The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c23: Chapter X. The Kingdom of Jaunpur
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c23
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Chapter X. The Kingdom of Jaunpur
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THE eunuch Malik Sarvar, Khvāja Jahān, having, as minister, placed on the throne of Delhi, in March, 1393, Nāsir-ud-dīn Mahmūd, son of Muhammad and grandson of Fīrūz Tughluq, and suppressed the Hindu rebellions in the Gangetic Doāb and Oudh, threw off his allegiance to Delhi, and established himself at Jaunpur. He extended his authority not only over Oudh, but also over the Gangetic Doāb as far west as Koīl and, on the east, into Tirhut and Bihār. His advance in this direction alarmed the king of Bengal, who propitiated him with the tribute of elephants, due under the treaty with Fīrūz Tughluq, to the king of Delhi, who was no longer strong enough to assert his claim to the tribute or to resent its diversion to Jaunpur.
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Khvāja Jahān sent no aid to Delhi when it was attacked by Tīmūr, and it is not recorded that he paid any attention to the invaders. He died in 1399, leaving his dominions intact to his adopted son, Malik Qaranful, who adopted the royal style of Mubārak Shāh, and struck coin and caused the *khutba* to be recited in his name.
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An account of the abortive expedition undertaken by Mallū and Mahmūd Shāh of Delhi, who hoped, on Khvāja Jahān's death, to recover Jaunpur, has already been given in Chapter VII. Jaunpur was again menaced in 1401, and Mubārak prepared to repel an invasion, but died suddenly in 1402, and was succeeded by his younger brother, who ascended the throne under the title of Shams-ud-dīn Ibrāhīm Shāh.
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Ibrāhīm was a cultured prince and a liberal patron of learning, which was then in sore need of a peaceful retreat, and found it at his court, from which issued many works on theology and law. The second expedition of Mallū and Mahmūd Shāh of Delhi against Jaunpur ended, as has been already related, in Mahmūd's flight from his overbearing minister. Ibrāhīm's pride forbade him to treat his guest as his sovereign, and Mahmūd was so chagrined by his reception that he surprised Ibrāhīm's governor in Kanauj, expelled him from the town, and made it his residence. Ibrāhīm hesitated to take up arms against him, and returned to Jaunpur, while Mallū returned to Delhi. In 1405 he was slain in battle by Khizr Khān the Sayyid and Mahmūd Shāh returned to Delhi, leaving Malik Mahmūd in command of Kanauj. Ibrāhīm attempted to expel him, but Mahmūd Shāh marched to his relief, and Ibrāhīm retired, but returned again in 1407 and, after a siege of four months, forced Malik Mahmūd to surrender and marched on Delhi. He was deterred by a report that Muzaffar I of Gujarāt had marched from Mālwa to the assistance of Mahmūd Shāh from attacking the city, but annexed the district of Sambhal, east of the Ganges, and appointed his son governor there.
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Between 1409 and 1414 Ibrāhīm was persuaded by the saint Qutb-ul-‘Ālam to invade Bengal with the object of punishing Raja Gānesh who, having acquired in that kingdom more power than its nominal ruler, was persecuting Islam. Ganesh, on discovering that his persecution of Muslims was raising up enemies against him on all sides, promised to desist from it, and permitted Qutb-ul-‘Ālam to convert his son Jaimal to Islam, and the saint, satisfied with this success, persuaded Ibrāhīm Shāh to retire.
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Ibrāhīm’s abortive attempt, early in 1428, to restore Muhammad Khān Auhadī to Bayāna has been described in Chapter VIII. It added nothing to his reputation.
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In 1433 the idea of annexing the town and district of Kālpī occurred simultaneously to Ibrāhīm and to Hūshang Shāh of Mālwa. Each had advanced his frontier in this direction, and the district lay between their dominions and was separated from Delhi, to which it nominally owed allegiance, by the turbulent district of Etāwah. The two kings met in the neighbourhood of Kālpī and hostilities were imminent when Ibrāhīm was obliged to retreat by the news that Mubārak Shāh of Delhi was marching on Jaunpur. His anxiety was relieved by the assassination of Mubārak, but before he could return Hūshang had profited by his absence to receive the surrender of Sādir Khān, the governor, and had added Kālpī to his dominions.
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Ibrāhīm died in 1436 and was succeeded by his son Mahmūd Shāh, who in 1443 opened with Mahmūd Shāh Khaljī a friendly correspondence followed by measures which involved the two states in hostilities. Hūshang Shāh, Mahmūd Khaljī’s cousin, had left Qādir Khān at Kālpī as governor of the fortress and district and he profited by the disputes regarding the succession to the throne of Mālwa to assume independence, and even styled himself Qādir ‘Shāh.’ Qādir was now dead and had been succeeded by his son, who styled himself Nasīr Shāh, and so conducted himself as to scandalise all good Muslims. He destroyed a flourishing and populous town and handed over many Muslim girls to Hindus in order that they might be taught to posture and dance, accomplishments held in the East to be disreputable. Mahmūd of Jaunpur was among those to whom Nasīr’s behaviour gave offence, and he sent a mission to Mahmūd Khaljī to complain of his lieutenant’s misconduct. The king of Mālwa admitted that he had heard the reports which were confirmed by the letter of Mahmūd Sharqī¹, and gave him permission to punish Nasīr. He marched to Kālpī, attacked Nasīr, and expelled him from the town, and Nasīr, assuming now the character of a vassal of Mālwa, wrote to Mahmūd Khaljī and complained that the king of Jaunpur had expelled him from a fief which had been bestowed upon his father by the king of Mālwa, and intended to annex not only Kālpī, but Chanderī. Mahmūd Khaljī sent a message to Mahmūd Sharqī, suggesting that as Nasīr had expressed contrition he should be left in possession of the sub-district of Rāth in the Kālpī district, but Mahmūd Sharqī, impelled either by ambition or by a just appreciation of the offences of which Nasīr had been guilty, refused to stay his hand, and on November 14, 1444, Mahmūd Khaljī marched against him. The armies met near Īrij, and an indecisive battle was fought, but Mahmūd Sharqī occupied a strong position from which he refused to be drawn, and desultory operations continued for some months, until Mahmūd Khaljī and his protégé Nasīr withdrew to Chanderī for the rainy season. While they were in quarters at Chanderī peace was concluded, Mahmūd Sharqī agreeing to place Nasīr at once in possession of Rāth and to restore the rest of the Kālpī district within four months, provided that Mahmūd Khaljī had retired, by that time, to Māndū. After some hesitation on the part of Mahmūd Khaljī these terms were accepted, and were observed, and by the end of the year each monarch had returned to his own capital and the district of Kālpī had been restored to Nasīr, whose chastisement was deemed to have been sufficient.
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¹ The dynasty of Jaunpur is known as the Sharqī, or Eastern, dynasty, both from the title of Malik-ush-Sharq (‘King of the East’) held by its founder, and from the situation of its dominions, to the east of those of Delhi.
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Mahmūd Sharqī’s adventure against Buhlūl Lodī of Delhi in 1452 and its unfortunate results for Jaunpur, have already been described in Chapter IX. His rash attack on Delhi served but to open Buhlūl’s eyes to the danger with which the existence of an independent kingdom of Jaunpur menaced him, and to convince him of the necessity for its destruction.
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After this unfortunate enterprise Mahmūd turned his attention to the Chunār district, the greater part of which he annexed.
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Nizām-ud-dīn Ahmad gives him credit for an expedition against the idolators of Orissa, whom, he says, he plundered, destroying their idol-temples, but he may be acquitted of the folly of pursuing purposeless adventures in foreign lands when the defence of his own kingdom demanded all his energies.
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The death of Mahmūd in 1457, just as he was about to meet Buhlūl Lodī in the field, and the accession of his son Bhīkan, who assumed the title of Muhammad Shāh, have been described in the preceding chapter. Buhlūl, having made peace with Muhammad and retreated as far as Dhankaur, near the Jumna, about twentyeight miles south-east of Delhi, was reminded that he had left his kinsman, Qutb Khān Lodī, in captivity at Jaunpur, and suddenly returned to compel Muhammad Shāh to release him. Muhammad turned with equal promptitude and marched to Shamsābād¹, from which fief he expelled Raja Karan, Buhlūl’s vassal, and installed in his place Jaunān Khān, his own. His success attracted to his standard Raja Partāb of Etāwah who openly transferred his allegiance from Delhi to Jaunpur. The two opposing armies marched to the neighbourhood of Rāprī², on the Jumna, where, after some desultory and inconclusive fighting that of Jaunpur was demoralised by intestine strife. Muhammad Shāh, who, after his elevation to the throne, had evinced a violent and bloodthirsty disposition, had sent an order directing the chief magistrate of Jaunpur to put to death Hasan Khān, a younger son of Mahmūd Shāh, and Qutb Khān Lodī. The magistrate replied that he could not carry out the order as the king’s mother was protecting the condemned men, and Muhammad enticed his mother from the city by persuading her that he wished to consult her regarding the assignment of a share of the kingdom to his brother, Hasan Khān. She had no sooner left Jaunpur than Hasan Khān was murdered, and as she remained at Kanauj to mourn her son, Muhammad insulted her grief by the brutal taunt that she would save herself trouble by mourning at the same time for her other sons, who would presently follow Hasan to the grave. The threat put the princes on their guard, and by persuading the tyrant that Buhlūl was about to make a night attack on his camp they induced him to place at their disposal 30,000 horse and thirty elephants, wherewith to meet it. With this force Husain Khān, the king’s elder surviving brother, withdrew from the camp, followed by Buhlūl, who perceived in the movement a menace to his lines of communication. He intercepted Husain Khān’s younger brother, Jalāl Khān, who was attempting to join him, and detained him as a hostage for Qutb Khān Lodī, who had by some means escaped assassination. Muhammad Shāh, now aware of the defection of his brothers, retreated towards the Ganges, followed by Buhlūl, but, on approaching Kanauj, discovered that his power was gone, and that his brother Husain had there been acclaimed as king. Muhammad was deserted by the few nobles who remained with him and was slain while attempting, with a few personal adherents, to defend himself against an attack from the army which had lately been his own.
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¹ In 27° 32′ N. and 79° 30′ E.
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² In 26° 58′ N. and 78° 36 E.
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Husain Shāh surrendered Qutb Khān Lodī to Buhlūl, receiving in return his brother, Jalāl Khān, and the two monarchs concluded a four years’ truce, which both observed, Husain because his ambition found another outlet, and Buhlūl because he required a period of peace in which to consolidate his power and develop his resources.
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Husain’s military strength far exceeded that of Buhlūl, for, if the historians are to be believed, he was able, after concluding peace, to assemble an army of 300,000, with 1,400 elephants, for a predatory incursion into Orissa, where Kapileshwar Deva, of the Solar line, had established his authority in 1434. The numbers may be exaggerated, but without a very numerous army Husain could not have risked an advance to distant Orissa through or along the frontier of the intervening kingdom of Bengal, still less a retreat, laden with spoil. His first step was to crush the now virtually independent landholders of Tirhut, which province was devastated and plundered. He then marched on to Orissa, where the depredations of his great army overawed the raja and induced him to purchase peace by the payment of an immense ransom in elephants, horses, money, and valuable goods, which is represented by Muslim vanity as the first instalment of an annual tribute.
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In 1466, after his return from Orissa, he sent an army to capture the fortress of Gwalior, where Raja Mān Singh still maintained his independence of both Jaunpur and Delhi, but the expedition was only partly successful, and after a protracted siege the army retired on the payment of an indemnity by the raja.
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The four years’ truce with Delhi, concluded on the king’s accession in 1458, was long expired, and in 1473 Husain, urged by his wife Jalīla, a daughter of ‘Ālam Shāh, the last Sayyid king of Delhi, now living contentedly in inglorious retirement at Budaun, entered upon a series of campaigns, having for their object the conquest and annexation of Delhi.
