History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c2.8

c2.8

became Ākhur Beg (superintendent of the royal stables). According to Ibn Batūṭah, robes of honour were sent to the provincial governors, and all accepted them except Ghazi Malik, the governor of Dipalpur, who threw his Khil'at aside and treated it with contempt. Jahariyā, the murderer of Qutb-al-Din, was rewarded for his services and Khusrau signified his gratitude by lavishing honours and favours upon him. The treasures of the state were rifled, and largesses were scattered among the people to obtain their support. Though Khusrau had assumed the title of Nāsir-al-Din, he began to make an attempt to establish Hindu supremacy, and for this he collected around him a large number of outcasts from Gujarat—a corps of his own kinsmen who were bound to him by ties which could not be easily broken. Such a clique was necessary to maintain his power in the midst of hostile foes. Barani writes that Islam was treated with contempt; the Quran was desecrated and placed in the niches of mosques, on which were enthroned idols to the grief and disgust of the faithful. Ibn Batūṭah who is less orthodox than Barani describes this sudden revolution by saying that Hindus were appointed to high offices, and an order was promulgated forbidding the slaughter of cows.²⁵ The Muslims were deprived of their property and their wives and daughters, and the number of wicked men increased. Making allowance for the exaggeration of which Ibn Batūṭah's Muslim informants may have been guilty, it must be admitted that for a time the ascendancy of a Hindu convert was established at Dihli. The Court nobles were divided into factions; there were some whose obeisance was purchased by means of gold, while the helplessness of others made them acquiesce in the new order of things. The Sultanate of Dihli had lost its prestige, and if a powerful Hindu Raja had organised a confederacy of his fellow-princes, he might have easily obtained possession of Dihli, and the power of the Muhammadans might have been well-nigh extinguished. But the unclean Parwarī, left alone, perished in complete isolation. How could he permanently found a Hindu state upon the support of satellites whom everyone hated and despised? Besides, the 'Alai nobles were filled with pain and grief at his usurpation of the royal authority. Among these discontented nobles was Fakhr-al-Din Juna whom the usurper had tried to conciliate by