The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c12.33

c12.33

orders, but was immediately imprisoned, and, later, executed¹. A similar treatment was meted out to Tuzaki, the recently appointed army minister and the governor of Baran. But, as Barani remarks, his every move only cleared the path of the Khaljis². Before Nizamuddin could execute his final plan, Kaiqubad suddenly remembered his father's advice and ordered him to proceed to Multan to succeed Kaikhusrau. Aware of the Sultan's real intentions, he tried to find excuses and delayed departure; whereupon his enemies, divining the Sultan's mind, poisoned him³. His death undoubtedly freed Kaiqubad from imminent assasination, but it also removed the only capable administrator he possessed. The state as a result lost whatever order it had. The impulsive king never remembered or at least never acted up to the other part of his father's counsel. It was in any case too late, for the effects of unrestrained drinking and debauchery now laid him low with paralysis⁴.