No More Learning

After the suppression of this revolt he devoted himself to the
adornment of his capital with suitable buildings and to the estab-
lishment of a system of provincial government in his kingdom,
which he divided into four provinces, each of which was known as
a taraf. The first, Gulbarga, extended on the west to the Ghāts,
and later to the sea, on the north to the eighteenth parallel of
latitude, on the south to the Tungabhadra, and on the east to the
Banāthorā and a line drawn from its confluence with the Bhima
to the confluence of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra. To the
north of Gulbarga lay the province of Daulatābād, bounded on
the north and north-east by the petty state of Baglāna, Khāndesh,
and the southern Pūrna river ; and north-east of this lay Berar,


## p. 375 (#421) ############################################

Xv]
THE FOUR PROVINCES
375
>
which, east of Burhānpur, was bounded on the north by the Tāpti
and on the east by the Wardha and Pranhitā rivers, and extended
on the south to the southern Pūrna and Godavri rivers and on
the west approximately to its present limits. The fourth province
was Bidar, or Muhammadan Telingāna, which included the towns
and districts of Bīdar, Kandhār, Indūr, Kaulās, Kotāgir, Medak,
and as much of Telingana as was comprised in the Bahmani king-
dom, extended eastward, at the end of Bahman's reign, as far as
Bhongir ; but the eastern border of this province, like the southern
border of Gulbarga, where the Hindus of Vijayanagar often occu-
pied the Raichūr Doāb, varied with the power of the Muslim
kings to resist the encroachments or overcome the defence of the
Hindus of Telingāna. The governors first appointed to these pro-
vinces were Saif-ud-din Ghūri to Gulbarga ; the king's nephew
Muhammad entitled Bāhram Khān, to Daulatābād ; Saſdar Khān
Sīstāni, to Berar ; and Saif-ud-din's son, who bore the title of
A'zam-i-Humāyān, to Bidar. Muhmmad, the king's eldest son,
received his father's former title of Zafar Khān, and the districts
of Hūkeri, Belgaum, and Miraj, which Bahman had formerly held
of Muhammad Tughluq.
Rebellion never again raised its head during Bahman's reign,
and having thus provided for the administration of his kingdom he
was at leisure to extend its frontiers. He marched first into the
Konkan where having captured the port of Goa, he marched
northward along the coast, and took Dābhol, returning to his
capital by way of Karhād and Kolhāpur, both of which towns he
took from their Hindu rulers. After a period of repose at Gulbarga
he led an expedition into Telingāna, captured Bhongir, and re-
mained in its neighbourhood for nearly a year, during which time
he completely subjugated the country between it and Kohir.
During one of his periods of repose the king, intoxicated with
success in war and pride of race, indulged in extravagant dreams
of conquest, similar to those which had once deluded 'Alā-ud-din
Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq, and imitated the former by as-
suming, in the legends on his coins the vain-glorious title of "the
Second Alexander. ' He proposed to inaugurate his career of con-
quest by attacking the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, which had
suddenly risen to power, and carrying his arms to Cape Comorin,
but, like his prototype, was recalled to sanity by the sober counsels of
a faithful servant, the shrewd Saif-ud-din Ghūrī, who reminded him
that there was work nearer home, and that there still remained in the
northern Carnatic Hindu chieftains who had not acknowledged


## p. 376 (#422) ############################################

376
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
his sovereignty. Against these he dispatched an expedition, the
success of which may be measured by its booty, which included
200,000 golden ashrafis of ‘Alā-ud-din Khalji, large quantities of
jewels, 200 elephants and 1000 singing and dancing girls, murlis
from Hindu temples.
Bahman next turned his eyes towards the southern provinces
of the kingdom of Delhi, lying on the northern frontier of his
kingdom, and set out for Mālwa with an army of 50,000 horse, but
before he had traversed the hilly country of Southern Berar was
persuaded by Raja Haran the Vāghelā, son of that Raja Karan of
Gujarāt who had been expelled from his kingdom in the reign of
‘Ala-ud-din Khalji and had found an asylum with the Rāhtor raja
of Baglāna, to attempt first the invasion of Gujarāt, which the
raja promised, if restored, to hold as a fief of the kingdom of the
Deccan. Bahman marched into that kingdom, but at Navsārī fell
sick of fever and dysentery, brought on by his exertions in the
chase and by excessive indulgence in wine and venison, and was
compelled to abandon his enterprise. As soon as he had recovered
sufficiently to travel he returned to Gulbarga, where he lay sick
for six months and died on February 11, 13581. He left four sons,
Muhammad, Dāūd, Ahmad, and Mahmūd, the eldest of whom suc-
ceeded him.
Immediately after the accession of Muhammad I his mother
performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and either visited or commu-
nicated with al-Mu'tadid, the puppet Caliph in Egypt, from whom,
on her return to India in 1361, she brought a patent recognising
her son as king of the Deccan, in consequence of which he assumed
on his coins the title “Protector of the People of the Prophet of
the Merciful God. ' His father before him seems to have sought
and obtained this coveted recognition, for in 1356 the Caliph's
envoy to Firūz Tughluq of Delhi had desired him to recognise and
respect the Muslim king of the Deccan.
Muhammad I was a diligent and methodical administrator, and
on ascending the throne carefully organised his ministry, his house-
hold troops, and the provincial administration which his father
had inaugurated. His institutions demand more than passing notice,
for they not only endured as long as the kingdom of his successors
1 Rabi'ul-awwal 1, A. H. 759. This is the date given by Firishta. According to the
Tazkirat-ul-Mulūk Bahman died in A. H. 761 (A. D. 1360). A coin of his, dated A. 4.
760, exists, but is perhaps posthumous, although no coin of Muhammad I of an
earlier date than A. H. 760 has been discovered. J. A. S. B. , new series, xiv, 475.
2 3. 4. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, extra number, 1904, pp. 4–6.


## p. 377 (#423) ############################################

xv )
RISE OF VIJAYANAGAR
377.
on its
but were closely imitated in the smaller states which rose
ruins. The ministers were eight in number :
(1) Vakīl-us-Saltanah, the Lieutenant of the Kingdom ;
(2) Vazir-i-Kull, the Superintending Minister ;
(3) Amir-i. Jumlah, the Minister of Finance ;
(4) Vazīr-i-Ashraf, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Master
of the Ceremonies;
(5) Nāzir, the Assistant Minister of Finance ;
(6) Pīshvā, who was associated with the Lieutenant of the King-
dom, and whose office was in later times almost invariably
amalgamated with his ;
(7) Kotwal, the Chief of Police and City Magistrate in the
capital ; and
(8) Sadr-i-Jahān, the Chief Justice and Minister of Religion and
Endowments.
The guards were commanded by officers known as Tavājī, many
of whom acted as aides-de-camp to the king and gentlemen ushers
at court, in which capacity they were styled Bārdār. The whole
bodyguard, known as Khāss-Khail, consisted of 200 esquires to
the king (Aslihadār) and 4000 gentlemen troopers (Yaka-Javān),
and was divided into four reliefs (Naubat), each consisting of
50 esquires and 1000 troopers, and commanded by one of the great
nobles at the capital, with the title of Sar-Naubat. The tour of
duty of each relief was four days, and the whole force was com-
manded by one of the ministers, entitled, as commander of the
guards, Sarkhail, who performed his ordinary military duties by
deputy.
The Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar has already been mentioned.
The founder of the dynasty which ruled it from 1339 to 1483 was
Sangama I, a petty chieftain of Anagundi, on the north bank of
the Tungabhadra and near the site of Vijayanagar. Sangama had
never submitted to Muhammad Tughluq, but had maintained a
rude independence in his stronghold, and was at first probably
little more than a brigand chief ; but the subjection of the Kāka-
tiyas of Warangal, the destruction of the kingdom of Dvāravatīpura
by the Sayyid sultan of Madura, and the rebellion in the Deccan,
which left the Peninsula free from Muslim aggression, were the
opportunity of Sangama and his successors, and there are few
examples in history of a large and powerful state being established
by adventurers in the short time which sufficed for the establish-
ment of the kingdom of Vijayanagar. Unfortunately we lack the
means of tracing the process by which the insignificant chieftains


## p. 378 (#424) ############################################

378
[CH
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
of Anagundi became, within the short space of thirty years, the
unquestioned rulers of this great and wealthy kingdom, but we
may form some idea of the course of events by imagining a great
Hindu population exasperated by the sacrilegious oppression of
foreign warriors with whom they had been powerless to cope, de-
prived of their hereditary rulers, and suddenly relieved of the
hostile yoke by the intestine feuds of their enemies, joyfully ac-
claiming a national hero.
Sangama I was succeeded, in 1339, by his son, Harihara I, who
again was succeeded, in 1354, by his brother, Bukka I. It cannot
be determined what share each of these rulers had in establishing
the kingdom, but before 1357 it was so powerful that the sagest
counsellor of Bahman Shāh dissuaded him from molesting it. Mu-
hammad I came into conflict with this great power in consequence
of a measure of domestic policy, adopted in no spirit of aggression.
His father had minted few or no gold coins, but Muhammad, who
objected both on religious and political grounds to the circulation
of Hirdu money in his dominions, coined gold in considerable
quantities. Bukka I and Kānhayya of Warangal, without any justi-
fication, resented this measure as tending to limit the circulation
of their gold, and received support from the bankers and money-
changers in Muhammad's dominions, native Hindus of the Deccan,
who melted down all his gold coin falling into their hands, and
either hoarded the metal, which was purer than that of the Hindu
coins, or supplied it to the mints of Vijayanagar and Warangal.
Repeated warnings were disregarded, and on one day in May or
June, 1360, the Hindu bankers and money. changers in all towns
of the kingdom were, by royal decree, put to death. Their place
was taken by Hindus of the Khatri caste of northern India, who
had accompanied the various armies which had invaded the Deccan,
and now enjoyed a monopoly of the business of banking and money.
changing until, in the reign of Fīrūz Shāh Bahmani (1397-1422),
the descendants of the slaughtered men were permitted, on pay-
ment of a large sum of money, to resume the business of their
forefathers.
The rajas of Vijayanagar and Warangal feigned to regard Mu-
hammad's determination to establish his own gold currency as an
assertion of suzerainty, and, knowing that his treasury had been
depleted by the profusion customary at the beginning of a new
reign, addressed arrogant and provocative messages to him, Bukka
demanded the cession of the Rāichūr Doab, and threatened, failing
compliance, to concert measures with the king of Delhi for a com-


## p. 379 (#425) ############################################

Xv ]
WAR WITH WARANGAL
379
bined attack on the Deccan. Kānhayya of Warangal demanded
the retroeession of Kaulās, and threatened war. Muhammad, on
one pretext and another, detained the bearers of these insolent
demands for eighteen months, by which time his preparations were
complete, and, with an effrontery surpassing that of his enemies,
haughtily inquired why his vassals, the rajas of Vijayanagar and
Warangal, had not made the customary offerings on his accession,
and demanded that they should atone for their negligence by im-
mediately sending to him all the elephants fit for work in their
dominions, laden with gold, jewels, and precious stuffs. Kānhayya's
reply to this insult was the dispatch of an army under his son
Venāyek Deva against Kaulās, and Bukka supplied a contingent
of 20,000 horse for the enterprise. The armies of Berar and Bidar
under Bahādur Khān defeated and dispersed the invaders, and
while Bukka's contingent fled southwards Venāyek Deva took
refuge in his fief of Vailampallam, on the sea coast. Bahādur
Khān marched to the gates of Warangal, forced Kānhayya to
ransom his capital by the payment of 100,000 gold hūnsand the
surrender of twenty-six elephants, and returned to Gulbarga.
These hostilities permanently disturbed the friendly relations
between Warangal and Gulbarga. In 1362 a caravan of horse-
dealers arrived at Gulbarga, and to the king's complaint that they
had no horse in their stock fit for his stable, replied that on their
way through Vailampallam Venāyek Deva had compelled them to
sell to him all their best horses, despite their protest that they
were reserved for the king of the Deccan. Muhammad set out in
person to avenge this insult, and led 4000 horse on a sudden raid
to Vailampallam, performing a month's journey in a week, and
arriving at his destination with only a quarter of his original force ;
but his arrival was unexpected, and, having gained admission to
the town by a stratagem, he captured Venāyek Deva as he at-
tempted to flee from the citadel. Exasperated by the foul abuse
which his captive uttered, he caused his tongue to be torn out, and
hurled him from a balista set up on the ramparts into a fire kindled
below.
He was gradually joined by the complement of his original
force, but imprudently lingered too long at Vailampallam, and in
the course of his long retreat was so harassed by the Hindus that
he was forced to abandon all his baggage and camp equipage, and
lost nearly two thirds of his men. Reinforcements which joined
1 The hūn was the coin former by known by the British in southern India as the
pagoda, and was worth four rupees.


## p. 380 (#426) ############################################

380
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
him at Kaulās not only checked the pursuit, but carried the war
into the enemy's country, and devastated the western districts of
Telingāna.
During the king's absence his cousin, Bahrām Khān Māzan-
darānī, governor of Daulatābād, had rebelled, and had sought the
assistance of Firūz Tughluq of Delhi'. His mission, which was
accompanied by envoys from Kānhayya of Warangal, failed to ac-
complish its object, and Muhammad sent an army to suppress the
rebellion in Daulatābād and marched in person into Telingāna to
avenge his recent discomfiture. One force was sent against Gol-
conda and another against Warangal, whence Kānhayya fled into
the hills and jungles and vainly sued for peace. Muhammad re-
mained for two years in Telingāna, ravaging and laying waste
the country, while his troops continued to besiege Warangal and
Golconda. Kānhayya at length succeeded in obtaining peace by
swearing fealty, paying an indemnity of 1,300,000 hūns, surrendering
300 elephants, and ceding Golconda. To these concessions he added
a throne studed with turquoises, which had originally been prepared
as an offering to Muhammad Tughluq, but was now included in the
regalia of the kingdom of the Deccan, where it was known as the
Takht-i-Firūza, or turquoise throne.
On March 21, 1365, Muhammad took his seat on this throne at
Gulbarga and made himself merry with wine, dance, and song. The
singers and dancers had to be suitably rewarded, and the king,
flushed with wine and success, ordered that they should be paid by
a draft on the treasury of Vijayanagar. His ministers hesitated to
execute an order issued, as they were persuaded, under the in-
fluence of strong drink, but the king was in earnest, and insisted
on obedience. The order, delivered to Bukka by an accredited
envoy, incensed the powerful raja beyond measure, its bearer was
ridden round the city on an ass and ignominiously expelled, and
Bukka crossed the Tungabhadra and besieged Mudgal, a fortress
then held by no more than 800 Muslim troops. The place fell, and
its garrison was massacred before relief could reach it, and Mu-
hammad set out for the Doāb with no more than thirty elephants,
crossed the flooded Krishna, and marched towards Bukka's great
army of 30,000 horse and 900,000 foot', vowing that he would not
1 Sce Chapter VII.
2 The vast numbers of infantry led into the field by the rajas of Vijayanagar will
frequently be noticed. They suggest a suspicion of delibcrate cxaggeration by
Muslim historians for the purpuse of magnifying the expliots of Muslim warriors but
the suspicion is unjust “Abd-ur-Razzāq, an unprejudiced observer, who visited
Vijayanagar in 1412, when the kingdom was at peace, says that the army
consisted of 1,100,000 men. The Hindu infantry was of very poor fighting


