Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 3.4

3.4

Mahomed Shah was buried by the side of his father, — and the words “All is vanity” were engraved by his orders on his tomb. Happy the king who passes a reign like his, and of whom such memorials remain! He was respected in his life, and after his death remembered on account of his virtues. According to the Siraj-ool-Towareekh, so much treasure and such numbers of elephants, as were collected in the household of Mahomed Shah Bahmuny, were never possessed by any other prince of that dynasty. He had three thousand male and female elephants; and in the reign of any other king we only read of two thousand. The sums of gold accumulated by him, according to the same author, exceeded those acquired by other princes a full half. No prince before him ever so far reduced the Rajas and Zemindars of the Carnatic, from whom he wrested much of the accumulated riches of seven hundred years; and it is computed that in his reign nearly five hundred thousand unbelievers fell by the swords of the warriors of Islam, by which the population of the Carnatic was so reduced, that it did not recover for several ages. Mahomed Shah reigned seventeen years.