The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.437

Language: English

v3.c20.437.1

The king himself was now embarrassed by a rebellion. ‘Ain-ul-Mulk, governor of Oudh, had for many years governed his province with ability and clemency and had acquired great influence and popularity. The successful victualling of Sargadwārī was due entirely to his prudence and foresight and to his admirable arrangements for the conveyance of grain to the temporary city. Many of the respectable inhabitants of Delhi, fearing the king’s tyranny, had withdrawn from the city and had settled in Oudh, where they received generous treatment at the hands of ‘Ain-ul-Mulk, who attached them to himself and ensured the extension of cultivation in his province by granting them villages in fee. With these immigrants had come others, less desirable fugitives from justice, who were harboured on the immoral eastern principle that it is dishonourable to surrender to justice even a malefactor who has sought an asylum with a protector. ‘Ain-ul-Mulk was humiliated by a demand for their surrender, but the chief cause of his estrangement from the king was the latter's design of transferring him to the government of the Deccan in the place of Qutlugh Khān.

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The avowed reason for the transfer was 'Ain-ul-Mulk's efficiency and success as a provincial governor, from which some improvement in the situation in the Deccan might be expected, but it was generally known that the deplorable condition of the southern provinces was due not to any fault of Qutlugh Khān, who was a loyal and able governor, but to the pernicious system of farming the revenues, and 'Ain-ul-Mulk feared, probably with justice, that the king's real motive in transferring him from Oudh was jealousy of his power and influence, and that the object of appointing him to a government in which Qutlugh Khān had failed was to ensure his disgrace and destruction. His brothers, who had loyally assisted him in the government of Oudh now urged him not to submit to the caprice of an ungrateful master, but to rely on the support of the people by whom he was so well beloved. Opportunity favoured him, for the elephants, horses, pack animals and cattle of the royal army had been sent across the Ganges into Oudh for grazing, and the rebellion was precipitated by the seizure of those animals, while 'Ain-ul-Mulk fled from the camp and joined his own army on the east of the Ganges. He assumed the title of Sultān 'Alā-ud-dīn, and Muhammad, for the first time in his reign, had cause to tremble for his throne and his life.

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The disaster to his army in the Himālaya had impaired his prestige and his severity and cruelty had alienated the nobles in his camp, on whose fidelity he could no longer rely. The rebel army, though composed of poor material, was more numerous than his own, and he desired to avoid an immediate battle. Hastily summoning reinforcements from Delhi and other towns, he marched rapidly towards Kanauj, seeking the protection of its walls. The rebels on the eastern bank marched from Bangarmau, and it seemed that Muhammad's only hope of safety lay in outstripping them. When it became known that they had crossed the river he was much alarmed, for he did not believe that they would have ventured on this step without encouragement from traitors in his own camp. The rebels, to the number of 50,000, attacked his outposts by night, and the battle soon became general. Notwithstanding the overwhelming numerical superiority of the enemy, the Persians, Turks and Khurāsānīs in the royal army fought valiantly, and at dawn the rebels were in full flight and were pursued for twenty miles. Many, including two of 'Ain-ul-Mulk's four brothers, were slain in the battle or the pursuit, or drowned in the Ganges. Malik Ibrāhīm, one of 'Ain-ul-Mulk's accomplices in rebellion, seized him and carried him before the minister, Khvāja Jahān, in the hope of earning a pardon, and the minister, after causing ‘Ain-ul-Mulk to be stripped, carried him before the king.

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The captive was naked save for a small loin-cloth, and was mounted on an ox. Following him was a large number of other prisoners, and the sons of the courtiers disgraced themselves by crowding round the unfortunate prisoners, heaping abuse on ‘Ain-ul-Mulk, spitting in his face, and beating with their fists his companions in misfortune.