The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c25.66

v3.c25.66

Mahmūd Begarha was not only the greatest of the sultans of Gujarāt. He holds a prominent place among the warrior princes of India. Succeeding to the throne at an age when even Akbar was under tutelage, he at once assumed the management of affairs, overcame an extensive conspiracy backed by armed force, and administered his kingdom with complete freedom, whether from the dictation of a minister or from the more pernicious influence of the harem. He was, in short, a prodigy of precocity. When he grew to manhood his appearance was striking. Tall and robust, with a beard which descended to his girdle and a heavy moustache which twisted and curled upwards, his mien struck awe into his courtiers. His elder brother, Qutb-ud-dīn Ahmad Shāh, had died by poison, and wonderful fables are related of the means by which Mahmūd protected himself from a like fate. He is said gradually to have absorbed poisons into his system until he was so impregnated with them that a fly settling on his hand instantly died, and he was immune from the effects of any poison which might be administered to him. It is to him that Samuel Butler refers in *Hudibras*, first published in 1664: