The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14: Chapter III. Sher Shāh and the Sūr Dynasty. The Return of Humāyūn
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14
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Chapter III. Sher Shāh and the Sūr Dynasty. The Return of Humāyūn
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SHĒR SHĀH AND THE SŪR DYNASTY THE RETURN OF HUMĀYŪN
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DURING his long struggle with the kings of the Sharqī dynasty of Jaunpur,¹ Sultān Buhlūl Lodī recruited his forces with bodies of Afghāns from Roh, the highlands of the Sulaimān range, whose leaders received assignments in India for the maintenance of their followers. Among them was one Ibrāhīm Khān, of the Sūr tribe, a horse-dealer according to Abu-’l-Fazl, who is ever ready to disparage those who drove his master’s father from his throne. Whether Ibrāhīm Khān ever sold horses is uncertain, but he was a soldier who received assignments as a reward for his services. He is said to have claimed descent from the Shansabānīds of Ghūr,² but probably without grounds.
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¹ See vol. III, pp. 229–34 and 254–9.
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² See vol. III, pp. 38–48 and 689.
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Ibrāhīm had at least three sons, and one of them, Hasan Khān, had eight sons, of whom the eldest, Farīd, was born some years before 1489. Ibrāhīm held assignments at first in the Punjab, but afterwards in the *pargana* of Nārnaul, under the Afghān Jamāl Khān, who held the large assignment of Hissār, and on his death his son Hasan Khān succeeded; when Sikandar Lodī defeated his rebellious brother Bārbak, but permitted him to retain the government of Jaunpur,³ Jamāl Khān was transferred to that province, and received there large assignments which enabled him to prevent Bārbak from again disturbing the peace of the realm. With him he took all the members of the Sūr tribe or clan serving in Hissār and Nārnaul, and Hasan Khān received the *parganas* of Sasarām,⁴ Hājīpur⁵ and Khavāsspur Tāndā⁶ for the maintenance of 500 horse. Of Hasan’s eight sons only four are of any importance, Farīd and Nizām, the two eldest, born of his senior wife, an Afghān, and Sulaimān and Ahmad, the two youngest, born of a Hindu concubine. He had wearied of his Afghān wife, and was entirely submissive to his concubine. She was devoted to the interests of her own sons and so resented any favour shown to her stepsons that Farīd, while yet a lad, chafing under his father’s coldness to him, fled from their home at Sasarām, and took refuge with Jamāl Khān at Jaunpur. Jamāl Khān urged Farīd to return to his father and to pursue his studies, but Farīd refused to return as Jaunpur was a better place for study than Sasarām. Such progress did he make that his father, when he visited Jaunpur, invited him to return and placed him in charge of the two *parganas*, Hājīpur and Khavāsspur Tāndā.
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³ See vol. III, p. 236.
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⁴ 24° 57′ N., 84° 1′ E.
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⁵ 25° 41′ N., 85° 12′ E.
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⁶ In Tirhūt.
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The administration of these two *parganas* was Farīd’s initiation, and he mastered all the details of revenue and customary law, and rigorously suppressed bribery, extortion, brigandage and disaffection.
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But Hasan was still subservient to his concubine, who was so enraged by his praise of her stepson that she ceased to admit him to intercourse with her, and thus compelled him to promise that he would make over the administration of Farīd’s *parganas* to her son, Sulaimān. Farīd, after vainly reproaching his father with breach of faith, as he had promised that he would not in future neglect Farīd, left the district and sought service in Āgra, at the court of Ibrāhīm Lodī. He found a patron in Daulat Khān, who held the command of 12,000 horse, and earned his approbation and an offer of assistance. Farīd complained of his father’s injustice and begged that the king might be moved to confer on him the two *parganas* of which his father had deprived him, but Ibrāhīm Lodī was in a bad humour and refused to do anything for an undutiful son. Daulat Khān temporarily satisfied Farīd by promoting him in his own service, and shortly afterwards, on his father’s death, obtained for him a royal grant in succession to his father. This land was now in possession of his half-brother, Sulaimān, who fled when Farīd came to take possession of it and took refuge with another of the tribe, Muhammad Khān Sūr, who held the *pargana* of Chaund,¹ and who, having been on bad terms with Hasan, welcomed the opportunity of fomenting the quarrels of his sons. He proposed to Farīd a division of the assignment, but Farīd replied that while he was prepared to share his father’s property with his brothers he would not give up any share in the administration of the area granted to him by the king.
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¹ Also transliterated Jaund. Now Chainpur in Shāhābād district, see Oldham, *Journal of F. Buchanan*, p. 122, n. 3.
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Meanwhile Bābur had invaded India, and Farīd resolved to await the result of the contest between him and Ibrāhīm Lodī, confident that if Ibrāhīm prevailed his assignment would be confirmed, and resolved, should Bābur prevail, to enlist the aid of Bihār Khān, the governor of Bihār, against his half-brother and his patron Muhammad Sūr.
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Bihār Khān, on receipt of the news of the defeat and death of Ibrāhīm at Pānīpat, assumed the title of Sultān Muhammad, as independent sovereign of Bihār, and received Farīd when he waited upon him. Farīd soon gained the good opinion of his new master, as he had gained that of all others whom he had served, and rose to high rank in his service. One day, while hunting with him, he slew a tiger and received the title of Sher (tiger) Khān, by which he will henceforth be described. The Sultān, at the same time, appointed him tutor to his young son, Jalāl Khān.
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Sher Khān after some time sought leave to return for a period to his assignment, which, though administered by his own brother, Nizām Khān, required his personal attention. Muhammad belonged to the Lohānī tribe of Afghāns, and most of his courtiers and officials, who were of the same tribe, resented the intrusion of one of the Sūr tribe, so that Muhammad Sūr found little difficulty in rousing ill-will against Sher Khān during his absence. Mahmūd Lodī, the brother of Ibrāhīm, who had taken refuge in Rājputāna, was expected in Bihār, and it was suggested that Sher Khān would side with Mahmūd against Sultān Muhammad. Sultān Muhammad, however, took no action against him, but appointed Muhammad Sūr arbiter in the dispute between Sher Khān and his half-brother, Sulaimān. Thus empowered, Muhammad Sūr directed Sher Khān to share the assignment equally with all his brothers, but he, citing the royal order, refused to comply, and Muhammad sent his troops to seize the estate. Sher Khān’s agent was defeated and slain and the remnant of his troops fled to Sher Khān at Sasarām.
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Sher Khān’s position was now difficult. He would not appeal to Sultān Muhammad, who he knew was unwilling to quarrel with Muhammad Sūr. He therefore opened negotiations with Sultān Junaid Birlās, Bābur’s governor of Karā and Mānikpur, and, with his brother Nizām, sought aid in recovering his assignment which he promised to hold as the subordinate of Junaid. Junaid welcomed this opportunity of extending Bābur’s influence and supplied Sher Khān with a force, by the help of which he not only recovered his own assignment but expelled Muhammad Sūr from Chaund and drove him into the Rohtās hills. This success so enhanced his reputation that large numbers of Afghāns entered his service, and he returned the contingent placed at his service by Junaid with a handsome reward and thanks for the assistance. He then sought reconciliation with his kinsman, Muhammad Sūr, inviting him to return and resume his estates, as it behoved all Afghāns to unite. Muhammad Sūr returned to Chaund, and Sher Khān, having, as he believed, gained his good will, visited Junaid at Āgra where he was presented to Bābur. He now temporarily entered Bābur’s service, really with the object of studying Bābur’s system and ascertaining how he could be expelled from India. He accompanied Bābur on an expedition to Chanderī, but is said to have been indiscreet in his criticism of the system of administration and of the army, and to have caused offence by his behaviour at the royal table. Bābur was disposed to imprison him had he not been dissuaded by Junaid and his brother Mīr Khalifa, the minister, who warned him of the danger of making enemies of the Afghāns. Sher Khān, perceiving how matters stood, fled with his contingent from the royal camp, and excused his departure in a letter to Junaid, feigning that local affairs urgently required his presence. He had also incurred the suspicions of his former master, Sultān Muhammad, by entering Bābur’s service, and Muhammad Sūr was endeavouring to obtain permission to eject Nizām Khān from Sasarām. Sher Khān had seen enough of Bābur, and from now onwards sought to unite the Afghāns against the Mughuls. He repaired once more to the court of Sultān Muhammad, who welcomed and again appointed him tutor and guardian of Jalāl Khān. The Sultān died very shortly after this and, his son being yet a minor, his mother assumed the regency and appointed Sher Khān her agent, so that he became the ruler of Bihār and, when Jalāl Khān’s mother died, king in all but name. He strengthened his position by entering into a close alliance with the governor of Hājīpur on behalf of Sultān Mahmūd of Bengal, perceiving that unless Bihār and Bengal united to oppose Bābur both might fall into his hands. The king of Bengal, however, desiring to acquire Bihār, sent a force to invade it which was defeated with great loss of treasure, horses and elephants.
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Meanwhile the hostility of most of the Lohānīs at Jalāl Khān’s court against Sher Khān grew, and a plot was formed to assassinate him, but he was informed of it in time and warned Jalāl Khān, who had been privy to the plot, that Mahmūd of Bengal was intent on conquering Bihār and would certainly succeed if its chief defender were removed. Jalāl Khān, apparently convinced, promised to dismiss the conspirators but took no step in that direction, and two hostile parties were formed in Bihār, one consisting of Jalāl Khān and the majority of the Lohānīs, the other of Sher Khān, some of the Lohānīs, and his own and other Afghān tribes. Sher Khān attempted to restore unity by reminding his enemies that the great fault of the Afghāns was treachery to those of their own race, which had cost the Lodīs the dominion of Hindūstān, but his words fell upon deaf ears.
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Sultān Mahmūd now sent a fresh army to avenge the earlier defeat. The jealousies of the Lohānī tribe blinded them to their own interests as well as to those of their sovereign and they persuaded Jalāl Khān to rid himself of Sher Khān at all costs. He therefore ordered Sher Khān to return to his charge, on the pretext that the Lohānīs were unwilling to fight under his orders. Sher Khān retired to Sasarām, and Jalāl Khān allowed himself to be persuaded to join the army of Mahmūd of Bengal, and ceased to be king of Bihār. Sher Khān rejoiced at the news. There were now, he said, no divisions in the army of Bihār, and the land, by Jalāl Khān’s desertion, was his. He enlisted more troops and advanced against the army of Bengal, but, owing to his numerical inferiority, entrenched himself and refrained from attacking the enemy in force. Reinforcements were summoned from Bengal, and Sher Khān found it necessary to give battle before these should arrive. By the well-known stratagem of a feigned flight his first line drew the enemy’s cavalry away from his artillery and elephants, and Sher Khān then fell on it with his reserves and routed it. The commander was slain while attempting to flee, Jalāl Khān escaped with great difficulty into Bengal, and the treasure, the elephants and the artillery of Bengal fell into the hands of Sher Khān, who was now the unquestioned sovereign of Bihār.
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He next acquired possession of the strong fortress of Chunār, on the Ganges, from the widow of its commandant, whom he married at the suggestion of her principal officer. The acquisition of the fortress and of the great treasure which it contained added greatly to Sher Khān’s power and influence as well as to his resources, but he was now seriously embarrassed.
