History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c21.38

c21.38

A glance at the list of the newly appointed officers, again, would clearly show that almost all of them had held various offices in the reign of his predecessor. There is scarcely any doubt that some of them were raised for being Khusrau's allies, but one thing is evident that except Randhol and one or two others, all the Barvārīs dropped into the back-ground after Nāṣiruddīn's accession. The new king relied on the trusted nobles of Delhi; and he was so anxious about their good-will and co-operation that he even resorted to a *coup d'état* to secure their support. At the capital he had not done anything prejudicial to the interests of the Musalmans. In the provinces also he left the Muslim governors undisturbed, and as later events show, most of them were quite satisfied with the revolution that had come about at Delhi. It is impossible that the governors of Multan, Samanah and Ajmer would have helped Khusrau Shah in the establishment of a Hindu Raj against Ghazi Tughlaq who had proclaimed himself as the champion of Islam. Moreover, the army of Delhi, which consisted mostly of muslim soldiers, could never have fought on the side of Khusrau Shah against Ghazi Malik had they in the least considered Khusrau to be inimical to Musalmans. If at the time of actual warfare a portion of the royal army deserted to the Tughlaqs it was simply because Nāṣiruddīn's cause was fore-doomed to failure and not because they had deserted a champion of Hinduism and gone over to a champion of Islam.²⁷ It is, therefore, evident that Nāsiruddīn was in no way prejudiced against the Muslims, and the accusation of Baranī that under his regime neither the honour nor the religion of Muslims was safe, is quite wrong.