## p. 381 (#427) ############################################

Xv ]
FIRST WAR WITH VIJAYANAGAR
381
sheathe the sword until he had avenged the massacre of the garrison
of Mudgal by the slaughter of a hundred thousand misbelievers.
His impetuosity terrified Bukka, who fled with his cavalry
towards Adonī, leaving the infantry, followers, and baggage animals
to follow as best they could. The Muslims plundered the Hindu
camp, taking a vast quantity of booty, and Muhammad, after
slaughtering 70,000 Hindus of both sexes and all ages, retired for
the rest of the rainy season into the fortress of Mudgal where he
was joined by reinforcements from Daulatābād. He sent orders to
all the forts in his kingdom, demanding a detachment of artillery
from each, and sent the elephants which he had captured to Gul-
barga, for the conveyance of the guns! At the close of the rainy
.
season he advanced towards Adonī, while Bukka retired, leaving
his sister's son in command of that fortress.
Bukka reassembled his scattered army, and Muhammad, cross-
ing the Tungabhadra at Siruguppa, advanced to meet him. Bukka
detached an officer, Mallināth, with the flower of his army, con-
sisting of 40,000 horse and 500,000 foot, to attack the Muslims, and
Muhammad sent against him his cousin, Khān Muhammad, with
10,000 horse, 30,000 foot, and all the artillery, and followed him
with the remainder of his army. Early in 1367 the forces net near
Kauthal, and the first great battle between the Hindus of the
Carnatic and the Muslims of the Deccan was fought. It raged with
great fury from dawn until four o'clock in the afternoon, the com-
manders of the wings of the Muslim army were slain and their
troops put to flight but the centre stood fast, encouraged by the
news of the near approach of the king, and, by a timely discharge
of the artillery, worked by European and Ottoman Turkish gunners,
shook the Hindu ranks, and completed their discomfiture by a
cavalry charge which prevented their artillery from coming into
quality and probably consisted of a host of lightly armed and half-trained
rustics, of whom almost any number might have been collected.
1 With reference to this statement, and the mention of guns as part of Bukka's
armament, Firishta remarks that this was the first occasion on which the Muslims
used guns in warfare in the Deccan. It is quite possible that a knowledge of the use
of gunpowder in war had by this time reached southern India, for Ismā Il b. Faraj,
king of Granada, used artillery at the siege of Baza, in 1325, and cannon of brass, with
iron balls, were made at Florence in 1326. Who the Europeans and Ottoman Turks,
mentioned by Firishta as serving with the artillery, can have been, is not clear, for
the Portugese did not reach India until more than 130 years after this time. It is
not, however, improbable that Europeans from the Eastern Empire and Venice
occasionally found their way to India by way of Egypt and Red Sea, or overland,
either as independent adventurers or as the slaves of Muhammadan merchants.
Both Europeans and Ottoman Turks were in great 'request at a later period, as
gunners and artillerists.


## p. 382 (#428) ############################################

382
ch.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
action, and in which Mallināth was mortally wounded. His army
broke and fled, and Muhammad Shāh arrived on the field in time
to direct the pursuit, in the course of which the victors slaughtered
every living soul whom they overtook, sparing neither women nor
sucklings. Muhammad marched in pursuit of Bukka, who, after
eluding him for three months, contrived to throw himself into
Vijayanagar, which the Muslims were not strong enough to besiege,
but Muhammad, by feigning sickness and ordering a retreat, enticed
him from the fortress, and, having led the Hindus to a distance
attacked their camp by night, slew 10,000 men, and again captured
their treasure and elephants. Bukka again fled to Vijayanagar
and Muhammad, without attempting to besiege him, ordered a
general massacre of the inhabitants of the surrounding country.
Bukka, urged by his courtiers, sent envoys to sue for peace, and
,
even the Muslim officers were moved to beg that the slaughter
might cease, but Muhammad replied that although he had slain
four times the number of Hindus which he had sworn to slay, he
would not desist until his draft on Bukka's treasury was honoured.
To this the envoys consented, the draft was honoured, and the war
ended. The Hindus, horrified by the massacre of 400,000 of their
race, including 10,000 of the priestly caste, proposed that both
parties should agree to spare non-combatants in future. Muhammad
consented, and the agreement, though sometimes violated, miti.
gated to some extent the horrors of the long period of intermittent
warfare between the two states.
Bahrām Khān and his confederate, Kondba Deva the Marāthā,
were now stronger than ever in Daulatābād. The failure of their
missions to Delhi had been more than counterbalanced by the
withdrawal of the royal troops for the campaign in the south, and
Bahrām was enriched by the accumulation of several years' revenue
of the province and strengthened by the support of a numerous
and well-equipped army, by an alliance with the raja of Baglāna,
and by the adhesion of many of the fief-holders of southern Berar.
To a letter from Muhammad promising him forgiveness if he would
return to his allegiance he vouchsafed no reply, and Khān Mu-
hammad was reappointed to Daultatābād and sent against him, the
king following with the remainder of the army.
Bahrām and his allies advanced as far as Paithan on the Godā.
varī, and Khān Muhammad halted at Shivgaon, only thirteen miles
distant, and begged his master, who was hunting in the neighbour-
hood of Bir, to come to his assistance. On the news of the king's
approach the rebels dispersed and fled, evacuating even the fortress


## p. 383 (#429) ############################################

xvi
ACCESSION OF MUJĀHID
383
of Daulatābād and were pursued to the frontiers of Gujarāt, in
which province they took refuge.
After some stay at Daulatābād Muhammad I returned to Gul-
barga, and devoted himself to the demestic affairs of his kingdom
which enjoyed peace for the remainder of his reign. Highway
robbery had for some time been riſe, and he exerted himself to
suppress it, with such success that within six or seven months the
heads of 20,000 brigands were sent to the capital.
The provincial governors enjoyed great power. They collected
the revenue, raised and commanded the army, and made all ap.
pointments, both civil and military, in their provinces, under
a strong king, and as long as the practice, now inaugurated by
Muhammad, of annual royal progresses through the provinces was
continued, this system of decentralisation worked tolerably well,
but as the limits of the kingdom extended and the personal
authority of the monarch waned its defects became apparent, and
an attempt to modify it in the reign of Muhammad III led in-
directly to the dismemberment of the state.
It was in 1367 that Muhammad I completed the great mosque
of Gulbarga, which differs from other mosques in India in having
the space which is usually left as an open courtyard roofed in. The
late Colonel Meadows Taylor was mistaken in the idea that it was
an imitation of the great mosque, now the cathedral, of Cordova,
for it differs from it in the style of its architecture, but it is a noble
building, impressive in its massive solidity.
In the spring or early summer of 1377 Muhammad I died, and
was succeeded by his elder son, Mujāhid, remarkable for his per-
sonal beauty, his great physical strength, and his headstrong dis.
position. One of his earliest acts as king was to demand from
Bukka I the cession of the extensive tract bounded on the north
by the Ghātprabhā and on the south by the Tungabhadra, and
stretching eastward nearly as far as Mudgal and westward to the
sea. Bukka replied by demanding the return of the elephants cap-
tured in the previous reign, and Mujāhid at once invaded his
dominions. Sending a force under Safdar Khān Sistani to besiege
Adonī, he marched in person against Bukka, who was encamped
on the bank of the Tungabhadra, near Gangāwati, and retreated
southward on his approach. For five or six months Mujāhid fol-
lowed him through the jungles of the Carnatic, without succeeding
in forcing a battle, and in the end Bukka eluded him and shut
himself up in Vijayanagar. Mujāhid followed him, penetrated
beyond the outer defences of the city, and defeated successive


