The Nāṣirī Generations 244.8
Tabakat-i-Nasiri 244.8
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244.8.1
On Sunday, the 27th of the month of Shawwal, of the same year, Arsalan Khan-i-Sanjar, and Kutlugh [Kulich?] Khan, Mas’ud-i-Jani, presented themselves at the threshold of sovereignty, and made their obeisance. Notwithstanding so much opposition, their flight, and the tardiness and negligence they had displayed, Ulugh Khan-i-Azam gave them his support, and manifested towards them such kindness, gentleness, moderation, good faith, and sympathy, out of his great benevolence and infinite clemency, and lordly assistance and princely favour, as neither the fingers can record nor explanation relate. May the Most High God have him perpetually in His keeping for the sake of Muhammad and the whole of his posterity! After a period of two months, through Ulugh Khan-i-Azam's patronage, the states of Lakhanawati were made over to Kutlugh [Kulich?] Khan, Mas'ud-i-Jani's charge, and the district of Karah to Arsalan Khan-i-Sanjar.
244.8.2
When the new year of 657 H. set in, on the 13th of the month of Muharram, the sublime standards were directed to be moved out of the capital, and the pavilion of majesty was pitched in sight of the city of Dihli. Ulugh Khan-i-Azam—may God perpetuate his prosperity!—held it meet to exercise his patronage in behalf of Malik Nusrat-ud-Din, Sher Khan-i-Sunkar, who was his paternal uncle's son, and he made a representation before the exalted throne, so that the whole of the territory of Bhianah, Kol, Jali-sar, and the preserved city of Gwaliyur was entrusted to his charge; and that assignment was committed to him on Sunday, the 21st of the month of Safar, 657 H. For the remainder of that year, by reason that—and thank God for it!—there was no cause of apprehension, the sublime standards made no farther movement. On Wednesday, the 4th of the month of Jamadi-ul-Akhir, 657 H., treasure, valuables, and elegancies to a large amount, with two elephants, reached the sublime threshold from the Lakhanawati territory, and Ulugh Khan-i-A'zam, in return for such commendable assiduity, exerted [his] interest, in behalf of Malik 'Izz-ud-Din, Balban-i-Yuz-Baki, who was the sender of these elephants and property; and the investiture of the fief of Lakhanawati was bestowed upon him by his majesty, and that territory was confirmed to him, and a robe of honour and other distinctions were transmitted to him. When the new year 658 H. came round;
244.8.3
and the month of Safar arrived, Ulugh Khan-i-A'zam resolved upon making a raid upon the Koh-payah [hill tracts of Mewat] round about the capital, because, in this Koh-payah, there was a community of obdurate rebels, who, unceasingly, committed highway robbery and plundered the property of Musalmans, and the ejection of the subject peasantry, and destruction of the villages in the districts of Harianah, the Siwalikh, and Bhianah, necessarily followed their outbreaks. Three years previous to this period, they had likewise carried off herds of camels, the property of the vassals and loyal followers of Ulugh Khan-i-A'zam's household—be victory ever theirs!—from the outskirts of the Hansi territory. The leader of the rebels was a person, Malka by name, an obdurate Hindu gabr [infidel], like a gigantic demon and a serpent-hued [demon]. They had carried off herds of camels and camel-men, and had, in the meantime, dispersed them among the Hindus throughout the Koh-payah [hill tracts], as far as the vicinity of Rantabhur, and the time that these camel-men and camels were carried off was a time when an expedition was pending, and the camp-followers of the force, and the warriors of the retinue of Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam, were in urgent need of them for the purpose of carrying the equipage of the troops.
244.8.4
When that contumacious rebel committed this act, an infinite load weighed upon the dear heart of Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam, and all the Maliks and Amirs and warriors of the troops of Islam—May God ever accord victory to them! Nevertheless, it was impossible to chastise that sedition by reason of anxiety [consequent] on the appearance of the Mughal army which continued to harass the frontier tracts of the dominions of Islam, namely, the territory of Sind, Lohor, and the line of the river Biah, until, at this period, emissaries of Khurasan [coming] from the side of Irak from Hulau [Hulaku], the Mughal, who was the son of Tuli, son of Chingiz Khan, had arrived in the neighbourhood of the capital. Command was given that the emissaries’ party should be detained at the halting-places of Barutah, and that vicinity; and Ulugh Khan-i-Azam, and other Maliks, with the forces of the Court, and the [contingent] troops of the [different] Maliks suddenly and unexpectedly, resolved upon an advance into the Koh-payah [hill-tracts of Mewat].
