Zubdat al-tawarikh 9: Sher Khan,

9

In the year 950 H. Púran-mal, son of Salhdí, held occupation of the fort of Raisín, and brought several of the neighbouring parganas under subjection. He had 1000 women in his harem, from the east and from Sind, and amongst them several Musulmánís, whom he made to dance before him. Sher Khán, with Musulmán indignation, resolved to conquer the fort. After he had been some time engaged in investing it, an accommodation was proposed, and it was finally agreed that Púran-mal, with his family and children, and 4000 Rajpúts of note, should be allowed to leave the fort unmolested. Several men learned in the law gave it as their opinion that they should all be slain, notwithstanding the solemn engagement which had been entered into. Consequently, the whole army, with the elephants, surrounded Púran-mal's encampment. The Rajpúts fought with desperate bravery, and after killing their women and children, and then burning them, they rushed to battle, and were annihilated to a man.
After that, Sher Khán retired to Ágra, and after remaining there some time, set out on an expedition to Márwár, and at every stage he dug an entrenchment and raised a temporary fortress, advancing with the greatest care and circumspection. Whenever he met with a sandy soil and could not raise a fortress, he had sacks filled with sand, and heaping them up he constructed a defensible position out of them. * * *
Sher Khán made the road which now runs from Dehlí to Ágra, by cutting through jungles, removing obstacles, and building saráís. Before that time, people had to travel through the Doáb between those two places. There was so much security in travelling during his reign, that if a lone woman were to sleep in a desert with silver and gold about her person, no one would dare to commit theft upon her; and if it ever did so happen that any one lost any property, the mukaddams of the village which was the scene of the robbery were subject to fine, and for fear of its infliction, the zamindars used to patrol the roads at night.
Sher Khan founded many cities after his own name, as Shergarh, Sher-kot; and since old Dehli was far from the river Jumna, he demolished it, and founded a new city on the banks of the river, which exists to this day. He founded also for its defence a broad wall, which, through the absence of rebellion and the length of his reign, was brought to completion.
It is said that once, when looking in a glass, he exclaimed, “Alas! that I have attained the empire only when I have reached old age, and when the time for evening prayer has arrived. Had it been otherwise, the world would have seen what I would have accomplished.” Sometimes he would say, by way of showing what difficult and even impossible objects he contemplated; “I would have made a bridge to span the ocean, and have so contrived that even a widowed and helpless woman might without difficulty perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.” To this day there exists a caravanserai of his building at Mecca, in which Afghan fakirs reside.