Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 41.3
History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India (Briggs) 41.3
- Language
- English
41.3.790
Age and infirmity began in the year 787 to make rapid ravages on the constitution of the King. The power of the Vizier Zuffur Khan Farsy (entitled Khan Jehan), became so absolute, that the King was guided by him in every thing, till at length that minister had the baseness falsely to accuse the Prince Mahomed Khan, the King's son, of a design against his father's life. Among others said to be concerned in the plot, was Zuffur Khan, the late governor of Guzerat, and then governor of Mahoba, as also Mullik Yakoot and Mullik Kumaul-ood-Deen. The King gave credit to the accusation, and authorised the Vizier to secure the parties. Zuffur Khan was accordingly recalled from his government of Mahoba, and confined. The Prince Mahomed Khan, obtaining intelligence of the design against him, provided for his security, by fortifying his palace. In this situation he remained shut up for some days, and at last, having obtained leave for his wife to visit the King's ladies, he put on his armour, and getting into a closed palankeen, was himself carried into the seraglio. On being discovered, the women, alarmed, ran screaming into the King's apartment, telling him that the Prince had come in armour with treasonable designs. The Prince following them, presented himself to his father, and falling at his feet, told him, that the suspicions he had entertained of him were worse than death itself; that he came, therefore, to receive his fate from the King's own hands; but he first begged leave to inform him, that he was perfectly innocent of the charge which the Vizier had purposely contrived, in order to pave his own way to the throne. Feroze, confiding in his son's veracity, clasped him in his embrace, and, weeping, acknowledged he had been deceived, and authorised him to act as his judgment prompted against the traitor. On this the Prince, Mahomed Khan, leaving the presence, ordered out twelve thousand horse, and proceeded to surround the Vizier's house. On hearing of the Prince's approach, the Vizier put to death Zuffur Khan of Guzerat, one of the persons whom he had accused of treason, and collecting his own friends engaged the Prince in the streets. The traitor was wounded, fled first to his house, and thence escaped towards Mewat. The Prince, in the mean time, secured all the minister's wealth, and cut off his adherents.
Immediately after these transactions, Feroze resigned the reins of government into the hands of his son, and abdicated the throne. The Prince, assuming the name of Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed, ascended the throne in the month of Shaban, A. H. 789, August, A. D. 1387, and caused the Khootba to be read both in his own name as well as in that of his father. The first act of his government was to form a new administration, and to distribute honorary dresses among the chiefs. Mullik Yakoob Khan, the master of the horse, was nominated to the charge of the government of Guzerat, with the title of Sikundur Khan. On his route thither, Koka Chowhan, a Rajpoot zemindar of Mewat with whom Khan Jehan the Vizier had taken refuge, fearing the King's resentment, seized and delivered him up as a prisoner to Sikundur Khan, who cut off his head, and sent it to Dehly. Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed went with his army, in the year 789, towards the mountains of Sirmore, to hunt. While engaged in this diversion, advices were received that Furhut-ool-Moolk, governor of Guzerat, in conjunction with the Ameer Judeeda settled in that country, had risen in rebellion, and had defeated and slain Sikundur Khan, who had been lately appointed to succeed him. On this information, the Prince hastened to Dehly; but, as if infatuated, he gave himself up entirely to pleasure, and seemed insensible of the loss he had sustained, and of the dangers in which his conduct had involved him. When the officers of his court attempted to rouse him from his lethargy, he dismissed them from his presence, and filled their places with parasites and flatterers. The nobles, seeing affairs in this state, availed themselves of the circumstance to unite with the Princes Baha-ood-Deen and Kumal-ood-Deen, cousins of the Prince Mahomed, for the purpose of subverting his authority, and collected not less than 100,000 men. Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed employed Mulik Zuheer-ood-Deen Lahory to treat with the insurgents, whose camp was formed without the city. The mob, however, pelted him with stones, and obliged him to retire, after being much bruised and wounded. The Prince, seeing no hopes of an amicable result, roused himself, and advanced with his army against the conspirators. After a bloody battle, he drove them into the city, where they secured the palace, and renewed the contest. The city became now a horrid scene of slaughter. During the space of two days and nights the dead were left lying in the streets; where friends and foes, victors and vanquished, were jumbled together without distinction. On the third day the populace brought out the old King in his palankeen, and placed him down in the street, between the combatants. The Prince Mahomed's troops seeing their former master, and concluding that his appearance was voluntary, quitted the Prince, and crowded around the old King with shouts of joy. The Prince Mahomed thus deserted, fled with a small retinue to the mountains of Surmore. All parties now united, and tranquillity being restored, Feroze again resumed his full authority. But feeling himself unequal to the task, on account of his age, he once more resigned, and, at the instance of the household troops, placed his grandson Gheias-ood-Deen, the son of his eldest son, Futteh Khan, upon the throne. The troops, in the mean time, put to death Ameer Syud Hussun, the King's son-in-law, for supporting the fugitive Prince Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed, and the first orders issued by Gheias-ood-Deen after his accession were to kill all the adherents of his uncle Mahomed, wherever they might be found.
