and broke faith with Yūsuf by detaining
him as a prisoner. The raja, sensitive on a point of honour, com-
mitted suicide.
Ya'qub remained in Kashmir, and though imperial officers were
sent to assume charge of the administration of the province, at-
tempted to maintain himself as regent, or rather as king, and carried
on a guerrilla warfare for more than two years, but was finally
induced to submit and appeared before Akbar, when he visited
Kashmir, on August 8, 1589.
Akbar's treatment of Yūsuf is one of the chief blots on his
character. After a year's captivity the prisoner was released and
received a fief in Bihār and the command of five hundred horse.
The emperor is credited with the intention of promoting him, but
he never rose above this humble rank, in which he was actively
employed under Mān Singh in 1592 in Bengal, Orissa, and Chuta
Nagpur.


## p. 294 (#340) ############################################

CHAPTER XIII
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
The great empire of Muhammad Tughluq was dismembered
partly by his own ferocious tyranny and partly by the weakness of
his successors. Bengal revolted in 1338 and the Deccan in 1347,
during Muhammad's lifetime. There were no further defections in
the reign of his successor Firūz, who had some success in Bengal,
but failed to recover the province, but the twenty-five years which
followed the death of Firūz witnessed the accession of one weak.
ling after another to the throne of Delhi, the destruction of such
power as still remained in the hands of the central government by
the invasion of Tīmūr, and the establishment of independent prin-
cipalities in Sind, Oudh, Khāndesh, Gujarāt, and Mālwa.
Malik Ahmad, the founder of the small principality of Khāndesh
was not, however, a rebel against the king of Delhi, but against
the Bahmani dynasty of the Deccan. In 1365 he joined the rebel-
lion of Bahram Khān Māzandarāni against Muhammad I, the second
king of that line, and when he was compelled to flee from the
Deccan established himself at Thālner, on the Tāpti. By 1382 he
had conquered the surrounding country and ruled his small terri-
tory as an independent prince. He was known both as Malik Raja
and Raja Ahmad, but he and his successors for some generations
were content with the title of Khān, from which circumstance their
small principality became known as Khāndesh, 'the country of
the Khāns. ' His dynasty was distinguished by the epithet Fāruqi,
from the title of the second Caliph, 'Umar, al-Fārūq, or "The Dis-
criminator,' from whom Ahmad claimed descent.
The kingdom of Gujarāt was established in 1396. Farhat-ul.
Mulk, who had been appointed governor of the province by Fīrūz
Shāh, had long ceased to pay any heed to orders received from
Delhi and the inhabitants groaned under his yoke. In 1391 Mu-
hammad Shāh, the youngest son of Firūz, appointed Zafar Khăn
to the government of Gujarāt, and sent him to establish his autho-
rity there. The new governor was the son of a Rajput convert to
Islam, Wajih-ul-Mulk of Didwāna, governor of Nāgaur. On January
4, 1392, he defeated and mortally wounded Farhat-ul-Mulk at
Gāmbhū, eighteen miles south of Pātan, and gradually reduced to
obedience all disorderly elements in the province. In 1396 the


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CH. XII ]
SULTĂN MUZAFFAR I
295
strife between two rival kings Mahmud Shāh and Nusrat Shāh,
and the impossibility of determining to whom allegiance was due,
furnished him with a pretext for declaring himself independent,
and he was joined in the following year by his son Tātār Khān,
who, having espoused the cause of the pretender Nusrat Shāh, had
been compelled to flee from Delhi. Zafar Khān was preparing to
march to Delhi when he was deterred by tokens of Tīmūr's im-
pending invasion, and devoted the whole of his attention to his
campaign against the Rājput state of Idar, which he subdued in
1400.
In 1399 Mahmud Shāh of Delhi and large numbers of fugitives
fleeing before Tīmūr arrived in Gujarāt. They were hospitably
received, but Mahmūd considered that Zafar Khān's attitude to
him was not sufficiently deferential, and retired to Mālwa, where
he took refuge with Dilāvar Khān Ghūrī, the governor.
In 1403 Tātār Khān, learning that Iqbāl Khān, or Mallū, who
had driven him from Delhi, had so humiliated Mahmud Shāh that
the latter had fled from him, urged his father to march on Delhi
and assume control of the situation, but Zafar Khān was well
stricken in years and shrank from the enterprise. He so far yielded
to his son's importunity as to place a force at his disposal in order
that he might wreak his vengeance on his former antagonist, but
Tātār Khān, finding himself at the head of an army, rose against
his father, seized him and imprisoned him at Asāwal, and caused
himself to be proclaimed king under the title of Nāsir-ud-din
-
Muhammad Shāh. Having thus secured his father he appointed
his uncle Shams Khān regent of the kingdom, with the title of
Nusrat Khān, and set out for Delhi in order to carry out his
original project, but as soon as he had left Asāwal Zafar Khăn
persuaded the regent, his brother, to follow the rebel and privily
compass his death. Shams (Nusrat) Khān set out for Tātār's camp
and there poisoned him in a draught of wine, and on his return
released his brother and restored him to his throne, which he now
ascended under the title of Sultan Muzaffar.
In 1407 Muzaffar invaded Mālwa and besieged the king, Hüshang
Shāh, in Dhār. The pretext for this attack was his resolve to
avenge the death of his old friend and comrade, Dīlāvar Khăn, who
had been poisoned by his son Hūshang. Dhār fell, and Hüshang
was captured and imprisoned, and Muzaffar established his own
brother, Nusrat Khān (Shams Khān) in Dhār.
After capturing Dhār Muzaffar learnt that Ibrahim Shāh of
Jaunpur, having annexed some districts to the east of the Ganges,


