Twilight of the Sultanate c15.14

c15.14

The motives of the nobles in taking this major decision of division of sovereignty are hinted at by Nizāmuddīn and Ni‘āmatulla. One has to read between the lines of their circumlocutory statements to understand the motives of the Afghan nobility. "Soldiers, and especially men of war and action", says Nizāmuddīn, "have for the sake of proper arrangement of their affairs and the reputation and grandeur of their service and command, and the greatness of their retainers and equipages, always directed all their plans and endeavours to this, that the rule of the government in the kingdom, and the passing of the orders from a well established throne should not have great power and complete predominance, for this reason they decided that Sultan Ibrāhīm should sit on the throne of Delhi . . . . . and that Shāhzādā Jalāl Khan should sit on the Masnad of Sultanate of Jaunpur."⁹ Similar is the language of Ni‘āmatulla.¹⁰ Thus it was the selfishness and love of power of the barons that prompted them not to leave all regal authority in one hand.¹¹ The nobles had been dealt with rather sternly by Sikandar Lodī, so they thought it prudent not to leave all power in the hands of Ibrāhīm from the very beginning. The Afghan nobles were not a homogeneous lot. They were a conglomeration of races and tribes. There were the Lodīs, the Nūhānīs, the Farmūlīs, the Sarwānīs, the Yūsufkhails, etc. Their interests oftentimes ran parallel. The Lodīs considered themselves as belonging to the ruling class and the rest as "servants of the Lodis".¹² It was, therefore, difficult for the nobility of the State to work in co-operation not to speak of having unanimity of opinion. Division of sovereignty would certainly reduce the power of the Delhi Sultan, and provide the nobles full scope for enhancing their power individually and collectively. It was for this that the kingdom was divided.