The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.441

v3.c20.441

Muhammad’s active but inconstant mind had conceived at Sargadwārī the notion that no sovereign could legitimately wield authority unless he were commissioned by God’s vicegerent on earth, the Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, and set himself diligently to inquire who the Caliph was and where he was to be found. He ascertained from travellers that there still existed in Egypt a puppet of the house of ‘Abbās, who claimed the dignity. Their information was not very recent, for they styled him al- Mustakfī, while he who bore that title had died or had been deposed a year earlier, but the coins of A.H. 740 (A.D. 1340–41) bear the title of al-Mustakfī and the ceremonial performance of the Friday prayers and the observation of the great festivals of Islam were suspended until the king should have received the Caliph’s recognition, which he sought by means of a humble petition, accompanied by costly gifts, but three years passed before a reply could be received. This act of humility indicated no change in the king’s nature, and neither his arrogance nor his impatience of contradiction or disobedience was diminished.