## p. 384 (#430) ############################################

384
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
forces of Hindus sent against him. The failure of his uncle, Dāūd
Khān, to hold a defile, the defence of which had been entrusted
to him, imperilled his retreat, but he forced his way through the
defile and retired at this leisure towards Adoni with sixty or seventy
thousand captives, whose lives were spared under the pact into
which his father had entered. Bukka feared to follow, and Mujāhid
besieged Adoni for nine months, and was on the point of receiving
its surrender when the rainy season began, replenished the water
supply of the garrison, and caused much distress in the besiegers'
camp. Saif-ud-din Ghūrī persuaded him to raise the seige, peace
was made with Bukka, and Mujāhid set out for his capital
His uncle, Dāūd Khān', had taken grave offence at the rebuke
which he had received for his desertion of his post at the battle of
Vijayanagar, and entered into a conspiracy to destroy him. An
opportunity occurred when Dāūl Khān's turn to mount guard over
the royal tent came, and on the night of April 15, 1378, the con-
spirators entered Mujāhid's sleeping tent and slew him, and Dāūd
was proclaimed king.
Safdar Khān, governor of Berar, and Aʻzam-i. Humāyūn, the
new governor of Daulātābād, both partisans of Mujāhid, had pre-
ceded the army to the capital, and on learning of the success of
the conspirators took possession of the royal elephants and returned
to their provinces without waiting to tender their allegiance to
the new king. Their defection menaced Dāūd's authority, but there
was also a party in the capital which was prepared to oppose his
enthronement, and the Hindus, on hearing of the death of Mujāhid,
crossed the Tungabhadra and laid siege to Rāichūr. The aged
regent, Saif-ud-din Ghūrī, averted the calamity of a rebellion at
Gulbarga, but refused to serve the usurper, and retired into private
life, and on May 20, 1378, Dāūd, at the instigation of Mujāhid's
sister, Rūh Parvar Āghā, was assassinated at the public prayers in
the great mosque. Khān Muhammad, Dāūd's principal supporter,
slew the assassin and attempted to secure the throne for Dāūd's
infant son, Muhammad Sanjar, but the child's person was in the
possession of Rūh Parvar, who caused him to be blinded, and, with
the concurrence of the populace raised to the throne Muhammad,
son of Mahmūd Khān, the youngest son of Bahman Shāh.
1 For a discussion of the question of the relationship between Mujāhid and Dāud
see 3. A. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I, extra number, 1904, p. 5.
2 Firishta wrongly styles this prince Mahmūd. He is refuted by the evidence of
coins, inscriptions, and other historians, excepting those who are admittedly mere
copyists, but has led all English historians astray. See 7. A. S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I,
extra number, 1904, pp. 6, 7.


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Xy ]
MUHAMMAD U
385
Muhammad II imprisoned Khăn Muhammad in the fortress of
Sāgar, where he shortly afterwards died, and punished his accom-
plices. The provincial governors who had refused to recognise the
usurper returned to their allegiance to the throne, Saif-ud-din
Ghūri again became chief minister of state, and Bukka, on learning
of the unanimity with which the young king was acclaimed, pru-
dently raised the siege of Rāichūr and retired across the Tunga-
bhadra.
Muhammad II was a man of peace, devoted to literature and
poetry, and his reign was undisturbed by foreign wars. His love of
learning was encouraged by the Sadr-i-Jahān, Mir Fazlullāh Inju
of Shīrāz, at whose instance the great poet Hāfiz was invited to his
court. Hāfiz accepted the invitation and sent out from Shirāz, but
he possessed that horror of the sea which is inherent in Persians,
and he was so terrified by a storm in the Persian Gulf that he
disembarked and returned to Shīrāz, sending his excuses to Mic
Fazlullāh in the well-known oder beginning :
دمی با غم ہے سر بردن جهان یکسر نمی ارزد *
به می بفروش دلق ما د بیش از ایں نمی ارزد
and the king was so gratified by the poet's attempt to make the
journey that although the plentiful provision which he had sent for
him had been dissipated, he sent him valuable gifts.
Between 1387 and 1395 the Deccan was visited by a severe
famine, and Muhammad's measures for the relief of his subjects
displayed a combination of administrative ability, enlightened
compassion, and religious bigotry. A thousand bullocks belonging
to the transport establishment maintained for the court were placed
at the disposal of those in charge of relief measures, and travelled
incessantly to and fro between his dominions and Gujarāt and
Mālwa, which had escaped the visitation, bringing thence grain
which was sold at low rates in the Deccan, but to Muslims only.
The king established free schools for orphans at Gulbarga, Bidar,
Kandhār, Ellichpur, Daulatābād, Chaul, Dābhol, and other cities
and towns, in which the children were not only taught, but were
housed and fed at the public expense. Special allo:vances were also
given to readers of the Koran, reciters of the Traditions, and the
blind.
The peace of Muhammad's reign was disturbed in its last year
by the rebellion of Bahā-ud-din, governor of Sāgar, who, at the
instigation of his sons raised the standard of revolt. A Turkish
1 No. 142 in Lt. -Colonel H. S. Jarrett's edition of Hāfiz.
Ç. H, I. III.
25


## p. 386 (#432) ############################################

386
(CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
officer named Yusuf Azhdar was sent to quell the rebellion, and
besieged Sāgar for two inonths, at the end of which time the
garrison rose against their leader, decapitated him, and threw his
head over the battlements as a peace offering. His sons were slain
while making a last stand against the royal troops, and the rebel-
lion was crushed.
On April 20, 1397, Muhammad II died of a fever, and on the
following day Saif-ud-din Ghūri, the faithful old servant of his
house, passed away at the great age of 101 (solar) years, and was
buried beside his master.
Muhammad was succeeded by his elder son, Ghiyās-ud-din, a
resolute but indiscreet youth of seventeen.
He angered Tughalchin,
the chief of the Turkish slaves, by refusing to appoint him governor
of Gulbarga and lieutenant of the kingdom, and incautiously placed
himself in his enemy's power, lured by his infatuation for his
daughter. Tughalchin blinded the young king and caused the
leading nobles of the kingdom to be assassinated.
The unfortunate Ghiyās-ud-din, who had reigned but one month
and twenty-six days, was blinded and deposed on June 14, 1397,
and on the same day Tughalchin raised to the throne his younger
half-brother, Shams-ud-din Dāūd, and assumed the regency. He
secured his position by playing on the vanity, the fears, and perhaps
on the warmer sentiments of the young king's mother, who had
been a maid-servant of Ghiyās-ud-din's mother, but his dominance
in the state and the degradation of the royal family were deeply
resented by the king's cousins, the brothers Firuz and Ahmad, sons
of Ahmad Khān', one of the younger sons of Bahman Shāh, who
had been brought up by their cousin Muhammad II and had each
been married to one of his daughters, full sisters of Ghiyās-ud-din.
The brothers, now young men of twenty-seven and twenty-six, do
not seem to have been actuated at first by selfish motives, but
desired only to protect the dignity of the throne and to serve the
dynasty. Tughalchin so aroused their apprehensions by poisoning
the mind of the queen-mother against them that they fled from
Gulbarga to Sāgar, where they were befriended by the governor,
and demanded that the king should dismiss Tughalchin. On re-
ceiving the reply that he was unable to exercise his authority they
marched with a small force on Gulbarga, where they expected
support from the minister's enemies, but they were disappointed,
and Fīrūz, in order to encourage the faint-hearted among his
1 See J. A S. B. , vol. LXXIII, part I, extra number, 1904, and An Arabic History
of Gujarāt, text, edited by Sir E. Denison Ross, I, 160.
a


