Muntakhab al-tawarikh 31: SULTAN MU‘IZZ U-D-DIN KAI QUBAD BIN SULTAN NASIRU-D-DIN BIN SULTAN GHIYASU-D-DIN BALBAN,
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 31
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SULTAN MU‘IZZ U-D-DIN KAI QUBAD BIN SULTAN NASIRU-D-DIN BIN SULTAN GHIYASU-D-DIN BALBAN,
31.1
In the sixteenth year of his age, in succession to his grandfather, by the intervention of Malik Kachhan, who was called Itimar, and other Amirs who were disaffected to the Martyred Khan, succeeded to the throne of Empire. Then having bestowed Multan upon Khusru Khan with his family and dependents, they sent him off there under some pretext and exiled his adherents, and when the Empire became established he appointed all the officers of the state to their old posts in the kingdom, and Malik Nizamu-d-Din was appointed Dadbeg and they gave Khwaja Khatiru-d-Din the title of Khwaja-i-Jahan, and Malik Shahik Amir Hajib that of Wazir Khan, and Malik Qiyamu-l-Mulk obtained the post of Vakildar: and after six months he left Dihli and founded the palace of Kilughari, which is now a ruin, near the ford of Khwaja Khizr on the banks of the river Jumna; there he held public audiences, and by craft getting hold of the Mughals who had newly become Moslims, put the majority of them to death, and banished a certain number of them. The chief author and cause of this action was Malik Nizamu-d-Din ‘Alaqa the Wazir (this Nizamu-d-Din ‘Alaqa is the same in whose honour Muhammad ‘Aufi composed the books Jami‘u-l-Hikayat and Tashratu, and to Malik Chhaju (who eventually became grantee of Karra and Manikpur, and whom Mir Khusru eulogised in the Qiranu-s-Sa'dain in these words, Khan of Karra, Chhaju, conqueror of countries, Who hast encircled thy feet with anklets formed from the lips of Khans)
31.2
was given Samana, his daughter was united in marriage to Sultan Mu'izzu-d-Din Kaiqubad. At the end of the month of Zul Hijjah in the abovementioned year, news arrived that the Tatar infidels whose leader was Itimar had attacked Lahore and the frontier of Multan. The Sultan appointed Shahik Barbak with thirty thousand cavalry and giving him the title of Ikhtiyaru-l-Mulk despatched him to oppose them. He pursued the Tatars as far as the foot of the Jud hills, and put the greater number of them to the sword, or made them prisoners, and having repulsed them he came to the Court. Inasmuch as Sultan Kaiqubad, during the lifetime of Sultan Balban, had not attained the desires of his heart, and learned instructors had been placed in charge of him, at this time when he attained to the Empire finding himself completely unfettered he occupied himself with the full fruition of lustful delights, while the majority of the people took advantage of the luxuriousness of his reign to spend their days in wantonness and license. The ministrants of debauchery, jesters, singers and jugglers were admitted to close intimacy in his Court, in marked contrast to his grandfather's reign, and learning, and piety, and integrity were nothing valued; and Malik Nizamu-d-Din 'Aluqa seeing that the Sultan was immersed in luxury and enjoyment, and utterly careless of his kingdom' the other side and neither was able to cross the river.
31.3
The Amirs and Maliks of Ghiyasu-d Din's party, intervened with advice to come to peaceful terms and Sultan Nasiru-d Din with a party of special retainers crossed the river as it had been agreed that the son should sit upon the throne and the father, standing below the throne, should pay the customary dues of reverence and respect to him. Sultan Mu'izzu-d Din from excess of desire forgot that compact, and on the instant his eyes fell upon the splendid presence of his father he came down from his throne and running barefooted, was about to fall at his feet. The father however would not permit this, whereupon each embraced the other and for a long time they wept bitterly, and in spite of all the father’s attempts to take his stand at the foot of the throne, the son forcibly took him by the hand, and led him to the throne and seated him upon it. Then he also took his seat and after a long time the Sultan Nasiru-d Din returned to his own camp and sent as presents to his son a large number of famous elephants and very many extremely valuable presents and curiosities and priceless treasures from the country of Lakhnauti.
31.4
The son also sent to his father an equal number of Persian horses, and other kinds of valuable articles and cloth goods and rare and unique presents such that the accountant of imagination is unable to estimate their number and value, and all sorts of delight and pleasure burst upon the Amirs of Ghiyasu-d Din and Nasiru-d Din and Mu'izzu-d Din, and upon high and low of the armies, and the Maliks of both parties exchanged visits. Mir Khusru relates in detail this meeting in the Qiranu-s Sa'dain, and in another place he writes in a qasida: Hail! to the happy era when two troths are as one Behold! the son is a monarch, the father a Sultan, Behold the glorious kingdom now that two are at one. ’Tis for the sake of kingship and world-enslaving power, That for the world, two world-protecting kings become as one, One is the Nasir of the age, the king Mahmud Sultan, Whose edict in the four parts of the world is still as one. The other is Mu‘izzu-d-Din the world’s king Kaiqubad, In whose grasp Iran and Turan are welded into one. And this is his also— Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Dunya wad Din Kaiqubad Shah Hast thou ever seen one who is the light of the eyes of four kings
31.5
On the last day when Sultan Nasiru-d-Din came to bid farewell in the presence of Malik Nizamu-l-Mulk and Qiwamu-l-Mulk, who were both of them counsellors and closely bound up with the Government, he gave Mu‘izzu-d-Din many good pieces of useful advice on all subjects, with exhortation, and examples and instances, and first of all warned him against excess in wine and venery, then spoke of his carelessness with regard to state matters, and rebuked him severely for killing his brother Kai Khusru and the other noted Amirs and Maliks of the adherents of Ghiyasu-d-Din; then he exhorted him to be continually given to prayer and to perform the fast of Ramazan, and to keep all the principal tenets of the Musulman religion, and taught him certain fixed rules and essential regulations of sovereignty.
