The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c21.41

v3.c21.41

Muhammad had been, until the fall of Sarvar-ul-Mulk, the victim of factions and the sport of circumstances, but when he had an opportunity of displaying his fitness for rule he so abused it as to lose both the affection and the confidence of those who had freed him from his enemies. After his return to Delhi from Sāmāna his counsellors were perturbed by the news of successive calamities. In Multān the Langāhs, an Afghān tribe recently settled in the district, rebelled against Muhammad Shāh's governor; in the opposite direction Ibrāhīm Shāh of Jaunpur invaded and annexed some of the south-eastern districts of the kingdom; and to the south of Delhi the raja of Gwalior and other Hindu chieftains openly repudiated their liability to pay tribute. Even the forays undertaken in his uncle's reign would have been preferable to inaction, but Muhammad remained in his capital, sunk in indolence and pleasure, until his nobles, losing heart, clearly perceived that if the ancient prestige of Delhi were to be preserved they must seek another leader. It was during this period that the commanding qualities of Malik Buhlūl Lodī¹, nephew and adopted son of Islām Khān and now governor of Sirhind, first attracted attention. As the king's weakness and meanness of spirit became more apparent he gradually extended his influence over the whole of the Punjab, and began to withhold the revenue due to the royal treasury. The condition of the remnant of the kingdom of Delhi was deplorable. Muhammad's nominal authority did not extend beyond Pānīpat to the north; on the south and south-east the raja of Gwalior, who had during the previous reign periodically acknowledged the sovereignty of Delhi, no longer made any pretence of fealty, and the king of Jaunpur had invaded and annexed the districts bordering on his kingdom. The Hindus of the Doāb, always refractory, disregarded with impunity an authority which was never asserted, and the turbulent tribesmen of Mewāt plundered the country to within a short distance of the walls of the city. The nobles of Delhi, despairing of a king who was content to loiter in his palace while his kingdom dissolved, had recourse, in 1440–41, to Mahmūd Shāh Khaljī of Mālwa, an active and warlike prince who had in 1436 seized the throne of that kingdom¹, and sent repeated messages to him representing the miserable plight of the once glorious kingdom and imploring him to march to Delhi for the purpose of restoring peace and order. Mahmūd set out, and Muhammad Shāh, roused at length from his disgraceful torpor, prepared to oppose him. Assembling such troops as he could muster, he sent an appeal for help to Buhlūl Lodī, whose readiness to respond had its origin not in loyalty to Muhammad, but in the resolve to preserve the kingdom for himself. He would not, however, lend his aid unconditionally, and demanded as its price the death of Hisām Khān, governor of the capital, in whom he recognised either a dangerous rival or too staunch and powerful a champion of hereditary right. The condition was fulfilled, and Buhlūl led his forces to the support of the king.