History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.s1.23

c12.s1.23

The state worked through these institutions to maintain itself in the midst of hostile peoples. The Sultan himself supervised the activity of the various departments and his liberal education and practical experience fitted him eminently for the task. The machinery of the administration improved considerably in his hands and the crude and half-formed polity of ‘Ala-al-Din reached a definite stage of development under him. The Mughal raids were over, and the peace and order, made possible by the cessation of these nomadic hordes, helped the evolution of the institutions of government. The fame of the court of Muhammad reached distant lands, and foreigners from Asiatic countries came to India to witness the splendour of the ruler of Hind. Most of them entered his service, but instead of serving him with fidelity and devotion abused the confidence he reposed in them, and stirred up strife and insurrection. The native nobility, paralysed by the exclusive policy of the Sultan, lost its former virility and vigour. Parties began to form; and the mediocre nobles, deprived of the honours which they considered as their due, banded themselves together to oppose the Sultan and checkmate his designs. The monarchy which needed for its strength the united devotion of all the chiefs and officers thus weakened the foundation of its own power and created difficulties against which it contended in vain for a little less than two decades.