31.6
At the time of taking his departure he whispered in a low tone telling him to get rid of Nizamu-l-Mulk ‘Alaqa as soon as possible, “for” said he “if he gets a chance at you it is small chance you will get” this much he said, and they bid one another farewell with great emotion, and Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din for a few days remembered his father’s injunctions, and gave up his vicious pleasures, but when he had travelled a few stages the merry courtesans and all kinds of enticing musicians and enchanting jugglers, subverters of piety, skilled and clever, crowded round him on all sides, and enticed his feet from the firm path of fortitude and selfrestraint, by all sorts of gallantries and coquetries, and sense-ravishing gestures and allurements. The bitter parting advice of his father did not find place in his heart. For this reason that his heart was inclined to sweets of pleasure. And the elephant saw Hindustan in its dreams and he broke through his forced repentance, which was as filmy as the web of a spider, at the first provocation, and used to say, "Which advice? and what counsel? I will not give up the delights of to-day for to-morrow. Let to-morrow bring what it may, say to it 'Bring it'." In opposition to this view is the following:
31.7
It befits not a king to be drunken with wine, Nor become entangled in lust and desire; The king should be always the guardian of his people, It is a sin that a guardian should be drunken. When the shepherd becomes full of new wine, The flock sleeps in the belly of the wolf. Heavy cups of wine used he to drink from the hands of the light-living cup-bearers, and used to snatch a portion from his short ephemeral existence, and in this state malicious time used to foretell this calamity: Oh thou whose reign is the reign of faithless friends, From thy love springs hate, from thy honour disgrace, Thou art as full of turmoil, but as empty, as the drum, Lasting for one night like the candle, and for one day like the rose.
31.8
In this licentious mode of life he made his way to Dihli where he arrived in the year 689 H. (1290 A.D.). There certain of his notable Amirs became suspicious of his intentions, and withdrew to the skirts of the mountains, Sher Khan who was one of their number repented and returned, and was thrown into a prison which he only left to go to the prison house of the grave, the others were punished. They bestowed upon Firoz Khan ibn Yaghrush the Khilji, who eventually obtained the title of Sultan Jalalu-d-Din, the title of Shayista Khan, and entrusted the district of Baran to his control; accordingly he formed a plot by which he got Malik Himar Kachhan, who had treacherously attempted to slay him, into his power, and took vengeance on him for the deed which he had failed to accomplish. Then was seen the truth of the proverb “He who digged a pit for his brother is fallen into it himself. Thou hast digged a pit in the way that thou mayest overthrow others. Dost thou not fear lest one day thou should’st find thyself in the midst of it?
31.9
This was the plan which Sultan Mu'izzu-d-Din carried into effect. He was very anxious to act upon the advice of his father and remove Nizamu-l-Mulk ‘Alaqa, so he in the first instance appointed him to Multan, but Nizamu-l-Mulk saw through this device, and kept making excuses for delaying his departure, whereupon certain of the king’s retainers at a hint from him, poisoned Nizamu-l-Mulk’s cup, and despatched him to the land of non-existence. It so happened that this occurrence became a cause of injury to the State. At this same time the Sultan was attacked by paralysis from his excesses in wine and venery, in addition to which other deadly ills and chronic diseases obtained the mastery over his body, and his constitution not being able to stand against them, his powers succumbed. The greater number of the Amirs and Maliks who were well disposed to him raised his son Khan was; they then ordered a man whose father had been put to death by Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din to go to the palace of Kilughari, which he did, and finding the Sultan at his last gasp, he kicked him several times on the head, and then threw him into the river Jumna, and the Empire passed from the dynasty of Ghor, and kingship from the family of Ghiyasu-d-Din. This occurrence took place in the middle of the month of Muharram in the year 689 H. (1209 A.D.). The duration of the sovereignty of Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din was three years and some months.
31.10
This is the changeableness of the ancient heaven, At one time it is like a bow at another like an arrow ; At one time it feeds you with kindness at another poisons you with enmity. This is an example of the custom of the revolving heaven. We learn from the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi that Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din, after the capture of the Shahzada, was seized while sitting in durbar during that revolt of the populace, and was bound, and died in captivity of hunger and thirst : in the course of his sufferings he wrote this quatrain, The horse of my excellence has been left far behind on the plain. The hand of my generosity has fallen between the hammer and the anvil. My eye which used to see the gold of the mine and the invisible jewel To-day alas ! is blinded for lack of bread. And when the tumult between Itimar Surkha and the people of Dihli subsided, and Shayista Khan had gained his heart’s desire and seated the prince upon the throne, and had set the affairs of the kingdom going again, on the second day after this, Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din bade farewell to this transitory & unstable The duration of the kingdom of Shamsu-d-Din Kai Kaus was three months and a few days. The wine of the sky is not unmixed with the brine of sorrow, The world’s one employment is jugglery — naught else.