The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.437.1

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 Many of the respectable inhabitants of Delhi, fearing the king’s tyranny, had withdrawn from the city and had settled in Oudh, where they received generous treatment at the hands of ‘Ain-ul-Mulk, who attached them to himself and ensured the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.