The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c27.57

v3.c27.57

The unfortunate Ghiyās-ud-dīn, who had reigned but one month and twenty-six days, was blinded and deposed on June 14, 1397, and on the same day Tughalchīn raised to the throne his younger half-brother, Shams-ud-dīn Dāūd, and assumed the regency. He secured his position by playing on the vanity, the fears, and perhaps on the warmer sentiments of the young king's mother, who had been a maid-servant of Ghiyās-ud-dīn's mother, but his dominance in the state and the degradation of the royal family were deeply resented by the king's cousins, the brothers Fīrūz and Ahmad, sons of Ahmad Khān¹, one of the younger sons of Bahman Shāh, who had been brought up by their cousin Muhammad II and had each been married to one of his daughters, full sisters of Ghiyās-ud-dīn. The brothers, now young men of twenty-seven and twenty-six, do not seem to have been actuated at first by selfish motives, but desired only to protect the dignity of the throne and to serve the dynasty. Tughalchīn so aroused their apprehensions by poisoning the mind of the queen-mother against them that they fled from Gulbarga to Sāgar, where they were befriended by the governor, and demanded that the king should dismiss Tughalchīn. On receiving the reply that he was unable to exercise his authority they marched with a small force on Gulbarga, where they expected support from the minister's enemies, but they were disappointed, and Fīrūz, in order to encourage the faint-hearted among his followers, assumed the royal title. Their troops were defeated by the royal army, led by Tughalchīn and the puppet king, and they fled to Sāgar. After a short time they professed penitence, and returned to Gulbarga, where they were received with outward tokens of forgiveness, but continued to concert plans for the overthrow of the slave in which it was now clear that his puppet must be involved.