History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c1.35

c1.35

The abduction of the young king was too much for the public of Delhi to stand. The citizens rose in a body, poured out of all the thirteen gates³³ of the city and assembled at the Badaon Gate. They determined to march to Bahārpur and rescue the emperor’s son from the clutches of the Khaljīs. A sub-conscious loyalty had developed in their breasts for the Īlbārīs who had ruled over them for the last eighty years, and the people abhorred the very idea of being ruled by the Khaljīs. But before they could leave the walls of the city Malikul’umra stood at the Badaon Gate and stopped them from proceeding further. His sons were in the custody of Jalāl-uddīn and in the interest of his own kith and kin he did not want any struggle with the latter. He, therefore, put down the tumult and dispersed the crowd. The majority of the people turned back, but a large number of Turkish Amīrs and Maliks finding both of their leaders killed and their cause lost went over to Jalāluddīn. Their forces swelled the ranks of the Khaljīs.³⁴