History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c8.103

c8.103

With these examples before him, Muhammad Tughluq, who is described as a ‘Prince of moneyers’ by a numismatist of repute, thought of trying the experiment. He did not seek to employ the methods of Qublā, nor was he actuated by such unworthy motives as led the ignoble Gai Khātū to inflict untold suffering on his subjects. The Sultan was known to be a man of unblemished character, and never betrayed any weakness for those vices which disgraced the lives of a great many monarchs in the middle ages both in the east and west. All authorities agree in saying that he was no Epicurean who needed money for personal pleasures, nor was he a careless and spendthrift ruler who had allowed the finances to go to ruin. Not even his avowed adversaries have imputed to him the vice of avarice which was a besetting sin of 'Ala-al-Din, as is borne out by the hospitable manner in which foreigners were received at his court. What, then, was the motive which induced him to introduce such an innovation? According to Barani, two reasons led to this disastrous experiment,—firstly, the desire to get money which the Sultan needed to pay the countless troops he wished to organise for the conquest of the whole world, and secondly, the deficiency in the treasury caused by his lavish gifts.⁵¹ It cannot be denied that a great deal of money had gone out of the royal treasury. Muhammad had made large gifts to all and sundry on his accession to the throne, and the transfer of the capital to Devagiri had entailed a huge expenditure. The advances from the treasury to the emigrants and the construction of the new metropolis of Islam of which a full account is given by the author of the Masālik and Ibn Batūtah together with the suppression of the first two rebellions of the reign, one of which was serious enough, must have taxed the resources of the state heavily. The taxation policy in the Doab had failed, and the famine that still stalked the most fertile part of the kingdom, with the consequent decline in agriculture must have brought about a perceptible fall in the revenues of the state. The invasion of the Mughal chief Tarmāshirīn Khan had also caused some financial drain. For a whole year the troops which Firishta estimates at 370,000 were maintained at the expense of the state and large gifts had to be made to the Khorasani nobles and amirs to aid the Sultan in his projected expedition to their country. But to set off against these losses were the gains which the Sultan had