The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.193

v3.c20.193

Meanwhile the rule of Raihān at Delhi was daily becoming more intolerable, and the Turkish nobles whose jealousy of Balban had associated them with the eunuch felt keenly, as his insolence increased, the disgrace of their subservience to him. He maintained a gang of ruffians to molest those who were not well affected towards him and the historian Minhāj-ud-dīn complains that for a period of six months or more he dared not leave his house to attend the Friday prayers for fear of these bullies. Nearly all the great nobles of the kingdom sent messages to Balban imploring him to return to the capital and resume his former position. A confederacy was formed, and Balban from Nāgaur, Arsalān Khān Sanjar of Bhātinda, Bat Khān Aibak of Sunām, and Jalāl-ud-dīn and Sunqar from Lahore assembled their troops at Bhātinda. In October the king and Raihān marched from Delhi to meet them, and an indecisive affair of outposts, which threw the royal camp into confusion, was fought near Sunām. After celebrating the ‘Īd-ul-Fitr (November 14) at this place Mahmūd retired, a week later, to Hānsī, and the confederates advanced to Guhrām and Kaithal. They were loth to attack the king and endeavoured to attain their object by means of intrigue and secret negotiations. Jalāl-ud-dīn expected that his brother would be deposed and that he would be raised to the throne, but Balban, who seems to have entertained a genuine affection for his weak and pliant son-in-law, was not prepared to gratify this ambition. The Turkish nobles in the king’s camp favoured, almost unanimously, the cause of the confederates, and on December 5, while the army was retreating from Hānsī towards Jīnd, the eunuch was dismissed from his high office and invested with the fief of Budaun. On December 15 Bat Khān Aibak was sent to thank Mahmūd for this act and to request an audience for the confederate nobles, but the imminent reconciliation was nearly frustrated by the malice of the eunuch, who arranged to have the emissary assassinated. The design was fortunately discovered and Raihān was at once dismissed to Budaun, and on December 30 Balban and his associates were received by the king. Balban at once resumed his former place at the head of affairs and on January 20, 1255, returned with Mahmūd to Delhi. Jalāl-ud-dīn was rewarded for his services to the confederacy and consoled for the disappointment of his ambition by his brother’s formal recognition of his independence in Lahore.