The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.507

v3.c20.507

One of Muhammad’s first acts was to send Sikandar Khān, master of the horse, into Mewāt to seize Khānjahān, with a promise of the government of Gujarāt as the reward of success. Khānjahān was surrendered by Koka, and Sikandar Khān, after carrying his head to Delhi, set out for Gujarāt. Muhammad was hunting in Sirmūr when he heard that Farhat-ul-Mulk and the centurions of Gujarāt had defeated and slain Sikandar Khān, whose broken troops had returned to Delhi. He returned at once to the capital, but instead of taking any steps to punish the rebels neglected all public business and devoted himself entirely to pleasure. For five months the administrative machinery, which had been adjusted by Fīrūz in the earlier years of his reign, worked automatically, but the apathy and incompetence of Muhammad became daily more intolerable, and many of the old servants of the crown assembled a large force and rose against him, nominally in the interests of Fīrūz. An envoy who was sent to treat with them was stoned and wounded, and Muhammad was forced to take the field against them, but, when hard pressed, they succeeded in forcing their way into the palace and, after two days’ indecisive fighting, placed the decrepit Fīrūz in a litter and carried him into the field. The device, which is of frequent occurrence in Indian history, succeeded. The troops with Muhammad believed that their old master had deliberately taken the field against his son and deserted Muhammad, who fled into Sirmūr with a few retainers. Fīrūz promoted his grandson, Tughluq Khān, son of the deceased Fath Khān, to the position lately held by Muhammad, and conferred on him the royal title. On September 20, 1388, Fīrūz died, at the age of eighty-three, after a reign of thirty-seven years.