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Mahmūd Lodī, the brother of Ibrāhīm Lodī, had been expected to arrive in Bihār a few years before this time, but he had taken refuge with Sangrām Singh, the Rānā of Chitor, and had taken part with him in the battle of Khānua. After the battle he had returned to Chitor, but he now left Rājputāna, and, at the invitation of some of the nobles of the Lodī court, who had settled in Patna, made that city his headquarters. He was a mere fugitive, but he represented the old Afghān royal house and assumed royal state. Sher Khān was summoned to appear before him and could not refuse to obey without belying all the principles of unity which he had so persistently preached. He was informed that his assignment was confirmed but that in order to provide for Mahmūd’s nobles and retinue he was obliged to resume, for the present, the rest of Bihār, which would be restored to Sher Khān when the prince had established himself on the throne. Sher Khān submitted and retired to Sasarām, ostensibly in order to prepare forces to accompany the prince in a projected expedition into Oudh.
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When the prince summoned Sher Khān to bring his contingent, he replied that his troops were not yet ready and that he would join him later. Mahmūd Lodī’s officers pointed out that Sher Khān had already once served the Mughuls, and suggested that he was now temporising. They advised a line of march by way of Sasarām so as to compel him to accompany the army. Sher Khān made the best of his failure and, after giving Mahmūd a royal reception, accompanied him.
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Humāyūn’s officers fled from Jaunpur on the approach of the Afghāns, and Mahmūd sent his forces forward and occupied Lucknow. When the news of the loss of Lucknow reached Āgra Humāyūn marched towards Jaunpur, and his army and that of Mahmūd Lodī met at Daunrūā, where the latter was severely defeated and compelled to retire into Bihār. Being unable to raise a fresh army there, he withdrew into Orissa, where he passed the few remaining years of his life, in sensual pleasures, until his death in 1542.
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After the battle Humāyūn demanded the surrender of the important fortress, Chunār, from Sher Khān, who had failed to support Mahmūd Lodī, and had promised obedience to the Mughuls. On his refusal Humāyūn prepared to besiege Chunār, but was diverted by news of the raid made by Tātār Khān as related in chapter ii (p. 23) and set out for Gujarāt accompanied by Qutb Khān, son of Sher Khān, with a small force.
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During Humāyūn’s absence in Gujarāt, Sher Khān spared no efforts in consolidating his power in Bihār, and was joined by his son Qutb Khān, who deserted Humāyūn’s camp in Gujarāt, and by most of the leading Afghāns in Bahādur’s service, who abandoned him when he was in difficulties. Sher Khān then attacked the kingdom of Bengal and annexed all of its territory which lay to the west of Teliyāgarhī.
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When Humāyūn returned from Gujarāt to Āgra he was warned that Sher Khān had grown so powerful as to have become a danger to the empire, but he contented himself with sending Hindū Beg to Jaunpur with orders to report on the situation. Hindū Beg had ever been favourably disposed to Sher Khān, and was easily induced to report that the emperor had nothing to fear from him.
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Sher Khān, having thus, as he believed, set the emperor’s mind at rest, sent an army under his son, Jalāl Khān, to complete the annexation of Bengal, and Sultān Mahmūd, too weak to meet the invaders in the field, appealed to Humāyūn and took refuge in Gaur where he was besieged by Jalāl Khān and Khavāss Khān, who had now become Sher Khān’s most capable, loyal and enterprising officer.
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Sher Khān’s son, Jalāl Khān, leaving Khavāss Khān in charge of the siege of Gaur, marched to hold Teliyāgarhī, “the gate of Bengal”. Gaur was obliged, by lack of provisions, to surrender to Khavāss Khān, and Sultān Mahmūd of Bengal took refuge with Humāyūn. Sher Khān had found an asylum in the strong fortress of Rohtās. The Mughul historians tell an absurd story, invented in order to besmirch the character of Sher Khān, of his gaining possession of Rohtās by smuggling into the fortress, in litters, as though they had been veiled ladies, a large number of his men-at-arms; but the true story is discreditable enough to him. He first obtained from Churāman, the raja’s Brāhman minister, a promise of shelter in the fort. The raja prudently objected that it was dangerous to admit a force strong enough to overpower the garrison, but Churāman insisted that his word had been passed and that nothing was to be feared from Sher Khān. The raja yielded against his better judgement, the Afghāns were admitted, and Sher Khān in a short time expelled the garrison and took possession of the fortress.
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Then, while Humāyūn was making an easy conquest of a defenceless but devastated area, Sher Khān, who had hitherto carefully avoided facing him in the field, set about cutting his communications. He besieged Benares and sent Khavāss Khān, whom he had recalled from Gaur, to Monghyr with instructions to seize the officer whom Humāyūn had left in command of that city. Khavāss Khān captured this officer and carried him to Benares, which city Sher Khān shortly afterwards took, putting nearly the whole garrison to the sword. He then sent forces to Jaunpur, Sambhal and Bahraich, each of which towns was captured, the imperial garrison being expelled, and ordered the force which had captured Jaunpur to march on Āgra, where Humāyūn’s brother, Hindāl Mīrzā, had rebelled after slaying the envoy whom Humāyūn himself had sent to urge him to remain loyal.
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Sher Khān now assembled all his forces in the neighbourhood of Rohtās and awaited an opportunity of attacking Humāyūn as he attempted to extricate his demoralised army from Bengal. The pretext was that Humāyūn, who had promised him the kingdom of Bengal, had broken faith with him and taken the kingdom for himself. At the battle of Chausa on 26 June, 1539, Humāyūn was completely defeated and fled to Āgra.
