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Muntakhab al-tawarikh 44.3

Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 44.3

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English

44.3.1

And in the year 790 H. (1388 A.D.) Muhammad Shah arrived on a hunting expedition at the Sirmur hills, and Malik Mufarrah who was in Gujrat, in unison with the Amirs of hundreds put Sikandar Khan to death, and the whole of his army being utterly despoiled came with them to Dihli; Shah, returning from the hill country, with the great carelessness which characterises youth took no thought for avenging Sikandar Khan, but spent his time in enjoyment and luxury, so that the affairs of the kingdom fell into great disorder; and the Sultan’s soldiers by reason of their enmity and jealousy against Samau-d-Din and Shamsu-d-Din, who were the prefects of Muhammad Shah, set themselves up in opposition to them, and assembled in a spacious plain, and stoned and wounded Malik Zahiru-d-Din Lahori whom the Shahzada had sent to admonish them. He came in that state before Muhammad Shah and informed him of what had happened, whereupon the Shahzada having collected forces set out to do battle with that party. The army of the Shahzada was victorious at first, and bore back the army of the Sultan, so that they took refuge with the Sultan Firuz. The battle raged fiercely for two days and when the Sultan’s body servants found themselves in straits, they bore the Sultan, who was little more than a puppet, to the field of battle and displayed him there, and when the troops of Muhammad Shah and his elephant drivers set eyes upon Sultan Firuz they left fighting and came over to the Sultan.

44.3.2

Muhammad Shah with the small following which remained to him, went towards the Sirmur hills, and the army of the Sultan, which was near a hundred thousand cavalry and infantry, fell upon the camp of Muhammad Shah, and entering his private apartments sacked them and swept them away. The Sultan at the instigation of some interested persons, unwillingly deposed Muhammad Shah from his position as heir apparent, and conferring upon Tughlaq Khan the son of Fath Khan, his grandson, the title of Tughlaq Shah raised him to the position of heir-apparent. Tughlaq Shah beheaded Mir Hasan the son-in-law of the Sultan, who was a special favourite of Muhammad Shah, and having exiled Ghalib Khan the governor of Samana, sent him to the country of Bihar. On the sixteenth of Ramazan in the year 790 H. Sultan Firuz attained deliverance from the tortures of existence, and hastened to the world of permanence, and was buried on the borders of the Hauz-i-Khāṣṣ, over his tomb a lofty dome was erected which is well known. They devised two chronograms for the date of his death, Wafāt-i-Fīrūz and Naql-i-Fīrūz Shāh, the second of these is deficient by one unit. The duration of his reign was thirty-eight years and some months.

44.3.3

All good fortune is till death and no longer, In the dust one man is no better than another. When a drop is thrown into the river It cannot again be recognized. The nature of the Heavens is to overthrow, It is of no use to oppose the decree of Fate. Who knows with the blood of what hearts This stirred up dust has been mixed? Every road, if the wise man is not blinded, Is the hide of the elk, and shagreen from the wild ass. Among the poets of the reign of Fīrūz Shāh and his boon companions, is Malik Aḥmad, the son of Amīr Khusrau, may God have mercy upon him, and although there is no famous anthology of his, still there are some imitations of the writings of the earlier poets which are entered in the writings of some of the learned men, and are well-known. Among them is an imitation of this poem of Zahīr: [Arabic/Persian text] Hail! thou whose cap of empire snatched in its exaltation the cap of empire of the heaven, by craftiness. And it is said that in the first hemistich we should read [Arabic/Persian text] Hail to thee! the blow of whose wrath, in thy supreme power and in place of (snatched) in the last hemistich we should read (thrown) ] ; and another is this verse This was extremely easy, that he asked for red sulphur : If he had asked bread from the Khwaja, what could I have done ? which was thus written, This would have been very easy had he asked for the water of life. Another is in this verse,

44.3.4

If the sky calls the dust of your door musk, do not grieve, For the jewel's worth is not affected by the abuse of the purchaser. The poet had written, If Jupiter calls the gravel at your door rubies, do not grieve. And some of his poems also I have seen, but I remember none of them, and since Malik Ahmad was the real son of Amir Khusru, and reminded them of his father, the King and his companions and the learned men of the age were greatly pleased with these imitations and thought them very valuable. Another poet was Maulana Mazhar Jurra, whose descendants are still living in the city of Lakhnauti and have been highly thought of and respected from generations back. There is an anthology of his consisting of fifteen or sixteen thousand verses, but inasmuch as he was more of a Mulla than a poet, his poetry is not so highly esteemed by the learned, although were they to search, they would bring to light many a good thing in the way of rarity (of expression). Another (poet) is Qazi ‘Abid who wrote this poem— My friends say, ‘Abid with this fine nature of yours How is it that you have not written more poems and odes? To whom shall I address poems and odes, since in our time No suitable lover and no generous patron has arisen. This is a translation of the following poem in Arabic—

44.3.5

They say, thou hast given up writing poems, I reply, yes! perforce; The door of claims and causes is closed. The land is empty—there is no benefactor from whom to hope for favours, nor is there any beauty to love. And the strange thing is that though no one will buy poetry Still in spite of this they appropriate and steal it.

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