Twilight of the Sultanate c13.s3.64

c13.s3.64

The early Sharqīs had fought bravely and tactfully. Even Mahmūd and Muhammad had kept Bahlūl on the defensive. But Husain was both ambitious and impetuous and succumbed before the sly diplomat and brave warrior Bahlūl through "carelessness, folly and perhaps physical cowardice". The last Sharqī was an impatient youth, goaded to action more by the taunts of his wife than by his own martial qualities. He had claimed to fight for the cause of his deposed father-in-law, but Bahlūl had shown towards the Saiyyad King more deference than Husain showed to his brother-in-law whose "kingdom" of Badaon he usurped and thereby earned universal condemnation. The Lodī Sultan by his humility not only retained the loyalty of his Afghan tribesmen, but also won over many from allegiance to the Sharqī monarch. The conduct of Dariyā Khan Lodi of Sambhal, Qutb Khan Afghan of Rapri and Rai Pratap of Bhongaon are glaring instances of this.