Twilight of the Sultanate c8.s4: The Sultanate vis-a-vis Other States
Twilight of the Sultanate c8.s4
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The Sultanate vis-a-vis Other States
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In the bid for the throne Iqbāl Khan, Nāsiruddīn Nusrat, Nāsiruddīn Mahmūd, Daulat Khan, the Sharqī king and Khizr Khan had all played their game. But in the end Khizr Khan Saiyyad had emerged as the hero of the struggle. True, he had not been quite welcome for being the agent and nominee of the hated Tīmūr, but once he got possession of the throne the people submitted to him, for tired of the constant upheavals they wanted peace at any price. Besides, Tīmūr's invasion was now becoming a matter of memory.
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But the Sultanate of Delhi was no longer an imperial power. It comprised only of Sindh, the Punjab and the western Uttar Pradesh. In extent it was the largest compared with the other kingdoms into which the empire had broken up, but it was not the strongest of them. Kingdoms like Jaunpur, Gujarat, Malwa, Rajasthan, Bahmanī and Vijāyanagar were equally strong if not more powerful. Some of them like Jaunpur and Malwa even tried to swallow up the Delhi Sultanate itself. Consequently, the Saiyyad rulers as well as their Lodī successors had to remain vigilant about the activities of these states. Therefore, before commencing the study of the Saiyyad rulers, it would be pertinent to make a brief study of the independent states which affected the course of the Sultanate's history from the accession of Khizr Khan to the fall of Ibrāhīm Lōdī.
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These states fall into four well-defined groups. The first group comprised the Hindu states of Rajasthan of which Mewar (modern Udaipur) was the leader. The Muhammedan states of Gujarat and Malwa formed the second group. The third group lay in the south—the Bahmanī kingdom (Muhammedan) and the Vijāyanagar empire (Hindu). The fourth comprised the kingdoms of the east—Gondwānā, Orissa, Bengal and Jaunpur.
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For the study of these kingdoms, the plan of Rushbrook Williams, of starting from the south, working upwards and finally concentrating on the Sultanate of Delhi, would suit best.⁹⁸ For well-nigh two centuries the empire of Vijāyanagar remained united and helped preserve the Hindu religion and culture from the onrush of the Islamic ideas and forces in the south. The Bahmanī kingdom suffered from all the weaknesses of a Muslim ruling dynasty—uncertainty of succession, intrigues of the nobles, political murders, excessive drinking, multi-marriages (with consequent over-growth of population)⁹⁹ and zeal for aggressive wars against neighbouring "infidel kings". Of the eighteen rulers of the Bahmanī dynasty, five were murdered, three were removed from the throne and two died of intemperance. And towards the close of fifteenth century the kingdom had broken up into a number of small principalities—Ahmadnagar, Golkunda, Bījāpur, Bidar and Berār. Their constant internecine wars gave the Deccan peninsula a distinct character and kept the Sultans of Delhi free from anxiety. The Bahmanī kingdom was also too close to Malwa and Gujarat, a fact which these two states could ill afford to forget. That is why whenever Gujarat, and more so Malwa, tried to take advantage of the Delhi-Jaunpur wars, the restraining influence of the Bahmanī kingdom did not let either of them become so powerful as to be tempted to attack the Sultanate of Delhi, at least never in full force.
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⁹⁸ *An Empire Builder of the Sixteenth Century*, Introduction, 6.
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⁹⁹ Athnasius Nikitin in Major, *India in the Fifteenth Century*, 14.
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The little kingdom of Khandēsh lay snugly in the valley of the Tapti and had little concern with the politics of the Sultanate. Similarly the vast tract of Gondwānā was not yet destined to play any important role in India's history. The little kingdom of Orissa was occasionally subjected to attacks from Bengal, Jaunpur, Malwa and Bahmanī kingdoms, but it did not affect the politics of the Sultanate in any way. The same was the case with the self-sufficient, independent and distant Bengal. But Malwa, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jaunpur played a very important part in determining the course of events of the Sultanate of Delhi throughout the fifteenth century. Hence it would be necessary to give a brief account of the history of these kingdoms.