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Sher Khān now struck coin¹ and caused the *khutba* to be recited in his own name and assumed the royal title, styling himself Farīd-ud-dīn Sher Shāh. A force sent to Gaur defeated and slew the officer whom Humāyūn had left to hold that city, and Sher Shāh, following Humāyūn towards Āgra, occupied the country as far west as Kanauj and Kālpī, and sent a mission to Mālwa and Gujarāt promising help if they menaced Humāyūn from the west. Gujarāt was too disturbed to take part in a general attack on the emperor, but Mallū Khān of Māndū, who had assumed the title of Qādir Shāh,² returned a favourable reply, though he aroused the wrath of Sher Shāh by writing after the manner of a sovereign prince.
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¹ Earliest known date 945 A.H. (May 1538–May 1539 A.D.).
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² See vol. III, p. 369.
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News was received that Humāyūn was marching towards Kanauj in order to meet the Afghān army there, and Sher Shāh sent his son Qutb Khān towards Māndū to urge Qādir Shāh to fulfil his promise. Qādir Shāh, however, showed no sign of support and Humāyūn despatched his brothers ‘Askarī and Hindāl against him. Qutb Khān was defeated and slain by them on his way from Kālpī to Chanderī, and the two princes rejoined their brother. Humāyūn reached Kanauj in April 1540, and found Sher Shāh encamped on the east bank of the Ganges over against him. Crossing the river he again encountered Sher Shāh on 17 May, again sustained a crushing defeat (chap. II, p. 34), and fled through Āgra to the north.
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Sher Shāh despatched a force to besiege Gwalior, sent another to Sambhal, to secure and pacify the country to the east of the Ganges, and pursued Humāyūn first to Āgra and thence, as he continued his flight, to Lahore. From Lahore Kāmrān Mīrzā retired to Kābul, and Humāyūn into Sind, and Sher Shāh, having pursued him for some distance, returned to Lahore. He had now driven his foes from Bengal, Bihār, Hindūstān and the Punjab, had received the submission of the Baloch chiefs on the frontier, and was at leisure to turn his attention to domestic affairs. To guard his northern frontier he selected the site of a great fortress in the hills ten miles north of Jhelum, which he named Rohtās, after his stronghold in the hills of Bihār.
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Sher Shāh now learned that his governor of Bengal had married a daughter of Sultān Mahmūd of that country, and was meditating rebellion, so he set out at once for Gaur. Here he punished the governor, by imprisonment in chains, for his presumption in marrying without leave, and for having held courts in the royal manner. Sher Shāh then remodelled the administration of Bengal to avert the danger of rebellion. He divided the country into a number of charges but appointed no governor or viceroy, and gave to no official authority over another, but appointed a jurist as supervisor of all, with instructions to see that the charges were properly administered, that all money due to the treasury was regularly remitted, and that the officials abstained from conspiracy. He then returned to Āgra.
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In 1542 he invaded Mālwa with a view to punishing Qādir Shāh for having assumed the royal title and for having failed to support his son Qutb Khān. On his way he halted at Gwalior and received the submission of the governor of that fortress, who had promised that he would surrender when Sher Shāh arrived. He then marched on to Sārangpur, where Qādir Shāh appeared before him, made his submission, and was kindly received and honourably treated, and accompanied Sher Shāh to Ujjain. Here Sher Shāh promised him the government of a province instead of that of Mālwā, of which he had been deprived, but he became apprehensive of the king's intentions towards him, and made his escape, taking refuge with Mahmūd III of Gujarāt.
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On his way back to Āgra from Mālwā, Sher Shāh persuaded the commandant of Ranthambhor to surrender that fortress to him, and after his return he remained for a year in Āgra, engaged in reorganising the administration of his empire, in the laying out of roads, and the erection of public buildings. Sher Shāh then paid a visit of inspection to Bihār and Bengal, in the course of which he suffered so severely from malaria as to believe himself to be at the point of death, and to vow that if God spared his life and restored him to health he would punish Pūran Mal for his offences against Islām.¹
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¹ See vol. III, p. 370.
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Pūran Mal of Rāisen had, not long before this time, attacked and captured Chanderī, put its inhabitants to the sword, added to his territory the country around that town, and enslaved many women, Muslims as well as Hindus, some of whom he employed as dancing girls. The punishment of such offences as these was incumbent on a faithful Muslim, and Sher Shāh, when sufficiently recovered, returned to Āgra and in 1543 set out for Māndū, whence he marched to Rāisen.
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The siege of the fortress was protracted until the Hindus were reduced to distress, and at length Pūran Mal came forth on receiving a solemn oath that the lives and property of himself and his relations would be safe. For a while, he and his clansmen were lodged in peace, but the widows of the slaughtered Muslims of Chanderī assembled and, waiting by the roadside, assailed Sher Shāh with loud lamentations. Sher Shāh’s blood boiled, but he was perplexed by the oath on the Qur’ān which had enticed Pūran Mal from his stronghold. The Muslim casuists set his mind at rest by declaring that an oath which should never have been sworn bound none, and Sher Shāh prepared for the deed which has left the deepest blot on his memory.
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The elephants were collected as for a march on the following day, and during the night the troops were posted round the Rājput camp. At sunrise Pūran Mal saw that his fate was sealed. He severed his wife’s head from her body, and, bearing it in his hands, commanded his clansmen to follow his example. The Afghān troops fell on them while they were engaged in the ghastly task of slaughtering their wives and daughters, and they fought gallantly, “like hogs at bay” as a Muslim historian records, but they were cut down by the Afghāns and trampled to death by the elephants and not a man escaped. A few women and children were taken alive; a daughter of Pūran Mal was given to some minstrels to be trained as a dancing girl, and three sons of his elder brother were castrated.