## p. 387 (#433) ############################################

xv )
FIROZ SHAH
387
followers, assumed the royal title. Their troops were defeated by
the royal army, led by Tughalchin and the puppet king, and they
fled to Sāgar. After a short time they professed penitence, and
returned to Gulbarga, where they were received with outward
tokens of forgiveness, but continued to concert plans for the over-
throw of the slave in which it was now clear that his puppet must
be involved.
On November 15, 1397, Firuz and Ahmad contrived to enter
the palace with a few armed adherents, on the pretext of paying
their respects to the king, and overpowered both him and Tughalchin.
Fīrūz ascended the turquoise throne, and was proclaimed under the
title of Taj-ud-din Fīruz Shāh, and Sham-ud-din was blinded and
imprisoned, and eventually permitted to perform, with his mother,
the pilgrimage to the Hijāz, where he died. The blind Ghiyās-ud-
din was brought from Sāgar, a sword was placed in his hand and
Tughalchin, who was compelled to sit before him, was cut to pieces
by his former victim.
Fīrūz, at the time of his accession, was an amiable, generous,
accomplished, and tolerant prince, possessed of a vigorous con.
stitution and understanding, both of which he undermined by
indulgence in the pleasures of the harem.
His first task was to reorganise the administrative machinery of
the kingdom, and he appointed his brother, Ahmad Khān, minister,
with the titles of Amir-ul-Umarā and Khānkhānān, and Mir Faz-
lullāh Injū governor of Gulbarga and lieutenant of the kingdom,
and Brāhmans were more extensively employed in important posts.
In 1398 the long peace between the Deccan and Vijayanagar
was broken, the aggressor being Harihara II, who invaded the
Rāichūr Doāb with an army of 30,000 horse and 900,000 foot, while
the Hindu chieftain on the north bank of the Krishna headed
a rebellion of the Kolis. Firūz first dealt with the latter, and after
defeating them in the field put to death large numbers of them
and crushed the rising, but was compelled to send back the armies
of Berar and Daulatābā], which he had summoned to his assistance
against Harihara, in order that they might deal with Narsingh,
the Gond raja of Kherla, who had invaded Berar and ravaged
the eastern districts of that province as far south as Māhūr, on the
Penganga. No more than 12,000 horse remained to him, but he
ventured to advance to the Krishna. The rainy season of 1399 had
now set in, and Harihara's vast army held the southern bank of the
river. The tactics and discipline of the Hindus were contemptible.
They were scattered over an area which extended for some seventeen
25-2


## p. 388 (#434) ############################################

388
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
miles along the bank of the river and the same distance in depth
to the south of it, and this dispersion, necessary for purposes of
supply, was sufficient to destroy their cohesion, but their mere
numbers precluded any attempt to force the passage of the river,
and Firūz chafed at his enforced inaction until his health suffered.
At this juncture Qăzi Sirāj-ud-din, an inferior officer of his court,
whose enterprise and hardihood became rather his military than his
judicial office, suggested a bold adventure, which Firuz at first
forbade, but afterwards sanctioned.
The Qāzī, a man of parts, had in the course of a riotous youth,
acquired considerable proficiency in music, dancing and juggling,
and he proposed that he should cross the river with a small band
of performers who would readily be admitted into the disorderly
camp of the enemy, and might, by assassinating either Harihara or
his son, throw it into confusion and thus give the Muslim army an
opportunity of crossing in the darkness.
Firūz Shāh's preparations for crossing the river attracted the
attention and earned the ridicule of the Hindus, but were not con-
nected by them with the appearance in their camp of a band of
twenty-six wandering minstrels, who, having crossed the river
lower down, had lodged in a liquor shop, and exhibited their skill
before other professional entertainers whom they met there. The
new-comers soon gained a high reputation, and some nights after
their arrival were commanded to perform before Harihara's son.
The Qāzi sent a secret message to Firūz, warning him to be pre-
pared, and led his troupe to the prince's tents. Only the Qāzi and
two others were required to dance, and the rest of the party re.
mained outside, and were instructed to be ready to facilitate the
escape of the performers. After the exhibition of some tricks Sirāj.
ud-din called for arms for the performance of the sword and dagger
dance, and the three gave an exhibition of sword and dagger play
which amazed the half-inebriated Hindus. Then, suddenly rushing
forward, Sirāj-ud-din fell upon and cut down the prince, while his
two confederates disposed of the minister, the other spectators,
1 For this extraordinary exploit, which reads more like romance than history, we
have three distinct authorities, (1) Firishta, who cites the Tuhfal-us-Salātin and Sirāj.
ut-Tawārikh, (2) Nizām-ud-din Ahmad, and (3) Khāfi Khān, who for once is not a
mere echo of Firishta but obtained his facts from an independent source, and is
corroborated in many important details by Nizām-ud-din Ahmad's briefer
summary. Khāfi Khān's account has been followed as the fullest, most credible
of the three. The exploit will appear incredible to those who do not understand
the proneness of the Oriental to panic on the loss of a leader. The Qāzi under-
stood the failing and laid his plans accordingly.
a


## p. 389 (#435) ############################################

Xv ]
DEFEAT OF THE HINDUS
389
and the torch bearers. The three escaped in the darkness and
joined their companions without, who, on the first symptoms of a
disturbance, had attacked and slain the guard, so that the gang
was enabled to escape to a place of safety and await the success of
the enterprise. The camp of the Hindus was thrown into confusion,
and the wildest rumours circulated. It was widely believed that
the enemy had crossed in force, and slain the raja, and some of
the Hindus mistook others, in the darkness, for enemies, and fell
upon them. The slaughter was only stayed when a conflagration
caused by the ignition of some tents discovered to the combatants
their error ; others, not knowing whither to turn, stood to arms by
their tents, but none knew where to strike.
During the tumult some three or four thousand horse crossed
the river in relays under cover of the darkness, and the Hindu
picquets on the river bank, attacked in front and alarmed by the
uproar in their rear, turned and fled : those who had already
crossed the river covered the passage of the remainder, and before
daybreak Firuz and his whole force had gained the southern bank.
At dawn they attacked the vast and scattered camp of the Hindus,
which was still in confusion, and Harihara, who had left the conduct
of affairs entirely in the hands of his son, was so overwhelmed with
grief and dismay that he fled to Vijayanagar, carrying his son's
body with him, and leaving his army to follow as best it could.
Firūz pursued the flying mob, annihilating any small bands which
attempted to stem his progress, and at last halted before Vijaya-
nagar. His numerical weakness precluded any idea of siege
operations, or of attempting to carry the great city by storm, and
part of the army was detached to plunder and lay waste the
populous tract to the south of it. The agreement to spare the lives
of non-combatants was respected, but large numbers, including
10,000 Brāhmans, were enslaved, and the leading Brāhmans of
Vijayanagar insisted on the conclusion of peace on any terms ob-
tainable, and on the ransom of the captives. These objects were
attained by the payment of an indemnity of about £330,000 sterling,
and Firūz retired. On his return to Gulbarga he made the
first departure from the provincial system of Bahman Shāh and
Muhammad I by appointing Fūlād Khān military governor of the
Rāichūr Doab, which had hitherto formed part of the province of
Gulbarga, from which it was now separated,
It was now necessary to formulate the foreign policy of the
kingdom with respect to the territories on its northern frontier,
Gujarāt and Mālwa, which had declared their independence of


