Twilight of the Sultanate c12.s2.42

c12.s2.42

Indeed the peace-loving Sultan had got fed up with the all-round confusion. While all and sundry were trying to gain the most from the prevailing confusion, here was a monarch who willingly renounced what was not in his power to manage. To be able to rule successfully in those days needed all the tact, nay the cunning, of a medieval despot. 'Alāuddīn does not seem to have possessed it. If he was not a man of saintly temperament, he was certainly a man of a quiet and peaceful disposition. For more than two decades his predecessors had unwittingly transferred large assignments to the Afghans for securing their help in solving the problems of the state. The Afghans had gradually established their power both in the west and east of Delhi and one day they were bound to try for the throne. Sultan 'Alāuddīn only paid for the mistakes of his predecessors. The Sultanate he must necessarily have lost, for the powerful Bahlūl had set his heart upon it, and seen in this context, 'Ālam Shāh was a gainer in getting Badaon at least. No one could appreciate his nature and position better than his contemporaries. Ambitious rulers of Delhi and Jaunpur not only did not consider him a thorn in their side, but respected him and left him undisturbed to rule in Badaon for twenty-eight long years. Moreover, except for renouncing the honour of being called the Sultan of Delhi, 'Ālam Shāh had not lost much, for his kingdom was in no way less in territory than the "empire of Delhi to Palam" which he had relinquished. 'Ālam Shāh's little kingdom consisted of "Badaon and the districts appertaining to it, towards the river Ganga as far as Khairābād and the foot of the hills, and he used to read the Khutba in his own name in those districts"⁸⁷ for the next twenty-eight years till his death in A.D. 1478 (883 H.).⁸⁸