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The kingdom of Malwa lay south-west of Delhi. It was conquered by 'Alāuddīn Khaljī in 1305 and continued to remain a province of the Delhi Sultanate till 1401, when its governor Dilāwar Khan Ghorī, a descendant of Muhammad Ghorī, declared his independence taking advantage of the confusion created by Tīmūr's invasion. But when the fugitive Sultan, Mahmūd Tughlaq, after his cold reception in Gujarat, came to Malwa, he was received by Dilāwar with all marks of respect. Dilāwar's subservient attitude so much infuriated his son Alp Khan that he retired to Mandu. After Sultan Mahmūd's departure to Delhi (1401), Dilāwar once again became completely independent. He died in 1405. His son and successor Hoshang Shāh (1405-35) shifted his capital from Dhar to Mandu and adorned it with many beautiful buildings. He was involved in many wars against the neighbouring kingdoms of Gujarat, Mewar, Delhi and Jaunpur which will be referred to in their proper sequence. Suffice it here to say that having failed against the ruler of Gujarat, his western neighbour, Hoshang tried his luck against the Sultan of Delhi, but he was beaten back by Mubārak Shāh Saiyyad to whom he had to pay a handsome tribute.¹⁰⁰ However, in 1431, he was successful in wresting Kalpi from the king of Jaunpur. Hoshang Shāh was succeeded by his son Ghaznī Khan, a worthless debauchee, who was murdered by his minister Mahmūd Khan, a Khaljī Turk. Thus came into power the dynasty of the Khaljī sultans of Malwa.
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¹⁰⁰ T.M.S., 209-10.
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Mahmūd Khaljī I (A.D. 1436-1469) was a great warrior "so that his tent became his home, and the field of battle his resting place".¹⁰¹ His long reign was spent in waging wars against Bahādur Shāh I of Gujarat, Rana Kumbhā of Mewar, Muhammad Shāh Saiyyad and Bahlūl Lodī of Delhi and Muhammad Shāh III Bahmanī. Malwa's contiguity to the Sultanate kept her very much interested in the affairs of the latter. Malwa was ambitious; she fought against Delhi and Jaunpur and carried on raids in Gondwānā and Orissa (1422). In 1440 Mahmūd Khaljī marched against Muhammad Saiyyad of Delhi, but Bahlūl Lodī successfully resisted his advance. All the same he conquered lands up to Kalpi (in 1445) and compelled the Auhadī ruler of Bayana (in the Delhi Sultanate) to read the Khutba in his name (1446).¹⁰² About the time of the end of the Saiyyad dynasty, Malwa had extended its rule up to Kalpi in Bundēlkhand and its ruler was being considered by the Delhi nobles as a possible candidate for the Delhi throne. Even Bahlūl Lodī sought his help against the Sharqī king Husain Shāh (1468). But as years passed, Malwa lost in strength chiefly because of its failure against Gujarat and Mewar, so much so that during Sikandar Lodī's reign it was destined to lose Ranthambhor, Narwar, Chanderi, Bayana and Kalpi to the Sultanate of Delhi.
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¹⁰¹ Ferishta, Urdu trs., II, 379 ff.
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¹⁰² In 1465 he received a robe of honour and patent of sovereignty from Al Mustānjid Billāh Yūsuf, the Abbaside Caliph of Egypt, but the more important recognition of his sovereignty came from Tīmūr's great-grandson Abū Sa'īd who exchanged envoys with him.
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Mahmūd Khaljī I died in 1469 after a long reign of thirty-four years. He was succeeded by two slothful monarchs—Ghayāsuddīn (1469-1500) and his son Nāsiruddīn (1500-10)—whose main occupation was the administration of their harems. The latter was succeeded by his son Mahmūd II in 1510, but only after a long civil war in which Sikandar Lodī gained many districts of the Malwa kingdom. By this time the power of Mewar and Gujarat was in the ascendant. In Malwa the nobles were fishing in the waters troubled by the civil war. To curb the power of his intriguing nobles Mahmūd II appointed as his Prime Minister, Medinī Rai (Purbīyā), a Rajput chief of a small district in eastern Malwa but well known for his valour. Medinī Rai soon acquired supreme power in the state by filling offices of responsibility with his own trusted lieutenants. At this the sultan grew suspicious of his powerful but loyal minister, and he called in the aid of Muzaffar Shāh Gujaratī to expel him. But Medinī Rai with the aid of Sangrām Singh of Mewar inflicted a crushing defeat on his sovereign in 1519. Mahmūd was captured and carried away to Chittor by Rana Sangā who was in a position to annex Malwa, but he released and reinstated Mahmūd after the right royal Rajput fashion.¹⁰³
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¹⁰³ However, such magnanimity was wanting in Bahādur Shāh II of Gujarat who, incensed with Mahmūd for sheltering his rebel brother, attacked and killed Mahmūd and annexed his kingdom in March, 1531. Malwa continued to be a part of Gujarat till 1535 when the Mughal Emperor Humayūn defeated Bahādur Shāh. Shēr Shāh Surī appointed Shujā’at Khan as the governor of Malwa. Shujā’at’s son was Bāz Bahadur, whose passionate love for princess Rūpmati of Sārangpur has immortalised his name in Malwi folklore and legend.