244.8.5
On Monday, the 4th of the month of Safar 658 H., the sublime standards of victory pushed forward into the Koh-payah, and, in the first advance, made a march of nearly fifty kuroh and fell unexpectedly and unawares upon the contumacious rebels of that tract. All those that were on the mountain sides, in the deep defiles, and great ravines, were taken and were brought under the swords of the Musalmans. For a period of twenty days he [Ulugh Khan-i-Azam] continued to move about that Koh-payah in every direction. The dwelling-places and villages of those mountaineers were on the summits of the high hills, and the whole of their edifices on the acclivities of rocks, so that you would say they were, in altitude, equal to the stars, and even with the sky. By command of Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam, the whole of those places which, in strength, might compare with the tale told of the wall of Sikandar in solidity, were captured and plundered, and the people of those places, who were knaves, Hindus, thieves, and high-way robbers, were all put to the sword. The Ulugh Khani orders to that army of holy warriors were, that whoever should bring in a head should receive one tangah of silver, and whoever brought in a man alive two tangahs of silver from the private treasurer.
244.8.6
The defenders of the truth, in conformity with Ulugh Khan-i-Azam's commands, penetrated into all the loftiest places, into the defiles, and deep ravines, and acquired heads and captives, and became filled with property and money, especially the sept of Afghans, every one of whom you might say was some huge elephant with [the tails of] two Khita-i bulls over his shoulders, or some tall tower of a fortress, placed on its summit, for the purpose of overawing, with banner displayed. The number of them, employed in the service of, and attending the stirrup of, Ulugh Khan-i-Azam, was about 3000 horse and foot, daring, intrepid, and valiant soldiers, each one of whom, either on mountain or in forest, would take a hundred Hindus in his grip, and, in a dark night, would reduce a demon to utter helplessness. In short, the whole of the Maliks and Amirs, Turks and Tajziks, displayed zeal and energy, the mention of which will ever endure upon the pages of time; and, up to this period, since the standards of Islam were first displayed in the land of Hind, at no time had the Musalman troops ever before reached that locality or ravaged it.
244.8.7
Under the auspices of the good fortune of the Sultan of Sultans, Nasir-ud-Din, Mahmud Shah, the Most High God facilitated the delivery into the hands of Ulugh Khan-i-A'zam that obdurate Hindu, who had carried off those camels and camel men, together with his sons and family, all of whom were taken, and the decree of fate brought them into the bondage and captivity of Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam’s followers, and the whole of the heads and chiefs of the rebels, to the number of about 250 persons, among the chief men of that people, fell into the chains of bondage. One hundred and forty-two horses reached the Sultan’s stables, and sixty badrahs of tangahs, the amount of [each of?] which was 35,000 tangahs, he [Ulugh Khan] extorted from the Ranahs and Raes of that mountain tract, and they were conveyed to the royal treasury; and, in the space of twenty days, such were the important feats effected through the vigorous and energetic command of Ulugh Khan-i-A'zam — May his glory ever continue ! On the 24th of the month Rabi'-ul-Awwal, 658 H., Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam returned to the capital. The august canopy of sovereignty, and the king of the world like an imperial sun under the shadow thereof — God perpetuate his sovereignty !
244.8.8
— and all the Maliks, Amirs, Sadrs, men of rank and position, and the inhabitants of the city, came out to the plain of the Hauz-i-Rani [the Rani’s Reservoir], and drew up in lines, extending from the Bagh-i-Jud [the Jud Garden] to the Rani’s Reservoir, and hastened in the footsteps of loyalty to meet and do honour to the sublime standards which accompanied Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam. The Sultan of Sultans — God long preserve his sovereignty! — at the head of the Rani’s Reservoir, on the exalted seat of the throne of sovereignty, held an audience, and Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam, with the Maliks and Amirs of the force, arrayed in robes of honour conferred by Ulugh Khan himself, attained the honour of kissing the threshold of the place of audience, so that one might say, from the various coloured robes, of satin, silk, brocade, gold and silver tissue, and other expensive textures, and gold embroidered tunics and other garments, that that plain bloomed like a thousand flower gardens. All these Grandees, Maliks, Amirs, incomparable champions and warriors of the force, one day previous to this, in their own quarters, had donned these honorary dresses from out of the lordly treasury of Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam— May it never cease being replete with riches and spoils !
244.8.9
— and [now] the whole of them, victorious and triumphant, safe and rich, hied to the sublime audience-hall, and great and small — high and low— attained the honour of kissing the Sultan’s hand, together with thousands of commendations, favours, and assurances, and returned thanks to the Most High and Holy God for that success.