تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 11.10
English (machine translation) 11.10
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11.10.1
When he had killed his uncle he took sole possession of the kingdom. Most of his uncle's troops fled to him, while some returned to Dihlī and rallied around Rukn al-Dīn. He went out to repel him, but they all fled to Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, and Rukn al-Dīn fled to Sind. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn entered the royal residence and the rule remained firmly his for twenty years. He was among the best of sultans, and the people of Hind praise him greatly. He used to look into the affairs of his subjects in person and ask about their prices, and he had the muḥtasib — whom they call the raʾīs — brought before him every day for that purpose. It is related that one day he asked him the reason for the dearness of meat, and he told him it was because of the heavy dues levied on cattle at the toll stations. He ordered these abolished, had the merchants summoned and gave them money, saying to them: "Buy cattle and sheep with this and sell them; the proceeds will go to the treasury, and you shall have a fee for selling them." They did so, and he did likewise with the cloths brought from Dawlat Ābād.
11.10.2
Whenever the price of grain rose, he would open the storehouses and sell grain until the price fell. It is related that the price rose on one occasion, so he ordered grain to be sold at a price he fixed, but people refused to sell at that price, so he ordered that
11.10.3
no one should sell grain other than the grain of the storehouse, and he sold to the people for six months. The hoarders then feared that their grain would be spoiled by weevils, and they asked to be permitted to sell; he permitted them on condition that they sold it for less than the first price at which they had refused to sell it.
11.10.4
He would not ride out for the Friday prayer, nor for a festival, nor on any other occasion. The reason for this was that he had a nephew called Sulaymān Shāh, whom he loved and honoured. One day he rode out to hunt with him, and [the nephew] secretly resolved to do to him what he himself had done to his uncle Jalāl al-Dīn, namely to murder him. When he dismounted for the midday meal, [the nephew] shot him with an arrow and knocked him down; one of his slaves covered him with a shield, and his nephew came to finish him off, but the slaves told him: "He is already dead," and he believed them. He rode off and entered the palace, going in to the women's quarters. Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn recovered from his swoon, mounted, and the troops gathered around him. His nephew fled, but was overtaken and brought to him, and he killed him. After that he would not ride out.
11.10.5
His sons were Khiḍr Khān, Shādī Khān, Abū Bakr Khān, Mubārak Khān — who is Quṭb al-Dīn, who came to rule — and Shihāb al-Dīn. Quṭb al-Dīn was slighted by him, of small fortune and little favour. He gave all his brothers the marks of rank, namely banners and drums, but gave him nothing. One day he said to him: "I must give you the same as I have given your brothers," and he replied: "It is God who will give to me!" These words alarmed his father, and he was frightened of him.
11.10.6
Then the sultan was struck by the illness of which he died. His wife, the mother of his son Khiḍr Khān, who was called Māh Ḥaqq — māh means "moon" in their language — had a brother called Sanjar, and she made a pact with her brother to make her son Khiḍr Khān king. Malik Nāʾib, the greatest of the sultan's amīrs, learned of this; he was
11.10.7
called al-Alfī because the sultan had bought him for a thousand tanka, which is two thousand five hundred dinars of the Maghrib. He informed the sultan of what they had agreed upon, and [the sultan] said to his intimates: "When Sanjar comes in to me, I shall give him a robe; when he puts it on, seize him by the sleeves, throw him to the ground and cut his throat." When he came in to him they did so and killed him! Khiḍr Khān was away at a place called Sandabat, a day's journey from Dihlī; he had gone to visit martyrs buried there, in fulfilment of a vow he had made to walk that distance on foot and pray for his father's recovery. When he heard that his father had killed his maternal uncle, he grieved for him intensely and tore the front of his garment, which is a custom of the people of Hind when someone dear to them dies. His father learned of what he had done and disliked it; when he came in to him he rebuked and reproached him, ordered that his hands and feet be fettered, handed him over to the aforementioned Malik Nāʾib, and ordered him to take him to the fortress of Kālyūr — its spelling is with the knotted kāf with a, the lām with i, the yāʾ with u, and finally a rāʾ; it is also called Kiyālīr, with an additional second yāʾ. It is an isolated fortress among the Hindu infidels, impregnable, ten days' journey from Dihlī, and I myself lived in it for a time. When he brought him to this fortress, he handed him over to the kutwāl, who is the commander of the fortress, and to the mufradūn, who are the guards, and said to them: "Do not say, 'This is the sultan's son,' and treat him with honour; he is his worst enemy, so guard him as an enemy is guarded!" Then the sultan's illness grew worse, and he said to Malik Nāʾib: "Send someone to bring my son Khiḍr Khān so that I may make him heir apparent." He said to him: "Yes," but kept putting it off, and whenever he asked him about it he would say, "He is about to arrive," until the sultan died, may God have mercy on him.
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic