No More Learning

The news of these successive rebellions augmented the king's
disorder, remedies failed of their effect, and he wasted away daily
until, on January 2, 1316, he died, his end, according to the generally
accepted belief, having been hastened by his favourite, who, two
days later, assembled the nobles present in the capital and read to
them his will. This document, possibly authentic, but certainly
procured by misrepresentation and undue influence, disinherited
Khizr Khăn and made Shihāb-ud-dīn 'Umar, a child of five or six
heir to his father. The infant was enthroned and Malik Naīb acted
as regent. He caused Khizr Khān and Shādi Khān to be blinded
and, eunuch though he was, he pretended to marry 'Alā-ud-din's
widow, possessed himself of all her jewellery and private property,
and then again imprisoned her. His object was to destroy the
whole of 'Alā-ud-din's family and ascend the throne himself. He
had already imprisoned Mubārak Khān, 'Alā-ud-din's third son,
a youth of seventeen or eighteen years of age, and now sent some
men of the corps of infantry on guard at the Palace of the Thousand
Pillars, which he had chosen as his residence, to blind him. The
prince reminded the soldiers of the duty which they owed to his
house, bribed them with some jewellery, and sent them back to the


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

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

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

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v)
KHUSRAP KHANS TREASON
123
punishment than mutilation of the nose and ears, and shortly after-
wards appointed him governor of Sāmāna.
Khusrav Khān was meanwhile active in the south. Having col.
lected much booty in the Madura district he returned to Telingāna,
where he was detained by the rainy season and beguiled the tedium
of inaction with ambitious dreams. He discussed with his intimates
the possibility of establishing himself as an independent ruler in the
south, and would have put the design into execution had not some
of the officers of the army reported it to the king and compelled him
to lead them back to Delhi. Mubārak ignored the report and, in
his impatience to embrace his favourite, ordered him to travel from
Deogir to the capital in a litter and by posting relays of bearers on
the road enabled him to perform the journey of nearly 700 miles in
seven days. Khusrav Khān at once resumed his former ascendency
and persuaded his master that the reports sent from the camp were
false and malicious. When his accusers reached Delhi, prepared to
substantiate their charges and expecting at least commendation for
their fidelity, they were dismissed from their posts and forbidden the
court, and one of them, Malik Talbagha of Kara, was thrown into
prison.
Khusrav Khān's treasonable design had failed principally be-
cause he had, although he was in chief command, no personal troops
to support him against the nobles of whose contingents his army
was composed, and so deeply was the king infatuated that, not.
withstanding the revelation of his favourite's treachery, he lent a
sympathetic ear to his complaints and permitted him to raise in
Gujarāt a corps of 40,000 horse, largely composed of and exclusively
commanded by members of his despised tribe. The long meditated
treason was now nearly ripe for execution and, after a design for
assassinating Mubārak in the hunting field had been abandoned as
too dangerous, it was decided that he should be put to death in his
palace.
Khusrav Khān, by complaining that his nightly attendance
prevented him from meeting his relations, obtained possession of
the keys of the palace gates, and was enabled to admit large numbers
of his relations and of his corps of horse to the palace, in the lower
story of which they used nightly to assemble. A warning given to
Mubarak on the eve of his death by his former tutor was repeated
to Khusrav Khān, and served only as å text for hypocritical pro-
testations, which entirely disarmed suspicion. On the night of
April 14, 1320, all was ready and he who had uttered the warning
to the king was cut down as he was inspecting the guard. The


## p. 124 (#164) ############################################

124
THE KHALJIS
( ch.
uproar which ensued disturbed Mubārak in the upper story of his
palace and he asked Khusrav Khān to see what was amiss. Khusrav,
having ascertained from a glance into the courtyard that the work
was already begun, told him that the men were trying to catch
some horses which had broken loose. Even as he spoke the assas-
sins were ascending the stairs and Mubārak, as they burst into his
room, sprang up in terror and ran towards the female apartments,
but Khusrav seized him by the hair and held him while Jāharya,
one of the Parwāris, stabbed him to death. His head was severed
from his body and thrown into the courtyard, as a signal to all that
the throne was vacant, and the outcastes broke into the harem,
murdered the children of the royal family, and outraged the women.
When Mubārak's head was recognised the royal guards on duty
at the palace fled, and left all in the hands of Khusrav's tribesmen.
The palace was illuminated and all the great nobles then present in
the capital were summoned to court, and hastened thither in
ignorance of what had happened. They were detained until the
morning and were then forced to attend a court at which the out-
caste was proclaimed king under the title of Nāsir-ud-din Khusrav
Shāh. The proclamation was followed by a massacre of many of
the old servants of 'Alā-ud-dīn and Mubārak, whose known fidelity
rendered them dangerous to the usurper; and the Khalji dynasty,
which had reigned for no more than thirty years, but had given to
the Muslim empire in India its first administrator, was wiped out.
Khusrav possessed himself of the person of the unfortunate princess
Deval Devī, who had been successively the wiſe of Khizr Khān and
of his brother and murderer Mubārak. Against the union with the
foul outcaste who became her third husband 'her proud Rājput
blood must indeed have risen. '
In the distribution of honours and rewards with which Khusrav,
following the usual custom, inaugurated his reign his own near
relations and those of his tribe who had most distinguished them-
selves in the late tumult were the most favoured, but an attempt
was made to conciliate those powerful nobles who had been en-
trapped and compelled unwillingly to countenance by their presence
the enthronement of the outcaste, and Wahid-ud-din Quraishi was
entitled Tāj-ul-Mulk and permitted to retain office as minister.
'Ain-ul-Mulk Multāni received the titles of 'Alam Khān and Amir-
ul-Umarā, but Khusrav applied himself especially to the conciliation
of the son of the powerful Ghāzi Malik, Fakhr-ud-din Muhammad
Jauna, whom he appointed master of the horse, Ghāzi Malik himself


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v]
DEFEAT OF KHUSRAV
125
had always avoided the intrigues of the capital, and seems never to
have visited Delhi during Mubārak's brief and profligate reign, but
he was dreaded by the gang of outcastes and pseudo-Muslims now
in power both as a loyal adherent of the Khalji dynasty and as a
rigid Muslim, and his son was valuable either as a supporter or as a
hostage. The attempt to secure him failed, and he escaped from
Delhi at midnight with only two or three followers, and took the
road to Dipālpur, his father's headquarters. A force sent in pursuit
of him failed to overtake him, and Jauna was joyfully welcomed by
his father at Dipālpur. The governor of Multān hesitated to support
Ghāzi Malik against the king de facto, but was slain by a less
scrupulous officer, Malik Bahrām Aiba, who led the army of Multān
to Dipālpur and joined the old warrior who stood forth as the
champion of Islam.
Islam stood in sore need of a champion. None of Khusrav's
tribe was a Muslim in more than name, and only a few had made
profession of the faith. Muslim historians record with indignation
the open celebration of idolatrous worship at court and the gross
insults offered to their faith. Mosques were defiled and destroyed
and copies of the scriptures of Islam were used as seats and stools.
Ghāzi Malik now set out for Delhi. He was first opposed by
Yaklaki, the noseless and earless governor of Sāmāna, but swept the
ſeeble obstacle from his path. Yaklakī fled to Sāmāna and was
preparing to join Khusrav at Delhi when the landholders of the
district rose against him and cut him to pieces. At Sirsa Ghāzi
Malik defeated and put to flight an arıny under the command of
Hisām-ud-din, the usurper's half-brother, and continued his march
to Delhi. Khusrav prepared to meet him near the old fort at
Indarpat, and in attempting to secure the fidelity of his troops by
donations varying in amount from four to two and a half years' pay
and to conciliate by means of gifts the most respected professors of
the religion which he and his followers had outraged, completely
emptied the treasury. His profusion availed him little, for 'Ain-ul-
Mulk, who was hardly less powerful than Ghāzi Malik, deserted him
and withdrew with his troops into Mālwa.
The armies met on September 5, and though 'Ain-ul-Mulk's
defection had damped the spirits of the usurper's faction his troops
fought bravely until they were overpowered by Ghāzi Malik's
veterans. Khusrav attempted to save himself by flight, but was
found lurking in a garden, and was brought before the conqueror
and beheaded. Ghāzi Malik halted for the night at Indarpat, where


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126
[CH. V ]
THE KHALJIS
he received from some of the leading citizens the keys of the gates
of Siri, and on the following day he entered the Palace of the
Thousand Pillars and wept as he beheld scene of destruction of
his old master's family. He asked whether there yet remained any
descendant of 'Alā-ud-din who might claim his allegiance, but was
informed that the whole family had been extinguished and was
urged to ascend the throne. After a decent profession of reluctance
he was proclaimed king on September 8, under the title of Ghiyās-
ud-dīn Tughluq Shāh.
a


## p. 127 (#167) ############################################

CHAPTER VI
THE REIGNS OF GHIYĀS-UD-DIN TUGHLUQ AND
MUHAMMAD TUGHLUQ, AND THE SECOND CON-
QUEST AND REVOLT OF THE DECCAN
TUGHLUQ's ascent of the throne recalls that of Jalāl-ud-din
Firüz Khalji. Both were aged warriors called upon to restore the
dominion of Islam, menaced by the extinction of the dynasties which
they had long served, but here all similarity between them ends.
The powers of Firüz were failing when he was called to the throne,
and his reign would have closed the history of his family but for the
usurpation of his unscrupulous but vigorous nephew. Tughluq on
the other hand, though old, was in full vigour of mind, and during
his short reign displayed none of the contemptible weakness of
Firüz. He was able to enforce many of the salutary laws of 'Alā-ud.
din and to enact others which restored order in a kingdom which
had nearly passed from the grasp of Islam. He enjoyed the
advantage of pure Turkish lineage, his elevation excited no jealousy
among the nobles who had formerly been his equals, and he was
able, within a week of his accession, to pacify the capital and
within forty days his sovereignty was everywhere acknowledged.
One of his first acts was to provide for surviving females of the
Khalji house by suitable marriages. He pursued and punished
with great severity all who had been in any way concerned in
marrying the beautiful Deval Devī to the vile upstart Khusrav ;
he provided with lands and employment all old officials who had
faithfully served the fallen dynasty, and he distributed appoint-
ments among his own adherents, the chief of whom, Fakhr-ud-din
Muhammad Jauna Khān, his eldest son, received the title of Ulugh
Khān and was designated heir apparent; he recovered the treasure
which had been lavished by the usurper or had been plundered
during the confusion of his short reign, and thus replenished his
empty treasury. In giving effect to this unpopular measure he
encountered much difficulty and opposition. Khusrav, in order to
1 This, a tribal name, is usually transliterated “Tughlaq. ' Mr. Stanley Lane
Poole prefers Taghlak, Sir Aurel Stein (Ruins of Desert Cathay) gives the name of the
tribe, which inhabits the neighbourhood of Khotan, as Taghlik, doubtless represent-
ing faithfully the modern pronunciation. I follow the traveller Ibn Batūtah, who is
explicit on the point and must have known how the word was pronounced at Delhi
in his day, seeing that Muhammad Tughluq was his patron. See 3. R. A. S. , July,
1922. But Professor D. S. Margoliouth points out that it is also a personal name.
6


## p. 128 (#168) ############################################

128
( CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
conciliate the professors of the dominant religion, had made large
giſts, ostensibly for charitable purposes, to the leading shaikhs, or
religious teachers. Three of these had refused to touch any money
coming from a source so polluted and most of those who had feared
to refuse the gift had prudently kept the money in deposit and
restored it when called upon to do so, but Shaik Nizām-ud-din
Auliyā, the most renowned of them all, who had received as much as
half a million tangas, replied that he had at once distributed in charity
all that he had received and was not in position to make restitution.
Public opinion forbade, in the case of a religious leader so pro-
minent and so renowned for sanctity, the torture or duress to which
humbler delinquents were subjected and the king was obliged to
accept the explanation instead of the money, but the Shaikh was a
marked man, and was almost immediately denounced for indul.
gence in the ecstatic songs and dances of darvishes, a form of
devotion regarded as unlawful by rigid Sunnis of the established
religion. Tughluq summoned him before an assembly of fifty-three
theologians, and though he was forced to bow to their decision that
these religious exercise were not unlawful relations between him
and the Shaikh remained strained until his death, in which it is
not improbable that the Shaikh was implicated.
The odium incurred by the forcible recovery of the usurper's
giſts was dissipated by the king's judicious liberality and his care for
the welfare of his subjects. Unlike his son he did not seek to
conciliate the few and astonish the many by enormous gifts to
favoured individuals, but on occasions of public rejoicing his
bounty, widely diffused, earned popularity and the only malcontents
were the rapacious, whose avarice was disappointed by his settled
policy of promoting the welfare of the public and discouraging the
accumulation of great wealth by individuals.
Private property confiscated under the harsh rule of ' Ala-ud-din
and still retained by the state was restored to its former owners ;
all the usurper's decrees were revoked; public works of utility,
such as forts in which peaceful husbandmen might seek a refuge
from brigands, and canals to irrigate their fields were undertaken,
and highway robbery was suppressed; but Tughluq devoted his
attention above all to the encouragement of agriculture. Gardens
were planted, the land tax or rent due to the state was limited to
one-tenth or one-eleventh of the gross produce, which was to be
assessed by the collectors in person, and not estimated from the
reports of informers and delators; the revenue was to be collected
with due regard to the cultivator's power to pay, and all officials


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VI ]
ADMINISTRATION. POSTS
129
were reminded that the surest method of improving the revenue
the extension of cultivation, not the enhancement of the
demand, and thus ruined villages were restored, waste land was
reclaimed, and the area under cultivation was extended. Fief-
holders and local governors were held responsible for the observance
of this policy and it was ordained that the emoluments of the
collectors of the revenue should consist in the exemption of their
holdings from taxation, and should not be derived from extortion.
Some privileges were accorded to the nobles, place-seekers were
forbidden to haunt the public offices, and torture was prohibited in
the recovery of debts due to the state and was restricted to cases of
theft and embezzlement.
One class was subjected to repressive legislation. Tughluq not
unreasonably, considering the circumstances of his elevation to the
throne, decreed that while it should be possible for Hindus to live
in moderate comfort none should be permitted to amass such wealth
as might nurture ambition. The decree, though harsh, was not
altogether unnecessary, and it has benefited posterity by causing
the concealment of portable wealth which, discovered in after ages,
has shed much light on history.
Tughluq personally was a rigid Muslim, punctilious in the
observance of all the ordinances of his faith, and especially in
avoiding intoxicants. He forbade the manufacture and sale of
wine and enforced, as far as possible, the observance of the Islamic
law. He was devoid of personal pride and vanity and his elevation
to the throne made no difference in his relations with his family,
his associates, and his immediate attendants.
The security and order which reigned in the kingdom within a
short time of his accession were due hardly less to his admirable
system of communications than to his other measures of adminis-
trative reform. Postal systems had from time immemorial existed
in India, but during recurring periods of disorder, such as Khusrav's
reign, shared the general disintegration of all administrative machi-
nery, and Tughluq may be credited with the inauguration of the
perfect system found existing in the reign of his son and successor,
and minutely described by the Moorish traveller, Ibn Batūtah.
Posts were carried by horsemen, called ulāq (ulāgh), or by
runners, called dāwat. For the former, horses were posted at
distances of seven or eight miles along the roads, but the stages
travelled by the latter were but the third of a kurüh, or about
two-thirds of a mile. Ibn Batūtah mistranslates the word dawat,
properly dhāwat, as 'the third of a kurüh,' but it means simply
C. H. I. IN
9


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130
[ CH
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
a
'a runner. ' He says that these occupied huts, without the villages,
at every third part of a kurüh on the roads, and were always ready
,
to start at a moment's notice. Each carried a staff tipped with
copper bells, and when he left a post town he took his letters in
his left hand and his staff in his right, shaking it so that the bells
jingled, and ran at full speed towards the next post-house, where
a runner, warned of his approach by the sound, awaited him, took
the letters from him, and ran at ſull speed in like manner towards
the next post-house.
In parts of India a modification of this system still exists. The
staff, or short spear, with its cluster of bells, is still carried, but
the runner's stage is about five miles, which he is expected to cover,
at his peculiar jog. trot, in an hour, but these runners carry bags
containing the public mails. Tughluq's apparently carried only a
few official dispatches and, as Ibn Batūtah says, ran at full speed.
Five minutes would therefore be a liberal allowance of time for
each stage, and, as there was no delay at the post-houses, it may
be calculated that news travelled at the rate of nearly two hundred
miles in twenty-four hours. News of Ibn Batūtah's arrival at the
mouth of the Indus reached Delhi, between eight hundred and
nine hundred miles distant by the postal route, in five days. The
king, was thus in close touch with the remotest corners of his
kingdom, and the service was rapid even for heavier burdens. In
the next reign fresh fruit transported from Khurāsān and
Ganges water for the royal table from Hindūstān to Daulatābād
on the heads of postal runners.
The province of the Deccan, under the rule of Malik Qavām-ud-
din, who had been appointed to its government with the title of
Qutlugh Khān, remained loyal to the new dynasty, but Pratāparud-
radeva of Warangal appears to have believed that his fealty to
Delhi was dissolved by the extinction of the Khaljīs, and in 1321
Tughluq sent his eldest son, Ulugh Khān, to reduce him again to
obedience.
The prince met with no opposition during his advance, and
opened the siege of Warangal. The earthern rampart of Rudram-
madevi was stoutly defended, but the Hindus were outmatched in
the combats which were daily fought beneath it, and so many
were slain that Pratāparudradeva attempted to purchase peace by
promises of tribute, hoping to obtain terms similar to those to
which Malik Nāib had agreed, but the offer was rejected. In the
meantime, however, the Hindus, as in the former siege, had been
engaged in cutting the communications of the besiegers, and the
was


