The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c26.57

v3.c26.57

Ghiyās-ud-dīn’s declining years were embittered by a violent quarrel between his two sons, ‘Abd-ul-Qādir Nāsir-ud-dīn and Shujā‘at Khan ‘Alā-ud-dīn, whose mother, Rānī Khurshīd, daughter of the raja of Baglāna, favoured the cause of the younger. The miserable king, whose naturally feeble intellect was now impaired by old age, was incapable of composing the strife, and vacillated between his heir and his wife’s favourite. Murders were committed on either side, and both appealed to arms. Nāsir-ud-dīn marched out of the capital and assembled an army, and both his father and his mother attempted to persuade him to return, the former that the prince might resume the government of the kingdom, which had latterly fallen entirely into his hands, and the latter that she might find an opportunity of putting him to death. Nāsir-ud-dīn’s first attempt to storm the capital was unsuccessful, but the greater part of the nobles and the army was on his side, and he was eventually admitted by the Bālāpur gate. He seized his mother and brother, imprisoned the one and put the other to death, and on October 22, 1500, ascended the throne with the consent of his father. He caused those of the nobles who had opposed him to be put to death and designated his second son, Miyān Manjhla, as his heir, conferring on him the title of Shihāb-ud-dīn.