Twilight of the Sultanate c12.s2.48

c12.s2.48

Mubārak Saiyyad showed determination by freely using the title of the Sultan, effecting constant transfers, fighting rebels and invaders and marching against the kings of Jaunpur and Malwa, but behind this imposing facade lay the hard fact that throughout his reign of thirteen years the Punjab was constantly harried by rebels and invaders and the east could not be brought under control. In dealing with the problems of the Punjab, Mubārak Shāh continued the policy of his predecessor, of giving high civil and military assignments to Afghan nobles. Sarhind had been bestowed upon Sultan Shāh Lodī by Khizr Khan (A.D. 1419). Mubārak Shāh gave Lahore and Jalandhar to Malik Kālā Lodī (1432) and later on he was made governor of Sambhal and Ahar. Similarly many other large and small provinces passed into the hands of the Afghans so much so that during the last years of the Saiyyad rule the whole of the Punjab and the western U.P. was controlled by them. Thus because of the necessity of fighting the rebels, Khizr Khan and Mubārak Khan had mortgaged the Punjab to the Afghans, particularly the Lodīs. They had fought one evil with another, for while the rebels were disloyal the Afghans looked only to their personal gain. The first two Saiyyads had unconsciously helped in the rise of the Lodī power at the expense of their own dynasty.