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He marched with a large army to the eastern bank of the Jumna, a few miles to the south-east of Delhi, and Buhlūl, who could put into the field no more than 18,000 horse, was so dismayed by the imminence of his peril that he attempted to secure peace by offering to retain only the city of Delhi and the country for thirty-six miles round it, and to govern this district as Husain’s vassal. The offer was rejected, and Buhlūl marched from the city to meet his powerful enemy. The armies were encamped on opposite banks of the Jumna, which, for some days, neither ventured to cross in force, but Husain Shāh, in his contempt of his opponent, neglected all military precautions, and was accustomed to permit nearly the whole of his army to disperse for the purpose of plundering the rich villages of the Doāb. Buhlūl, observing this, crossed the river in force and suddenly attacked his camp. There was no force to oppose him, and Husain was compelled to flee, leaving not only his camp, but the ladies of his harem, in the victor’s hands. The latter were generously sent by Buhlūl unharmed to Jaunpur.
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A new treaty was now made, and a truce of three years was agreed upon, but was broken in the following year by Husain, who, at the instigation of his wife, marched with an army of 100,000 horse and 1000 elephants to Etāwah, held by Qutb Khān Lodī. Etāwah was captured at once, and Husain marched on Delhi. Buhlūl again sued, in the humblest guise, for peace, but his entreaties were disregarded, and when he took the field he again defeated Husain, but was not strong enough to profit by his success and was fain to agree to peace. Shortly afterwards Husain marched on Delhi for the third time, but was defeated at Sikhera, about twenty-five miles east of the city, and retreated to Etāwah. Qutb Khān Lodī had been permitted to retain his fief on swearing fealty to Husain, and now waited on him. On learning that Husain still entertained the design of conquering Delhi the wily Afghān went about to mislead him, and, after disparaging Buhlūl, promised that he would never rest until he had conquered Delhi for Jaunpur. Husain was completely deceived and allowed Qutb Khān to leave his camp. He joined Buhlūl at Delhi and put him on his guard against Husain, of whose determination he warned him.
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The fugitive ‘Ālam Shāh, Husain’s father-in-law, now died, and his death supplied Husain with a pretext for visiting Budaun, of which district he dispossessed his brother-in-law, ‘Ālam Shāh’s son. From Budaun he marched to Sambhal, captured Tātār Khān Lodī, who held the district for Buhlūl, and sent him a prisoner to Sāran, in Tirhut. He then again assembled his army for an attack on Delhi, and in March, 1479, encamped on the eastern bank of the Jumna. This appeared, of all Husain's campaigns, to offer the fairest prospect of success. He had been victorious on the east of the Ganges, his numbers were overwhelming, and Buhlūl Lodī and his officers were even more depressed than on former occasions. Qutb Khān was, however, enabled to serve his kinsman by appealing to Husain's filial affection. He invoked the memory of Bībī Rājī, Husain's mother, who had befriended him when he was a prisoner at Jaunpur, and conjured the invader to leave Delhi unmolested. Husain was so affected that he agreed to retire on obtaining Buhlūl recognition of his tenure of his new conquests to the east of the Ganges, corresponding to the modern province of Rohilkhand. The recognition was readily accorded and Husain began a leisurely retreat towards Jaunpur. He had so frequently violated treaties that Buhlūl considered himself justified in following his example, and perfidiously attacked the retreating army and captured a large number of elephants and horses laden with spoil and treasure, and the persons of Husain's minister and about forty of his principal nobles.
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This success marks the turn of the tide in favour of Delhi, and Buhlūl pursued the demoralised army of Jaunpur and occupied and annexed the sub-districts of Kampil, Patiālī, Shamsābād, Suket, Koīl, Mārahra, and Jalesar. Husain, when hard pressed by Buhlūl's pursuit, turned and faced him, but was defeated, and when peace was made was obliged to acquiesce in Buhlūl's retention of the considerable tract which he had recovered, and to withdraw the frontier of his kingdom to Chhibrāmau, sixteen miles south of the modern town of Farrukhābād.
