The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.554

v3.c20.554

In 1408 Mahmūd recovered Hissar, but the temporary success profited him little, for on January 28, 1409, Khizr Khān appeared before the walls of Fīrūzābād and besieged the city, and at the same time sent his lieutenant, Malik Tuhfa, to ravage the Doāb. The country, wasted and impoverished by several years of famine, was no longer capable of supporting an army, and Khizr Khān was therefore compelled to retire, and in the following year was employed in recalling to his allegiance Bairam Khān of Sirhind, who had again allied himself to Daulat Khān; but in 1410 he reduced Rohtak after a siege of six months, during which the mean-spirited Mahmūd made no attempt to relieve the town, though it was within forty-five miles of the capital. In the following year Khizr Khān marched to Nārnaul, plundered that town and three others to the south of Delhi, and then, turning northwards, besieged Mahmūd Shāh in Sīrī. Ikhtiyār Khān prudently joined the stronger party, and surrendered Fīrūzābād to Khizr Khān, who was thus enabled to cut off all supplies from the direction of the Doāb, but Mahmūd was once more saved by famine, for Khizr Khān was again compelled, by the failure of supplies, to raise the siege and retire. In February, 1413, Mahmūd died at Kaithal after a nominal reign of twenty years, during which he had never wielded any authority and had more than once been a fugitive from his capital, and with him died the line of Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughluq.