Muntakhab al-tawarikh 22.1
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 22.1
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22.1.1
Called by the title of "Yamin-i-Amir-al-Muminin" (Right hand of the Commander of the Faithful.) In the year 607 H, ascended the imperial throne of Dehli; and the reason of the name Iyaltimish is that, his birth occurred on the night of an eclipse of the moon, and the Turks call a child born under these circumstances Iyaltimish. His father was the chief of many of the tribes of Turkestan. His kinsmen under pretence of taking him for a walk took Iyaltimish into a garden and sold him like Joseph to a merchant, from there he happened to be taken to Bokhara, and thence in the time of Sultan Muhammad Sam to Ghaznin; and in these days Sultan Qutbu-d-Din after the conquest of Nahrwalah and the taking of Gujrat had gone to Ghaznin, and since without permission of Sultan Muhammad Sam no one could purchase Iyaltimish he asked permission from the Sultan to sell him. Sultan Muhammad Sam said that since he had given orders that no one there should buy that slave they were to take him to Dehli and sell him there.
22.1.2
Sultan Qutbu-d-Din after his return from Ghaznin bought a slave named Ibak, a namesake of his own, and Iyaltimish, at Dehli for 100,000 tangahs; at first he called him Amir Tamghach, and appointed him to the Amirship of Tabarhindah, and at the time when Sultan Qutbu-d-Din fought with Taju-d-Din Yaldoz, Ibak his slave tasted the cup of death. At that time he made Iyaltimish an especial favourite, and after the capture of Gwaliar he made him Governor of that place, and subsequently bestowed upon him the rule of Baran and its environs, and since he began to shew signs of extraordinary hardiness he entrusted the country of Badaun to him, and in the war of Muizzu-d-Din with the Khokhars (as has been already related), Iyaltimish having got together a huge army from Badaun and the foot of the hills, joined hands with Sultan Muizzu-d-Din in the service of Sultan Qutbu-d-Din, and armed as he was having forced his horse into the river engaged the enemy bravely several Jalalu-'d-Din Mangbarni son of Khwarazm Shah who having suffered defeat at the hands of Changiz Khan after Taju-d-Din, came to Ghaznin and thence from fear of the incursions of Changiz Khan had gone to Lahore with his family and relations; and Sultan Jalalu-'d-Din not being able to withstand him went towards Sindh and Siwistan and from there by way of Kuch and Makran arrived at Kirman and Iraq.
22.1.3
And in the year 622 H. Sultan Shamsu-d-Din, took an army towards Behar and Lakhnauti and brought Sultan Ghiyasu-d-Din Khalji, who has been before mentioned, into obedience, and having accepted the present above mentioned, established the khutba and sikka in his own name and having given his elder son the title of Sultan Nasiru-'d-Din Mahmud made him his heir, and having made over that country to him returned to the metropolis of Delhi. Eventually Malik Nasiru-'d-Din Mahmud having fought with Ghiyasu-'d-Din on the confines of Lakhnauti got the upper hand, and having taken him prisoner put him to death, and great booty fell into his hands which he divided into portions and sent it as rewards to each of the nobles of Dehli. [It was well known that when Najm arrived in this country from Dehli in the service of Hazrat Khwaja Qutbu-d-Din Ushi Dutij had arrived here and said I have composed a in praise of Sultan Shamsu-d-Din. Read the Fatihah that I may get the accustomed reward.” They read the Fatihah and he having been admitted to the Sultan's presence read this Matla': Oh thou from dread of whom bullion has sought refuge, Whose sword has sought from the infidels property and elephants.
