History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c13.38

c13.38

Nizam-al-Din Ahmad's list given in his preface contains among his authorities the *Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi* of Zia Barani, the *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi*, the *Tarikh-i-Bahadur Shahi* and the *Tarikh-i-Fatuh-i-Salatin*, but it appears from his narrative that he principally relied upon Barani for his account of Muhammad's reign.²⁴ Nizam-al-Din bestows lavish praise upon the Sultan for his intellectual attainments and munificence and writes: ‘ He was so severe in his punishments and in unjustly shedding blood and in troubling and tormenting the creatures of God that he appeared to be bent upon emptying the world of all human beings.’²⁵ Badāoni closely following the *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi* also speaks of the blood-thirstiness of the Sultan and his system of government which made Sayyids, ‘Ulama, Shaikhs, ragamuffins and scoundrels, artisans, peasants and soldiers all alike in his eyes. Moreover there was constantly in front of his royal pavilion and his civil court a mound of dead bodies and a heap of corpses, while the sweepers and executioners were wearied out with their work of dragging and putting to death crowds of men.²⁶ Having a stronger clerical bias than others he tries to aggravate the effect produced by Barani's tirade against the Sultan. Firishta who has utilised these authorities, after passing a eulogy upon the Sultan for his varied accomplishments, which even his avowed enemies dared not conceal, records an unfavourable verdict in these words :—