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Sher Shāh, after reaching Rāisen, had received a message from Khavāss Khān to the effect that he and Haibat Khān who had been left at Rohtās could not agree. That two Afghān chiefs should thus seek arbitration, even of their king, rather than settle their differences by the sword, speaks volumes for Sher Shāh’s influence over his quarrelsome fellow-countrymen. Sher Shāh recalled Khavāss Khān from the Punjab and left Haibat Khān in the government of that province, with instructions to reduce it to order. Since the flight of Humāyūn, Fath Khān Jāt had been in rebellion and had preyed upon travellers on the high roads between Delhi and Lahore, while the Baloch had been governing the city and district of Multān solely in their own interests. Haibat Khān dealt first with the Jāt, who had established himself in Ajudhan (Pāk Pattan) but fled and retired into a mud fort where he was besieged. In a few days’ time he surrendered himself and was imprisoned, but there still remained in the fort Hindū Baloch and Bakhshū Langāh, whose men cut their way through the besiegers, leaving their leaders in Haibat Khān’s hands. Haibat Khān then marched on Multān and induced some of its citizens and husbandmen to return. He reported his success to Sher Shāh, who rewarded him and at the same time commanded him to repeople Multān, “to observe the customs of the Langāhs”,¹ and not to measure the land, but to content himself with one-fourth of its gross produce. Fath Khān Jāt and Hindū Baloch were put to death, but Sher Shāh ordered Haibat Khān to spare the lives of Bakhshū Langāh and his son, to restore to them their lands, and to retain one of them always with him as a hostage. Haibat Khān returned to Lahore, leaving in Multān Fath Jang Khān, who completely restored the prosperity of the city and the province so that they flourished even more than under the Langāhs. These references to the prosperity of Multān under the Langāhs are instructive, both as to the character of that dynasty, of which little is known, but which evidently identified itself with the interests of its subjects, and as to the justice of Sher Shāh and the historians of his line in admitting that a dynasty which had been in rebellion against Afghān Sultāns of Delhi had left behind it a reputation worthy of emulation.
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¹ See vol. III, pp. 503–5.
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Before leaving Rāisen Sher Shāh had wisely rejected the advice of some of his counsellors to invade the Deccan. For years past the Rājputs had been a persistent menace to Muslim rule in northern India. Sangrām Singh of Mewār had defeated and captured Mahmūd II of Mālwā though he was aided by a contingent of 10,000 horse from Gujarāt, and had later borne a part in inviting Bābur to India with the object of profiting by the dissensions of the Muslims. At Khānua he had wellnigh succeeded in subverting Muslim rule in Hindūstān, and, though the capture of Chitor by Bahādur of Gujarāt in 1534 had broken the power of Mewār, other chiefs had taken the place of the Rānā. Pūran Mal, who had taken advantage of the hostilities between Sher Shāh and Humāyūn to found an independent principality in Mālwā, had been crushed, but the great state of Mārwār had become dangerous to Sher Shāh’s rule. Its sovereign, Māldeo the Rāthor, had established his influence in Mewār, had recovered Ajmer and Nāgaur, and while Bābur and Humāyūn were establishing their dominion over Hindūstān proper had annexed fortresses and districts which had been held by officers of the Lodī dynasty. Sher Shāh had good reason to be alarmed by the growth of a hostile power on the borders of his dominions, and in the autumn of 1543 marched from Āgra with the greatest army which he had ever led in the field to attack Māldeo. He adopted his usual precaution of entrenching his camp at every halt, but on entering the sandy desert of Rājāsthān found it impossible to throw up a parapet. His grandson, Mahmūd Khān, said to have been only seven years of age, suggested that the parapet should be constructed of sacks filled with sand, and this precocious young soldier seems to have been the inventor of sandbags in the East.
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Sher Shāh, with his army of 80,000 horse, came into contact with Māldeo in the neighbourhood of Ajmer but hesitated to attack though opposed by only 50,000 horse. For a month the two armies lay opposite to one another and Sher Shāh’s situation had become critical, owing to lack of supplies, before he used a device not infrequently employed in eastern warfare. Causing letters to be written to himself, as from Māldeo's *thākurs*, or nobles, promising that they would deliver their master into his hands, he had them enclosed in a silken bag which was dropped, as though by accident, near Māldeo's tent. It was picked up and carried to Māldeo, who was dismayed by what he deemed the treachery of his *thākurs*. He countermanded the general action which he had ordered, and would not trust their protestations of fidelity. As the Muslims advanced, 12,000 Rājput horse, led by *thākurs* bent on proving their loyalty, charged them, and cut their way almost to the centre of the royal camp, but were overwhelmed by numbers and almost annihilated. Māldeo saw too late that he had been deceived and could no longer withstand the invader. His army dispersed but its valour had so impressed Sher Shāh that he exclaimed that he had wellnigh lost the empire of India for a handful of millet. He left Khavāss Khān and ‘Īsā Khān Niyāzī to establish his authority in Mārwār and marched to Chitor, the keys of which were sent to him by the officer who held it on behalf of Rānā Uday Singh of Mewār.
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His next objective was the fortress of Kālinjar.¹ Rājā Bīr Singh Bundelā² had been summoned to court and, instead of obeying the summons, had taken refuge with Rājā Kīrat Singh of Kālinjar, who had refused to surrender him. Sher Shāh determined to reduce Kīrat Singh to obedience and, on reaching Kālinjar, invested the fortress. The siege lasted for nearly a year, and at length, when the parallels had approached the walls, Sher Shāh ascended a high tower in the line of circumvallation, ordered one of his officers to bring a supply of loaded shells, or, more probably, rockets, and amused himself in the meantime by shooting arrows into the town. When the rockets were brought one of them was fired against the gate of the town, but rebounded and fell into and ignited a heap of ammunition by which the king was standing. Sher Shāh was most severely burned by the explosion and was carried to his tent. Here he summoned his nobles and commanded them to capture the fortress while he yet lived. About the time of the evening prayer it was reported to him that Kālinjar had been taken by storm and its garrison put to the sword, and on learning this he died content on 22 May, 1545.
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¹ 25° 1' N., 80° 29' E.
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² It was more probably Bīr Bhān the Bāghel Rājā of Rewah, a friend of Humāyūn, see Memoir 21, *Arch. Survey of India*, p. 3 [Ed.].
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He has received scant justice from historians. The annalists of the Timurids have been obliged to admit, ungraciously, his merits as a soldier and a statesman, but to them he was ever Sher Khān, the Afghān rebel, and their works have chiefly supplied the material for European histories of India. He was, however, the greatest of the Muslim rulers of India and was entirely free from, and active in the correction of, the faults usually associated with his race. In youth and early manhood he had sedulously devoted himself to the acquisition of learning and the study of the art of government, and found an opportunity of putting his knowledge into practice in the administration of the *parganas* which his father placed under his charge, where, also in the suppression of rebellion and organised brigandage, he gained practical experience of the art of war, and thenceforward, for a short time in Bābur’s service, then in that of Sultān Muhammad of Bihār, and then as independent ruler of that kingdom, he devoted the whole of his time to affairs of state, allowing himself no leisure, and by the time he attained to supreme authority he was ultimately acquainted with all the details of civil administration, as no other Indian ruler, before or since, has been.
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The basis of Indian administration is the assessment and collection of the land revenue, and Sher Shāh’s system was his own. To each *pargana* he appointed an *amīn* responsible for the general administration, a *shiqqdār*, his assistant, who supervised the assessment and collection of the revenue, a treasurer, and two clerks, or secretaries, to keep the records or accounts, one in Persian and the other in Hindī. The cultivated land was measured every harvest, and the revenue was assessed in cash on the value of the produce.¹ To each *sarkār*, or revenue district, were appointed a chief *shiqqdār* and a chief *munsif*, whose duty it was to see that the revenue was collected in full, but that the cultivators were not oppressed.
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¹ See chap. xvi, p. 456.
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There was, however, one weak point in his system, which facilitated peculation and illicit profits. It was his custom to transfer his revenue officials every year or two, his reason for this measure being that all his old and loyal servants might profit by the charge of a revenue district. This pernicious practice encouraged officials to make all that they could in the short time during which they held office.
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The administration of the army was even more efficient. The system of branding the horses of the contingents which assignees were bound to supply, to prevent them from borrowing horses for the muster-parades, had been invented by the Saljūqs in the twelfth century but the only Indian ruler who had hitherto been able to enforce it had been ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī. Sher Shāh enforced it rigorously. The great Akbar after him attempted, but failed, and his secretary Abu-’l-Fazl contemptuously observes that Sher Shāh sought the applause of posterity by reviving the regulation of ‘Alā-ud-dīn, of which he had read, but the remark is typical of Akbar’s panegyrist, whose bitterness may perhaps be explained by his master’s failure.
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Among the graver difficulties overcome by Sher Shāh was that offered by the character of his own people, proud, turbulent, disobedient and vindictive, ever ready to prefer family and tribal to national interests. Buhlūl Lodī had been content with the position of leader of a confederacy of tribal chiefs, *primus inter pares*, but Sher Shāh perceived that to expel the Timurids from India and prevent their return the authority of a tribal chief would not suffice, and that he must wield that of a sovereign. He constantly warned his nobles that it was owing to the feuds and quarrels of the Afghāns and to their lack of a national spirit that Bābur had been able to invade and establish himself in India, and his admonitions, enforced by sterner measures, were so effective that, perhaps for the only time in history, he, an Afghān himself, established and ruled an Afghān kingdom in which none was for a party and all were for the state.
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The Afghān sovereign who surmounted so many difficulties and raised himself from the condition of a petty assignee to that of ruler of a great empire was also a builder and a road-maker. Of his four great roads one ran from Sonārgāon in Bengal through Āgra, Delhi and Lahore to the Indus, one from Āgra to Māndū, one from Āgra to Jodhpur and Chitor, and one from Lahore to Multān. On either side of all were planted fruit trees, and beside them were erected 1700 caravanserais, with separate lodgings for Muslims and Hindus and servants to supply food to those of each religion. Grain and fodder were supplied for horses and cattle, and each caravanserai contained a well and a mosque of burnt brick, with a *muʻazzin* and an *imām* in attendance. A police official kept the peace and prevented crime, and two post-horses were stabled in each building for the use of riders conveying the royal mail. Of these caravanserais no trace remains, for the Timurids were not careful to maintain memorials of the Afghān rebel.
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Besides building Rohtās, near Jhelum, Sher Shāh built two forts at Delhi, extended the city towards the Jumna, and built forts at Kanauj and elsewhere. Crime was rigorously suppressed and the headmen of villages were held responsible for the surrender of those who committed crimes in their villages or of criminals who took refuge in them. Even the historians of the Timurids admit that in the Afghān's reign an old woman with a basket of gold could safely sleep in the open plain at night without a guard, and the historian Badāūnī, born in 1540, imitates the founder of his faith by thanking God that he was born the subject of so just a king. It was India's grave misfortune that this great king did not, as he himself once exclaimed when observing his grey hairs in a mirror, ascend the throne until the time of evening prayer. His body was borne to Sasarām and there a splendid mausoleum, which still stands, was raised above it. He was a pious and rigidly orthodox Muslim, but was liberal and tolerant. The most flagrant act of his life was his breach of faith with Pūran Mal and the massacre of the Hindus after the surrender of Rāisen; but those Hindus had committed the gravest of all offences against Islam, and Sher Shāh was convinced that his faith required the violation of a pledge which should never have been given.