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Buhlūl returned to Delhi and Husain retired to Rāprī, but was soon in arms again to recover his lost territory, and met Buhlūl at Suhnuh¹. On this occasion he suffered the heaviest defeat which he had yet experienced, and the plunder which fell into Buhlūl's hands, and the military renown which he acquired with his victory turned the scale in favour of Delhi. Buhlūl encamped at Chhibrāmau and shortly afterwards resumed the offensive against Husain and defeated him at Rāprī. Husain fled towards Gwalior, and, after losing some of his wives and children in his passage of the Jumna, was attacked near Athgāth on the Chambal by the Bhadauriyas, a predatory tribe, who plundered his camp. Kīrat Singh of Gwalior, who still retained confidence in his cause, supplied him with a large sum of money, a contingent of troops, tents, horses, elephants, and camels, and personally escorted him as far as Kālpī on his way back to Jaunpur.
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¹ In 27° 21′ N. and 78° 48′ E.
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Buhlūl marched, after his victory, on Etāwah, which was still tributary to Jaunpur, captured the fort after a siege of three days, and then turned to attack Husain, who awaited him opposite Rāigāon Khāgā¹, on the Ganges, and was still strong enough to deter him for some months from attempting to force the passage of the river, until Raja Tilok Chand, whose estate lay on the north of the Ganges, joined him, and led his army across by a ford. Husain then retreated to Phāphāmau, six miles north of Allahabad, the raja of which place escorted him in safety to Jaunpur. Buhlūl marched directly on Jaunpur, and Husain fled by a circuitous route towards Kanauj, but Buhlūl pursued him, attacked him before he could reach that city, and defeated him, capturing one of his wives. He then returned to Jaunpur, took the city, placed Mubārak Khān Lohānī there as governor, established a garrison under the command of Qutb Khān Lodī at Majhaulī², beyond the Gogra, and marched to recover Budaun, which was still nominally subject to Husain. Husain took advantage of his absence from the neighbourhood of Jaunpur to reassemble his army and march on that city, and Mubārak Khān, who was not strong enough to withstand him, withdrew to Majhaulī and joined Qutb Khān. Husain followed him thither, and the Afghān officers, who hesitated to risk a battle, feigned to negotiate, and thus gave Buhlūl time to return from Budaun and reoccupy Jaunpur. A force under his son Bārbak had already relieved the garrison of Majhaulī, and Husain, at length despairing of recovering his kingdom, fled into Bihār, followed by Buhlūl as far as Haldī, on the Ganges near Ballia.
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¹ In 25° 53′ N. and 81° 16′ E.
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² In 26° 17′ N. and 83° 57′ E.
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With Husain's flight the line of the Sharqī kings of Jaunpur came to an end. Buhlūl established his son Bārbak as governor of Jaunpur, and gave him permission to use the royal title and to coin money, specimens of which, issued by him before his father's death, are extant.
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Husain lived in Bengal under the protection of Shams-ud-dīn Yūsuf Shāh and his successors on the throne of that kingdom until 1500, but made no attempt to recover his throne beyond fomenting the strife between Bārbak and his younger brother, Sikandar, who succeeded their father on the throne of Delhi in 1489. His hope that the quarrel might open a way for his return to his former kingdom was frustrated, for Sikandar overcame Bārbak and Jaunpur was absorbed in the kingdom of Delhi, and Husain died in exile in circumstances not widely different from those in which his father-in-law, the former king of Delhi, died at Budaun.
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The Sharqī dynasty reigned in Jaunpur for rather more than eighty years, and in that period produced one king of happy memory, Ibrāhīm, the patron of learning and of architecture. For a dynasty whose rule was so brief the Sharqīs have left very creditable memorials in their public buildings, and the enlightenment which earned for Jaunpur, in Ibrāhīm's reign, the title of 'the Shīrāz of India' is surprising in one of negro blood. Malik Sarvar, who founded the dynasty, was a eunuch, and could therefore have no heirs of his body. His two successors were his adopted sons, the brothers Mubārak Shāh and Ibrāhīm Shāh, probably slaves. Mubārak's name, before he assumed the royal title, was Qaranful, 'the Clove,' a contemptuous term of endearment appropriated to African slaves. No portraits of the period are known to exist, but there appears to be no reason to doubt that the kings of Jaunpur were of negro descent. The character of Husain, the last of the line, is perplexing and disappointing. He was a man of ideas, with wide opportunities, and resources commensurate with both, ever on the point of realising some great scheme of aggrandisement and ever missing his opportunity through carelessness, folly, and perhaps physical cowardice.