Feroze, having now arrived at the age of 90, died on the third of Rumzan, in the year 790.
41.3.p2
Feroze Toghluk was a just and learned prince. His soldiers and his subjects were equally happy under his administration, nor did any one dare to exercise oppression in his time. He was himself the author of the Futtoohat Feroze Shahy. He was the first of the Dehly kings who brought forward, by his patronage, the race of Afghans, before whose time they were not held in estimation. He reigned 38 years over Hindoostan, and the words وفات فیروز "Wufat Feroze," "The Death of Feroze," comprise the numerical letters of the date of his demise. Zeea-ood-Deen Burny, who lived at his court, has written the history of his reign in a work entitled Towareekh Feroze Shahy. Nizam-ood-Deen Ahmud Bukhshy observes in his history, that Feroze introduced many excellent laws which were current in his time. Among others were the three following regulations: The first was the abolition of the practice of mutilating criminals, a mode of punishment which he would not allow to be inflicted on any of his subjects, either Mahomedan or Hindoo. The second regulation limited very much the demand on cultivators, by which he increased not only the population but eventually his revenue. The third was the encouragement he gave to learned men, whom he caused to reside in different parts of the empire, for the sake of imparting instruction to the people. He caused his regulations to be carved on the Musjid of Ferozabad, of which the following may be taken as a sample: "It has been usual in former times to spill Mahomedan blood on trivial occasions, and, for small crimes to mutilate and torture them, by cutting off the hands and feet, and noses and ears, by putting out eyes, by pulverising the bones of the living criminal with mallets, by burning the body with fire, by crucifixion, and by nailing the hands and feet, by flaying alive, by the operation of ham- "flaying, and by cutting human beings to pieces. God in his infinite goodness having been pleased to confer on me the power, has also inspired me with the disposition to put an end to these practices. It is my resolution, moreover, to restore in the daily prayers offered up for the royal family, the names of all those princes, my predecessors, who have reigned over the empire of Dehly, in hopes that these prayers, being acceptable to God, may in some measure appease his wrath, and ensure his mercy towards them. It is also hereby proclaimed, that the small and vexatious taxes, under the denomination of Cotwally, &c. payable to the public servants of government, as perquisites of offices, by small traders; that licences for the right of pasturage from shepherds, on waste lands belonging to the crown; fees from flower-sellers, fish-sellers, cotton-cleaners, silk-sellers, and cooks; and the precarious and fluctuating taxes on shopkeepers and vintners, shall henceforward cease throughout the realm; for it is better to relinquish this portion of the revenue than realise it at the expense of so much distress, occasioned by the discretionary power necessarily vested in tax-gatherers and officers of authority; nor will any tax hereafter be levied contrary to the written law of the book. It has been customary to set aside one fifth of all property taken in war for the troops, and to reserve four fifths to the government. It is hereby ordered, that in future four fifths shall be distributed to the troops, and one fifth only reserved for the crown. I will on all "occasions cause to be banished from the realm, persons convicted of the following crimes: Those who profess atheism, or who maintain schools of vice. All public servants convicted of corruption, as well as persons paying bribes. I have myself abstained from wearing gaudy silk apparel and jewels, as an example to my subjects. I have considered it my duty to repair every public edifice of utility, constructed by my predecessors, such as caravansaras, musjids, wells, reservoirs of water, aqueducts, canals, hospitals, alms-houses, and schools, and have alienated considerable portions of the revenue for their support. I have also taken pains to discover the surviving relations of all persons who suffered from the wrath of my late lord and master, Mahomed Toghluk, and having pensioned and provided for them, have caused them to grant their full pardon and forgiveness to that Prince, in the presence of the holy and learned men of this age, whose signatures and seals as witnesses are affixed to the documents; the whole of which, as far as lay in my power, have been procured, and put into a box, and deposited in the vault in which Mahomed Toghluk is entombed. I have gone and sought consolation from all the most learned and holy men within my realm, and have taken care of them. Whenever my soldiers have been rendered inefficient for service, by wounds, or by age, I have cause them to be pensioned on full pay for life. Two attempts have been made to poison me, but without effect."
The following are the public works constructed during the reign of this prince:—
50 Dams across rivers, to promote irrigation, 40 Mosques, 30 Colleges with mosques attached, 20 Palaces, 100 Caravansaras, 200 Towns, 30 Reservoirs or lakes for irrigating lands, 100 Hospitals, 5 Mausolea, 100 Public baths, 10 Monumental pillars, 10 Public wells, 150 bridges; Besides numerous gardens and pleasure-houses.
Lands were alienated, at the same time, for the maintenance of these public buildings, in order to keep them in thorough repair.