Twilight of the Sultanate c6.s1.12

c6.s1.12

To profit by these kaleidoscopic changes the Amīrān-i-Sadah⁸ or Centurions of Samana, lying immediately to the north of the capital, invited Muhammad Shāh to make another attempt to capture the throne. The latter started from Nagarkot and marching via Jalandhar arrived at Samana, where he crowned himself a second time as the Sultan in April, 1389 (Rabiul Ākhir, 791 H).⁹ Some discontented Delhi nobles also joined him there and he started for Delhi with twenty thousand horse, which swelled to fifty thousand on the way. On occasions like these the riff-raff used to join contending armies for the love of plunder;¹⁰ for others also it was safe to be in the army than to be a mere spectator and a probable victim of its banditry.¹¹ Because of his large army, Muhammad was enabled to occupy the palace of Jahān Numā without any opposition, but at the palace of Fīrōzābād the combined forces of Sultan Abū Bakr and Bahadur Nāhar inflicted on him a crushing defeat on 29 April, and forced him to flee with barely 2,000 men.¹²