The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.493

v3.c20.493

At the end of the rainy season Fīrūz continued his march into Bengal, and Sikandar, following his father's example, retired to Ikdāla. The second siege was no more successful than the first, and Sikandar was able to obtain peace on very favourable terms. He is said to have promised to surrender Sonārgāon, the capital of Eastern Bengal, to Zafar Khān, but the promise, even if made, cost him nothing, for Zafar Khān preferred the security and emoluments of his place at court to the precarious tenure of a vassal throne. From partial historians we learn that Sikandar agreed to pay an annual tribute of forty elephants, but the same historians are constrained to admit that he obtained from Fīrūz recognition of his royal title, a jewelled crown worth 80,000 *tangas* and 5000 Arab and Turkish horses.