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Thus when Bābur invaded Hindustan, Medinī Rai was all powerful in Mandu; his officers held Gagraun and Chanderi and his brother Silahdī ruled in Raisēn, Vidisha (Bhilsa) and Sārangpur.
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To the west of Malwa was situated the kingdom of Gujarat. Its immense wealth, due particularly to its commercial and maritime activity, had tempted many invaders to attack it. Mahmūd of Ghaznī had carried away immense wealth from Somnath, and Muhammad Ghorī had invaded it in 1196. ’Alāuddīn Khaljī had annexed Gujarat to the Empire of Delhi in 1299, but during the confusion created by Tīmūr’s invasion Zafar Khan, a convert from the Tauk¹⁰⁴ clan of the Rajputs, assumed independence in 1401. After the death of his rebel son Tātār Khan, he assumed the title of Sultan Muzaffar Shāh. He waged a successful war against Sultan Hoshang of Malwa and captured Dhar, but four years later he was poisoned by his grandson Ahmad Shāh in June, A.D. 1411.
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¹⁰⁴ For Tauk or Tak clan see Elliot, *Races of the N. W. Province*, Beames' edition, I, 109, 114; Cunningham, Arch. Sur. Rep., II, 8. Tod, *Annals*, Madras edition, I, 103 ff.
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Ahmad Shāh ruled for thirty years. During this period, he waged wars and extended his dominions. He administered the country with courage and sagacity and propagated the Islamic faith to which the house had been converted only three generations ago. He shifted his capital to Karnawatī, renamed it Ahmadābād,¹⁰⁵ and adorned it with forts, mosques, gates, tombs and other beautiful buildings. Besides, success always attended Ahmad's campaigns against the rulers of Malwa and other neighbouring princes like those of Idar, Champanēr, Dūngarpur and Mewar. His only defect (not in the eyes of Muslim chroniclers) was that he was a bigoted ruler. He died in A.D. 1442.
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¹⁰⁵ Havell, *Aryan Rule in India*, 314.
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Ahmad Shāh's successor was his eldest son. He reigned till 1451, the year in which Bahlūl Lodī ascended the throne of Delhi. After two other weak rulers came to the throne in 1459, Sultan Mahmūd, commonly known as Mahmūd Beghārā, by far the greatest of the Gujarat kings. A contemporary of both Bahlūl and Sikandar Lodī, he is lavishly praised by the author of *Mīrāt-i-Sikandarī* for his generosity, gallantry and love of justice.¹⁰⁶ Ascending the throne at a young age, he ruled with success over the destinies of Gujarat for fifty-three years (1459-1511) full of military glory. In A.D. 1461-62 he helped Nizām Shāh Bahmanī against an attack from Mahmūd Khaljī of Malwa. He captured Pardi near Daman in 1464; in 1467 he attacked Jūnāgarh and annexed Surat to his dominions. The Raja of Girnar was compelled to surrender in 1470, and in 1472 Beghārā established his influence in Sindh by rendering help to Jām Nizāmuddīn. Next year he invaded Kutch and Dwārkā and severely punished the pirates of Jagat (Dwārkā). Champanir was attacked in 1482. As a result of Mahmūd Beghārā's conquests the kingdom of Gujarat extended from the frontiers of Malwa in the east to the frontiers of Sindh on the west. In the north it extended up to the frontiers of Nagor, Jalor and Kumbalgarh and in the south-east up to Khandēsh. On the side of the sea it extended as far as the bounds of Chaul, south of Bombay.
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¹⁰⁶ Bayley, *Local Muhammadan Dynasties, Gujarat*, 161.
