The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c26.25

v3.c26.25

The feeble Sayyid, Muhammad Shāh, now occupied the throne of Delhi, the affairs of which kingdom were in the utmost confusion, and a faction among the nobles, who admired the energy and enterprise of Mahmūd Shāh of Mālwa, and were, perhaps, affected by the consideration that he was a member of a family which had already ruled India, not without glory, invited him to Delhi, and offered him the throne. In 1440 he marched northwards and encamped before Tughluqābād, within eight miles of the city, but his partisans were either too weak to afford him any assistance or had repented of the advances made to him, for the royal army, commanded nominally by Muhammad Shāh’s son ‘Alā-ud-dīn, and actually by Buhlūl Lodī, marched forth to meet him. Mahmūd retained one division of his army in reserve, and sent two, under his sons Ghiyās-ud-dīn and Qadr Khān, against the enemy. The battle, which lasted until nightfall, was indecisive, and Muhammad Shāh proposed terms of peace, of which the principal condition was Mahmūd’s retirement. The offer was readily accepted, for Mahmūd had learnt that during his absence the mob had risen in Māndū, removed the gilded umbrella from the tomb of Hūshang, and raised it over the head of a pretender. The nobles of Delhi were, however, deeply disgusted with the meanness of spirit which permitted an invader thus to depart in peace, and when Buhlūl Lodī violated the treaty by following the retreating army and taking some plunder the exploit was magnified into a great victory, and honour was satisfied.