Twilight of the Sultanate c13.s2.6

c13.s2.6

In short, the Sharqī King arrived at Delhi in 1452 (856 H)²⁷ with a large force including a thousand elephants. The campaign was well planned: Bahlūl with his army was away in the west and Dariyā Khan Lodī, governor of Sambhal and a relative of Bahlūl, had been persuaded to join the Sharqī camp. Mahmūd placed Fatéh Khan Harwī, an important nobleman of Jaunpur,²⁸ and Dariyā Khan Lodī in charge of investing the fort, and they began the siege in full force. Khwājā Bayezīd and Bībī Matto,²⁹ Islām Khan's widow and mother-in-law of Bahlūl, had no option but to shut the gates and stand the siege. That brave lady dressed the women in male attire, and stationed them on the battlements to make a show of numbers.³⁰ But the ruse was of no avail. The enemy was very strong and when he started shelling the city,³¹ Bayezīd and Sarwanī, son-in-law of Qutb Khan Lodī, decided to sue for peace. They sent Saiyyad Shamsuddīn to Dariyā Khan with the keys of the fort, but the envoy appealed to the latter’s racial sentiment and pleaded with him not to side with Mahmūd in the Afghan-Turk war. Dariyā Khan was so much impressed with Shamsuddīn’s impassioned appeal that he sent him back without taking the keys of the fort.³² He explained off the affair to Sultan Mahmūd by asserting that occupation of the fort was not so important or urgent as checking the advance of Bahlūl who, having learnt of the siege, had turned back from Deopalpur³³ and had arrived at Panipat. Once Sultan Bahlūl was defeated, he argued, Delhi would automatically fall into their hands.