The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.1

v3.c29.s2.1

Multān, regarded by the Arab conquerors as the principal city of Upper Sind, was the capital of a region which was often closely connected with Sind, but was ordinarily regarded as a province of the kingdom or empire of Delhi, whose claim to its obedience was established early in the thirteenth century by Shams-ud-dīn Iltutmish, when he defeated Nāsir-ud-dīn Qabācha, the governor who had been appointed by Mu'izz-ud-dīn Muhammad Ghūrī, and was retained, at least nominally, by his successors until the disruption of the kingdom after the invasion of Tīmūr Lang. The authority of the Sayyid dynasty, which acquired the throne in 1414, extended no further than the immediate neighbourhood of Delhi, and Muhammad Shāh, the third king of that line, failed even to observe the formality of nominating a governor to Multān, and the people were compelled to provide one for themselves. Their devotion to the local saint, Bahā-ud-dīn Zakarīyā, who was born at Karor in 1182 and died at Multān on November 7, 1267, had always been conspicuous, and in 1438 they chose as their ruler Shaikh Yūsuf Quraishī, the guardian of the saint's shrine.