The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.131

v3.c20.131

The death of Aibak affords us an opportunity of turning again to the course of events in Bengal. ‘Alī Mardān, on receiving the news, adopted the style of royalty and the title of Sultan ‘Alā-ud-dīn. To his own subjects he was a ruthless and bloody tyrant, and the Hindu rulers on his borders stood in such awe of him that the tribute with which they conciliated him filled his treasury. The rapid growth of his power and prosperity so unhinged his mind that he believed himself to be monarch of all the known world and bestowed upon his subjects and suppliants grants of the most distant kingdoms and provinces. To a poor merchant of Isfahān who had been robbed of his goods in Bengal he made a grant of his native city and province, and none dared to suggest that the grant was but breath and paper. The violence of his temper increased with his mania until neither the Khaljī noble nor the humble trader of the bazar was secure, and when he had reigned for about two years a party among the nobles conspired and slew him, and raised to the throne Hisām-ud-dīn ‘Iwaz, governor of the frontier district of Debkot.