The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c25.49

v3.c25.49

Mahmūd's tireless energy and ceaseless activity were most wearisome to his courtiers and officers, and during his absence from his capital his minister, Khudāvand Khān, having on December 4, 1480, assembled at Ahmadābād, on the pretext of celebrating the festival *'Īd-ul-Fitr* at the end of the month's fast, the principal nobles, formed a conspiracy with the object of deposing Mahmūd and raising to the throne his son, Ahmad Khān. The minister desired to put to death ‘Imād-ul-Mulk Hājī Sultānī, whose fidelity to Mahmūd was believed to be unalterable, but Rāi Rāyān, the chief Hindu noble and one of the leading spirits among the conspirators, was a personal friend of ‘Imād-ul-Mulk, and refused to be a party to his death. He proposed to inform him of the plot and to gain his acquiescence, and, notwithstanding the minister’s protests, carried out his intention. ‘Imād-ul-Mulk feigned acquiescence, but secretly summoned his troops from his fiefs and took other steps to defeat the designs of the conspirators, and Qaisar Khān Fārūqī, who was at Ahmadābād, privately informed the king of the affair, so that it came to naught.