The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c25.96

v3.c25.96

The nobles of Gujarāt were now divided into three factions, supporting the claims of Sikandar, Bahādur, and Latīf, the eldest, second, and third sons of Muzaffar. Sikandar, who had been designated heir by his father, was immediately proclaimed by ‘Imād-ul-Mulk Khush Qadam and Khudāvand Khān al-Ījī, and marched from Ahmadābād to Chāmpāner. The new king was feeble and ill-advised. He alienated the old nobles of his father’s reign by advancing his own personal servants beyond their merits, and by his untimely profusion. There was general dissatisfaction, and an impression prevailed that Bahādur would soon return to seize the throne, but the immediate danger was from Latīf Khān, who was assembling his forces at Nandurbār. A force under Sharza Khān was sent against him, but he retired into Baglāna and when Sharza Khān followed him thither he was attacked, defeated, and slain by the raja, and the Rājputs and Kolīs followed the defeated army and slew 1700 of them. The superstition of the time regarded the termination of the first enterprise of the reign as an augury of the future fortune of the king. Another army, under Qaisar Khān, was assembled, but the choice was an indication either of the ignorance and folly of the king or of the treachery of the nobles, for Qaisar Khān was Latīf’s principal adherent; but before the expedition could start ‘Imād-ul-Mulk Khush Qadam had caused Sikandar to be assassinated during the midday slumbers, and had raised to the throne Mahmūd, an infant son of Muzaffar II, whom on April 12, 1526, he caused to be proclaimed as Mahmūd II.