Twilight of the Sultanate c8.s3.14

c8.s3.14

Six months after Sultan Mahmūd died a natural death at Kaithal in October, 1412 (Rajjab, 815 H).⁸⁸ He had ruled for a little more than eighteen years. All chroniclers, without a single exception, mistakenly write that he ruled for twenty years and two months. Obviously the error of one seems to have been copied by the others.⁸⁹ Inclined to a life of pleasure and ease and neglectful of the affairs of the state, Mahmūd had ruled all these years only in name.⁹⁰ The ruler of Jaunpur did not respect him; Iqbāl Khan, who had first invited him to Delhi, developed a contempt for him for his “treachery”. The turmoils of his times would have proved too much even for a capable ruler; Mahmūd simply could not face them. His stars however did him one good turn. In the end he could reoccupy the throne; and he died as the Sultan of Delhi if he had not quite lived as one. With his death the house of Tughlaq ceased to exist.