No More Learning

He sent a quantity of supplies
into the fortress and hurriedly retired into Berar, leaving his camp
standing.
Bahādur's situation gave him some cause for anxiety. He had
no prospect of capturing Daulatābād, one of his allies had deserted
him, the other, Muhammad of Khāndesh, desired peace, and the
rainy season of 1529 was approaching. He therefore permitted
Muhammad to open negotiations, and after some discussion agreed
to peace on terms sufficiently humiliating to Burhān Nizām Shāh.
Both he and 'Alā-ud-din 'Imād Shāh were to cause the khutba to
be recited in Bahādur's name in their dominions, and were to
appear before him as vassals ; all the elephants taken from 'Alā-ud-
din and Muhammad were to be restored, and Pāthri and Māhūr
were to be ceded again to Berar. Burhān fulfilled the first condition
by causing the khutba to be recited on one occasion in Bahādur's
name, but it was only with great difficulty that Muhammad of
Khāndesh recovered his elephants, and those of 'Alā-ud-din were
never restored, nor were Pāthrī and Māhūr ceded to him.
Bahādur returned to Gujarāt in the spring of 1529, and his
relative, the Jām Fīrūz of Sind, who had been expelled from his
country by Shāh Beg Arghūn, took refuge at his court.
In 1530 the Portuguese, having already assembled at Bombay
a great fleet, sailed for Damān and captured that town, and in
February, 1931, arrived before Diū, which they attacked, but
Bahādur had already visited the place in 1530, and had made all
provision for its defence, and the Portuguese, having failed to
take the town, sailed back to Goa, leaving a fleet in the Gulf of
Cambay to harass the trade and shipping of Gujarāt.
Bahādur returned from Diū to Chāmpāner, where he received
some of the nobles of the late Ibrāhīm Shāh Lodi of Delhi, who had
reached his court with 300 followers. From Chāmpāner Bahādur
marched to Modāsa and thence led an expedition into Bāker and


## p. 326 (#372) ############################################

326
(ch.
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
Bānswāra. The Rānā, Ratan Singh II, who had succeeded San-
grama after the battle of Sīkrī, interceded for the two chiefs, and
Bahādur stayed his hand.
Mahmūd II of Mālwa was now pursuing a suicidal policy. He
had sent a force to ravage the southern districts of the territories
of the Rānā, he had so alienated by his sinister and deceitful course
of conduct the nobles of Mālwa that some had taken refuge with
the Rānā and others with Bahādur, and he was harbouring at his
court a son of the late Sultān Muzaffar of Gujarāt, Chānd Khān, a
pretender to Bahādur's throne, whose claims he was understood to
favour. The old friendship between Mālwa and Gujarāt was thus
entirely dissolved. Bahādur, less bigoted than his father, and
sensible of Ratan Singh's claims of his friendship, which were based
on Sangrama's reception of him when he was a fugitive, was
inclined to deprecate wanton attacks on his territories, was bitterly
resentful of the harbourage offered to Chānd Khān, and was
inclined to regard Mahmūd, who owed his tenure of his throne to
the capture of Māndū from rebellious Rājputs by Mahmūd Begarha,
as a vassal : Mahmud, on the other hand, was perturbed by
Bahādur's harbourage of malcontents from Mālwa, and suggested
a meeting at which differences could be settled. Bahādur haughtily
replied that he had been awaiting a request for an interview at
which Mahmud could appear before him and explain matters.
This had not been Mahmūd's intention, but he found it difficult to
recede from his suggestion, and could hardly propose that Bahādur
should wait upon him. He feigned to be eager to pay his respects
to the sultan of Gujarāt but always discovered a pretext for
evading a meeting. Ratan Singh of Mewār marched as far as
Sārangpur and threatened Ujjain, to which city Mahmūd advanced.
Bahādur entered Malwa and awaited Mahmūd's arrival at his
camp, but an envoy from Mahmūd made his excuses by explaining
that his master had broken his arm whilst out hunting. In private
he informed Bahādur that Chānd Khān was the real difficulty, as
Mahmūd did not wish to surrender him, but feared to refuse.
Bahādur bade the envoy reassure his master on this point, and
marched slowly towards Māndū, accompanied by Muhammad Shāh
of Khāndesh, expecting Mahmūd at each stage ; but Mahmūd had
washed his hands of kingship, and had withdrawn into his seraglio
at Māndū, meeting the remonstrances of his courtiers with the
answer that he knew that his reign was drawing to its close, and
that he intended to enjoy life while it lasted. He had thoughts of
abdicating and installing his son Ghiyās-ud-din, but seemed to be


## p. 327 (#373) ############################################

km)
CONQUEST OF MĂLWA
327
on
unable to execute any plan. Meanwhile Bahādur marched to
Naʻlcha and formed the siege of Mandū, being joined by many of
the nobles and officers of Mālwa. The sloth and carelessness of
Mahmud infacted his army, and on the night of March 17 the
besiegers scaled an unguarded section of the wall and entered the
city unopposed. Mahmūd formed the intention of imitating the
Rājputs and performing the rite of jauhar, but, on receiving a
message from Bahādur that his life and honour were sale, aban-
doned it and waited on Bahadur with seven of his officers. The
khutba was recited at Māndū in the name of Bahādur, Mālwa was
annexed to Gujarāt, and Mahmūd and his family were sent towards
Chāmpāner, where Bahādur proposed to imprison them, but
April 12, 1531, the camp of Āsaf Khān; in whose custody the prisoners
were, was attacked by Bhils and Kolīs, and Mahmūd's guards, fearing
a rescue, put him to death, and he was buried near Dohad. His
seven sons were sent to Chāmpāner, where they were imprisoned.
Bhādur remained a while at Mandū and marched in June to
Burhānpur, where he was entertained by Muhammad Shāh of
Khāndesh, who persuaded him, with some difficulty, to receive the
learned and pious Shāh Tahir, who had come as an envoy from
Burhān Nizām Shah I of Ahmadnagar. Burhān had not fulfilled
the conditions of the treaty of Daulatābād, and Bahādur was con.
sequently ill-disposed towards him, but Shāh Tāhir undertook that
his master should wait on him at Burhānpur and, returning to
Ahmadnagar, persuaded Burhān, to carry out this promise, which
he had made at Daulatābād. The humiliating circumstances of the
reception were somewhat alleviated by an artifice of Shāh Tāhir,
who bore a copy of the Koran for presentation to Bahādur, and
thus obliged the latter to descend from his throne to do reverence
to the holy book. Both Bahādur and Burhān remained for a short
time at Burhānpur as the guests of Muhammad Shāh, and before
they parted Bahādur gratified Burhān's vanity by recognising his
title of Shāh.
The Rājput Silāhdi, who held the districts of Rāisen, Bhilsa,
and Sārangpur, nominally as fiefs of Mālwa but actually as a small
principality, had been permitted by Bahādur to visit Räisen aſter
the fall of Māndū, but showed no disposition to fulfil his promise
to return, aud Nassan Khān, who was sent to Rāisen and brought
him to court, privately informed the king that he was disloyal, and
if permitted again to leave the court would ally himself to the
Rānā. He was therefore arrested at Dhār, his troops were plundered
and dispersed, and his elephants were confiscated.


## p. 328 (#374) ############################################

328
CH
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
Early in January, 1532, Bahādur sent 'Imād-ul-Mulk Malikjī,
son of Tawakkul, to arrest Silāhdi's son Bhopat, who had remained
at Ujjain when his father came to court and had since occupied
Sārangpur. “Imād-ul-Mulk reported that he had fled to Chitor to
seek help of the Rānā, and the king marched by Bhilsa, which he
occupied, to Räisen, still held by Silāhdi's brother, Lakhman Singh.
He was attacked as he approached the town on January 26, but
drove the Rājputs into the fortress and formed the siege.
Bahādur's artillery, under Mustafā Rūmi Khān, who had succeeded
Tūghān as governor of Diū, did much execution, and Silāhdi con-
ciliated Bahādur by perfidiously feigning to accept Islam, and thus
obtained permission to meet his brother, ostensibly with the object
of arranging for the surrender of the fortress, but when he and
Lakhman Singh met they agreed to await the relieving force
expected from Chitor, and sent 2000 men under Silāhdi's youngest
son to hasten its arrival. This force, was, however, intercepted by
the besiegers and defeated, Silāhdi's son being slain, and Bahādur,
on learning of Silāhdi's perfidy, sent him in custody to Māndū and
dispatched a force under Muhammad Shāh of Khāndesh and 'Imād-
ul-Mulk Malikji to meet the Rānā and Bhopat. This force met and
put to flight at Kamkera another force of 2000 Rājputs under
Puran Mal, another of Silāhdi's sons, and Bahādur, learning that
the Rānā was at the head of a large army left his officers to continue
the siege and marched against him. Vikramāditya, who had suc-
ceeded his father Ratan Singh would not face Bahādur in the field,
but retired to Chitor, and Bahādur returned to Rāisen. Lakhman
Singh, despairing of relief, offered to surrender on condition that
Silāhdi was pardoned, but when Silāhdi, having been recalled from
Māndū, was again permitted to enter Rāisen, he was persuaded to
perform the rite of jauhar rather than incur the disgrace of being
implicated in the surrender. Over 700 women were burnt, and the
men sallied forth, according to custom, in garments died yellow,
but exhibited little of the spirit of the Rājput, for though all were
slain the losses of the Muslims amounted to no more than four or
five.
Muhammad Shāh of Khāndesh, who was sent to establish
Bahādur's authority over the outlying districts of Mālwa, captured
Gāgraun' and Kanor, both of which had been treacherously sur-
rendered by Medeni Rāi, who had held them of the king of Mālwa,
to the Rānā of Mewar, and Bahādur, having appointed as governor
of Rāisen Sultān 'Alam, chief of Kālpi, who had fled from his prin-
1 In 24° 38' N. and 76° 12' E.
2 In 24° 26' N. and 74° 16' E.


## p. 329 (#375) ############################################

XII )
QUARREL WITH HUMÀYÓN
329
cipality before Bābur, overran part of Gondwāna, captured many
elephants, appointed Alp Khān governor of that region, and, turning
westward, captured Islāmābād and Hoshangābād, and met Muham-
mad Shāh, of Khandesh at Sārangpur, where the Rānā's governor
of Gāgraun was presented to him. Then returning to Māndū he
sent 'Iinād-ul-Mulk Malikji and Ikhtiyār Khān to take Mandasor,
formerly spared at the intercession of Sangrama Singh, whose
successor's writ no longer ran either in Mālwa or in Gujarāt. The
town and fortress were taken, the Rānā's officer fled, and Bahādur
dismissed Muhammad Shāh to Khāndesh, visited Diū, and on his
return thence spent the rainy season at Chāmpāner considering the
punishment of the Rānā. The occasion was opportune, for Vikra-
māditya was the Commodus of Rājputānā and disgusted his haughty
nobles by his preference for the society of gladiators, wrestlers, and
professional swashbucklers.
Bahādur, having been joined by Muhammad Shāh of Khāndesh,
marched from Chāmpāner on November 6, 1532, and on February
14, 1533, the two kings arrived before Chitor. Ten days later the
queen-mother, the widow of Sangrama Singh, purchased peace with
what remained of the plunder taken by her husband when he
captured Mahmud Khalji II of Mālwa, including the jewelled crown
of Hūshang and Bahādur retired, but returned again in 1534.
On this occasion he received in his camp Muhammad Zamān
Mirzā, a prince of the house of Tīmūr, whose pretensions had so
incensed his kinsman, the emperor, that he had been sentenced to
imprisonment in the fortress of Bayāna and to the loss of his eyes,
which he saved by flight. Humāyūn whose relations with Bahādur
had hitherto been perfectly friendly, took umbrage at his harbouring
the fugitive and his followers, and a correspondence ensued which
led to a permanent rupture between the two monarchs. Two of
the letters which passed between them have been preserved in
their entirety and offer a striking picture of the diplomatic methods
of that day. Humāyūn pointed out that although his ancestor
Tīmūr had desisted from attacking the Ottoman Sultan Bāyazid
while he was engaged in fighting the Franks he protested against
Bāyazīd's harbouring princes who had rebelled against himself.
He therefore demanded that the prince should be either surrendered
or expelled. To this Bahādur, who is said to have dictated his
reply when in his cups, sent a most insulting answer, in which he
ironically suggested that Humāyūn had boasted of the exploits of
‘his sire seven degrees removed' because he himself had achieved
nothing worthy of record.
a


## p. 330 (#376) ############################################

330
( ch.
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
So shocked were Bahādur and his nobles when they considered
the tone of this letter on the morrow that an effort was made to
overtake the courier, but without success, and their only solace
was the reflection that nothing more could be done, and that what
was decreed must come to pass.
Bahādur gained an easy victory over Vikramāditya at Loichal;
in the dominions of Surjan, Rão of Būndī, for the Rānā was deserted
by most of his vassals, who marched to the defence of Chitor, and
Bahādur, after his successs turned in the same direction and formed
the siege. Burhān-ul-Mulk now held Ranthambhor, which he had
captured for Bahādur when he had first appeared before Chitor
in the preceding year, and Bahādur sent Tātār Khān Lodi, a
grandson of Buhlūl Lodi of Delhi who had entered his service,
with a vast sum of money, in order that he and Burhān-ul-Mulk
might attack the Mughul empire. Tātār Khān raised an army and
captured the fortress of Bayāna, but Humāyūn's youngest brother
immediately recovered it, and slew him. Meanwhile the siege of
Chitor continued. According to Rājput legend Jawāhir Bāi, the
queen-mother, of Rāhtor race, sent Humāyūn a bracelet, in accord-
ance with the chivalrous custom of Rājasthān, adopting him as her
champion against Bahādur, but the legend is inconsistent with the
Muslim chronicles and with the conduct of Humāyān, who, despite
the gross provocation which he had received, would not attack
a brother Muslim while he was engaged in fighting the misbelievers.
Bahādur was seriously perturbed by the news of the defeat and
death of Tātār Khān Lodi and by apprehensions of being attacked
by Humāyān, and would have raised the siege but for the confident
assurance of Sadr Khān, one of his officers, that Humāyūn would
never attack him while he was besieging Chitor. After a lapse of
three months an extensive breach was made in the rampart, which
had never before been exposed to artillery fire. It was stoutly
defended but with a terrible sacrifice of life, and the valiant, Jawāhir
Bāi led a sortie from the fortress and was slain at the head of her
warriors. The garrison lost hope. The infant heir, Udai Singh, was
conveyed by Surjan prince of Būndī, to a place of safety, and the
surviving Rājputs performed the rite of jauhar. Thirteen thousand
women, so the legend says, headed by Karnavati, the mother of
the young prince, voluntarily perished in an immense conflagra-
tion fed by combustibles, and the survivors of the slaughter in the
breach, led by Bāghji, prince of Deola, rushed on the Muslim and
1 In 25° 17' N. and 75° 34' E.


## p. 331 (#377) ############################################

XIII )
FLIGHT OÈ BAHADUR
331
were exterminated. Chitor was for the moment a possession of the
king of Gujarāt, and received a Muslim governor.
Bahādur had now to think of his return to his capital, and had
reason to repent the folly which had prompted him to insult the
emperor ; for Humāyān, though he had scrupulously abstained froin
attacking him while he was engaged with the misbelievers, had
advanced to Mandasor, and was there awaiting him. Bahādur had
already taken a step which proclaimed his despair by sending to
Mecca, under the charge of a certain Asaf Khān, both the ladies
of his harem and his treasury. His army, as it approached the
emperor's position at Mandasor, was disheartened by the defeat of
its advanced guard and by the defection of Sayyid 'Ali Khān
Khurāsani, who deserted to the emperor. Bahādur was beset by
conflicting counsels. Sadr Khān urged that an immediate attack
should be delivered, while the army was still flushed with its
victory at Chitor, but Rūmi Khān, who commanded the artillery,
was of opinion that it should entrench itself and rely on its great
superiority in guns. Unfortunately the advice of the artilleryman
was followed. The light armed troops of Gujarāt dared not face
the Mughul archers in the field, and the imperial troops, beyond the
range of the guns, were able to cut off the supplies of the entrenched
camp. A reinforcement from Rāisen only increased his difficulties
by consuming his supplies, and after enduring a siege of two
months, during which losses from famine were heavy, he basely
deserted his army by night on April 25, 1535, and fled with Mu-
hammad Shāh of Khāndesh, Mallü Qadir Khān, governor of Mālwa,
and three other nobles, to Māndū. His army dispersed, only a few
of the principal officers being able to lead off their contingents.
Humāyūn pursued him and besieged him in Māndū. A division
escaladed the walls of the fortress at night, and Bahādur, who was
asleep at the time, escaped with difficulty to Chāmpāner with no
more than five or six followers. Sadr Khān and Sultān 'Alam,
governor of Rāisen, retired into the citadel, Songarh, but were
forced to surrender after the lapse of two days, when the former
entered the emperor's service and the latter, guilty of being a
member of the Lodi clan, was mutilated by the amputation of his
feet. Sadr Khān was not the only one who changed his allegiance.
Mustafā Rūmi Khān, to whom the government of Ranthambhor
had been promised during its siege, so resented his master's failure
to keep his word that he entered Humāyūn's service after the
defeat at Mandasor.
After reducing the citadel of Māndū Humāyūn pursued Bahādur,


## p. 332 (#378) ############################################

332
(CH.
GUJARAT AND KHĀNDESH
:
who fled from Champāner to Cambay. Humāyūn followed him
thither, but arrived at the port on the day on which he had taken
ship for Diū. The remnant of the fugitive's army was staunch and
made a night attack on the imperial camp, but a traitor had betray-
ed their design and the imperial troops, having vacated their tents,
allowed the enemy to plunder them and then, falling on them, put
them to the sword. They also slew, lest they should be rescued,
Sadr Khān and Firūz, formerly Jām of Sind, who had fallen into
their hands.
Bahādur induced Humāyūn to withdraw from Cambay by
sending Mahmūd Lārī, Muhtaram Khān, to interview Mustafā
Rūmi Khān. Hāji Dabir reports the interview as it was related to
him by Muhtaram Khān, who conveyed such bitter reproaches from
Bahādur that Rūmi Khān sweated with shame, and added, 'If this
attack on Diū is your suggestion, then employ some device to deter
him : if it is not your suggestion then try to shake his purpose. '
Rūmi Khān, stung by these reproaches, went to Humāyūn, who
happened to be suffering from the effects of the climate and advised
him to postpone the attack on Diū, as the sea air was bad for his
health. Humāyūn agreed, and at the same time news of disturbances
in Ahmadābād was received, and he withdrew to Chāmpāner.
Chāmpāner was still held by Ikhtiyār Khān for Bahādur, and
Humāyūn besieged the fortress. Selecting the most inaccessible
part of the wall as likely to be the most lightly guarded he led to
the spot 300 men armed with steel spikes, by means of which,
driven into the mortar between the stones, they escaladed the wall
and, on August 9, 1935, opened the gates to the rest of the army.
Ikhtiyār Khān fled to the citadel, but almost immediately sur-
rendered, and Humāyūn was master of Chāmpāner.
The treasure found at Chāmpāner relieved the imperial troops
of the duty of dispersing themselves throughout the country for
the collection of revenue, and the fief-holders sent to Bahādur in
Kāthīāwār a message expressing their unaltered loyalty and their
readiness to pay the land tax, if officers could be sent to collect it.
Bahādur selected 'Imād-ul-Mulk Malikji for this duty, and he,
assembling an army of 50,000 horse, encamped before Ahmadābād
and sent out detachments to collect the revenue. Humāyūn, who
would have been better employed in his own dominions, was in-
toxicated by his new conquest and bent on including it in his
empire. He marched towards Ahmadābād and his advanced guard
defeated Imād-ul-Mulk between Nadiād and Mahmūdābād. The
victory encouraged him to distribute the fiefs of Gujarāt among


## p. 333 (#379) ############################################

XIII ]
RETREAT OF HUMĀYUN
333
his officers, as though the conquest were complete and permanent,
and the kingdom assumed for a short time the appearance of a
settled province of the empire. Bahādur, at Diū, was trembling at
the prospect of an attack by land on that port and wrote to Nunho
da Cunha, governor of Portuguese India, imploring his aid. Da
Cunha visited Diū and on October 25 concluded a treaty by which
he undertook to assist Bahādur against his enemies by land and
sea, and received in return confirmation of the cession of the port
of Bassein to the king of Portugal and permission to build a fort
at Diū, the customs dues of the port being retained, however, by
Bahādur.
Himāyūn, fired with the lust of conquest, marched into Khān-
desh and visited Burhānpur. Muhammad Shāh wrote, begging him
to spare his small kingdom the horrors of an invasion, and at the
same time wrote to Ibrāhīm ‘Ādil Shāh I of Bījāpur, Sultān Quli
Qutb Shāh of Golconda, and Daryā 'Imād Shāh of Berar, proposing
a league for the defence of the Deccan but Humāyūn's operations
were confined to a military promenade through Khāndesh, whence
he returned to Māndū.
While he had been indulging in dreams of conquest Sher Khān
Sūr, the Afghān, had risen in rebellion in Bengal, the nobles of
Gujarāt, with the aid of the Portuguese, had recovered some posts
from the Mughuls, and ‘Askari Mirzā, at Ahmadābād, was medi-
tating his own proclamation as king of Gujarāt. Tardi Beg, the
Mughul governor of Chāmpāner, refused to admit into the fortress
the officers who, having been driven from their posts by Bahādur's
troops, desired to take refuge there, for he believed them to be
partisans of 'Askari and disaffected towards Humāyān. They
accordingly besieged him in Chāmpāner and Humāyūn hastily
returned towards Āgra, where his presence was urgently required,
and was joined on the way by 'Askari and those who had besieged
Chāmpāner who now made their peace with him. His ill-timed
expedition into Gujarāt had lasted for thirteen months and
thirteen days.
Bahādur had closely followed the retreating Mughuls, and as
he approached Chāmpāner Tardi Beg evacuated it and Bahādur
reoccupied it on May 25, 1536. He apologised to his nobles for
having at Mandasor followed the advice of Mustafā Rūmi Khān,
who had since deserted to Humāyān, to which error all the subse-
quent misfortunes of Gujarāt were to be traced. Mallu Qadir Khān
returned to Māndū as governor of Mālwa.
Bahādur, having regained his kingdom, repented of his bargain


## p. 334 (#380) ############################################

334
[ CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
,
with the Portuguese, and sought to expel them from Diū. Manoel
de Sousa, who commanded the fort, was aware of this design, and
when the king visited Diū late in 1536 would not wait upon him,
lest he should be treacherously assassinated. Nundo da Cunha, in
response to an invitation from Bahādur, visited Diū towards the
end of December, but having been warned by de Sousa that it was
the king's intention to send him in a cage to the sultan of Turkey,
feigned sickness and refused to land. He persisted in his refusal
until the king lost patience and decided, on February 13, 1537,
against the advice of all his counsellors, to visit him on board his
ship. He made his visit accompanied by thirteen officers of high
rank, and after remaining a short time on board expressed a desire
to return. The Portuguese attempted to detain him, ostensibly
that he might inspect the giſts which they had brought for him
from Goa, but doubtless with a view to obtaining a pledge that he
would abandon his designs against them and to extorting further
concessions from him. He is said to have cut down a priest who
attempted to bar his way, and when he entered his barge the
Portuguese boats closed round it and swords were drawn. Manoel
de Sousa was killed, and the king and Khvāja Safar leaped into the
A Portuguese friend drew the Khvāja aboard his boat, but
the king was drowned and all his other companions were killed.
Bahādur was one of the greatest and may be reckoned the last
of the kings of Gujarāt, for his three actual successors were mere
puppets in the hands of a turbulent and factious nobility. His one
great error was committed at Mandasor, when he entrenched himself
instead of falling at once on the imperial army. His disgraceful
flight was almost a necessary consequence, for in it lay his only
chance of saving his kingdom. If we except these two actions and
his meditated treachery towards his Portuguese allies, which was
not regarded as reprehensible in his faith and in that age, we shall
be inclined to agree in the praise bestowed upon him by Hāji Dabīr,
author of the Zafar-ul-Wālih, who describes him as liberal, gener-
ous, and valiant, with a loftier spirit and wider ambitions than
any of his line, and reckons as his conquests the places in which
he caused the khutba to be recited in his name ; Gujarāt, the
Deccan, Khāndesh, Mālwa, Ajmer, the Aravalli Hills, Jālor, Nāgaur,
Junāgarh, Khānkot, Rāisen, Ranthambhor, Chitor, Kālpi, Baglāna,
Idar, Rādhanpur, Ujjain, Mewāt, Satwās, Ābu, and Mandasor.
Bahādur leſt no son, and Muhammad Zamān Mirzā, the kinsman
and brother-in-law of Humāyān, impudently claimed the throne
1 Vol. I, p. 263.
>


## p. 335 (#381) ############################################

XIII ]
DECLINE OF THE ROYAL POWER
335
on the ground that Bahādur's mother had adopted him as her son,
but 'Imād-ul-Mulk Malikji hastened from Diū to Ahmadābād and
agreed to call to the throne Muhammad Shāh of Khāndesh, whose
wife, mother, grandmother, and two more remote ancestresses had
all been princesses of Gujarāt. Descent in the female line seldom
counts for much in questions of succession in Muslim states, but
Muhammad had been for years the loyal vassal and faithful com-
panion in arms of Bahādur, whose recognition of his title of Shāh
was understood to indicate a wish that he should succeed him.
Muhammad Shāh obeyed the summons and set out from Burhānpur
to ascend the throne of Gujarāt, but died on May 24, on his way to
Chāmpāner.
There now remained only one possible successor, the last
descendant of Muhammad Karim, Mahmud Khān, son of Bahādur's
brother Latif Khān, who, during his uncle's reign, had been placed
in the custody of Muhammad of Khāndesh, and was a state prisoner
in a fortress in that state. The nobles of Gujarāt summoned him
to the throne, but Mubārak II, who had succeeded his brother in
Khāndesh, and had almost certainly hoped to receive a summons
to the throne of Gujarāt, would not surrender him until a force
led by Ikhtiyar Khān invaded Khandesh. Ikhtiyār Khān carried
Mahmūd with him to Ahmadābād, where he was enthroned on
August 8, 1587, as Sa`d-ud-din Mahmūd Shāh III.
The part which Ikhtiyār Khān Siddiqi had played in bringing
the new king from Khāndesh and placing him on the throne gained
for him the regency, for Mahmūd was but eleven years of age.
Ikhtiyār Khān was learned and accomplished and his surname
indicates descent from Abū Bakr as-Siddiq ('the truthful'), the first
successor of the prophet Muhammad, but his father had held the
comparatively humble post of gāzi of Nadiād and his advancement
was resented by many of the nobles, now divided into factions
quarrelling over the part which each had borne in attempting to
overcome the calamities which had recently fallen upon the king-
dom and over the compensation due to each for his sufferings and
his losses.
Two nobles of the second rank, Fattāji Muhāfiz Khān and
Daryā Khān Husain, urged 'Imād-ul-Mulk Malikji, son of Tawakkul,
who had long taken a prominent part in the affairs of the kingdom
and now found himself relegated to the third place, that of deputy
minister, to remove Ikhtiyār Khān by assassination, and his jealousy
and ambition succumbed to the temptation. He stepped into
Ikhtiyār Khan's place and appropriated the title of Amſr-ul-Umarā,


## p. 336 (#382) ############################################

336
[CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
but 'Abd-ul-Latif Sadr Khān, the minister, grieved deeply for his
old friend, and taxed 'Imād-ul-Mulk with having been accessory
to his death. The new regent's denial of his complicity was not
believed, and Sadr Khān voluntarily resigned his post, and ex-
plained to the king the grounds for his action. He informed both
the king and the regent that Daryā Khan aspired to the first place
in the kingdom, and privately warned 'Imād-ul-Mulk that the life
of none would be safe if ambitious subordinates were permitted to
foment discord between the great officers of state and to persuade
them to remove rivals by assassination. Daryā Khān obtained the
post vacated by Sadr Khān, but the latter's warning was not lost
upon 'Imād-ul-Mulk who regarded his late accomplice with suspi.
cion, which was rewarded with secret intrigue and open hostility.
In 1517 the last of the Mamluk Sultans had been overthrown,
and Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire, but it was not
until 1538 that the new rulers of Egypt made any further attempt
to drive the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean. In 1537, however,
when news reached Egypt of the tragic death of Bahādur and the
consequent strengthening of the Portuguese position in India, the
Ottoman Sultan, Sulaiman I, grew apprehensive and ordered the
equipment at Suez of a powerful fleet, which eventually set sail
under Sulaimān Pāshā al-Khādim, governor of Cairo, and then an
old man of eighty-two. His objective was Diū, which was now in
the sole possession of the Portuguese. His public announcement
that he was setting out on a 'holy war against the Franks did not
prevent his behaving with the utmost treachery and cruelty to-
wards his co religionist at Aden, where he called on his way to India.
News of his disgraceful behaviour at Aden travelled quickly to
India, and was doubtless the real cause of his failure against the
Portuguese, for when he reached Muzaffarābād Khvāja Safar,
Khudāvand Khān, whom Mahmud III had placed in command of
a large force intended to co-operate with the Pāshā, and who was
at first inclined to join him, was deterred by his friends, who re-
minded him of the fate of the governor of Aden, and although he
sent many giſts to the Pāshā he persistently evaded a personal
interview. But though co-operation between the land and sea forces
was thus incomplete the Portuguese were reduced to great straits.
They were driven by Khvāja Safar from the city into the fort,
which they held with their wonted determination. Garcia de
Noronha, the newly arrived viceroy, either could not or would not
understand the situation, and failed to send relief; the defences
were almost destroyed, and of the original garrison of 600 only forty


## p. 337 (#383) ############################################

XIII ]
SIEGE OF DIO RAISED
337
men remained fit to bear arms. Sulaimān Pāshā, who had been
attacking by sea, was unaware, owing to the army's failure to co-
operate with him, of the desperate situation of the defence and was
so discouraged by repeated failure and by his losses that when
Khvāja Safar, disgusted by the arrogance of the Turks, which had
convinced him that Gujarāt had nothing to gain by their taking
the place of the Portuguese at Diū, sent him a fabricated letter,
announcing that the viceroy was about to arrive from Goa with
a formidable fleet, he sailed away on November 5. Some of his
officers remained behind and entered the service of Gujarāt. Among
these were Aqā Farahshād the Turk, afterwards entitled Fath Jang
Khān, Nāsir the African, afterwards entitled Habash Khān, and
Mujāhid Khān, who occupied Junāgarh. Khvāja Safar, on Sulai-
mān Pāshā's departure, set fire to the town of Diū and retired.
'Imād-ul-Mulk was now to discover the wisdom of Sadr Khān's
warning. His relations with Daryā Khān had been growing ever
more strained and the latter's influence over the feeble king ever
stronger. He accompanied the king on an excursion, ostensibly for
the purpose of hunting, but when well beyond the city walls carried
him off to Chāmpāner, and sent to 'Imād-ul-Mulk a royal letter
directing him to retire to his fiefs in Kāthiawār. 'Imād-ul-Mulk
assembled his troops and attempted to obtain possession of the
king's person in order to re-establish his influence over him, but
the proceeding so closely resembled rebellion that many of his
officers deserted him for the royal camp, and he was obliged to
return to Ahmadābād, whence he retired, with Sadr Khān, to Morvi,
his principal fief. In 1540 Daryā Khān, carrying with him the king
marched against 'Imād-ul-Mulk, defeated him at Bajāna', where
Sadr Khān was slain, and drove him into Khāndesh. Daryā Khān
followed him, and at Dāngrī, near the Tapti, met Mubārak II, who
was prepared to oppose any attempt to enter his kingdom. Daryā
Khān was again victorious, and 'Imād-ul-Mulk fled to Māndū,
where Mallu Nāsir Khān, appointed governor by Bahādur was
now independent, styling himself Nāsir Shāh. At this point Daryā
Khān and Mahmūd III abandoned the pursuit and returned to
Gujarāt.
Daryā Khān was now absolute in the kingdom, but Mahmud
had sufficient spirit to be sensible of the humiliation of his situation,
and enlisted the aid of a humble attendant, one Chirji, a fowler, to
escape from it. Chirji had horses ready one night under the city
wall, and the king, leaving his palace at midnight, mounted and
1' In 23° 7' N. and 71° 47' E.
21n 21° 9' N, and 75° 4' E.
C. II, I, III,
22


## p. 338 (#384) ############################################

338
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
[cir.
rode to Dhandhūka, the fief of Ālam Khān Lodi, nearly sixty miles
south-west of Ahmadābād.
“Alam Khān received him with every demonstration of loyalty,
and summoned to his aid his brother-in-law, Nāsir-ud-din Ulugh
Khān of Junāgarh, Mujāhid Khān of Pālitāna, and other fief-
holders. Daryā Khān, on discovering that the king had escaped
him and found a powerful protector, renounced the struggle to
maintain his ascendancy and sent to the king a mission with the
royal insignia, elephants, horses, and his own letter of resignation ;
but his old accomplice, Fattāji Muhāfiz Khān, coming into the city
from his fief of Viramgām, met the mission at Sarkhej, turned it
back, and persuaded Daryā Khān to strike a blow for the recovery
of his lost supremacy. It was necessary to oppose a puppet to the
actual king, and a child of obscure origin was accordingly pro-
claimed and carried by Daryā Khān with the army which he led
against Mahmūd III and his new protectors.
The armies met to the south west of Ahmadābād, in a confused
conflict which had a strange result. 'Alam Khān Lodi charged with
great impetuosity, cut his way through the centre of Daryā Khān's
army, rode to Ahmadābād with only five or six of his men, and
took possession of the city in the name of Mahmūd III. Daryā
Khān, convinced that 'Ālam Khān's small force had been cut to
pieces, continued the action with apparent success until it was confi.
dently reported that 'Ālam Khān had entered the royal palace, pro-
claimed his victory over the rebels, and let loose a mob of plunderers
into his house. He hesitated, and was lost. His army fled, and
Mahmūd marches on into the city, Muhāfiz Khan and the child
who had been proclaimed king fleeing before him. Daryā Khăn
Aed to Burhānpur and Muhāfiz Khān, with his puppet, to Chām.
pāner, whither he was followed by Mahmūd III and 'Alam Khān.
He was glad to purchase liſe by a speedy surrender and disappear-
ed from the kingdom.
Mahmud III now returned to Ahmadābād to discover that he
had but changed one master for another. He insisted, in his grati-
tude, on promoting Chirji the fowler to the rank lately held by
Fattāji and conferred on him all Fattāji's possessions, and his title
of Muhāfiz Khān, but the advancement profited the humble bird-
catcher little, for when he took his seat among the nobles of the
kingdom 'Alam Khān Lodi protested, and when Chirji, with the
king's support, persisted in asserting his right, compassed his death.
The manner in which the minister's decision was executed indicates
the estimation in which the king and his wishes were held by his


## p. 339 (#385) ############################################

XII ]
OVERTHROW OF "ĀLAM KHĀN
339
new master. Ashja 'Khān, 'Alam Khān's brother, entered the royal
presence with a dagger in his hand, laid hold of the wretched
Muhāfiz Khān, dragged him forth, and as soon as he had crossed
the threshold of the hall of audience stabbed him to death. “Alam
Khăn became, of course, lieutenant of the kingdom, and Nūr-ud-din
Burhān-ul-Mulk Bambāni was appointed minister. 'Imād-ul-mulk
Malikji returned from Māndū and received Broach as his fief.
The domination of 'Ālam Khān was
even less tolerable than
that of Daryā Khān. The latter had, at least, observed some
moderation in the pomp with which he surrounded himself, but
the former encroached, in this respect, on the royal prerogative.
A minister whose power was absolute might well have avoided this
indiscretion and should have understood that a king deprived of
his power will cling all the more jealously to its outward symbols.
Nor was this his greatest error. The assassination of the recently
ennobled fowler wounded the king's affections as well as his honour,
and in crushing one presumptuous minister he had learned how
to deal with another. By a private appeal to the loyalty of some,
who, though nominally 'Ālam Khān's followers were no less dis-
gusted than the king with his arrogance and presumption, he
succeeded in ridding himself of his new master. On a night when
Mujāhid Khān was on duty at the palace the king persuaded him
to assemble his troops, and at break of day rode forth with the
royal umbrella above his head and proclaimed by a crier that
‘Alam Khān's palace might be sacked. The mob broke in, and
‘Alam Khân, roused from a drunken slumber, fled in confusion and
made the best of his way to Māndū, where he joined his former
enemy, Daryā Khān.
Mujāhid Khān now became lieutenant of the kingdom, with
'Abd-us-Samad Afzal Khān as minister. Muharram bin Safar was
entitled Rūmi Khān, and others who aſterwards became prominent
in the state received titles. 'Abd-ul-Karim became I'timād Khān,
Bilāl Jhūjhār Khān, and Abu Sulaimān Mahalldār Khān.
Daryā Khān and Alam Khān now appeared at Rādhanpur
with 'Alā-ud-din Fath Khān of the royal line of Sind, whose mother
had been a princess of Gujarāt, and proclaimed him king, but
Mahmúd attacked and defeated them, and they fled again to Māndū,
while Fath Khān, who had merely been an instrument in their hands,
made his excuses to Mahmūd and was well received at his court.
Mahmūd, now freed from the domination of ambitious ministers,
turned his attention to the portuguese. Khvāja Safar, Khudāvand
1 In 23° 49' N. and 71° 39' E.
22-2


## p. 340 (#386) ############################################

340
[CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
Khān, was governor of Cambay, and was ordered to construct a
fort at Sürat for the protection of the maritime trade, which had
been much harassed by the Portuguese ever since their establish-
ment at Diū. Though much hampered by the Portuguese, who
attempted, first by force and afterwards by bribery, to prevent its
construction, the fort was successfully completed according to the
principles of fortification then obtaining in Europe, and was armed
with many guns which had belonged to Sulaimān Pāshā's fleet, and
had been carried to Junāgarh by Mujāhid Khān.
Mahmūd had not forgotten the death of his uncle, Bahādur, nor
its authors, and his failure to expel the Portuguese from Diū
1538 had not discouraged him. Khvāja Safar, who maintained an
outwardly friendly correspondence with them, and was well ac-
quainted with their affairs, encouraged his master to make another
attempt to recover Diū, but before resorting to arms endeavoured
to gain possession of the fortress by treachery. The plot was dis-
covered and Khvāja Safar opened the siege. The fort was small,
and would accommodate only a small garrison, and Safar's bom-
bardment caused heavy losses, but the Portuguese ſought with
unflinching valour. They were encouraged by the death, on June 24,
1546, of Khvāja Safar, whose head was taken off by a gunshot. He
was succeeded in the command by his son, Muharram Rūmi Khān,
who made desperate efforts to take the place, one assault being
repulsed with the loss of 2000 men and of Bīlāl Jhūjhār Khān, his
second in command, but the numbers of the Portuguese were
reduced to 200, until a timely reinforcement of 400 men under
Alvaro de Castro encouraged them to sally forth and attack the
enemy. They were repulsed with heavy loss, but on November 7
a fleet of nearly 100 sail, under the command of João de Castro,
governor of Portuguese India, appeared off Diū.
On November 10 the Portuguese attacked in force, and drove
the Muslims into the city, where they massacred men, women, and
children without discrimination. The Muslims rallied, but after
a bloody fight were defeated with the loss of 1500 killed, 2000
wounded, and many prisoners. Muharram Rūmi Khān and many
other officers were among the slain and Jhūjhār Khān was cap-
tured. The loss of the Portuguese was no more than 100, and their
booty included many standards, forty heavy and a hundred and
sixty field and light guns, and much ammunition.
Jahāngir Khān fled from the field and carried the mournful news
to the king, who wept with rage and mortification, and caused twenty.
cight Portuguese prisoners to be torn to picces in his presence.


## p. 341 (#387) ############################################

XIII ]
SUCCESSES OF THE PORTUGUESE
341
João de Castro celebrated his victory by a triumph at Goa,
his prisoners following him in chains, in imitation of the Roman
custom, which drew from Queen Catherine of Portugal the remark
that he had conquered like a Christian and triumphed like a heathen.
The failure of the attack on Diū led to the dismissal, on
February 21, 1547, of the minister, Afzal Khān, in whose place
*Abd-ul-Halim Khudāvand Khān was appointed.
In September, 1547, Jorge de Menezes landed at Broach, burned
both the fortress and the city, destroyed such guns as he could
not carry away, and put the inhabitants to the sword. Later in
the year the governor, João de Castro, with 3000 men, formed the
,
foolhardy resolve of landing near Broach and attacking Mahmūd,
who had assembled a force of 150,000 men, and eighty guns either
in order to renew the attack on Diū or to protect his ports from
raids, but was dissuaded from the rash act. He sailed off and
plundered and destroyed some ports on the coasts of Kāthīāwār
and the Konkan, carrying much booty back to Goa ; and Mahmūd,
unwilling at length to exasperate a power which could at all times
descend with impunity on his coasts refrained from renewing the
attacks on Diū, and in 1548 executed a treaty most advantageous
to the Portuguese.
In the same year disputes between Mujāhid Khān and Afzal
Khān had given rise to internal troubles, and it was resolved to
recall Āsaf Khān, who had been in Mecca ever since 1535, when
Bahādur had sent him away in charge of his harem and treasure.
His first reform on assuming office was the formation of a powerful
bodyguard recruited from the foreign legion and composed of Turks,
Africans, Javanese, and others, numbering in all 12,000. By this
means the king's authority was firmly established.
In 1549 the king made Mahmūdābād on the Vatrak his ordinary
place of residence. The town had been built by his ancestor,
Mahmud Begarha, and he conceived a liking for its air and sur-
roundings. He enlarged the existing royal palace and parcelled out
land among his nobles, bidding them build palaces and houses for
themselves. Mallū Qādir Shāh of Mālwa, who had been expelled
from his kingdom by Shujā‘at Khān, Sher Shāh's governor, was
now at his court, and described in detail the beauties of the deer-
park of Māndū, inspiring Mahmúd to lay out a replica of it. Here
he lived in great splendour and luxury, indulging, besides the
usual lusts of an oriental prince, his propensity for powerful and
poisonous drugs, which he took not only for their intoxicating and
stupefying effect, but also as aphrodisiacs.


