A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c16.40

c16.40

Muhammad II was a man of peace, devoted to religion and poetry. He sent large presents to Hafiz of Persia together with an invitation to visit him, but the poet was frightened by a storm in the Persian Gulf and would not continue his journey to India. A less amiable side of his character, however, is to be seen during the years of famine between 1387 and 1395, when the relief measures he organized were confined to his Muslim subjects. Muhammad II died of a fever in April 1397 and was succeeded by his elder son—Ghiyas-ud-din, a strong-willed and indiscreet youth of seventeen. Within two months (June 1397) he was dethroned and blinded by an angry Turkish slave, Tughalchin, who raised to the throne Shams-ud-din Daud, Ghiyas-ud-din's younger half-brother, and made himself regent. Firuz and his brother Ahmad, sons-in-law of Muhammad II and grandsons of Ala-ud-din I, wanted to redeem the royal line from domination by a slave, and, after an initial failure, succeeded in overpowering Tughalchin and his master in the palace in November 1397. Firuz became king under the title Taj-ud-din Firuz Shah.