The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c24.31

v3.c24.31

On his death in 1489 the nobles raised to the throne, under the title of Nāsir-ud-dīn Mahmūd II, the surviving son of Fath Shāh. Owing to the king’s youth the administration was necessarily carried on by his counsellors, and all power in the state fell into the hands of an African entitled Habash Khān, whose monopoly of power excited the discontent of the other courtiers, one of whom, an African known as Sīdī Badr the Madman, slew him and took his place. Sīdī Badr’s ambition was purely selfish, and in 1490 he caused the young king to be put to death and himself ascended the throne under the bombastic title of Shams-ud-dīn Abu-Nasr Muzaffar Shāh. This bloodthirsty monster, in the course of a reign of three years, put most of the leading men in the kingdom to death. The only measure in which he displayed wisdom was his choice of a minister, which rested on ‘Alā-ud-dīn Husain, a Sayyid of a family which came from Tirmiz, on the Oxus, and a man respectable alike by reason of his lineage, his ability, and his personal character. He probably restrained Muzaffar’s violence, and he served him faithfully as long as it was possible to do so, but the African developed the vice of avarice, fatal to a ruler whose authority depends upon the sword, and committed at once the crime of enhancing the burdens of his people and the blunder of diminishing the emoluments of his army. Sayyid Husain could no longer maintain his master’s authority, and, wearied by protests against the tyranny with which his position in a measure identified him, withdrew his support, and immediately found himself the leader of a revolt. The troops, placing him at their head, besieged the king for four months in Gaur. The contest was terminated by the death of the king, who perished in a sortie which he led from the fortress. The nobles, after some consultation, elected Sayyid Husain king in 1493, on receiving from him guarantees which bore some resemblance to a European constitution of 1848.