22.1.4
The Sultan by the mere reading of that matla' learnt it by heart and repeated it, and when the poem was finished he asked How many couplets does this Qasidah contain? The answer was fifty and three. He thereupon ordered them to give him fifty-three thousand white tangahs.] Sultan Shamsu-d-Din in [the year] 623, H. made an attack upon Ranthanbhur and having brought an army thither reduced that fortress, and in the year 624 H. having directed a large army to attack and capture the fort of Mandur, brought that fort together with the Siwálik hills into the circle of his conquest and returned to Dehli, and in this same year Amír Ruhani who was one of the most learned men of that time came to Dehli from Bukhárá in the affair of Changíz Khán, and wrote several brilliant odes of congratulation upon these victories, of which the following verses are an extract. The faithful Gabriel carried the tidings to the dwellers in heaven, From the record of victories of the Sultán of the age Shamsu-’d-Dín, Saying—‘Oh ye holy angels raise upon the heavens, Hearing this good tidings, the canopy of adornment, That from the land of the heretics the Sháhansháh of Islám Has conquered a second time the fort resembling the sky; The Sháh, holy warrior and Ghází, whose hand and sword The soul of the lion of repeated attacks praises. And there are also other many charming poems attributed to him, of which the following ode is one:
22.1.5
From the tongue of the pen my own story I tell in the words of the pen On the page of my life, though the writing of grief has been traced by the pen Since I lived in this world with the pen all my days have been black as the pen And swift as I write my account, so fierce is the point of the pen That like to my own gentle voice is the sharp loud lament of the pen. Although in the midst of my loss I reap always rewards from the pen, Still no one will mention my state to my Lord save the tongue of the pen. ’Tis from Khwaja Mansur bin Sa‘id thrives the market of test of the pen That great one whose words load the burden of truth on the van of the pen. He has mounted his beautiful thoughts on the steed of his swift running pen. In the road of just ruling he gallops, light holding the rein of the pen. His skill hand in hand with his wisdom reveals hidden arts of the pen.
22.1.6
And in the year 626 H. Arab Ambassadors came from Egypt bringing for him a robe of honour and titles, and out of joy at this they built triumphal arches in the city and held banquets. And in this same year the tidings arrived of the death of his son Sultan Nasiru-d-Din, Governor of Lakhnauti, and the Sultan, after completing the duties of mourning, gave his name (i.e., Nasiru-d-Din) to his younger son after whom the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri is named. In the year 627 H., he proceeded against Lakhnauti and quieted the disturbances of those regions, and after entrusting the government of that place to Izzu-l-Mulk Malik ‘Alau-d-Din Jani returned to the capital and in the year 629 H. reduced the fortress of Gwaliar. Malik Taju-d-Din the Secretary of State, wrote the following quatrain upon the taking of that fort, and they engraved it upon stone — Every fort which the king of kings conquered He conquered by the help of God and the aid of the faith That fortress of Kalewar and that strong castle He took in the year six hundred and thirty
22.1.7
It is apparently the date of the siege which accounts for the difference of one year. And in the year 631 H. having made an incursion in the direction of the province of Malwah and taken Bhilsa, and also captured the city of Ujain, and having destroyed the idol temple of Ujain which had been built six hundred years previously, and was called Mahakal, he levelled it to its foundations, and threw down the image of Rai Vikramajit from whom the Hindus reckon their era (the author of this selection, by the order of the Khalifa of the time, the Emperor, the Shadow of the Deity, in the year 972 H. and again anew in the year 1003 with the assistance of Hindu pundits translated 32 stories about him, which are a wonder of relation and strange circumstance, from the Hindui into the Persian tongue and called it Nama Afza — ) and brought certain other images of cast molten brass placed them on the ground in front of the door of the mosque of old Dehli and ordered the people to trample them underfoot: and a second time he brought an army against Multan, this expedition was in every way unfortunate for him, and a very severe bodily illness afflicted him, he so returned and came to Dehli, and in the year 633 H, (1235 A. D.) left this lodging house of the world for the eternal mansions of the next world. The duration of his sultanate was twenty-six years. Verse. For this reason this heart-enthralling palace became cold. Because when you have warmed the place, they say to you Rise!