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From 1500 onwards Mahmūd was busy in wars against Malwa and Khandēsh. His achievements were so great that in 1510 he received congratulations from Sikandar Lodī for his success in Khandēsh. Towards the end of his reign Mahmūd had to engage in war with the Portuguese who had established a lucrative trade in Gujarat ports like Cambay and Chaul since the discovery of the Cape route by Vasco da Gama in 1498. This had adversely affected the interests of Indian merchants. To do away with the Portuguese monopoly of the spice trade, Mahmūd Beghārā entered into an alliance with Qansu Ghorī, the Sultan of Egypt. The Egyptian fleet under the command of Amīr Husain and the Indian contingent under the command of Malik Ayāz attacked and defeated a Portuguese squadron commanded by Don Lorenzo, son of the Portuguese Viceroy, Fransesco de Almeida, near Chaul in A.D. 1508. But next year the tables were turned and Mahmūd had to grant the Portuguese a site for a factory at Diu. Thereafter, the influence and strength of foreigners on the west coast went on growing apace.
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In 1511 Mahmūd Beghārā was succeeded by his son Muzaffar Shāh II. In attempting to prevent Malwa from falling entirely under Hindu domination, Muzaffar became involved in a disastrous war with Mewar. He was successful in getting Mahmūd Khaljī II of Malwa reinstated on his throne (1519), but at the cost of Gujarat's stability and strength, because in the same year Rana Sangrām Singh occupied Idar, plundered Ahmadnagar and marched on Vadnagar. In 1521-22 Muzaffar retaliated by storming many Rajput strongholds and the Rana offered terms of peace. But in 1524 Muzaffar's son Bhādur, claiming but not getting equality with the heir-apparent, fled to Ibrāhīm Lodī at Delhi. Thus the politics of Gujarat was in a melting pot when Bābur arrived in India.
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Of these three kingdoms of Gujarat, Malwa and Khandēsh, Gujarat was the richest and the strongest. Its chief interests lay in subjugating neighbouring kingdoms and constructing magnificent buildings. It ever kept busy with its immediate neighbours—
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Malwa, Mewar and the Portuguese. It was geographically cut off from the Sultanate of Delhi by Malwa and Rajasthan ; besides its rulers did not look at Delhi with an evil eye. Consequently the Sultanate stood in no fear from her. On the other hand its strength exercised a restraining influence on Malwa and Mewar from attacking Delhi.
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Rajasthan had the misfortune of being flanked by Malwa on the south-east and Gujarat on the south-west, and it was Hindu. Therefore, it was hard-pressed by both its neighbours during the first half of the fifteenth century. Gujarat was becoming the champion of Islam in the west, and many principalities of Rajputana, including Mewar, had many times to purchase peace from Gujarat. But Rajputana too was stirred by the spirit of revival on the decline of the Sultanate of Delhi. The leader of this revivalist urge was the Guhila principality of Mewar, with capital at Chittor. Early in the fourteenth century 'Alāuddīn Khaljī had attacked and occupied Chittor, but Hammīr, Rana of Sesoda who reoccupied it in 1321, soon became master of the whole of Mewar and assumed the title of Mahārānā.¹⁰⁷ Hammīr died full of years in 1364 "leaving a name still honoured in Mewar as one of the wisest and most gallant of her princes", but his death was followed by years of family feuds and political assassinations. At last in A.D. 1433 ascended to the throne Rana Kumbha, one of the most famous rulers of Rajasthan. He was a great warrior, a poet, musician, man of letters and a mighty builder to whom Mewar owes some of her finest monuments. He won many victories against neighbouring Rajput princes. He also held his own against the war-like rulers of Malwa and Gujarat. In 1455 he defeated the Malwa king and to commemorate his victory he erected at Chittor the famous *Jayasthambha* (Tower of Victory) also known as *Kīrtistambha* (Tower of Fame).¹⁰⁸ Out of the eighty-four fortresses built for the defence of Mewar, thirty-two were erected by Rana Kumbha. Kumbhalgarh, the fort so called after him, is a stupendous work. Curiously enough he was murdered by his son Udaya in the same year in which his arch-enemy Mahmūd Khaljī of Malwa died, 1469. This heinous crime disqualified Udaya Karan in the eyes of the nobles who acknowledged his younger brother Rai Mal as the ruler of Mewar. Rai Mal was a warlike prince and constantly harried the frontiers of Malwa now ruled by the slothful Ghayāsuddīn. But his reign was disturbed by the far-famed feuds of his three knightly sons—Sangrām Singh, Prithvirāj and Jai Mal. At length on Rai Mal's death his eldest son Sangrām Singh succeeded to the throne in 1509.