## p. 296 (#342) ############################################

296
[CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHẮNDESH
intended to attack Delhi ; he thereupon marched from Malwa to
the support of Mahmūd Shāh Tughluq, carrying with him the cap-
tive Hushang. The menace deterred Ibrāhīm from prosecuting his
enterprise and Muzaffar returned to Gujarāt.
Nusrat Khăn had made himself so odious by his exactions in
Mālwa that the army expelled him, and elected Mūsā Khān, a
cousin of Hūshang as their governor, and Muzaffar, who was not
prepared to permit the army of Mālwa to rule the destinies of that
country, sent his grandson Ahmad, son of Tātār Khān, to restore
Hüshang who was sent with him. Ahmad reinstated Hüshang in
Mālwa and returned to Gujarāt, where he was designated heir to
the kingdom by his grandfather.
Muzaffar died in June, 1411, and Ahmad was confronted on his
succession, by a serious rebellion, headed by his four uncles, Firūz
Khăn, Haibat hãn, Sa’adat Khăn, and Sher Khăn, who resented
their nephew's elevation to the throne. He succeeded, without
bloodshed, in inducing them to acknowledge him as their sovereign,
and was enabled to turn his arms against Hushang Shāh of Mālwa
whom he had summoned to his aid but who had determined, instead
of assisting him, to profit by his difficulties. Hūshang who had
hoped to find him fully occupied with the rebels, retreated pre-
cipitately when he learnt that the rebellion had been extinguished
and that Ahmad was marching against him, but his retirement
was followed by a fresh rising of the rebels, who were however,
defeated and dispersed. The rebellion of the raja of Jhālāwar then
called Ahmad into Kāthīāwār, and during his absence in that region
Hūshang at the invitation of Ahmad's uncles, again invaded Gu.
jarāt, and Ahmad, returning from Jhālāwar sent his brother Latif
Khān against their uncles and 'Imād-ul-Mulk Sha'bān one of his
nobles, against Hüshang who, finding that he was not supported
retired to Mālwa, while Latii Khān dispersed the rebels and com.
pelled them to seek refuge with the Chudasama chief of Girnār
in Sorath. Ahmad proceeded to chastise the raja for harbouring
them, defeated him in the field, and besieged him in his fort on
the Girnār hill. He purchased peace by a promise to pay tribute,
and Ahmad, who was suddenly called away by a report of the
invasion of Nandurbār, left two of his officers to collect the tribute
and returned to his new city of Ahmadābād, which he had built
on the site of Asāwal, to assemble troops for the expulsion of the
invader.
Raja Ahmad of Khandesh had died on April 29, 1399, leaving
two sons, Nasir and Hasan, to inherit his dominions. Nasir had


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xm]
NASİR KHĀN OF KHĂNDESH
297
received the eastern and Hasan the western districts, and the
former had founded, in 1400, the city of Burhānpur, and had cap-
tured from a Hindu chieftain the strong fortress of Asir, while the
latter had established himself at Thālner, Such a division of the
territories of the small state held no promise of permanence, and
in 1417 the elder brother, Nasir, having obtained assistance from
Hüshang of Mālwa, who had married his sister, captured Thālner
and imprisonei Hasan before a reply could be received to the
latter's appeal for aid to Ahmad of Gujarāt. Nasir, with a view to
forestalling Ahmad's intervention and to repairing the discomfiture
of his father, who had made an unsuccessful attempt to annex the
south-eastern districts of the kingdom of Gujarāt, attacked Nan-
durbār. A relieving force sent by Ahmad compelled Nasīr to retreat
to Asīr, and besieged him in that fortress. Peace was made on
Nasir's swearing fealty to Ahmad, and promising to abstain in
future from aggression, and Ahmad in return recognised Nasir's
title of Khān. Nasir's brother Hasan retired to Gujarāt, where he
and his descendants for generations found a home and intermarried
with the royal house.
From this treaty dates the estrangement between Khāndesh
and Mālwa, which had hitherto been allies. Nasir Khăn resented
Hūshang's failure to support him adequately against Ahmad Shāh
and friendly relations were broken off. In 1429 Nasīr, in spite of
the old animosity of his house towards the Bahmanids, attempted
to form an alliance with the Deccan by giving his daughter in
marriage to ‘Alā ud din Ahmad, son of Ahmad Shāh, the ninth king
of that dynasty, but the union engendered strife, and Khāndesh,
after a disastrous war with her powerful neighbour, was at length
driven into the arms of Gujarāt.
Ahmad himself had advanced as far as Nandurbār, sending
Malik Mahmūd, one of his officers, to besiege Asir, and while at
Nandurbar he heard from his uncle Firüz, who had taken refuge
in Nāgaur, that Hūshang Shāh was about to invade Gujarāt. This
report was followed immediately by the news that Hüshang, in
response to invitations from the rajas of Idar, Chāmpāner, Mandal,
and Nāndod, had crossed his frontier and reached Modāsa? . Ahmad,
although the rainy season of 1418 had begun, at once marched
northward, traversed the country of the disaffected rajas, and ap-
peared before Modāsa. Hūshang beat a hasty retreat, but Ahmad
had no rest. He was obliged to send expeditions to quell a rebel.
lion in Sorath, and to expel Nasir Khān from the Nandurbār
1 In 23° 28' N. and 73° 18' E.


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298
GUJARĀT AND KHĂNDESH
. CH
district, which he had invaded in violation of his promise. Both
expeditions were successful, and Nasir was pardoned on its being
discovered that the real culprit was Hūshang's son, Ghazni Khān,
who had not only instigated him to invade the district but had
supplied him with troops.
It was now evident that the real enemy was Hüshang, and
Ahmad, having pardoned the rebellious rajas on receiving from
them double tribute and promises of better behaviour, set out in
March, 1419, to invade Mālwa.
Hūshang came forth to meet him, but was defeated in a fiercely
contested battle and compelled to take refuge in Māndū. Ahmad's
troops devastated the country, but as the rainy season
was at hand
he returned to Ahmadābād, plundering on his way the districts of
Champāner and Nāndod.
In 1420 Ahmad marched to Songarh", and thence, in a north-
easterly direction, towards Māndū, “punishing' on his way, 'the
infidels' of the Sātpūras. Hūshang, dreading another invasion,
sent envoys to crave pardon for his past conduct, and Ahmad
retired, and in 1422 reduced the raja of Chāmpāner to vassalage.
In 1422, during Hūshang's absence on his famous raid into Orissa,
Ahmad invaded Mālwa, capturing Maheshwar on the Narbada on
March 27. He appeared before Māndů on April 5, and besieged it
ineffectually until the beginning of the rainy season, when he retired
into quarters at Ujjain. In the meantime Hüshang returned to
Māndū, and on September 17 Ahmad reopened the siege, but,
finding that he could not reduce the fortress, retired by Ujjain to
Sārangpur, with the object of continuing his depredations in that
neighbourhood, but Hūshang, marching by a more direct route,
met him near Sārangpur on December 26. Neither was anxious to
risk a general action and after desultory and inconclusive hostilities
of two and a half months' duration Ahmad began his retreat on
March 17. He reached Ahmadābād on May 15, and in considera-
tion of his army's labours refrained for more than two years from
embarking on any military enterprise and devoted himself to
administrative reforms. From 1425 until 1428 he was engaged in
hostilities against Idar, which ended in the reduction of Hari Rāi,
the raja, to the condition of a vassal of Gujarāt.
In 1429 Kānhā, raja of Jhālāwar, fled from his state and took
refuge with Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, who, not being strong enough
to protect him, sent him to the court of Ahmad Shāh Bahmani at
Bidar, who dispatched a force into the Nandurbār district to ravage
1 In 21° 10' N, and 73° 36' E.