## p. 342 (#388) ############################################

342
(CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
The raja of Idar had, since Humāyūn's invasion, behaved as an
independent monarch, remitting no tribute, and when, in 1549, a
small force was sent to demand the arrears due he opposed the
royal troops and compelled them to retire, but a larger force under
'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān Rūmi, who had been appointed to the com-
mand of the foreign legion, captured Idar and compelled the
raja to pay tribute. Farahshād, one of the Turkish officers who had
deserted Sulaimān Pashā on his withdrawal, acted as 'Imād-ul-
Mulk's standard bearer and behaved with great gallantry, for which
he was rewarded with the title of Fath Jang Khān. In the follow-
ing year a similar expedition was dispatched to Sirohi, the country
round about which was plundered ; but there was no design,
apparently, of reducing Sirohi to the condition of a vassal state
paying regular tribute. In 1551 it was necessary to suppress the
predatory Rājputs who infested the heart of the kingdom and had
murdered a doctor of the law travelling from Pātan to Ahmadābād.
A massacre reduced the survivors to temporary obedience.
One of Mahmūd's immediate attendants, Burhān-ud-din, a man
who made pretensions to piety, and one of whose duties it was to
lead the prayers when the king was in the field, offended him one
day by disrespectful behaviour, and Mahmūd in his wrath sentenced
him to death by being bricked up in a wall. The barbarous sentence
was put into execution, but Mahmūd happened to pass while the
wretch's head yet protruded, took pity on him, and caused the
structure to be pulled down. He was much lacerated and injured
by the pressure of the mortar and rubble, but with care he re-
covered, and lived to resent his sufferings rather than to be grateful
for his life. His resentment exhibited itself again in disrespect,
and the king used language which leſt no doubt that he would not
escape the punishment to which he had once been sentenced, but the
celebration of the prophet Muhammad's birthday, on February 15,
1554, temporarily diverted Mahmūd's attention from the matter.
At the conclusion of the feast which marked the occasion Mahmud,
stupefied with wine and drugs, withdrew to his bedroom, where he
was attended by Daulat, the nephew and accomplice of Burhān-
ud-din, who had also taken the precaution of corrupting the royal
bodyguard, known as the Lion-slayers. It was an easy matter for
Daulat to cut the king's throat as he lay on his bed, and Burhān.
ud-din issued summonses in the king's name to all the chief officers
of state. Most obeyed, and were assassinated by the royal guards, ten
being slain in this manner, including the famous vazīr, Asaf Khān,
but ‘Abd-ul-Karīm I'timād Khān suspected mischief, and remained


## p. 343 (#389) ############################################

XII)
DEATH OF MAHMUD III
343
a
at home. Burhān-ud-dīn then bestowed titles upon the soldiers of
the guard and the menial servants of the palace, promised to pro-
mote them to the principal offices in the kingdom, and in the
morning caused the royal umbrella to be raised over his head and
proclaimed his accession.
The surviving nobles led their troops to the palace and attacked
the usurper, who fell at their first onslaught, and then proceeded
to determine the succession, which was no easy matter, for Mahmūd,
who had a nervous dread both of providing an heir who might
be put forward as a competitor for the throne and of a disputed
succession after his death, had taken the barbarous precaution
of procuring an abortion whenever a woman of his harem became
pregnant. Inquiries were made in the harem and it was reported
that one child, Khalil Shāh, had escaped the cruel law. After the
burial of Mahmūd the nobles demanded the delivery of Khalil
Shāh, that he might be enthroned, but were informed that
mistake had been made, and that there remained no heir to the
throne. It would appear that some fraud had been intended, but
that when the moment arrived the conspirators lost heart and
abandoned their design.
Inquiries were made and a young prince entitled Razi-ul-Mulk,
the great grandson of Shakar Khān, a younger son of Ahmad I
was raised to the throne under the title of Ahmad Shāh II.
The leaders of the nobles who placed Ahmad II on the throne
were I'timād Khān and Sayyid Mubārak Bukhārī, and it was the
former who assumed the office of regent, while the later retired
to Mahmūdābad, which he occupied as his fief. All the nobles of the
kingdom were virtually independent, and each lived on his estate,
leaving I'timād Khān to carry on a pretence of administering the
whole country in the name of the youthſul king.
The port of Damān was held by one Sayyid Abu-'l-Fath, who,
as he neither paid taxes nor materially acknowledged the central
government, could except no support when, in 1559, the Portuguese
viceroy, Constantino de Braganza, attacked him, drove him first
from Damān and then from Pārdī, and established the Portuguese
firmly in Damān and Bulsār, securing native support by assigning
the customs of the former port to the governor of the island of
Salsette, which was within the dominions of Ahmadnagar.
Ahmad II was virtually a prisoner in the hands of I'timād
Khān, and after passing five years in this condition he reached an
age at which he became sensible of the restraint to which he was
subjected, and of the minister's usurpation of his rights. He fled


## p. 344 (#390) ############################################

344
[CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHĂNDESH
was
and threw himself on the protection of Sayyid Mubārak Bukhārī
at Mahmūdābād, where a number of nobles, influenced more by
the Sayyid's prestige and by hostility to I'timād Khān than by
loyalty to a sovereign whom they hardly knew, assembled. I'timād
Khān and his partisans marched against his confederacy, and the
death of Sayyid Mubārak from an arrow involved the defeat and
dispersal of the army assembled round the king. Ahmad wandered
for some days a helpless fugitive in the jungles, until he
obliged to return to his master, who carried him back to Ahmadā -
bād and imprisoned him in the palace.
'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān and Tātār Khăn Ghūrī, disgusted with
I'timād Khān's monopoly of power, dragged forth their guns and
bombarded his house at Ahmadabād, and the regent fled to Hālol,
near Chāmpāner, taking the young king with him. Here he began
to assemble his army, and civil war was on the point of breaking
out when peacemakers intervened and effected a composition
whereby I'timād Khān retained the office of regent and the custody
of the king and the other nobles parcelled out the kingdom among
themselves, 'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān, I'timād Khan's principal opponent,
receiving Broach, Chāmpāner, Nāndod, and other districts between
the Māhi and Narbada rivers. To the king was assigned land
sufficient for the maintenance of 1500 horse, but this was no more
than a concession to his vanity, for he remained almost as closely
guarded as before.
I'timād Khān could not, however, entirely seclude him, and he
used to amuse himself by hatching, with those officers who gained
access to him, boyish plots for the assassination of the regent, and
by drawing his sword and severing the soft stem of a plantain tree,
with the childish boast that he could thus cleave in two his tyrant.
All this was reported to I'timād Khān, who, though he well knew
that the boy was incapable of any desperate deed, began to fear
lest some officer should earn the king's gratitude and the coveted
post of regent by giving effect to wishes so unreservedly expressed.
He therefore, in July 1562, caused Ahmad to be assassinated and
his body to be flung out of the citadel into the open space between
the river and the house of a noble entitled Vijīh-ul-Mulk Abūji
Tānk, and when it was discovered gave out that Ahmad Shāh must
have gone secretly to Vajih-ul-Mulk's house on some amorous
adventure and have been slain by some injured person before he
could be recognised.
The death of Ahmad II revived the question of the succession,
now more complicated than ever, as no scion of the royal house
a


## p. 345 (#391) ############################################

8111 )
MUZAFFAR III
345
a
was known to exist. I'timād Khān solved it by producing a child
named Nathū and swearing that he was the son of Mahmud III by
a concubine. He explained his birth by saying that Mahmūd, when
he discovered that the concubine was pregnant, handed her over
to him with instructions to procure an abortion, but that he, dis-
covering that the girl was in the sixth month of her pregnancy,
could not find it in his heart to subject her to an operation which
would almost certainly be fatal, and retained her in his house,
concealing the birth of the child and bringing him up in secret.
The story was in the last degree improbable, for greater facilities
for carrying out Mahmūd's unnatural orders must have existed in
the royal harem than elsewhere, and no explanation of the pre-
ference shown for a collateral when Ahmad II was enthroned was
offered, but an heir had to be found, for none of the nobles would
have submitted to any one of their order, and I'timād Khān's oath
was accepted and the child was enthroned as Muzaffar III.
The history of Muzaffar's ten years' reign is but a record of
perpetual strife between the great nobles, each of whom was inde-
pendent in his fief, while I'timād Khān retained the office of
regent.
The whole of northern Gujarāt, as far south as Kādī, was
divided between Mūsā Khān and Sher Khān Fūlādi, two Afghāns,
and Fath Khān, a Baluch ; the country between the Sābarmāti
and the Māhi was held by I'timād Khān, and Dholka and Dhand-
hūkā by Sayyid Mīrān, son of Sayyid Mubārak Bukhāri; Chingiz
Khān, son of I'timād Khān's enemy, 'Imād-ul-Mulk Aslān Rūmī,
held Sūrat, Nāndod, and Chāmpāner, and his brother-in-law,
Rustam Khān, Broach ; and Kāthīāwār was held by Amin Khān
;
Ghūrī.
A
very
brief sketch of the conflicts between these factious nobles
will suffice.
In 1563 the Afghāns Mūsā Khān and Sher Khān expelled Fath
Khān from northern Gujarāt, and drove him to take refuge with
I'timād Khān, who attacked the Afghāns but was defeated and
driven back to Ahmadābād. The Afghāns then marched to attack
him, and he was defeated at Jotāna and fled and sought aid of
Chingiz Khān, who accompanied him to Jotāna. No further fighting
took place, a peace being arranged, but after the nobles had re-
turned to their fiefs Chingiz Khān wrote to I'timād Khān, casting
doubts on the king's birth. The regent replied that his oath had
been accepted, and that Chingiz Khān's father, had he been alive,
would have corroborated it. Chingiz Khān then openly demanded


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346
(CH.
GUJARĀT AND KHÂNDESH
more land for the support of his troops. I'timād Khān evaded the
demand by advising him to recover the district of Nandurbār,
which had formerly belonged to Gujarat and was now held by
Muhammad II of Khāndesh. Chingiz Khān fell into the trap and
in 1566 marched to Nandurbār, which he occupied, and, encouraged
by his success, advanced towards Thălner, but was attacked and
defeated by Muhammad II and Tufāl Khān of Berar, and compelled
to flee to Broach, where he proceeded, in 1568, to reorganise his
army, in which work he was assisted by the rebellious Mirzās,
Akbar's kinsmen, who had fled from the empire and sought a refuge
in Gujarat. He now resolved to avenge himself on I'timād Khān
for the trick which he had played him, and marched on Ahmadā.
bād, requesting the regent to withdraw to his fiefs, as he was com-
ing to pay his respects to the king, and it was undesirable that they
should meet in the capital. I'timād Khān and the king marched
towards Nadiād, near which place the armies met. There was no
battle, for I'timād Khān, who had heard much of the war-like dis-
position of the Mirzās, was smitten with sudden panic, and fled to
Dūngarpur, whence he sent a message to Akbar, who was then be-
fore Chitor, inviting him to invade Gujarāt.
The rest of the army dispersed, the Sayyids of Bukhārā going
to Dholka, Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk to Ma'mūrābād, and Ulugh Khān and
Marjān Jhūjhār Khān with the young king to Virpurl. Sher Khān
Fūlādī, jealous of the power so suddenly acquired by Chingiz Khān,
hinted that he required a share of the spoils, and Chingiz Khān,
anxious to conciliate him, ceded to him all territory to the west of
the Sābarmāti.
Muhammad II of Khāndesh profited by these disputes to assert
his claim to the throne of Gujarāt, which was certainly less open
to suspicion than that of Muzaifar III, and invaded the kingdom
with an army of 30,000 horse, but was defeated before Ahmadābād
by Chingiz Khān and the Mirzās and driven back to his own coun-
try. Chingiz Khān rewarded the Mirzās with extensive fieſs in the
Broach district, but in a short time it was discovered that they were
encroaching on the land of their neighbours and had been guilty of
cruelty and oppression on their estates. They defeated a force sent
against them by Chingiz Khān, but retired into Khāndesh.
Meanwhile Muhammad Ulugh Khān and Marjān Jhūjhār Khan,
who had been awaiting help from I'timād Khān or from Sher Khān
Fūlādi, were disappointed and, joining Ikhtiyar-ul-Mulk, marched
1 In 23° 11' N. and 73° 29' E.
>
a


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XIII 1
AKBAR INVADES GUJARAT
317
with him to Ahmadābād to make their peace with Chingiz Khān.
A redistribution of fiefs was agreed upon, and Chingiz Khān pro-
mised to treat the other nobles as his equals in all respects, but
neither party trusted the other, and Ulugh Khān was warned that
Chingiz Khān was meditating his assassination. He provided for his
safety by inducing Jhūjhār Khān to decapitate Chingiz Khān with
his sword' as the three were riding together to the polo ground, and
he and his partisans took possession of the citadel while their troops
plundered those of Chingiz Khān, and Rustam Khān rode off, with
his brother-in-law's corpse, to Broach.
Ulugh Khān and Jhūjhār Khān, who were joined by Sher Khān
Fūlādī, invited I'timād Khān to return to Gujarāt, and he assumed
the office of regent, but there was little confidence between the
parties, and I'timad Khān refused to leave the capital when the
other nobels marched to expel the Mirzās, who had returned to
Broach and resumed possession of their former fiefs. His suspicions
were so bitterly resented that those who had recalled him to power
agreed to divide his fiefs among themselves, but they quarrelled
over the division of the spoil, and I'timād Khān succeeded in
detaching Jhūjhār Khān and inducing him to join him at Ahmadā.
bād. Ulugh Khān joined Sher Khān Fülādi at Ghiyāspur, opposite
to Sarkhej, on the Sābarmātī, and the king, taking advantage of
these dissensions, fled from Ahmadābād and joined the camp at
Ghiyāspur. I'timād Khān wrote to Sher Khān, impudently repu-
diating his own solemn oath and asserting that Muzaffar III was
not the son of Mahmud III, and that he had therefore deposed him
and invited the Mirzās from Broach in order that one of them
might ascend the throne. The Mirzās arrived, and when the quarrels
between the two parties had continued for some time without any
definite result I'timād Khān again invited Akbar to invade the
country.
Sher Khān Fūlādi was besieging Ahmadābād when the imperial
army reached Pātan, and fled, carrying with him Muzaffar III, when
he heard of its arrival. The Mirzās at the same time fled to Baroda
and Broach, and on Akbar's arrival at Ahmadābād I'timād Khān,
Ulugh Khān, Jhūjhār Khān, and Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk submitted to
him and entered his service.
In 1572 Muzaffar III fled from the camp of Sher Khān Fūlādi,
who had not treated him well and on November 15 was found by
two of the imperial officers lurking in the neighbourhood of Akbar's
1 For this crime Akbar afterwards, on the complaint of Chingiz Khān's mother,
caused Jhūjhār Khāu to be crushed to death by an elephant.
>


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348
[CH. Xin
GUJARĀT AND KHĀNDESH
camp at Jotāna. On November 20 he appeared before Akbar, who
detained him as a political prisoner, and Gujarāt was formally
annexed to the empire.
Some time after the annexation Muzaffar was permitted to live
in retirement in Kāthīāwār, but in 1583 a rebellion appeared to
offer him an opportunity of recovering his throne, and he joined
the rebels. After ten years of hopeless adventure, during the greater
part of which time he was a fugitive, he fell into the hands of the
imperial troops in 1593, and committed suicide by cutting his
throat.


## p. 349 (#395) ############################################

CHAPTER XIV
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
Malwa, like Gujarāt, became independent of Delhi on the dis-
solution of that kingdom after the invasion of Tīmūr, at the end
of the fourteenth century.
The date of the appointment of Dilāvar Khān Ghūrī, the Afghān
governor, is not precisely known, but he was certainly in Mālwa in
1392, and was probably appointed by Firūz Shāh of Delhi, who
died in 1388. He remained quietly in Malwa while Tīmūr sacked
Delhi, and when Mahmūd Shāh Tughluq, fleeing before the con-
queror, sought an asylum and was disappointed by his reception in
Gujarāt, Dilāvar Khān received him as his sovereign, and enter-
tained him with princely hospitality until he was able, in 1401, to
return to his capital.
Alp Khān, Dilāvar Khān's son and heir, strongly disapproved
of the deference shown to Mahmūd, which he considered to be in-
compatible with the independence of Mālwa, and, while the royal
guest remained at Dhār, withdrew to Māndū, where he occupied
himself in perfecting the defences of that great fortress city.
Dilāvar Khān never assumed the style of royalty, though he
could maintain no pretence of dependence on Delhi, whose nominal
lord was a prisoner in the hands of an ambitious minister, but in
1406 Alp Khān, impatient for his inheritance, removed his father
by poison, and ascended the throne under the title of Hüshang Shah.
In the following year Muzaffar I of Gujarāt invaded Mālwa
on the pretext of avenging the death of his old friend, defeated
Hüshang before Dhār, drove him into the citadel, forced him to
surrender, and carried him off a prisoner to Gujarāt, leaving in
Mālwa, as governor, his own brother Nusrat Khān.
Nusrat Khān treated Mālwa as a conquered country, and his
rule was so oppressive and extortionate that the army expelled
him, and elected as their ruler Hūshang's cousin, Mūsā Khān, who,
fearing the vengeance of the king of Gujarāt, established himself
in Māndū, the fortifications of which were now complete. Hūshang,
on hearing of this usurpation, implored Muzaffar to restore him to
his throne, swearing on the Koran that he was guiltless of his
father's death, and Muzaffar, who had his own outraged authority
to assert, sent his grandson Ahmad Khān, with an army to restore
Hushang.