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VI ]
ULUGH KHAN'S REBELLION
131
>
absence of news from Delhi suggested to 'Ubaid the Poet and the
Shaikhzāda of Damascus, two turbulent and mischievous favourites
of the prince, the fabrication of false news, with the object of facili-
tating their master's usurpation of the throne, and Ulugh Khăn
suffered himself to be led astray.
A report of the king's death was circulated in the camp and
the army was called upon to swear allegiance to the prince as their
new sovereign, but the leading nobles with the expedition knew that
the report was fabricated and withdrew their contingents. One
even suggested that the prince should be put to death as a traitor,
but to this the others would not agree. The siege was raised and the
army, marching in separate divisions, retired to Deogir, pursued and
harassed by the Hindus.
Before the troops reached Deogir they learned by posts from
Delhi that the king still lived, and the treason of the prince and his
counsellors became apparent to all, but the great nobles who had
opposed him were apprehensive of his vengeance, or of his influence
with his father, and fled, with his evil advisers. One died in
Gondwāna, another was slain by a Hindu chieftain who flayed his
body and sent the skin to the prince, and the others were captured
and sent to the prince.
Ulugh Khān travelled post haste to Delhi with the horsemen
and by some means made his peace with his father and betrayed
both his associates and his enemies, who were put to death? .
So successful was Ulugh Khān in persuading his father of his
innocence or his penitence that in 1323 he was permitted to lead
another expedition into Telingāna, and on this occasion he observed
the precaution, which he had formerly neglected, of securing his
lines of communication. His first objective was Bīdar, the ancient
Vidarbha, and having captured that fortress he marched on War.
angal and opened the siege with more vigour than on the first
occasion. The efforts of his troops were supported by such artillery
as that age possessed, catapults and balistae, and their valour,
thus aided, reduced both the outer and the inner lines of defence.
Pratāparudradeva and his family, the nobles of the kingdom with
their wives and children, and the elephants, horses and treasure of
the state, fell into the hands of the victors, and Telingāna, for the
first time, was directly subjected to Muslim rule. The country was
1 In this account of Ulugh Khān's rebellion Ibn Batūtah has been followed.
Barani's confused and perplexing account, which has been followed by other Indian
historians is coloured by his own and Firūz Shāh's regard for Muhammad's
memory. Vide J. R. A. S. , for July, 1922.
9-2


## p. 132 (#172) ############################################

132
(CH.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
divided into fiefs and districts which were allotted to Muslim nobles
and officers, and Warangal, now renamed Sultānpur, became the
capital of a province of the empire. The news was received at
Delhi with great rejoicings and Ulugh Khān remained for some
time at Sultānpur-Warangal to establish the administration of the
province. His restless activity led him into the ancient Hindu
kingdom of Utkala in Orissa, called by Muslim historians Jājnagar,
the ancestors of whose rulers had stemmed the advance of the earlier
Muslim governors of Bengal. His expedition was a mere raid,
undertaken with no design of permanent conquest, and its only
immediate result was the capture of forty elephants, but the raja,
who had lived for some time at peace with the quasi-independent
rulers of Bengal, of the line of Balban, was disturbed by the discovery
that the Turks were in a position to menace his southern as well as
his northern frontier.
During the prince's absence in the south an army of Mughuls
invaded the kingdom of Delhi from the north-west, but was defeated,
its two leaders being captured and brought to Tughluq's court.
Almost immediately after this event the king received reports from
Bengal which led him to form the resolution of invading that country
in person for the purpose of restoring order and asserting the
supremacy of Delhi, and he called his son from Telingāna to act as
regent during his absence.
It was a civil war arising from conflicting claims to the throne
that summoned Tughluq to Bengal. Shams-ud-din Firūz Shāh of
that country, third son of Nāsir-ud-din Mahmūd Shāh Bughrā and
grandson of Balban, had died in 1318, after a reign of sixteen years,
leaving five sons, of whom the three eldest only need occupy our
attention. These were Shihāb-ud-din Bughrā, who succeeded his
father on the throne at Lakhnāwati, Nāsir-ud. din, and Ghiyās-ud-
din Bahādur, who, having been appointed by his father governor of
Sonārgāon, or Eastern Bengal, had proclaimed his independence in
that province in 1310 and, on his father's death, disputed the title of
his elder brother, Shihāb-ud-din Bughrā, and in 1319 overcame him
and usurped his throne, the succession to which was then claimed
by Nāsir-ud-din, who appealed to Tughluq. The king eagerly
seized so favourable an opportunity of intervention in Bengal, the
allegiance of which to Delhi had been severely shaken by the
downfall of the Khalji dynasty and the rulers of which were bound
by no ties either to Khalj or to Tughluq, but had, on purely
hereditary grounds, a better claim than either to the throne of
Delhi,


## p. 133 (#173) ############################################

V]
EXPEDITION TO BENGAL
133
Tughluq Shāh marched to Bengal by way of Manaich, the town
which had been stormed by Mahmûd of Ghazni. In the year
following his 'accession he had appointed to the government of
this district Tātār Malik, whom he had entitled Zafar Khān. The
governor's first task had been to crush the local Rājput chieftain
who, during the short interval of Hindu supremacy, had established
himself in the district. According to tradition the Rājput was in-
vited to a conference at which the merits of Islam and Hinduism
were discussed and, being convinced of the truth of the former,
accepted it and submitted, thus rendering unnecessary an appeal to
arms. Zafar Khān renamed Manaich Zafarābād? and was firmly
established in the district when the king passed through it on his
way to Bengal. He accompanied the royal army into Tirhut, where
Nāsir-ud-din waited upon Tughluq and did obeisance to him, and
was sent in command of the force dispatched against Lakhnāwati.
All opposition was crushed and Ghiyās-ud-din Bahādur was captured
and brought before the king with a rope around his neck. The
elephants from the royal stables at Lakhnāwati were appropriated
by Tughluq and his army took much plunder, but Nāsir-ud-din
was placed as a vassal monarch on the throne of Western Bengal.
Eastern Bengal, which had for thirteen years been independent
under Bahādur, was annexed and administered as a province of
the kingdom af Delhi.
Meanwhile disquieting news of his son's behaviour in the capital
reached Tughluq. Ulugh Khān. had purchased vast numbers of
slaves and had formed a party by extravagant gifts and grants
to those who he believed could be converted by this means into
adherents. His chief crime appears to have been his intimate
association with the obnoxious Shaikh Nizām-ud-din Auliyā, whose
disciple he had become, and who was believed to have prophesied,
in one of his ecstatic trances, his imminent accession to the throne.
It was also reported that astrologers had prophesied that the king
would never return to the capital alive. Reports of these conver-
sations and machinations reached Tughluq in his camp, and enraged
him. He wrote to the astrologers, menacing them with his dis-
pleasure ; to his son, threatening to deprive him of his office and
to exclude him from any participation in public business ; and to
;
the Shaikh, to whom he addressed the threat that when he returned
from Bengal Delhi would be too small to hold both of them. The
Shaikh is said to have replied with the prophetic menace, which
1 Zafarābād is situated in 25° 42' N. and 82° 44' E. , in the Jaunpur
District of the United Provinces.


## p. 134 (#174) ############################################

134
(ch.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
has since become proverbial, Hanüz Dihli dûr ast, 'Delhi is yet
afar off,' and so it proved to be.
Tughluq sent Bahādur a prisoner to Delhi and himself set out
for Tughluqābād, the capital which he had built for himself to the
south of Old Delhi. He attacked on his way the raja af Tirhut,
whose loyalty was doubtful, and reduced him to submission, and
from Tirhut travelled towards the capital by forced marches, leaving
the army to follow at its leisure.
Tughluqābād was elaborately decorated and Ulugh Khān pre-
pared a welcome for his father by building for his reception at
Afghānpur', a few miles from the city, a temporary kiosk, where
he might take rest and refreshment after his toilsome journey and
before his state entry into his capital.
Ulugh Khān caused this building, which was chiefly of wood, to
be erected from his own designs, employing in the construction of
it one Ahmad, son of Ayāz, known as Malikzāda, an inspector of
buildings whom, on his accession to the throne, he made his minister,
with the title of Khvāja Jahān. The building was so designed as
to fall when touched in a certain part by the elephants, and it
appears that the device was a projecting beam. Ulugh Khān wel.
comed his father at the kiosk, and entertained him at a meal, at
the conclusion of which he begged that the elephants from Bengal
might be paraded and driven round the building. His father ac-
ceded to his request and Ulugh Khān, before the elephants were
brought up, suggested to Shaikh Rukn-ud-din, for whom he had
a special regard, that he should leave the kiosk for his prayers. Im-
mediately after the Shaikh's departure the elephants were brought
up, came into contact with that part of the building which had
been designed to effect its collapse and the whole structure fell
on the old king and crushed him. Diggers were summoned, but
their arrival was purposely delayed, by Ulugh Khān, and the king's
body was discovered, when the debris was removed, bending over
that of his favourite sen, Mahmūd Khān, as though to protect him.
It was commonly believed that the king still breathed when his
body was discovered and was dispatched under the orders of his
He was buried at night in the tomb which he had selected
for himself at Tughluqābād and Ulugh Khān ascended the throne
under the title of Muhammad Shāh? .
1 Probably the village, about five and a half miles to the south-cast of
Tughluqābād, which appears in the Indian Atlas as Aghwanpur.
2 This account, which differs from that of the contemporary Barani and
Indian historians who have followed him, is taken from the narrative of Ibn
Batūtah, whose informant was Shaikh Rukn-ud-din. Vide J. R. A. S. , for
July, 1922.
son.
a


## p. 135 (#175) ############################################

VI)
ACCESSION OF MUHAMMAD TUGHLUQ
135
a
old age.
The death of Ghiyās-ud-din Tughluq occurred in February or
March, 1325, and Shaikh Nizām-ud-din soon followed him, dying
on April 31. Almost at the same time died the greatest of all the
poets of India who have written in Persian, Yamin-ud-dīn Muham-
mad Hasan, known as Amir Khusrav, at the age of seventy-two.
He was of Turkish origin, his father having been a native of the
green-domed city' of Kash, in Turkistān, who, driven from his
home early in the thirteenth century by the horde of the Mughul,
Chingiz Khān, had found an asylum in India. The poet was born
at Patiāla in A. H. 651 (A. D. 1253) and entered the service of 'Alā.
ud-din Khalji as court poet, but later in his life became the disciple
of Shaikh Nīzām-ud-din Auliyā, abandoned the court and worldly
ambitions, and lived in religious retirement, but still wrote poetry.
He was a most prolific writer and estimated the number of couplets
which he had written at more than 400,000 but less than 500,000,
dividing his poems into four classes, youthful effusions ; poems of
early middle age, written when he was putting off childish things
and turning his thoughts to religion; poems written when he had
attained the dignity of a religious teacher; and the poems of his
Each of the four classes bears, as might be expected, the
impress of his views on this world and the next during the period
of his life in which it was produced, but in the second class there
are to be found poems sufficiently courtly to be acceptable to the
vanity of a royal patron.
Amir Khusrav had a deep veneration for Sa'di, whom he enter-
tained when he visited India, and the great poet of Persia repaid
his admirer by recommending him very warmly to 'Alā-ud-din. As
Khusrav himself says in one of his verses, with a play upon words
which cannot be preserved in translation:
The volume of my verse hath the binding of Shirăz.
Amir Khusrav was survived by another poet, Shaikh Najm-ud-
din Hasan, known as Hasan-i-Dihlavi, whose works, less widely
known than Khusrav's, were much admired. Both poets are honour-
ably mentioned in the Tazkirat-ush-Shu'arā and in the Atashkada.
Hasan died in 1338 at Daulatābād in the Deccan, and was buried
there. The celebrated Jāmi refers in highly complimentary terms
to these two poets of Delhi, and they are among the few Indian-
born writers of Persian verse whose works have been read and
admired beyond their own country.
1 Ibn Batūtah says that the Shaikh died before the king's return from Bengal,
and that Ulugh Khān incurred his father's wrath by helping to bear the corpse to
the grave.


## p. 136 (#176) ############################################

136
( ch.
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
6
Tughluq, following the example of other founders of dynasties
at Delhi, had left an interesting monument of his short reign in the
fortress capital of Tughluqābād, which he built for himself on a
rocky eminence nearly ten miles to the south of the site afterwards
selected by Shāh Jahān for his city. He founded this town imme-
diately after his ascent to the throne and completed it before he
received the news of the conquest of Telingāna. 'Here,' said Ibn
Batütah, 'were Tughluq's treasures and palaces, and the great
palace which he had built of gilded bricks, which, when the sun
rose, shone so dazzlingly that none could gaze steadily upon it.
There he laid up great treasures, and it was related that he con-
structed there a cistern and had molten gold poured into it so that
it became one solid mass, and his son Muhammad Shāh became
possessed of all of it when he succeeded him. ' Tughluq's mausoleum
in red sandstone and white marble, connected with his town by
a bridge carried on arches, and the massive walls of his fort still
remain, but no palace now dazzles the eye, and the once brilliant
town is entirely deserted.
Muhammad, after remaining for forty days at Tughluqābād,
went in state to the old city of Delhi and there took his seat on
the throne in the palace of the former kings. The city was deco-
rated for his reception and the acclamations of the people were
stimulated by a lavish distribution of gold and silver coins.
The delineation of a character so complex and contradictory as
that of Muhammad Tughluq is no easy task. He was one of the
most extraordinary monarchs who ever sat upon a throne. To
the most lavish generosity he united revolting and ir. discriminate
cruelty ; to scrupulous observance of the ritual and ceremonial
prescribed by the Islamic law an utter disregard of that law in all
public affairs; to a debasing and superstitious veneration for all
whose descent or whose piety commanded respect a ferocity which
when roused respected neither the blood of the prophet nor per-
sonal sanctity. Some of his administrative and most of his military
measures give evidence of abilities of the highest order, others are
the acts of a madman. His protégé Ziya. ud-din Barani, the his-
torian, whom he admitted to a considerable degree of intimacy
and whom he often deigned to consult, attributes many of the
atrocities which he commanded or sanctioned to the evil influence
of twelve wicked counsellors, stigmatized as 'miserable,' 'accursed,'
or 'most accursed,' whose delight was to shed the blood of Muslims,
but Muhammad Tughluq was no weakling, and was never a tool in
the hands of his counsellors. If his advisers were vile and blood.


## p. 137 (#177) ############################################

VI )
CHARACTER OF MUHAMMAD TUGHLUQ
137
thirsty men it was he that chose them, and if he followed evil
counsels he did so because they commended themselves to him. In
like manner Barani attributes his disregard of the Islamic law in
administrative and punitive measures to his early association with
Sa'd, the heretical logician, 'Ubaid, the infidel poet, and 'Alim-ud-
din, the philosopher, but this is mere special pleading. His associa-
tion with these freethinkers never diminished his faith in Islam, his
careful regard in other respects for its laws, or his veneration for its
traditions. It was not the fault of logicians, poets, or philosophers
that he scandalised the orthodox by deliberately preferring human
reason to divine revelation as a guide in mundane matters, and by
openly avowing his preference. His private judgement misled him,
but this was due to his temperament. His peculiar vice as a judge
and administrator was his inordinate pride, which deprived him of
the power of discriminating between offences. All his command-
ments were sacred and the slightest deviation from an impracticable
regulation and the most flagrant act of defiance and rebellion were
alike punished by a cruel death. This policy acted and re-acted
with cumulative effect on the monarch and his people. Disgusted
by their sovereign's barbarity they grew ever more refractory;
exasperated by their disobedience he grew ever more ferocious.
His wide dominions were seldom free from rebellion during his
reign, and at his death the whole kingdom was in a ferment.
Barani, notwithstanding his gratitude and his fears, is surpris-
ingly frank. So overweening, he says, was the king's pride that he
could not endure to hear of a corner of the earth, hardly even of a
corner of heaven, which was not subject to his sway. He would be
at once a Solomon and an Alexander ; nor did mere kingship
content him, for he aspired to the office of prophet as well. His
ambition was to make all the kings of the earth his slaves, and
Barani would liken his pride to that of Pharaoh and Nimrod, who
claimed divinity as well as royalty, but that his scrupulous personal
observance of the law and firm adherence to the faith of Islam
cleared him of the suspicion of blasphemy and infidelity. He would
compare him with Bāyazid of Bustām and Husain, son of Mansur-
ul. Hallāj, who, in the ecstacy of their devotion, believed themselves
to have been absorbed into the Godhead, but that his barbarous
cruelty deprived him of any claim to sanctity.
Against his overweening pride must be set the grovelling
servility with which he received at his court the great-great-
grandson of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir of Baghdād, the miser


## p. 138 (#178) ############################################

138
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
(CH
Ghiyās-ud-din, whom he received with more than royal honours,
whom he compelled, much against his will, to place his foot upon
his neck, and on whom he lavished wealth with astonishing pro-
fusion ; his abasement before Hāji Sa'id Sarsari, envoy from the
phantom Abbasid Caliph al-Mustakfi of Egypt, whose name
appeared on the currency of his kingdom and of whose envoy's
utterances he spoke as though they were divine revelations; and the
extravagant veneration for the temporal, as well as the spiritual
authority of the Caliphate which led him to strike from the formal
Friday sermon the names of all his predecessors but such as had
been formally recognised by one of the Caliphs.
Against his barbarous punishments and indiscriminate blood-
shed may be set a few instances, related by Ibn Batūtah, of a
fantastic display of reverence for abstract justice and the forms of
law. On one occasion a Hindu complained to the qāzi that the
king had slain his brother without a cause, and the king, having
previously ordered the magistrate not to rise at his entrance, ap-
peared unarmed in court and made his obeisance. He heard with
humility and obeyed with promptitude the sentence directing him
to compensate the complainant. In another cause a Muslim com- .
plained that the king had unjustly retained some of his property,
and in obedience to the qāzi's order restitution was made. In a
third case a young man, son of one of the great officers of the king-
dom, complained that the king had arbitrarily caused him to be
beaten for no fault, his complaint was found to be true, and accord.
ing to the Islamic law of retaliation he was permitted to take his
revenge. A stick was placed in his hand and he gave the royal
offender twenty-one strokes. The chastisement was probably purely
formal, but the king's head-dress fell to the ground.
These rare displays, made probably in the early years of the
reign, and possibly collusive, cannot palliate the arbitrary cruelty
of a monarch whose punishments were as revolting as they were
frequent, and whose gateway was seldom unpolluted by the corpse
of a freshly slain victim, but they illustrate some of the extra-
ordinary contradictions of his character. It may be that Muhammad
thus compounded with his conscience for many barbarities. The
severest condemnation of his cruelty is the remorse of his old
servant Barani, who bitterly laments his own cowardice and that
of his fellow-courtiers. "We were traitors,' he says, 'who were pre-
pared to call black white, though not devoid of that knowledge
which ennobles a man. Avarice and the desire of worldly wealth
led us into hypocrisy, and as we stood before the king and witnessed


## p. 139 (#179) ############################################

vi )
MUHAMMAD'S CRUELTY
139
punishments forbidden by the law, fear for our fleeting lives and
our equally fleeting wealth deterred us from speaking the truth
before him. '
A catalogue of the atrocities committed by Muhammad during
his reign, such as that given by Ibn Batūtah, would be tedious and
revolting, but it will be necessary from time to time to refer to the
punishments inflicted by him. One of the early acts of his reign
was the murder of his brother, Masóūd, whose only offence seems
to have been that he was handsome and popular. Muhammad pro-
fessed to suspect him of treasonable designs, and the unfortunate
prince discovered, as did so many of the tyrant's victims, that it
was better to court a speedy death by a false confession than to
suffer day by day the barbarous tortures devised by the perverted
ingenuity of Muhammad.
Against this unnatural act may be set a display of foolish
generosity. In the year of his accession Muhammad permitted
Ghiyās. ud din Bahādur, the worthless and turbulent prince whom
his father had brought in chains from Bengal, to return to Sonār-
gāon, where he was associated in the government of Eastern Bengal
with Tátār Khān, who had been entitled Bahrām Khăn and left
at Sonārgāon as governor by Ghiyās-ud-din Tughluq. In the fol-
lowing year Nāsir-ud-din, who was reigning at Lakhnāwati as
Muhammad's vassal, died, and Qadr Khān was appointed by Mu-
hammad governor of Western Bengal.
Muhammad may be compared, in his devotion to the details of
administration, with Philip II of Spain, and one of his earliest acts
was to order the compilation of a register of the revenue and ex-
penditure of the provinces of his kingdom. The governors of
provinces were directed to send to the capital all the materials for
the compilation of such a register, and during the first few years
of the reign a large number of clerks and officials was employed in
the Palace of the Thousand Pillars at Delhi in the work of com-
pilation. The object of the measure seems to have been to intro-
duce a uniform standard of land revenue and to ensure that no
village in the kingdom remained unassessed or unvisited by col-
lectors. The register already maintained for the districts in the
neighbourhood of the capital served as a model for the larger work,
and the revenue exacted from these districts as a standard for the
assessment of the more distant provinces, but we have unfortunately
no details of the principles on which allowance was made for the
different classes of soil, for distance from markets and the other con-
siderations which affect the assessment of the land revenue in India.
a


## p. 140 (#180) ############################################

140
THE TUGHLUQ DINASTI
(CH.
were
a
In the second year of the reign a most serious rebellion broke
out in the Deccan. Bahā-ud-din Gurshāsp, sister's son to Ghiyās-
ud-din Tughluq, and therefore first cousin to Muhammad, held
the fief of Sāgar, about ten miles north of Shorāpur, and enjoyed
great influence among the Muslim officials of the Deccan. He
refused to recognise the new king and appears to have believed
that he might be able to establish a claim to the throne, though
relationship in the female line seldoni counts for much in the east.
He exerted all his influence, and the whole of the Deccan was soon
aflame. The rebels advanced towards Deogir, but were met by the
minister, Khvāja Jahān, and the brutal Mujīr-ud-din, Abu Rijā,
who defeated them. Gurshāsp fled to Sāgar and thence to Kampalī,
on the Tungabhadra, where he took refuge with the raja. The
imperial troops sustained a reverse before this place, but
reinforced, and the noble raja, seeing that he could no longer
protect his guest, sent him to Dvāravatipura with a letter com-
mending him to the protection of Vira Ballāla III, and performed
the awful rite of jauhar. After the women had been destroyed
the raja led his bravest warriors in a charge on the royal army, in
which all the Hindus perished. Khvāja Jahān then entered Kampli
and carried off the principal inhabitants, including the dead raja's
eleven sons, into slavery. The Hindu princes were forced to accept
Islam, but were otherwise treated with the distinction due to their
high birth and their father's valour. Ibn Batūtah, while at Mu-
hammad's conrt, met three of these princes and describes one of
them as an intimate friend of his own.
Vira Ballāla was made of less stern stuff than the raja of Kamplī,
and tamely complied with Khvāja Jahān's demand for the surrender
of the fugitive, who was carried to Deogir where Muhammad had
now arrived, to receive his punishment. After being subjected to
the insults of the women of the harem he was flayed alive. His
flesh was cooked with rice and offered to the elephants, after
portions of it had been sent to his wife and children, and his skin
was stuffed with straw and exhibited in the principal cities of the
kingdom.
It was probably the rebellion of Gurshāsp that impressed upon
Muhammad the desirability of a more central situation than that
of Delhi for the capital of a kingdoin which included the Deccan
and the Peninsula, and it was now, in 1327, that he decreed that
Deogir, which he renamed Daulatābād, or the abode of wealth,
should replace Delhi as the capital. Not only the great officers of
state and the courtiers but apparently also provincial governors


## p. 141 (#181) ############################################

VI]
DAULATĀBAD IS MADE THE CAPITAL
141
*
were
were commanded to build for themselves houses at Daulatābād, to
send their families thither, and to make it their home. The king
spared neither pains nor expense to beautify his new capital and
to make it a worthy substitute for Delhi. · Spacious bazars
laid out and handsome buildings erected, and Ibn Batūtah, who
visted Daulatābād several years later, described it as a great and
magnificent city equal to Delhi. But the king's greatest work was
the marvellous citadel, an ancient stronghold of the rajas of Deogir,
which was strengthened and improved by him. The fort, probably
as Muhammad left it, was described as follows, more than three
centuries later, by 'Abu-ul-Hamid Lāhori, the official chronicler of
Shāh Jahān's reign. “This lofty fortress, the ancient names of which
were Deogir, and Dhārāgir, and which is now known as Daulatābād,
is a mass of rock which raises its head towards heaven. The rock
has been scarped throughout its circumference, which measures
5000 legal yards, to a depth which ensures the retention of water
in the ditch at the foot of the escarpment. The escarpment is so
smooth and even that neither an ant nor a snake could scale it.
Its height is 140 cubits, and around its base a ditch forty cubits in
width and thirty in depth has been dug in the solid rock. Through
the centre of the hill a dark spiral passage like the ascent of a
minār, which it is impossible to traverse, even in daylight, without
a lamp, had been cut, and the steps in this passage are cut out of
the rock. It is closed at the foot of the hill by an iron gate, and
after passing through this and ascending the passage one enters the
citadel. At the head of the passage is a large grating of iron which
is shut down in case of necessity, and when a fire is lighted upon it
the ascent of the spiral passage becomes impossible owing to
intense heat. The ordinary means of reducing fortresses, such as
mines, covered ways, batteries, etc. , are useless against this strong
fortress. '
This passage still exists, and is the only work the attribution
of which to Muhammad is doubtful, for Ibn Batūtah, who visited
Daulatābād late in 1342 or early in 1343, records that access to
the citadel was then gained by means of a leathern ladder.
Besides officers of state and courtiers numbers of tradesmen and
others who gained their livelihood by serving or supplying the
court followed it to Daulatābād, and encouragement was given to
any who could be persuaded voluntarily to transfer their domicile
to the new capital, but the steps taken in this year must not be
confounded, as some historians have confounded them, with those
adopted two years later, when the whole of the population of Delhi


## p. 142 (#182) ############################################

142
[. CH
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
was transported, as a punitive, not an administrative measure, to
Daulatābād.
From the new capital as a base of operations it was possible to
establish order more completely in the Deccan, and Muhammad's
troops were occupied for eight months in the siege of the strong
fortress of Kondhāna, now known as Sinhgarh. The fort, which was
held by a Koli chieſtain, surrendered at the end of that time.
Muhammad was not allowed to repose long at Daulatābād. In
1328 he was disturbed by news of the rebellion of Malik Bahrām
Aiba, Kishlū Khān, the governor of Multān and Sind. The position
of this governor was peculiar. He had been on terms of the closest
intimacy with Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughluq, had co-operated most cor-
dially with him in the campaign against the usurper Khusrav, and
had had a friendly contest with his comrade, in which each had
urged the other to ascend the throne. Kishlū Khān had eventually
prevailed by warning Tughluq that if he hesitated his ambitious
son would certainly forestall him, and his old friend left him in
virtual independence at Multān. The circumstances of Tughluq's
death had not improved the relations between Muhammad and
Kishlũ Khān, who rose in arms against his sovereign. Of the
circumstances of his rebellion there are two accounts. According
to one he incurred the king's wrath by decently interring the
stuffed skin of the unfortunate Gurshāsp instead of sending the
miserable relic on for exhibition in another province, and according
to the other Muhammad ventured to send 'Alī, a collector of revenue,
to Multān to inquire when Kishlū Khān proposed to obey the order
to build for himself a house at Daulatābād and to send his family
thither. 'Ali's insolence in delivering this message so inflamed the
wrath of Kishlū Khān's son-in-law that he slew the messenger, and
Kishlũ Khān raised the standard of revolt.
Muhammad hastened in person from Daulatābād to crush the
rebellion, marching by way of Delhi. Kishlũ Khān marched east-
ward from Multān and the armies met in the desert plain of Abohar',
where Muhammad defeated his adversary by means of a stratagem,
Shaikh 'Imād-ud-din, who closely resembled him in personal appear-
ance, was placed in the centre of the army, under the royal umbrella,
and Muhammad himself, with 4000 horse, lay in ambush. The
rebels naturally directed their chief efforts against the centre of
the royal army, and in an impetuous charge broke the line and
slew the Shaikh. The army retired in real or ſeigned confusion
and the rebels dispersed to plunder the camp. The king then
1 In 30° 8' N. and 74° 11' E.


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VI)
A MUGHUL INVASION
143
emerged from his ambush, fell upon Kishlū Khān, who was but
scantily attended, slew him, and severed his head from his body.
The positions were now reversed, and the rebels broke and fled.
Muhammad marched on to Multān, about 160 miles distant, occu-
pied the city, and prepared to take punitive measures against the
inhabitants, whom he condemned as the accomplices of Kishlū Khān.
He seized the gāzi, Karim-ud-din, caused him to be flayed alive,
and ordered a general massacre, but this calamity was averted by
the intercession of the saint, Shaikh Rukn-ud-din. Muhammad sent
his minister, Khvāja Jahān, towards the coast of Sind, to repress
disorders which had arisen in that province, and was almost
immediately recalled to Delhi by the news of disturbances in the
Gangetic Doāb. Before leaving Multān he distinguished the house
which he had occupied by hanging over its gate the head of the
rebel, Kishlù Khān, which was seen by Ibn Batūtah when he
,
visited Multān five years later.
In 1328, or early in 1329, very shortly after Muhammad's reiurn
to Delhi, his dominions were invaded by Tarmāshirin the Mughul,
who may be identified with the Chaghatai, 'Alā-ud-din Tarmāshirin,
who reigned in Transoxiana from 1322 until 1330 or 1334. The
invader passed through Lahore and Sāmāna to Indril, and thence
to the borders of the Budaun district, traversing the Doāb to the
banks of the Ganges and plundering and devastating the country
on their way. The incursion was a mere raid and it is probable
that the invaders lost no time on their homeward journey, but
Muhammad pursued them as far as Kalānaur, a few miles south of
the Rāvi, afterwards to become famous as the town where the
youthful Akbar ascended the imperial throne, and to have left Abu
Rijā there to destroy the fort which had afforded a refuge to the
marauders, while he returned to Delhi. According to another
account he was on this occasion mean spirited enough to bribe the
Mughuls to retire, but the inconsistency of such conduct with his
character is sufficient to discredit the record.
After the retirement of the Mughuls the king remained for
some time at Delhi, where he had an account to settle with his
people. The citizens were enraged against their sovereign, whose
removal of the court to Daulatābād had gone far towards ruining
Delhi and depriving those who had preferred to remain of their
livelihood. Open resistance to a bloodthirsty tyrant who could
count on the fidelity of his troops was not to be thought of, and
the citizens vented their spleen by the characteristically oriental
1 A pargåna town in 29° 53' N. and 77° 5' E. , near the western bank of the Jumna.


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144
THE TUGHLUQ DYNASTY
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means of anonymous letters, filled with reproaches, invective, and
abuse, which were thrown at night into the hall of audience.