The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c25.131

v3.c25.131

Bahādur was one of the greatest and may be reckoned the last of the kings of Gujarāt, for his three actual successors were mere puppets in the hands of a turbulent and factious nobility. His one great error was committed at Mandasor, when he entrenched himself instead of falling at once on the imperial army. His disgraceful flight was almost a necessary consequence, for in it lay his only chance of saving his kingdom. If we except these two actions and his meditated treachery towards his Portuguese allies, which was not regarded as reprehensible in his faith and in that age, we shall be inclined to agree in the praise bestowed upon him by Hājī Dabīr, author of the *Zafar-ul-Wālih*¹, who describes him as liberal, generous, and valiant, with a loftier spirit and wider ambitions than any of his line, and reckons as his conquests the places in which he caused the *khutba* to be recited in his name; Gujarāt, the Deccan, Khāndesh, Mālwa, Ajmer, the Aravalli Hills, Jālor, Nāgaur, Junāgarh, Khānkot, Rāisen, Ranthambhor, Chitor, Kālpī, Baglāna, Īdar, Rādhanpur, Ujjain, Mewāt, Satwās, Ābu, and Mandasor.