## p. 390 (#436) ############################################

390
( CH
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
Delhi in 1396 and 1401, and the small state of Khāndesh, which
had been established in 1382 by Malik Raja, a partisan of Bahrām
Khān Māzandarāni who had fled from the Deccan. The kingdom
of the Bahmanids, freed from the menace of its southern neighbour,
would have been stronger than any one of these states, stronger,
perhaps, than all together, but as matters stood Mālwa was only
slightly weaker than the Deccan and Gujarāt equal to it, or perhaps
slightly stronger, while the small state of Khāndesh could not have
stood alone under any conditions, and was formidable only by
reason of the support which one or other of its powerful neigh-
bours was ever ready to lend it.
The aggression of Narsingh to Kherla had been prompted by
Dilāvar Khān of Mālwa and Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, and the
governors of Berar and Daulatābād had not only been unable to
punish him, but had not even succeeded in restoring order in Berar.
Firūz was thus compelled, after two or three months' rest at Gul.
barga, again to take the field, and at the beginning of the winter
of 1399 marched to Māhūr, where he received the submission of
the governor, a Gond or Hindu who had declared for Narsingh.
After halting there for a month he continued his march to Ellichpur,
whence he dispatched a force under his brother Ahmad and Mir
Fazlullāh Injū to punish Narsingh. The Gonds, disappointed of
the help which they had expected from Mālwa and Khāndesh,
fought with such desperate valour that the centre of the Muslims
was broken, and many of the leading officers, among them Shujā‘at
Khān, Dilāvar Khān, and Bahādur Khān, were slain?
Ahmad Khān and Fazlullāh Injū rallied the fugitives and saved
the day by causing the great drums to be beaten and spreading
the report that the king was hastening to the support of his army,
They attacked the Gond centre, captured Kosal Rāi, Narsingh's
son, who commanded it, slew 10,000 Gonds, and pursued the re-
mainder to the gates of Kherla, which were shut only just in time
to exclude the victors. The fortress endured a siege of two months,
at the end of which time Narsingh was informed, in reply to his
prayers for peace, that the besiegers were not empowered to treat,
and that he must make his submission to Firūz Shāh at Ellichpur.
1 The shrine at Ellichpur known as that of Shāh 'Abd-ur-Rahmān is probably
the tomb of one or all of these officers. 'Abd-ur-Rahmān is said to have been a
nephew and son-in-law of Mahmūd of Ghazni, and to have invaded Berar early in
the eleventh century, during the reign of the cponymous raja II of Ellichpur.
The absurd story is unknown to history, and is merely a clumsy imitation of the
legends of Sālār Masíūd of Balırāich, in Oudh. For the legend, and a discussion
of it see J. A. S. B. , vol. Lxx, part , p. 10.
a
)


## p. 391 (#437) ############################################

xv )
THE GOLDSMITH'S DAUGHTER
391
He was fain to comply, and after offering forty elephants, a con-
siderable weight of gold and silver, and a daughter for the king's
harem, and promising to pay tribute annually, 'as in the days of
Bahman Shah,' was invested with a robe of honour and dismissed.
Mir Fazlullāh Injū was appointed governor of Berar, and Fīrūz
returned to Gulbarga.
In the interval of peace which followed the expedition to Kherla,
Firūz built for himself and the 800 women of various nations who
composed his harem the town of Firūzābād, on the Bhima, the site
of which had attracted him on his return from Vijayanagar. The
new town was his Capua, but never superseded Gulbarga as the
administrative capital of his kingdom.
In 1401 Firūz, disturbed by rumours that Tīmūr, who was now
in Āzarbāijān, proposed to return to India and seat one of his sons
on the throne of Delhi, is said to have sent to him an embassy, and
to have obtained, in return for his gifts and promises, a decree
bestowing on him the Deccan, Gujarāt, and Malwa. Chroniclers of
.
Tīmūr's reign make no mention of this, but a mission from a ruler
so remote and comparatively obscure may well have passed un-
noticed by them, and it is only on the supposition that the mission
was sent and the decree received that the events of the next few
years can be explained. Muzaffar I of Gujarāt, Dilāvar Khān of
Mālwa, and Nasir Khān of Khāndesh, alarmed and enraged by
Tīmūr's grant, demanded of Firūz that he should keep the peace,
and sent envoys to Harihara II promising to assist him, when
necessary, by attacking the Deccan from the north. Harihara,
emboldened by these offers, withheld the tribute which he had paid
since Firüz Shāh's invasion of his kingdom, and Firūz, apprehensive
of attacks from the north, dared not attempt to enforce payment.
He had gained little by his sycophantic and costly mission.
In 1406 Harihara II died, and was succeeded by his son,
Bukka II and in the same year occurred the romantic episode of
the goldsmith's daughter of Mudgal, a strange occurrence, but
reasonably well attested. A poor goldsmith and his wife, living
near Mudgal, are said to have had a daughter named Parthāl, of
such surpassing beauty and brilliant accomplishments that her
fame spread far and wide, and was carried by a Brāhman who had
been her instructor to the court of Bukka, who sent messengers to
demand her of her parents. They, regarding the proposal as an
1 The authority of the learned author of A Forgotten Empire is to be preferred to
that of B. Suryanārāyan Rāo, who has parodied the title of Mr Sewell's valuable
work, but has failed to controvert his conclusions.


## p. 392 (#438) ############################################

392
[ ch.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
honour, were disposed to comply, but the girl, declined it. Bukka
crossed the Tungabhadra with 5000 horse and sent a party to
Mudgal to abduct the girl but news of the raid had preceded it,
and by the time that the party reached Mudgal Parthāl and her
parents had fled. The disappointed Hindus vented their spleen by
plundering the inhabitants, and rejoined Bukka, but Fülād Khān,
governor of the Doāb, attacked him, and, after suffering a reverse,
defeated the invaders, slew a thousand of them, and drove Bukka
back to Vijayanagar.
In order to avenge this outrage, Firūz assembled the provincial
armies at Gulbarga, and at the end of 1406 marched to Vijaya-
nagar and attempted to carry the city by assault, but within the
walls the Hindu infantry, contemptible in the field, was more than
a match for the Muslim horse, who were driven out of the city.
Bukka, encouraged by this success followed, attacked, and defeated
them, wounding Fīruz himself. They fell back for twenty-four
miles, fortified their camp, and halted to enable their wounded to
recover. Bukka attacked them no less than eight times, but was
defeated on each occasion, and was further disappointed by the
silence of the kings of Gujarāt, Mālwa, and Khāndesh, from whom
he had demanded the fulfilment of their promises. Fīrūz on his
recovery, sent his brother, Ahmad Khān, with 10,000 horse to
plunder the country to the south of his cncmy's capital, and Mir
Fazlullāh Inju to besiege Bankāpur. Both operations were suc-
cessful, and Fazlullāh not only captured Bankāpur, but reduced to
obedience the country lying between it and Mudgal, thus making
the Tungabhadra, throughout its course, the southern boundary of
the kingdom, and securing the frontier for which Mujāhid had con-
tended
Ahmad Khan's spoils included, 60,000 captive Hindu youths and
children, and Fīrūz, recognising the impossibility of capturing Vija.
yanagar, marched to Adoni, but before he could form the siege
envoys from Bukka arrived in his camp to sue for peace. It was
with difficulty that he could be persuaded to consider their pro-
posals, and when he consented to treat he insisted on the humi-
liating condition that Bukka should surrender a daughter to him
for his harem. Bukka also ceded the fort and district of Bankāpur
as the dowry of the princess, and delivered to Firūz 130 pounds of
pearls, fiſty clephants, and 2000 boys and girls skilled in singing
dancing or music, and paid an indemnity of about £300,000.
The marriage was celebrated with great pomp but failed to pro-
inote goodwill between the two kingdoms. Bukka, when escorting


## p. 393 (#439) ############################################

xv )
THE SAINT "GISŪ DARĀZ'
393
Firūz from Vijayanagar to his camp, turned back too soon, and
the two parted in anger.
After his return to Firūzābād the king sent to Mudgal for the
beautiful Parthāl and her parents. The girl was given in marriage
to Hasan Khān, his son, and the parents received gifts in money
and a grant of their native village. It was probably on this occa-
sion that the goldsmiths of the Deccan were permitted once more
to follow their ancestral calling as bankers and money-changers,
from which they had been debarred by the edict of Muhammad I.
In 1412 Firuz led an expedition into Gondwāna. The Gond or
Hindu governor of Māhūr was again in rebellion and Fīrūz, finding
the fortress too strong to be reduced, plundered southern Gond- .
wāna, slaying the inhabitants and capturing 300 . wild elephants,
but was eventually obliged to return to his capital, leaving the
rebel unpunished.
After his return the famous saint Jamāl-ud-din' Husaini, nick-
named Gisū Darāz ('Long ringlets'), arrived from Delhi and estab-
lished himself at Gulbarga, where he was received with great
honour. The cultured Firūz soon wearied of the society of the
ignorant and unlettered saint, but the simpler and more pious
Ahmad took much delight in his discourse, and gained his support,
which contributed largely to his success in the impending contest
for the throne. From this time both Ahmad and the saint, who
was indiscreet enough to prophesy his disciple's success, became
objects of suspicion and aversion to Firūz, who, though no more
than forty years of age, was worn out by his pleasures and dele.
gated much of his authority to others. Ahmad, who had served
his brother faithfully in the past, now lost his confidence, and the
king's choice fell upon Hushyār and Bīdār, two ma numitted slaves
whom he ennobled under the titles of 'Ain-ul-Mulk and Nizām-
ul-Mulk, and into whose hands, as habits of indolence grew upon
him, he gradually resigned the entire administration of the kingdom.
In 1417 he so far roused himself from his lethargy as to lead an
expedition into Telingāna, the raja of which country had withheld
payment of tribute. The suzerainty of Firūz was acknowledged,
the arrears of tribute were paid, and amendment was promised for
the future.
It is doubtful whether Fīrūz, after this campaign, returned to his
capital or marched directly to Pāngul, situated about twenty-five miles
to the north of the confluence of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra,
1 In the Burhān-i-Ma'āsir he is styled Sadr-ud-din, but the authority of the Zafar.
ul-Wālih is to be preferred.


## p. 394 (#440) ############################################

394
( CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
in which neighbourhood he waged his last and most unfortunate
war against the 'misbelievers'. Pāngul had been included in
the district of Golconda, ceded by Kānhayya to Muhammad I
but was now in the possession of Vira Vijaya of Vijayanagari by
whom, or by whose father, Devarāya I, it had been occupied Fīrūz
was opposed, on his way thither, by a division of the enemy's army
which fought with great bravery and was not defeated until it had
inflicted heavy losses on his troops. The siege of Pāngul exhibited
the physical, mental and moral deterioration of Fīrūz. Its opera-
tions were protracted for a period of two years, until the insanitary
condition of the standing camp bred disease among men and
beasts, and disease caused panic and wholesale desertion. Vira
Vijaya, seizing this opportunity, made an offensive alliance with
the raja of Telingāna and marched to the relief of the town. Firūz
Shāh's vanity and the recollection of his early successes forbade
him to follow the wise advice of those who counselled a present
retreat and preparations for future vengeance, and he insisted on
giving battle to Vira Vijaya. Mir Fazlullāh Injū was treacherously
slain during the battle by a Canarese Hindu of his own household,
and the Muslims were routed, and would have been annihilated but
for the careful dispositions and patient valour of Ahmad Khān,
which enabled them to retire in some sort of order towards Gul.
barga. The Hindus occupied the southern and eastern districts of
the kingdom and repaid with interest the treatment which they had
received,
Ahmad succeeded in expelling the Hindu troops, but the humilia-
tion and anxiety to which Firūz had been subjected had shattered
a constitution enfeebled by excesses, and the management of affairs
fell entirely into the hands of Hūshyār and Bidār, who desired to
secure the succession of the king's son, the weak and voluptuous
Hasan Khān, and induced the king to order that his brother should
be blinded. Ahmad withdrew, with his eldest son, 'Alā-ud-din
Ahmad, to the hospice of Gisū Darāza, where he spent the night in
making preparations to flee from the capital, and early in the morning
leſt Gulbarga with 400 horse. He was joined by a rich merchant,
Khalaf Hasan of Basrah, who had long been attached to him, and
1 The succession to the throne of Vijayanagar at this period is not free from
obscurity and doubt. According to Mr. Sewell, who is here followed, Bukka II died
in 1408, and was succeeded by his brother, Devarāya I, who died in 1413 and was
succeeded by his son Vira Vijaya, but some authorities identify Devarāya I with
Bukka II.
2 The practice of taking sanctuary at the hospice or shrine of a saint is of great
antiquity, and survives in the east, though not in India, to this day. Few Muslim
ulers would venture to violate the sanctity of such a building.


## p. 395 (#441) ############################################

Xv ]
AHMAD SHAH, ‘VALI'
395
halted in a village near Kaliyāni. The two favourites hastily col-
a
lected a force of three or four thousand horse, with elephants and
pursued Ahmad, whose followers now numbered a thousand. Khalaf
Hasan encouraged Ahmad to assume the royal title and withstand
his brother's troops, and by circulating a report that the provincial
governors had declared for him, and by a stratagem similar to that
of the Gillies' Hill at Bannockburn, enabled his patron to defeat
his enemy and pursue the favourites to Gulbarga. Here they carried
Firūz, now grievously sick, into the field, and ventured another
battle, but the king swooned, and a rumour that he was dead caused
the greater part of the army to transfer its allegiance to Ahmad.
The citadel was surrendered, and Ahmad, in an affecting interview
with his brother, accepted his resignation of the throne and the
charge of his two sons, Hasan Khān and Mubārak Khān.
Ahmad ascended the throne at Gulbarga on September 22, 1422,
and on October 2, Firūz died. He was probably not far from death
when Ahmad usurped the throne, but the event was too opportune
to have been fortuitous, and of the three best authorities for this
period two, citing early historians, say that he was strangled, and
the third says that he was poisoned.
Hasan, who had inherited his father's vices without his virtues,
was content with a life of voluptuous ease at Fīrūzābād, where his
uncle's indulgence permitted him to enjoy such liberty as was com-
patible with the public peace, but Ahmad's son and successor blinded
him as a precautionary measure.
Fīrūz holds a high place among the princes of his house. His
character at the time when he ascended the throne has been de-
scribed, and it was not until he had reigned for some years that the
wise, spirited, and vigorous king became a jaded and feeble volup-
tuary. He was a sincere, but not a rigid Muslim, and though
nominally an orthodox Sunni of the Hanafite school, he drank wine,
while confessing the sinfulness of his indulgence, and availed him.
self of the licence, admitted by theologians of the laxer Maliki
school, and by the Shiahs, of temporary marriage. In his harem were
women of many nations, with each of whom he is said to have been
able to converse fluently and easily in her own language. His
curiosity regarding the marriage law of Islam was enlightened on
one occasion by a woman taken in adultery, who pleaded with irre-
futable logic, that as that law allowed a man four wives her sim-
plicity was to be pardoned for believing that it allowed a woman
four husbands. Her impudent wit saved her.
The new king's first care was to honour the saint to whose