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¹⁰⁷ K. S. Lal, *History of the Khaljīs*, 130-31.
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¹⁰⁸ Rushbrook Williams says that Mahmūd was "*ignominiously defeated and captured*". *An Empire Builder of the Sixteenth Century*, 11. Also Lane-poole, *Medieval India*, 174. Similar is the conclusion of Tod, *Annals*, I, 334-35. Har Bilas Sarda, *Maharana Kumbha*, 27-28. Arch. Sur. Rep., XXIII, 211. *The Delhi Sultanate*, 179; 336.
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The princes of Marwar and Amber paid him homage, chiefs of Būndī, Gāgraun, Rampura and Abu served him as tributaries, and the rulers of Gwalior, Ajmer, Sikri, Raisēn, Katehar and Chanderi held him in the highest esteem. He fought successfully against Delhi, Malwa and Gujarat. Eighteen pitched battles did he gain against Delhi and Malwa alone. He bore the scars of eighty wounds on his body in addition to having an eye blinded and a leg maimed. Shaikh Zain afterwards wrote thus about him: "There was not a single ruler... in Delhi, Gujarat and Mandu, who was able to make head against him. The banner of the infidel flaunted over two hundred cities inhabited by the people of the faith". According to *Mahārānā Yash Prakasa* of Bhūr Singh, Rana Sāngā had "chained the feet" of three Sultans. Ibrāhīm Lodī could not advance from the east nor Muzaffar Shāh from the west, and Mahmūd Shāh of Malwa could not move from the south.¹⁰⁹ He even hoped to establish Rajput sway over the whole of Hindustan at the break-up of the Delhi Sultanate.
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¹⁰⁹ Bhūr Singh, 65, cited in H.B. Sarda, *Maharana Sāngā*.
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But of all the independent states, Jaunpur, with its capital of the same name situated on the river Gomti thirty-four miles north-west of Varanasi, was the most inimical to the Sultanate. Khwājā Jahān Sarwar, the Vazīr of the last Tughlaq king Mahmūd, was sent to Jaunpur in 1394 with the title of Malikul Sharq to suppress the rebellious chiefs of the east. He met with such astounding success that within a short time he brought under his control the vast region stretching from Kol in the west to Tirhut in Bihar in the east, and collected tribute due to the Sultān of Delhi from the ruler of Bengal. Although he did not assume independence, yet he cut off all connections with Delhi and did not send any help to Sultan Mahmūd at the time of Tīmūr's invasion. At his death in 1399 his adopted son Qaranfūl took the regal title of Mubārak Shāh, and issued coins in his own name.
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In 1401 came to the throne of Jaunpur, Sultan Shamsuddīn Ibrāhīm Sharqī. Soon after his accession he was faced with an invasion by Mallū Khan and Mahmūd Tughlaq. Mahmūd deserted to Ibrāhīm's camp, but being unwelcome, he avenged himself by occupying Qannauj which was a part of the Jaunpur kingdom. But after Mahmūd left for Delhi in 1405, Ibrāhīm reoccupied Qannauj. Ibrāhīm Sharqī was a patron of art and letters, and during his long reign of forty years Jaunpur attained the height of prosperity.
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Ibrāhīm's son and successor Mahmūd fought against the king of Malwa, suppressed a rebellion in Chunār and marched against the kings of Bengal and Orissa and, of course, the Sultans of Delhi. In 1452 he advanced against Delhi in response to an invitation by some disgruntled nobles to oust Bahlūl Lodi from the throne. This attack touched off a long-drawn struggle of a quarter of a century between the Lodīs of Delhi and the Sharqīs of Jaunpur. The last Jaunpur king, Sultan Husain, possessed the biggest army in India, and he invaded Delhi a number of times, but ultimately lost against Bahlūl Lodī in 1479 when his kingdom was annexed to the Sultanate. As we shall study about these wars in some detail in the following pages, there is no need to repeat them here. Suffice it to say that ever since its inception in 1399 up to its end in 1479, for full eighty years, Jaunpur posed the biggest problem to the Sultanate of Delhi.
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Although in this brief discussion of the relations of the Sultanate with the various independent kingdoms of Hindustan events of later days have been anticipated, yet that would only help to appreciate the problems and policies of the Sultans of Delhi from the time of the first Saiyyad ruler Khizr Khan to all future kings of the Sultanate.