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He left two sons, ‘Ādil Khān and Jalāl Khān. The nobles, eager to avoid strife by filling the throne with the least possible delay, summoned Jalāl Khān from Patna and enthroned him at Kālinjar on 26 May, 1545, only four days after his father’s death, under the title of Islām Shāh, a title corrupted by some historians, by the figure known as *imāla*, into Islīm Shāh and again into Salīm Shāh, but the new king’s correct title, as appears from his coins, was Islām Shāh.
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Islām Shāh wrote to his elder brother in Ranthambhor promising to surrender the crown, and urged him to hasten to Āgra, but ‘Ādil Khān was suspicious and required the guarantee and the personal escort of four great nobles. His request was granted and Islām Shāh, who at Kālinjar had put to death Kīrat Singh and seventy of his chief followers, marched to meet his brother. They met near Fathpur Sīkrī and marched to Āgra, where Islām Shāh’s behaviour, though he feigned to offer the throne to his brother, was so suspicious that ‘Ādil Khān declared that he required no more than a subordinate charge and permission to depart in peace. Islām Shāh was loth to let him go free, but the four great nobles who had guaranteed his safety insisted that faith should be kept, and ‘Ādil Khān went to Bayāna, the charge selected by him. Two months later ‘Ādil Khān fled from Bayāna in consequence of an attempt made by Islām Shāh to arrest and bring him to court. He took refuge with Khavāss Khān, who had always been a partisan of ‘Ādil Khān, and now openly declared for him. They marched on Āgra where they had hopes of support, but delayed on the way. In the meantime Islām Shāh had discovered the plot and marched against the rebels. Meeting them at a village about ten miles to the west of the city he defeated them, and ‘Ādil Khān fled, alone and unattended, towards Patna, where he disappeared. Khavāss Khān retired into Mewāt, and defeated at Fīrūzpur¹ an army sent in pursuit of him by Islām Shāh, but, being well aware that he could not long resist all the power of the crown, retired to his former assignment, Sirhind. Islām Shāh sent an officer in pursuit with 40,000 horse, but he and Khavāss Khān understood one another, and Khavāss Khān was permitted to retire through Katehr (Rohilkhand) to find a refuge on the lower slopes of the Kumāūn hills.
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¹ 27° 41′ N., 76° 56′ E.
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The extent of the conspiracy to raise ‘Ādil Khān to the throne filled Islām Shāh with suspicion of all his nobles. Some were stripped of their possessions and imprisoned, others were confined in Gwalior and drugged with a preparation of poppy-heads until they became imbecile, and many were put to death. The place of the old nobles slain or imprisoned was taken by the officers of the troops which Islām Shāh had commanded before ascending the throne, and many of the private soldiers of that contingent were promoted to fill their places.
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These measures seriously alarmed those who remained, and revived tribal jealousies, especially in the Niyāzī tribe. Sa‘īd Khān fled to his brother, Haibat Khān Niyāzī, governor of Lahore, and persuaded him to head a revolt against the tyrant. Qutb Khān, who had been implicated in the attempt to raise ‘Ādil Khān to the throne, joined them, and Islām Shāh demanded his surrender. So little were the tribal chiefs capable of a common course that Haibat Khān, actuated probably by some private grudge, surrendered him, and he was imprisoned in Gwalior with fourteen of the other old nobles.
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The attitude of the rebels in the Punjab was now so menacing that Islām Shāh marched against them and was joined at Delhi by Shujā‘at Khān. The rebels, meanwhile, advanced to Ambāla and there the armies met.
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The night before the battle Haibat Khān and Khavāss Khān, who had joined him from the Kumāūn hills, held a council to decide who should be raised to the throne in the event of their defeating Islām Shāh. Khavāss Khān remained loyal to the Sūr tribe and maintained that the right of ‘Ādil Khān, whose whereabouts he seems to have known, was indefeasible, but Haibat Khān, placing his personal ambition before loyalty to the family of his old master, declared that the crown was the prize of the sword. The next day, when the forces met, Khavāss Khān, refusing to aid the Niyāzī chief to gain a crown, withdrew his contingent and retired into Kumāūn. The Niyāzīs were defeated, but before they fled an unsuccessful attempt was made to murder the king.
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Islām Shāh pursued the Niyāzīs as far as New Rohtās and then returned towards Āgra, leaving a force to continue the pursuit. This force was defeated at Dungot¹ on the Indus and retired to Sirhind, while the Niyāzīs took refuge with the Gakkhars and finally in Kashmīr.
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¹ 71° 40′ E., 32° 58′ N.
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Islām Shāh now, having failed to persuade the Rājā of Kumāūn to surrender Khavāss Khān, entered into communication with Khavāss Khān himself and, after recording a solemn oath that he had forgiven him all his offences, begged him to attend at court and proceed against the Rānā of Mewār who had plundered the royal territories and carried off the wives and daughters of Muslims. At the same time he sent orders to the governor of Sambhal to put Khavāss Khān to death so soon as he should come within reach. Khavāss Khān, disregarding the warning of his host, the Rājā, obeyed the summons and was met at Sirsī, only six miles from Sambhal, by the governor, who, although he owed advancement to him, caused him to be assassinated in his tent at night, and sent his head, on a spear, and his body, stuffed with straw, to Islām Shāh. Thus perished the noblest and the ablest of the adherents of the Sūr dynasty (1546).
