The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.525

v3.c20.525

During the course of these events the king visited Gwalior, where Mallū Khān, a brother of Sārang Khān, plotted to overthrow Sa‘ādat Khān, a noble whose growing influence over the king’s feeble mind had excited the jealousy of the courtiers. The plot was discovered and some of the leading conspirators were put to death, but Mallū Khān fled to Delhi and took refuge with the regent, Muqarrab Khān, who resented the ascendency of Sa‘ādat Khān and, on the king’s return to the capital, closed the gates of the city against him. For two months Delhi was in a state of siege but in November Mahmūd, whose authority was disregarded by both parties, grew weary of his humiliating position at the gates of his capital, and fled to the protection of Muqarrab Khān. Sa‘ādat Khān, enraged by his desertion, summoned from Mewāt Nusrat Khān, a son of Fath Khān, the eldest son of Fīrūz, and proclaimed him in Fīrūzābād under the title of Nāsir-ud-dīn Nusrat Shāh. There were thus two titular kings, one at Delhi and the other at Fīrūzābād, each a puppet in the hands of a powerful noble. Sa‘ādat Khān’s arrogance exasperated the old servants of Fīrūz who adhered to Nusrat Shāh, and they expelled him from Fīrūzābād. He fled, in his extremity, to Delhi, and humbled himself before his enemy, Muqarrab Khān, who gave him an assurance of forgiveness, but a few days later treacherously caused him to be put to death.