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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 11.16

English (machine translation) 11.16

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English

11.16.1

The fugitive amīrs stayed with Sultan Shams al-Dīn. Then Shams al-Dīn died and designated his son Shihāb al-Dīn as successor, who took his father's seat. Then his younger brother Ghiyāth al-Dīn Bahādur Būra — which in the Indian language means "the black" — overpowered him, seized the kingdom, and killed his brother Qutlū Khān and the rest of his brothers. Shihāb al-Dīn and Nāṣir al-Dīn fled from them to Tughluq, who set out in person with them to fight their brother, leaving his son Muḥammad as his deputy over his kingdom. He hastened to the land of Lakhnawtī, conquered it, captured its sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Bahādur, and brought him as a captive to his capital.

11.16.2

In the city of Dihlī there was the saint Niẓām al-Dīn al-Badhāwunī, and Muḥammad Shāh, the sultan's son, kept visiting him, honouring his servants and asking for his prayers. The shaykh used to be seized by ecstatic states that overcame him, and

11.16.3

the sultan's son said to his servants: "When the shaykh is in the state that overcomes him, let me know." When the state took hold of him they informed him, and he went in to him. When the shaykh saw him, he said: "We have granted you the kingdom." Then the shaykh died during the sultan's absence, and his son Muḥammad carried his bier on his shoulder. This reached his father, who disapproved of it and threatened him. Certain things about him had already aroused his suspicion, and he resented his buying so many mamlūks, his lavish gifts and his winning over people's hearts, so his anger against him grew. He also heard that the astrologers claimed he would not enter the city of Dihlī after that expedition, and he threatened them! When he returned from his expedition and drew near the capital, he ordered his son to build him a palace — they call it a kushk, with ḍamma on the kāf and a dotted shīn with sukūn — beside a stream there called Afghānpūr. He built it in three days, making most of it of wood, raised above the ground on wooden pillars, and constructed it with an engineering design supervised by the Malik Zāda, known afterwards as Khwāja Jahān, whose name was Aḥmad b. Iyās, the chief vizier of Sultan Muḥammad, who was then superintendent of buildings. The device they had contrived in it was that whenever elephants trod on one side of it, the palace would collapse and fall.

11.16.4

The sultan alighted at the palace and fed the people, and they dispersed. His son asked his permission to parade the elephants before him in their adornments, and he gave him permission.

11.16.5

Shaykh Rukn al-Dīn told me that he was with the sultan that day, and with them was the sultan's favourite son Maḥmūd. Then Muḥammad, the sultan's son, came and said to the shaykh: "Khwand! It is the time of the afternoon prayer; go down and pray!" The shaykh told me: "So I went down, and the elephants were brought from one side, as they had planned. When they trod on it, the kushk fell upon the sultan and his son Maḥmūd." The shaykh said: "I heard the uproar and went back without having prayed, and found the kushk had fallen." His son ordered axes and spades to be brought to dig for him, but signalled for delay, so they were not brought until the sun had set. Then they dug and found the sultan bent over his son to shield him from death! Some claimed he was brought out dead, and others claimed he was brought out alive and then finished off. He was carried by night to the tomb he had built outside the city named after him, Tughluq Ābād, and buried there.

11.16.6

We have already mentioned the reason for his building this city. In it were Tughluq's treasuries and palaces, and in it is the great palace whose tiles he had gilded, so that when the sun rose they gave off a great light and a glitter that prevented the eye from gazing at them for long. He stored great wealth there.

11.16.7

It is said that he built a cistern and poured molten gold into it so that it became a single block, and his son Muḥammad Shāh spent all of it when he came to power. Because of the engineering of the vizier Khwāja Jahān, as we have described, in building the kushk that fell on Tughluq, he enjoyed favour with his son Muḥammad Shāh and preference with him, so that no one approached him in rank with him or attained his standing with him, whether among the viziers or others.

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