## p. 299 (#345) ############################################

*u )
WAR WITH THE DECCAN
299
the country. This force was expelled and driven back to Daulatābād,
whereupon Ahmad of the Deccan sent an army under his son ‘Alā-
ud-din Ahmad to invade Gujarāt and re-establish Kānhā in Jhālāwar.
This army, which assembled at Daulatābād, was there joined by
Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, and against the allied forces Ahmad of
Gujarāt sent an army under his eldest son, Muhammad Khān. This
prince defeated the allies at Mānikpunj, about thirty-eight miles
north-west of Daulatābād, and 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad fled to Daulatā.
bād while Nasīr and Kānhā fled into Khāndesh. Muhammad Khān
of Gujarāt perceiving that it would be useless to besiege Daulatā.
bād, laid waste part of Khāndesh and retired to Nandurbār.
In 1430 Khalaf Hasan of Basrah, an officer of the army of the
Deccan attacked Mahim the southernmost port of the kingdom of
Gujarāt and Ahmad of Gujarāt sent his younger son, Zafar Khān,
to the relief of the town, while 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad marched to the
support of Khalaf Hasan. Mahim was taken, but Zafar Khān not
only besieged the army there, but also took Thāna, a port belonging
to the kingdom of the Deccan. The campaign was decided, however
by a battle in which the army of the Deccan was completely defeated
and was forced to evacuate Mahim and retreat.
Ahmad of the Deccan was much chagrined by the news of this
defeat, and led an army in person to invade Baglāna, the small
Rājput state between Gujarāt and Deccan which was protected
by the former, but, on hearing that Ahmad of Gujarāt was march-
ing against him, retired to Bidar. Ahmad of Gujarāt returned to
Ahmadābād and Ahmad of the Deccan again advanced and besieged
the fortress, of Batnols which was gallantly defended by Malik
Saʻādat, an officer of Gujarāt. Ahmad of Gujarāt marched to the
relief of the fortress, and Ah nad of the Deccan, raising the siege,
turned to meet him. A battle was fought in which each army held
its ground but Ahmad of the Deccan, dismayed by the extent of
his losses, retreated in the night.
In 1433 Ahmad led a raid into the Dungarpur state, compelled
the Rāwal to pay a ransom, and left an officer at Kherwāra to
collect tribute. He continued his depredations in Mārwār, compelled
his Kinsman Fīrūz Khān', now governor of Nāgaur, to pay an in-
demnity, and returned to Ahmadābād.
In 1436 Masóūd Khān of Mālwa arrived at Ahmadābād
suppliant seeking redress. His father, Ghazni Khān, had ascended
the throne of Mālwa in 1435 and had been poisoned in the following
year by his cousin, Mahmud Khalji, who had ascended the throne
1 Firūz was the son of Ahmad's grand-uncle, Shams Khăn.
as a


## p. 300 (#346) ############################################

300
GUJARẤT AND KHÁNDESH
[ ch.
and deprived him of his inheritance. Ahmad welcomed the oppor-
tunity of intervening and in 1438 invade Mālwa with a view to
seating Mas'üd on the throne of that kingdom. After many months
of fruitless campaigning he was obliged to retire owing to an out-
break of pestilence in his army, and died on August 16, 1442, before
he could fulfil his promise to restore Masóūd. He was succeeded in
Gujarāt by his eldest son, who ascended the throne under the title
of Mu'izz-ud-din Muhammad Shāh. Soon after his accession to the
throne Ahmad had begun to build the town of Ahmadābād on the
site of the old city of Asāwal, and in spite of the constant military
activities of his reign he was able to devote much of his time to the
establishment of this city, which even to-day bears witness to the
taste and munificence of its founder.
While Ahmad had been engaged in espousing the cause of
Mas'ud Khān in Mālwa Nasir Khān of Khāndesh had involved him-
self in hostilities with the Deccan. His daughter had complained
that her husband 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad, who had succeeded his father
in 1435, was neglecting her for a beautiful Hindu girl, and Nasir,
to avenge his daughter's wrongs, invaded Berar, the northernmost
province of the Bahmani kingdom.