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396
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
patronage and blessing he attributed his success, and his gratitude
took the form of extravagant endowments. The shrine of Gisú Darāz
is yet honoured above that of any saint in the Deccan, and the con-
stancy of the mob has put to shame the fickleness of the king, who
lightly transferred bis favour from the successor of the long-haired
saint to a foreigner, Shāh Ni'matullāh of Māhān, near Kirmān, in
Persia.
Ahmad was eager to punish the insolence of Vira Vijaya, but
the need for setting in order the domestic affairs of the kingdom
postponed the congenial task. The merchant to whose energy and
devotion be owed his throne was appointed lieutenant of the king-
dom, with the title of Malik-ut-Tujjār, or 'Chief of the Merchants,'
and Hūshyār and Bidar were rewarded for their fidelity to the
master to whom they had owed allegiance, the former with the title
and post of Amir-ul-Umarā and the latter with the government of
Daulatābād.
The status and power of the great officers of the kingdom were
more precisely determined by Ahmad than by his predecessors.
Each provincial governor ranked as a commander of 2000 horse,
though his provincial troops were not restricted to this number,
and were supplemented when the king took the field by large con-
tingents from the great fief-holders.
After a demonstration in the direction of his northern frontier,
which expelled a force which had invaded the Deccan from Gujarāt,
Ahmad marched, with 40,000 horse, against Vira Vijaya, who, with
the help of the raja of Telingāna led an army, of which the infantry
and gunners numbered nearly a million, to the southern bank of
the Tungabhadra, where he purposed to oppose the passage of the
Muslims. Ahmad marched to the northern bank, and, having for
forty days attempted in vain to lure the enemy into attempting the
passage, took the offensive. A division of 10,000 men was sent up
stream by night, to cross the river above the enemy's camp and
create a diversion by attacking him on the left flank, or in rear.
The Hindus, expecting a frontal attack in the morning, bivouacked
by the river bank, but Vīra Vijaya himself was pleasantly lodged
in a garden of sugarcane in rear of the position. The division which
had crossed the river in the night reached the garden shortly before
dawn, on their way to attack the Hindus in rear, and the raja's
attendants fled. The Muslims, who had still some time to spare,
spent it in cutting sugarcanes for themselves and their horses, and
Vīra Vijaya, fearing lest he should fall into their hands, crept out
and concealed himself in the standing crop, where he was found
a


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Xy ]
AHMAD'S PERIL
397
crouching by the troopers. Taking him for the gardener they gave
him a sheaf of sugarcane to carry, and drove him on before them
with blows of their whips. Meanwhile the main body of the Muslim
army had begun to cross the river, and the Hindus, momentarily
expecting their ouslaught and taken in rear by the force which had
all unknowingly, captured the raja, were seized by the panic which
always strikes an eastern army on the disappearance of its leader,
and dispersed. The Muslims began to plunder the camp, and the
raja, exhausted by the unwonted exercise of running under a heavy
load, and smarting under the humiliation of unaccustomed blows,
seized the opportunity of making his escape. He might even yet
have rallied his army, but his spirit was so broken and his bodily
powers so exhausted that he fled with it to Vijayanagar.
The Hindus now had reason to repent their breach of the humane
treaty between Muhammad I and Bukka I for never, in the course
of a long series of wars, did either army display such ferocity as did
Ahmad's troops in this campaign. His temper, not naturally cruel,
had been goaded by the spectacle of the atrocities committed by
the Hindus after the disastrous campaign of Pāngul, and he glutted
his revenge. Avoiding Vijayanagar, the siege of which had been
discovered to be an unprofitable adventure, he marched through
the kingdom, slaughtering men and enslaving women and children.
An account of the butchery was kept, and whenever the tale of
victims reached 20,000 the invader halted for three days, and cele-
brated the achievement with banquets and beating of the great
drums. Throughout his progress he destroyed temples and slaugh.
tered cows, he sent three great brazen idols to Gulbarga to be
dishonoured, and omitted nothing that could wound the natural
affections, the patriotism, or the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
In March 1423, he halted beside an artificial lake to celebrate the
festival of the Naurūz and his own exploits, and one day, while
hunting followed an antelope with such persistence that he was led
to a distance of twelve miles from his camp, and was observed by
a body of five or six thousand of the enemy's horse. Of his imme-
diate bodyguard of 400 men half were slain in the furious onslaught,
but he contrived to find shelter in a cattle-fold, where his 200
foreign archers for some time kept the Hindus at a distance, but
they had thrown down part of the wall of the enclosure and were
endeavouring to force an entrance when aid unexpectedly arrived.
A faithful officer, ‘Abd-ul-Qadir, whose family had served the king's
for three generations, had grown apprehensive for his master's
safety, and had led two or three thousand of the royal guards in


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398
[CH.
THE KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN
search of him. This force now appeared and fell upon the Hindus,
who stood their ground until they had slain 500 of their assailants,
and then fled, leaving a thousand of their own number dead on the
field.
'Abd-ul-Qadir was rewarded with the title of Khānjahān and
the government of Berar, and his brother 'Abd-ul-Latif, who had
shared the merit of the rescue, with that of Khān A'zam and the
government of Bidar. The defence made by the foreign mounted
archers had so impressed upon Ahmad the importance of this arm
that Malik-ut-Tujjār was ordered to raise a corps of 3000 of them-
a measure which was destined to have a deep and enduring effect
on the history of the Muslims in the Deccan.
Having effected all that arms could accomplish against a de.
fenceless population, Ahmad marched on Vijayanagar, where Vira
Vijaya, appalled by the sufferings of his poeple, sued for peace, and
,
was forced to accept the conqueror's terms. Payment of the arrears
of tribute for several years was the lightest of these, for the
immense sum had to be borne to Ahmad's camp by the choicest
elephants in the royal stables, escorted by the raja's son Devarāya
with every demonstration of joy. The prince was obliged to accom-
pany Ahmad in his retreat as far as the Krishna, and the Muslims
retained the vast number of captives whom they had taken. Among
these were two destined to rise to high rank. One, a Brāhman
youth, received the name of Fathullāh on his reception into the
fold of Islam, was assigned to the new governor of Berar, succeeded
his master in that province, and eventually became, on the dissolu-
tion of the kingdom, the first independent sultan of Berar ; and the
other, Tīma Bhat, son of Bhairav, an hereditary Brāhman revenue
official of Pāthri, who had fled to Vijayanagar to avoid punishment
or persecution, received the Muhammadan name of Hasan, rose, by
a combination of ability and treachery, to be lieutenant of the
kingdom, and left a son, Ahmad, who founded the dynasty of the
Nizām Shāhi kings of Ahmadnagar.
The king returned to Gulbarga shortly before the time when the
fierce heat of the dry months of 1423 should have been tempered
by the advent of the seasonal rains, but the rain failed, and its
failure was followed by a famine. He was in his capital at the same
season of the following year, when the distress of his people was at
its height and the usual signs of the appoach of the rainy season
were still absent. The calamity was attributed to the displeasure
of heaven, and Ahmad imperilled his reputation, if not his person,
by publicly ascending a hill without the city and praying, in the


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WAR WITH MALWA
399
a
a
sight of the multitude, for rain. Fortune favoured him, the clouds
gathered, and the rain fell.