History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c18.31

c18.31

Khizr Khan had been brought up in the school of love and not of adversity. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth he displayed the indolent security of hereditary princes. Naturally he could not understand the machinations of Malik Kāfūr. Malik Naib on his part was bent upon clearing his path of all possible rivals for real power. Once more he began to poison the ears of the sultan against the royal prince. He said that while the sultan was seriously ill the prince had come back from Amroha without receiving any orders and was planning with Malka-i-Jahān to seize the throne. 'Alāuddīn, who had seldom permitted anybody to tutor him with impunity, had, owing to infirmity of age and disease, become a tool in the hands of his favourite Vazīr Hazārdīnārī. He was led to believe that the prince was wasting all his time in the *haram* and did not care to nurse his ailing father. On this charge he was sent to be imprisoned in the Gwalior fort. If Amīr Khusrau is to be believed, the king wept bitterly when he bade farewell to his son, and said that fate and not the king was punishing him.¹⁸ It is pitiable to think how this man of action had become a fatalist in his old age and how his implacable justice had given way to things which to all appearances were wrong. Having obtained repeated assurances from Kāfūr that no harm would be done to the prince, ‘Alāuddīn bade good bye to his son.¹⁹ Khizr Khān was sent as a state prisoner to Gwalior where his beloved Deval joined him to share his distress.²⁰ Khizr Khān's mother, the Malka-i-Jahān, the well-beloved Māhrū of ‘Alāuddīn's days of youth, also could not escape the rapacity of the cruel eunuch and was kept a state prisoner in the Red Fort of Delhi.