History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c7.16

Language: English

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makes no further mention of the activities of the Sultan's brothers, but we learn from Ibn Batūṭah that Masud was executed on the charge of rebellion and conspiracy.³ Nusrat Khan probably died during the reign otherwise, as Sir Wolseley suggests, his title would not have been conferred upon Shihāb Sultani.⁴ Sir Wolseley's surmise that Mubārak Khan was neglected, or possibly blinded early in the reign to make Muhammad's position secure is not supported by Ibn Batūṭah who distinctly states that the Sultan's brother Mubarak Khan was appointed to the office of Mirdād and he sat with the Qazi in the Diwan to administer justice.⁵ No opposition seems to have been offered by Muhammad's brothers. Bahram was only an adopted son, and his claim to the throne would have found no support from the nobles, because it could not be grounded on any legal right. Mubārak Khan acquiesced in his brother's assumption of royalty, because, as Barani positively states, and we have no reason to doubt his testimony on this point, the late Sultan had declared him as his heir to the throne,⁶ and because Muhammad's undoubted abilities marked him out as a pre-eminently fit person to occupy the throne, which had been filled in the past by such renowned captains of war as 'Ala-al-Din Khilji and Ghiyas-al-Din Tughluq. Muhammad had held important offices under the Khiljis and acquired considerable experience of administrative work which must have pre-disposed the nobles and officers of the state in his favour.

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For several years he had been Amir Ākhur and Vakil-i-dar under Qutb-al-Din Mubarak Shah, and was the chief instrument in helping to put an end to the regime of the unclean Khusrau. He was equally gifted with warlike qualities. As Crown Prince he had led expeditions in the Deccan against the Hindu chiefs, and had in one of his campaigns obtained a victory over the stubborn Pratap Rudra Deva II, the Kākatīya Raja of Warangal of which an account has been given in the last chapter. The empire which Muhammad inherited extended over a large part of the Indian peninsula; in the north it included the whole of the Gangetic valley, the plains of the Punjab as far as Lahore and the entire strip of land stretching from the Indus down to Kambayat and Gujarat; in the east it comprised Bengal and towards the close of his life Ghiyas had reasserted his authority over Lakhnauti and Sonargaon. In the central region that lies between the Gangetic plain and the Deccan, Dhar, Malwa, Ujjain and Gwalior acknowledged the suzerainty of Dihli. Further south, the empire exercised sway over the eastern portion of Khandesh, Berar, Haiderabad and a strip of land along the eastern coast of the modern Madras Presidency. There is clear evidence to prove that the imperial arms had penetrated as far as Rajmundri or the eastern Madras coast. The present Sultan had gone there as Crown Prince in his father's reign in 1324 A.D.

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and had built a mosque as is shown by an inscription dated Monday, 10th September, 1324 A.D.⁷ In Rajputana the famous state of Mewar recognised the authority of the Dihli government till the end of the reign of Tughluq Shah as is evidenced by an inscription of Tughluq Shah and Asadal-Din Arslān, his nephew, discovered in the fort of Chittor.⁸ The inscription is broken on the right side and the first and fourth part of each verse is missing. Asad-al-Din was appointed naib Barbak by Tughluq Shah immediately after his accession. The building to which the inscription refers was most probably a mosque built by Asad-al-Din Arslān, and the inscription shows that, during the reign of Tughluq Shah, Chittor, at any rate, was subject to the Sultan of Dihli. But Chittor tried to recover its independence under Rana Hammīr, who had succeeded to the Gaddi in 1301 A.D. by marrying the daughter of Raja Maldeva, the Sonigra chief, who had been placed in charge of that fort by 'Ala-al-Din. The Rajput chronicles speak of a fight between the Dihli emperor and the Rana of Mewar, but there is much confusion in the names of the rulers concerned. Tod relates that after 'Ala-al-Din's death Rana Hammīr rapidly recovered his power, and drove away Maldeva, the imperial governor of Mewar.

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The Khilji king Mahmud invaded Mewar, but he was defeated at Singoli and taken prisoner by Hammīr who slew Hari Singh, brother of Banvir (Mal-Deva's son).⁹ The Khilji king remained confined in Chittor for three months, and was not liberated until he had surrendered Ajmer, Rantambhor, Nagor and Sooespur, besides paying 50 lakhs of rupees and 100 elephants. Tod's account is not correct for there was no such king as Mahmud of the Khilji dynasty. Tod certainly does not mean Mahmud Khilji of Malwa, for he says later that the Sultans of Gujarat and Malwa formed a league against Kumbha and in 1440 A.D. at the head of a large army they invaded Mewar.¹⁰ Kumbha met them with a large force consisting of one lakh of horse and foot and 1,400 elephants, defeated them, and carried as a captive to Chittor Mahmud, the Khilji sovereign of Malwa. Erskine in his Rajputana Gazetteer gives a different account.¹¹ He says, Muhammad Tughluq came down with a large army, but he was defeated and taken prisoner at Singoli, close to the eastern border of Mewar and was not released till he had paid a large ransom said to have been 50 lakhs of rupees and 100 elephants and ceded several districts. In view of the inscription to which allusion has been made before and the increased prosperity of Mewar under Hammīr, we cannot doubt the truth of the native annals.

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As Mewar was subject to Dihli till the reign of Tughluq Shah, the king who was defeated by the Mewar forces could be no other than Muhammad Tughluq or one of his generals, though the annotator of Tod's annals positively asserts that it was Muhammad Tughluq.¹² This victory of Hammir must have occurred early in Muhammad's reign. A Jain temple inscription of Rana Kumbha's time dated Samvat 1495 (1438