The Nāṣirī Generations 56: XIII. MU’IZZ-UD-DAULAH WA UD-DIN BAHRAM SHAH.
Tabakat-i-Nasiri 56
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56
Mu’izz-ud-Daulah, Bahram Shah, was a person of handsome exterior, manly, munificent, just, and the sustainer and protector of his subjects. At the outset of his career, when Malik Arsalan ascended the throne, after the decease of their father, Sultan Mas’ud, the Beneficent, Bahram Shah proceeded into Khurasan, the throne of which country was adorned by the great and inestimable sovereign, the august, the martyr Sultan Sanjar; and Bahram Shah resided at his court for a considerable time. Sultan Sanjar led an army towards Ghaznin, and Malik Arsalan, after an engagement, was defeated, and Bahram Shah ascended the throne. Sanjar treated him with great honour, and Sayyid Hasan, a celebrated poet of Ghaznin, recited this ode [on that occasion] in the Audience Hall, in the presence of Sultan Sanjar, on whom be the mercy and the pardon of the Almighty! One quatrain of the ode in question is here inserted:—
‘“Of the eloquent of the world what is the strain, That shall ever on earth be proclaimed?— ‘A shout emanated from the seven heavens, That Bahram Shah is of the universe king.’’’
Sultan Sanjar returned to Khurasan again, and Bahram Shah assumed the government of the country. He carried on holy wars in the direction of Hindustan; and, on the 28th of Ramazan, in the year 512 H., he took Muhammad Bahlim prisoner, and put him into confinement; but at last released him, and made over the whole of Hindustan to him. Again he rebelled, and founded the fortress of Naghawr, in the territory of Siwalikh, in the neighbourhood of Birah; and he had likewise numerous sons and followers and dependents. Bahram Shah, with the determination of extirpating him, advanced into Hindustan against his stronghold, and Bahlim moved forward towards the confines of Multan, and fought an engagement with Bahram Shah. The Almighty rewarded Muhammad Bahlim for his base ingratitude, and he, with his ten sons together with their horses and arms, on the day of the battle, sank in a morass so that no trace of him and them remained.
Bahram Shah returned to Ghaznin again, and between him and the Maliks, or chiefs of Ghur, hostilities arose; and an engagement took place between them, in which Daulat Shah, a son of Bahram, was slain. During that one campaign Bahram Shah sustained three defeats from Sultan ’Ala-ud-Din, Ghuri, and Ghaznin fell into the hands of the Ghurians. They set fire to it, and destroyed the whole city. Bahram Shah retired into Hindustan at this time, but, on the withdrawal of the Ghuri forces, he returned to Ghaznin again, and there died after a reign of forty-one years.
His sons were Jalal-ud-Daulah, Daulat Shah, slain in battle with the Ghurians; ’Ala-ud-Daulah, Da’ud Shah; Baha-ud-Daulah, Sultan Shah; Fakhr-ud-Daulah, ’Ali Shah; ’Izz-ud-Daulah, Muhammad Shah; Sama-ud-Daulah, Mas’ud Shah; Shihab-ud-Daulah, Mansur Shah; Mu’ayyan-ud-Daulah, Shahan-Shah; Mu’izz-ud-Daulah, Khusrau Shah; and Sayyid-ud-Daulah, Farrukh Shah.