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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 11.13

English (machine translation) 11.13

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English

11.13.1

Khusraw Khān was one of the greatest amīrs of Quṭb al-Dīn; he was brave and handsome, and he had conquered the land of Jandīrī and the land of Maʿbar, which are among the most fertile lands of Hind, six months' journey from Dihlī. Quṭb al-Dīn loved him intensely and favoured him, and this brought about his death at his hands. Quṭb al-Dīn had a tutor called Qāḍī Khān Ṣadr al-Jahān, who was the greatest of his amīrs and the kalīt-dār, that is, the keeper of the keys of the palace. His custom was to spend every night at the sultan's gate together with the men of the watch, who are a thousand men who keep the night watch in turns every four nights. They stand in two rows between the gates of the palace, each with his weapons before him, so that no one enters except between their two rows. When the night is over, the men of the day watch come.

11.13.2

The men of the watch have amīrs and secretaries who go round among them and record who is absent and who is present. The sultan's tutor Qāḍī Khān disliked the doings of Khusraw Khān and was troubled by what he saw of his favouring the Hindu infidels and his inclination towards them, for he was of their origin. He kept putting this to the sultan, but he would not listen to him and would say to him, 'Leave him to do as he wishes,' because of what God had decreed of his being killed at his hands. One day Khusraw Khān said to the sultan, 'A group of Hindus wish to become Muslims.' It is their custom in that country that when a Hindu wishes to embrace Islam

11.13.3

he is brought in to the sultan, who clothes him in a fine robe and gives him a necklace and bracelets of gold according to his rank. The sultan said to him, 'Bring them to me!' He said, 'They are ashamed to come in to you by day because of their relatives and the people of their religion.' He said to him, 'Bring them to me by night!' So Khusraw Khān gathered a group of the bravest and most prominent Hindus, among them his brother Khān-i Khānān. It was the hot season, and the sultan was sleeping on the roof of the palace, with no one with him at that time but a few pages. When they had passed through the four gates, fully armed, and reached the fifth gate, where Qāḍī Khān was, he found their business suspicious, sensed evil and prevented them from entering, saying, 'I must hear permission for their entry from Khwand ʿĀlam himself, and then they may enter.' When he prevented them from entering they fell upon him and killed him, and the uproar rose at the gate. The sultan said, 'What is this?'

11.13.4

Khusraw Khān said, 'It is the Hindus who have come to become Muslims, and Qāḍī Khān has prevented them from entering.' The uproar grew, and the sultan became afraid and rose, wishing to go into the palace; but its door was shut, with the pages inside. He knocked on the door, and Khusraw Khān seized him from behind. The sultan was stronger than he and threw him down, and the Hindus came in. Khusraw Khān said to them, 'Here he is on top of me, kill him!' So they killed him, cut off his head and threw it from the palace roof into its courtyard.

11.13.5

Khusraw Khān at once sent for the amīrs and maliks, who did not know what had happened; and as each party came in they found him on the royal throne and swore allegiance to him. When morning came he proclaimed his accession and wrote the marāsim, that is, the decrees, to all the provinces, and sent each amīr a robe of honour. They all obeyed him and submitted, except Tughluq Shāh, father of Sultan Muḥammad Shāh, who was then amīr at Dībālpūr in the land of Sind. When Khusraw Khān's robe of honour reached him he threw it on the ground and sat on it. He [Khusraw Khān] sent his brother Khān-i Khānān against him, and he routed him; then in the end he killed him, as we shall explain in the account of Tughluq.

11.13.6

When Khusraw Khān became king he favoured the Hindus and openly did reprehensible things, among them forbidding the slaughter of cows

11.13.7

after the custom of the infidels of Hind, for they do not permit them to be slaughtered, and among them the penalty for one who slaughters one is to be sewn into its hide and burned! They venerate cows and drink their urine for blessing and as a cure when they are ill, and they smear their houses and walls with their dung. This was among the things that made Khusraw Khān hateful to the Muslims and turned them from him towards Tughluq, so that his rule did not last long, nor did the days of his reign extend, as we shall relate.

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