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Islām Shāh still persisted in attempts to destroy men who had served his father well and might have served him equally well, had they been trusted. He secretly employed an Afghān to stab Shujā‘at Khān of Mālwā on his way to court. The wounded noble, though visited by the king who professed great concern, as soon as his wound was healed, hastily left the court at Gwalior, without permission, and retired into Mālwā (1547). The king pursued him, and Shujā‘at Khān might have defeated him, but refused to attack his sovereign and withdrew into the rugged tract of Bānswārā, and Islām Shāh, having nominally dismissed him from the government of Mālwā, was obliged to turn towards the Punjab, where the Niyāzīs yet defied his authority. The rebels had again established themselves in Dungot, but a royal force defeated them and captured the mother and daughters of Haibat Khān, who for two years were exhibited once a week in a state of nudity in Islām Shāh’s hall of public audience and at the end of that time were put to death. The remnant of the Niyāzīs again took refuge with the Gakkhars whom Islām Shāh endeavoured for two years to subdue. Their chief successfully eluded him, but he took one of their principal leaders, flayed him alive and imprisoned his son in Gwalior.
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It was not only the old nobles of Sher Shāh’s court who were harassed by persecution. In an attempt made on the king’s life at this time his assailant was overpowered and slain, but the sword with which he was armed was found to be one which Islām Shāh had himself presented to Iqbāl Khān, an infantry soldier whom he had ennobled. Iqbāl Khān’s complicity was not fully proved, and his life was spared, but he was again reduced to the condition of a private soldier.
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The wretched king now learned of a plot to remove him and raise to the throne his cousin and brother-in-law, Mubāriz Khān Sūr, but, fearful of arousing the suspicion and resentment of his wife, sister of Mubāriz Khān, he refrained from disclosing his knowledge, and contented himself with the precaution of increasing the guard over his tents.
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The Niyāzīs, finding that the Gakkhars could no longer afford them a secure refuge, retreated to Kashmīr and there intervened in the dispute between Mīrzā Haidar, the conqueror and ruler of Kashmīr, and the Chakk tribe. The Chakk tribe was eventually victorious and afterwards attacked Haibat Khān and his force of Niyāzīs. The Niyāzīs, though they defended themselves valiantly, Bībī Rābi‘a, Haibat Khān’s wife, fighting like a man, were outnumbered and overpowered and all were slain.
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Islām Shāh, in camp near the Chenāb, was thus relieved of the menace of this long-standing rebellion, and he now received at his court Kāmrān Mīrzā, fleeing before his brother Humāyūn. The prince was haughtily received, was obliged to humiliate himself before his host, and became the butt of the Afghān nobles, who ridiculed him in Hindī, which he did not understand. Thus goaded he uttered some Persian verses reflecting on the king, and was placed in open arrest, but succeeded in making his escape and took refuge with Sultān Ādam the Gakkhar, who surrendered him to Humāyūn on receiving an assurance that his life should be spared.
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After returning to Delhi Islām Shāh learned that Humāyūn had crossed the Indus, and, though seriously ill, tore off some leeches which had been applied to his neck and set out for Lahore, but on arriving there learned that his enemy had gone back to Kābul, so he returned to Gwalior, his favourite place of residence. Here he spent his time chiefly in sport but continued so to harass his nobles that they conspired to assassinate him. He escaped by good fortune, and the chief conspirators were put to death and others were imprisoned. He now suggested to his wife that her brother, whose partisans increased in number, should be removed lest his pretensions should injure the interests of their son, but she insisted that her brother was a mere nonentity who cared for nothing but music, pleasure and dissipation, to which he was devoting his time in order to avert suspicion. The known partisans of Mubāriz Khān meanwhile refused to attend court together, lest they should be seized and put to death, and the king dared not proceed against those who attended singly lest the remainder should rise against him. His health now failed but he concealed his malady from others and cauterized with his own hand a growth from which he suffered, so injuring himself that he fell mortally sick. He made a final appeal to his wife to remove her brother, and, as she merely burst into tears, turned his face to the wall and died on 22 November, 1554.
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At this period there was much unrest among Muslims in India. The millennium of Muhammad's flight from Mecca was approaching and there was a belief, not universal, but widely current, that the manifestation of the Mahdī, who was to convert the whole world to Islam, to fill the earth with equity and justice as it had been filled with tyranny and oppression, and to reign for seven years, was about to take place. In 1504, in the reign of Ibrāhīm Lodī, one Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpur had given definite form to this doctrine, and had at length claimed to be the Mahdī, but had died on his return from the pilgrimage to Mecca. In Sher Shāh's reign Shaikh 'Alā'ī, son of Shaikh Hasan, one of the most highly respected religious teachers in Bengal, made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return established himself in Bayāna as his father's successor, but after a time fell under the influence of Shaikh 'Abdullah Niyāzī, an Afghān who had been a follower of Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpur. The two leaders confined their teaching and preaching, the distinctive mark of which was rigid puritanism, to the poor. They kept no goods or means of livelihood, but they and their followers always went armed, and made it their business to enforce as well as to make the laws. They admonished any whom they found in the city or in the market doing an act which they judged to be unlawful or irreligious, and, if he paid no need to their warnings, administered chastisement, and they permitted no interference with their actions by officials, though they aided all magistrates who acted in accordance with their tenets and principles. This defiance of constituted authority rendered ‘Alā’ī so obnoxious to the magistracy and the public that by the advice of ‘Abdullah Niyāzī he set out once more for Mecca, but, on reaching Khavāsspur, near Jodhpur, he succeeded in converting Khavāss Khān, then governor of Sher Shāh’s territories in Rājāsthān, to his views. His fanatical condemnation of all worldly enjoyment soon, however, disgusted Khavāss Khān, and ‘Alā’ī returned to Bayāna, where he was living when Islām Shāh ascended the throne. He was summoned to Āgra, appeared at court with a large band of ragged and dirty armed followers, saluted the king as an equal and bore himself most insolently. Maulānā ‘Abdullah of Sultānpur, entitled Makhdūm-ul-Mulk, of whom more will be heard in Akbar’s reign, held the office of *Sadr-us-Sudūr*, or chief jurist, and unsparingly condemned ‘Alā’ī as a schismatic.
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