History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c3.5

c3.5

In preparing this work I have received the utmost encouragement from Sir Denison Ross, Sir Wolseley Haig and Professor Sylvain Lèvi, the world-famed French Indologist, who alas! is no longer in the land of the living. He generously procured for me copies of MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale Paris and took a keen interest in the progress of my studies. Sir Wolseley Haig, indefatigable to the last in the service of India's history, was ever ready to give advice and assistance. He too has gone to join the Choir Invisible but the spirit of his work will endure and continue to inspire generations of students. Whenever I had occasion to consult him, there Lakhnauti, because in 724 A.H. (1324 A.D.) when Ghiyas-al-Din started for his Bengal campaign Nāsir-al-Din came to Tirhut from Lakhnauti to pay homage. It does not appear that Nāsir-al-Din was at the time in possession of Lakhnauti, for after the defeat of Bahadur he was reinstated in his former position by the Sultan. But it is quite possible that he may have acquired some influence, though not amounting to actual rulership. After a show of resistance Bahadur was captured by Haibat Ullah Qāsūri,⁶⁰ and Nāsir-al-Din was reinstated in charge of Lakhnauti, and was awarded a canopy and a baton as a mark of royal confidence. Tatar Khan foster-son of the Sultan, who held the territory of Zafrabad, was deputed to reduce the whole country to submission. The claims of Shihāb-al-Din or of his sons, if alive, were ignored, in favour of Nāsir-al-Din, who, according to Barani, had established a preferential claim to the kingly office by reason of his humility and submission. This is evidenced by a coin, bearing the names of Ghiyas-al-Din Tughluq I, and Nāsir-al-Din Ibrahim Shah, governor of Bengal, which was most probably struck during the Sultan's visit to Bengal.⁶¹