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350
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
His orders were executed, and Ahmad Khān, after restoring
Hüshang at Dhār, then the capital of Mālwa, returned to Gujarāt,
but Mūsā Khān, who still held Māndū, was not inclined to submit,
and most of the nobles of the kingdom, who were at Māndū with
him, though they favoured Hushang's cause feared to join him, as
their wives and families would be left exposed to Mūsā's wrath.
Hūshang marched to Māndū, and some combats took place
between his troops and those of his cousin, but he had no means
of reducing the fortress and marched off, but took possession of
the kingdom by establishing military posts in the principal towns.
Malik Mughis Khalji, said to have been descended of the elder
brother of Jalāl-ud-din Firūz Khalji of Delhi, and Malik Khizr,
sons of Hüshang's paternal aunts, left Mūsā Khān and joined
Hūshang, and Mūsā, who could not maintain an army without the
revenues of the country, which his rival was collecting, was induced
by Mughis to vacate Māndū, which was promptly occupied by
Hūshang.
Hüshang's two abortive invasions of Gujarāt, undertaken for
the purpose of supporting rebels against Ahmad I, who succeeded
his grandfather on the throne of that kingdom in 1411, have already
been described in Chapter XII. He gained neither credit nor ad-
vantage from these attacks on a former benefactor, and he estranged
his brother-in-law, Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, by his tardiness in
assisting him when Ahmad attacked him in 1417. Another invasion
of the north-eastern districts of Gujarāt in 1418 ended in a dis-
graceful retreat, and Ahmad, exasperated by these unprovoked
attacks, in 1419 invaded Mālwa, defeated Hüshang in a battle
fought near Māndū, drove him into that fortress, plundered his
country, and retired to Gujarāt at the beginning of the rainy season.
In 1422 Hüshang undertook a most adventurous enterprise.
Believing that elephants were required to make good his military
inferiority to his neighbour of Gujarāt he resolved to lead a raid
into Orissa, and to capture a number of these beasts from the raja
He cannot have understood the nature of the expedition on which
he embarked, for he had to traverse the forests of Gondwāna, then
an unknown country to the Muslims, but his objective was Jājpur,
the capital of Orissa, distant more than 700 miles in a straight line
from Mandū.
Leaving his cousin Mughis as his regent in Mālwa he set out
at the head of 1000 horse, carrying with him some horses and
merchandise which might enable him to pass as a merchant. He
1 In 20'51' N. and 86° 20' E.


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XIV)
EXPEDITION TO ORISSA
351
travelled expeditiously, and in due course arrived before Jājpur,
though it is difficult to believe that he was no more than a month
on the road. At Jājpur the raja, one of the line founded by Chora
Ganga of Kalinganagar, sent a message to Hūshang, at the spot
where he was encamped, and asked him why he did not bring his
caravan into the city. Hūshang replied that his men were too
numerous to find accommodation, and the raja promised to visit
his encampment, to inspect his merchandise and to pay, either in
cash or elephants, for anything that he might purchase. On the
day appointed the raja came forth attended by 500 horse, and
Hūshang had the stuffs which he had brought with him spread on
the ground for his inspection. They were damaged by a shower of
rain which fell, and by the hoofs of the horses of the raja's escort,
and the damage supplied the pretended merchants with a pretext
for quarrelling with the Hindus, whom they attacked and put to
flight, the raja himself being taken prisoner. Hūshang then dis-
closed his identity and informed the raja that he had come to
Orissa in search of elephants. The leading men of Jājpur sent an
envoy to ask him to formulate his demands, and on learning that
he required elephants sent him seventy-five. He then set out for
his own country, but carried the raja with him as far as the frontier
of the Jajpur state. On his homeward way he learnt that Ahmad I
had invaded Mālwa and was besieging Māndū, but he found time
to capture Kherlal and carry off the raja as his prisoner. As he
approached Māndū Ahmad withdrew his troops from the trenches
in order to oppose his entry, but he contrived to evade his enemy
and entered the fortress.
The rest of this campaign has already been described in the
preceding chapter. Hüshang was again unfortunate, and after his
defeat returned to Māndu and, having allowed his army a brief
period of repose, marched to Gāgraun', and besieged and captured
that town. Thence he marched to Gwalior, and had been besieging
the fortress for a month when Mubārak Shāh of Delhi advanced
by way of Bayāna to attack him. He raised the siege and marched
towards the Chambal, but Mubārak had gained his object by re-
lieving Gwalior, and hostilities were averted by a treaty, under
which each king agreed to return to his own capital.
The raja of Kherla, since he had been made prisoner by Hüshang
in 1422, had acknowledged him as his overlord and paid him tribute,
thus giving offence to his former suzerain, Ahmad Shāh Bāhmani
of the Deccan, who still claimed his allegiance and, in 1428, besieged
1 Įn 21° 56' N. and 78° 1' E, 2 In 24° 38' N, and 76°12' E,


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352
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF MĀLWA
Kherla, but on Hüshang's marching to its relief retired southwards
for three stages, closely followed by Hüshang. He then halted to
receive Hūshang's attack, which at first suceeded, but his army
was attacked, at the moment when victory seemed assured, by
Ahmad Shāh Bahmani, who had been lying in ambush, and was
put to flight. Its rout was so complete that the ladies of Hüshang's
harem fell into the hands of the victors, while the army of Mālwa
fled headlong to Māndū. The scrupulous and pious Ahmad sent
his prisoners to their lord under an escort of 500 horse.
Hushang's campaign against Qādir Khān of Kālpi has been
described in Chapter X. Kālpi was captured, but Qādir Khan,
whose chief offence against Hüshang had been the assumption of
the royal title, was reinstated on swearing fealty. Hūshang was
much annoyed on his homeward march by the quarrels of his four
sons, Ghazni Khān, Usmān Khān, Fath Khān, and Haibat Khān,
graceless and worthless youths.
After his return to Mandū he was engaged in punishing robbers
and when he had completed this task he founded the city of Ho-
shangābād, on the Narbada. Here he was alarmed by an accident
which he took for an omen of death. A ruby fell one day from his
jewelled crown, and though his courtiers endeavoured to reassure
him, an attack of diabetes confirmed his fears. He left Hoshanga-
bād and returned to Māndū, and on his way thither designated his
eldest son as his heir. A number of the nobles, to whom Ghazni
Khān was obnoxious, supported the pretensions of Usman Khān,
who had been imprisoned for having grossly insulted his elder
brother, and intrigues were set on foot for his liberation, to which
the king would not consent.
Hüshang died on July 6, 1435, within a day's march of Māndū,
and Ghazni Khān, who had the powerful support of his cousin
Mughīs and his son Mahmūd Khān, was proclaimed under the title
of Muhammad Shāh.
He was a confirmed drunkard, and left the administration almost
entirely in the hands of Mughīs and Mahmud Khān, but displayed
a malignant activity in putting to death his three brothers and
blinding his nephew and son-in-law, Nizām Khān, and his three
young sons. This barbarity alienated Mahmud Khān, who began
to scheme to depose the tyrant and to seize the throne for himself.
His design was revealed to the king, who made arrangements to
have him assassinated, but Mahmūd discovered the preparations
a nd to protect himself took precautions so marked that they could
not pass unnoticed, and the king took him into his harem and in


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XIV ] USURPATION OF THE KHALJIS
353
the presence of his wife, who was Mahmūd's sister, conjured him
to be faithful to him. Mahmūd swore that he harboured no designs
against him and begged the king to slay him if he suspected him.
The king excused himself for his suspicions, and outward harmony
was restored, but mutual distrust remained and increased, and
Mahmūd, shortly after the interview in the harem, caused his master's
death by a dose of posion administered in his wine.
A faction among the nobles raised to the throne Muhammad's
son Masóūd Khān, a boy of thirteen years of age, and, believing
Mahmud Khān to be yet ignorant of the late king's death, sum-
moned him to the palace in Muhammad Shāh's name, and, when
he refused to attend, went to his house in a body to arrest him ;
but he had concealed armed men in the house, and when the nobles
entered it they were arrested and imprisoned. Those of their fac-
tion who had remained with Masóūd Khān assembled the royal
troops and raised an umbrella over his head, and Mahmūd marched
on the palace to secure the persons of Masʼūd and his younger
brother, 'Umar Khān. Some fighting occurred between the royal
troops and those of Mahmūd, and lasted until the evening, when
the two boys were so terrified that they persuaded their attendants
to allow them to flee from the palace by night.